Faith formation sunday...

NOTE: Here are my weekly Sunday notes for worship on June 13, 2010. This week is a celebration of our Sunday School teachers and their unique ministry of faith/spiritual formation. We will honor them - and also award a third grader a Bible - during worship. If you are in town, please know you are always welcome at the table of Christ's love with us.

Today is an ordinary but uniquely sacred day in the life of our con-gregation – Teacher Recognition Sunday – a time set aside to show honor and respect for those adults who have been called by God to pass on the faith to our children. Teaching Sunday School, you see, is not for every-one.

• Some people love children and the Lord but are simply unable to connect or communicate with children. Others have a burning passion to spread the faith, but are not comfortable with little ones. And still others have no patience or presence with children and need to be kept as far away from talking about the faith to our children as possible.

• Because, you see, Christian faith is always just one generation away from extinction, right? Some people don’t believe this – they think that as long as you were baptized once sometime in the dark, distant past – you are forever a disciple of Jesus.

• And in some vague and abstract way there is some truth to this but it is also true that unless our faith is lived – unless the Words of our tradition become FLESH – something is missing.

So we take the training of young disciples very seriously. This is faith formation work, beloved, essential for keeping the love of Jesus alive and well in our part of the world. Now there are three ingredients when it comes to authentic faith or spiritual formation – story telling, open discussion and questioning as well as action and reflection – and I want to talk about why each of these ingredients matters for our children as well as the mission of the church.

And I thought it might be fun to actually use this morning’s gospel reading from Luke – one of the great stories in our tradition – so that together we experience and celebrate the importance of faith formation. I would like everyone – children, teens and adults – to help me out with this for a few minutes because everybody here is important. Valuable. Unique and specially loved by God. And what you have to say might just wind up being what someone really needs to hear. So, let’s try this together.

Now the first part of faith formation is called story-telling – sharing both the words and mood of the Bible accurately with one another – and why is that important?

• First, it gives us a common language, yes? It is very tough to communicate values and compassion to one another without a common language. That’s why most of the people around the world still gather in the evening – often around a fire or in a warm and safe place – and pass on the stories of their people.

• It gives us a shared starting place for faith – common ground for building upon – and sadly American’s don’t do this very well any more. In a quest to overcome some of our bigotry and racism we are often more tuned-in to diversity than shared stories – what makes us different rather than what we hold in common.

• And while I support the celebration of diversity, without a common language rooted in stories… we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

The first reason we tell one another stories is to create and claim a common language. And the second is that stories are easier to remember than facts. Indeed, stories put facts into a context and help us share knowledge and collaborate creatively. Business guru, John Kotter, has said: “Stories stick in the brain in a holistic way, better than charts, numbers and concepts. As a result the probability that the message will have an impact on behavior goes up.”

So let’s tell one another the highlights of today’s story involving Jesus, a party, some expensive perfume and how some people react to the love on an uninvited guest.

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee's house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him."

Good stuff, in part one of this story, don’t you think? What are the highlights of this story for you so far…?

• Now there are two other parts to the story of Jesus: what he tells Simon – one of his disciples – and what the other guests say about the way Jesus treated the woman.

• Can you tell me what Jesus said to his friend Simon?

• And what about the reaction from the other guests at the party: how did they respond to Jesus and the woman?

Part one of faith formation is telling the story and building a common language: part of our ministry to children and young families is all about telling and retelling the stories of the Bible. Not only has our culture forgotten them, many in the wider church don’t know them all that well either.

Part two has to do with talking about the story – asking hard questions, too – so that we can figure out why this story matters. So, let’s cut to the chase:

• What do you think Simon thought of the woman in this morning’s story?

• What about Jesus: what did he think about her?

• What about the other guests: what did they think about the woman who poured expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus?

Now, let’s go deeper: what does this story tell us about what Jesus thinks of you and me? Any ideas? And going deeper still…

• Who do you find it difficult to accept or love?

• Are the people or groups of people that you don’t like?

• What is the challenge for us in this story?

It isn’t easy making the love and acceptance of Jesus real, is it? There’s nothing automatic about it: it takes practice and commitment and encouragement. That’s why we have Sunday School – and church, too.

Are you still with me? Part one is story-telling – Part two is talking and questioning the story – and Part three is putting the story into practice and seeing how it works. And there are a lot of ways to put this story into practice, here’s just one that comes from the creative work of Ann Scull: (find her @ http://seedstuff.blogspot.com/2007/06/proper-6-ordinary-11-pentecost-3-c-june.html)

Do you see the three tables at the front of the church? Each one has a bowl on it – and a sign – inviting you to do something as a result of today’s story.

• The first bowl is filled with salt water: if there is something you want to ask God for today, then go to that bowl, dip your finger into the salt water and make the sign of the cross on your cheek or forehead asking God in prayer for whatever it is you need.

• At the second bowl, there is lightly scented oil – maybe a little like the perfume the woman poured upon the feet of Jesus – so if there is something you would like to thank God for then go to that bowl and make a cross on the back of your hand.

• And at the third bowl there is a bunch of handy wipes – something to help you clean up in preparation for work – so if you sense that God is calling you to serve the church of the wider community in some way… get washed up and ready to go into action, ok?

Is that clear? Salt water to ask God for something in prayer – scented oil to return thanks to God – and handy wipes to get ready for action. As you come forward – and take your time and help one another, too – we’ll play a tune or two to keep things moving.

(As the people come forward, play “Hands” by Jewel)

The story for today ends with these words:

Jesus went forward according to plan, travelling to town after town, village after village, preaching God's kingdom, spreading the Message. And the Twelve were with him… including some women who had been healed of various evil afflictions and illnesses: Mary, the one called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod's manager; and Susanna—along with many others who used their considerable gifts to provide for the company and keep the ministry growing.

Today we give thanks to God for those who keep the ministry growing by nourishing the faith of our children.