Faithful formation for the 21st century...

NOTE:  Here are my worship notes for Sunday, September 25, 2011.  They both deepen my current obsession with talking about the role of the pastor, but also speak to the challenge facing our congregation in this time of uncertainty.  It is a Eucharistic Sunday, too so please know that if you are in the area, we would love for you to join us at 10:30 am.

We are living in fascinating times – trying and challenging, to be sure – but also filled with promise and potential for authentic ministry, too. And let me tell you why I believe this to be true. More than one fifth of all Americans – that is 61 million individuals - identify themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” That means roughly half of all the people who don’t attend regular worship – 30 million folk who are our neighbors, family and friends – say that they are open to the spiritual quest, but dismayed or disgusted by our religious institutions.

• When pressed to unpack what is really going on in their “spiritual but not religious” distinctions, it becomes clear that most people equate the spiritual with the personal and the religious with the institutional aspects of the Holy.

• They say that they are more interested in a mystical experience and encounter with the sacred than just following the rules, they are frustrated and angry with clergy of all denominations and faith traditions and have experienced more judgment than joy and grace for our churches, synagogues and mosques.

Now, I don’t know about you, but this group sounds a little like old St. Paul to me, as he was trying to find a way beyond what had become oppressive in his old faith tradition.

Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, who are all bark and no bite. All they're interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ's praise as we do it.

And then he really lays it on the line, so listen carefully: 

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness.


Ouch – it was true then, it is true today and has probably always been true – sometimes religion gets in the way of God’s spiritual blessings. And that is why I am so excited to be doing ministry at this moment in time: if we are in a predicament similar to St. Paul…

• If we are up against a deep and broad rejection of the status quo – and all evidence in the realm of religion, politics and economics suggests that we are – then maybe, just maybe…

• If we are open to the same wisdom and presence of the Lord in Jesus Christ that inspired Paul, then we, too, can be part of spiritual revolution in our generation: the advancement of the kingdom of God in the 21st century rather than simply serving the kingdom of self…

It seems to me that there are three things required to be a part of Christ’s revolution in our generation: embracing the evidence of our era, trusting that God has already gone ahead of us in the risen Lord and strengthening our hearts and minds through faithful Christian formation.

First, embracing the evidence of our era: no less a keen observer of reality than the Dali Lama speaks of the evidence like this:

We have bigger houses but smaller families; more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgment;
more experts, but more problems; more medicines but less healthiness.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,
but have trouble in crossing the street to meet our new neighbor.
We built more computers to hold more copies than ever,
but have less real communication;
We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion; tall men but short characters;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It’s a time when there is much in the window but nothing in the room.

I could elaborate – a survey of the popular music, books, films or television programs of this era all point towards a deep and crippling alienation – but why mess with perfection? The Dali Lama gets it right: we have more knowledge and less wisdom, more copies and less communication, steep profits but shallow relationships. Now, typically, when Americans discern or discover a problem, we want to fix it. We are fundamentally a utilitarian people and that is both a blessing and a curse.

There are just some things we cannot fix on our own – and there are other things we best not try to fix on our own – because they require God’s presence and timing. This is where religious institutions get into real trouble – trying to hurry-up and fix things – rather than wait upon the Lord and help our community to wait upon the Lord as well. This morning’s Psalm puts it like this (in Peterson’s reworking):

The revelation of GOD is whole and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of GOD are clear and point out the right road.
The life-maps of GOD are right, showing the way to joy.
The directions of GOD are plain and easy on the eyes.
GOD's reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of GOD are accurate down to the nth degree.

But all too often we don’t trust God’s way: we want to fix things and move on to the next problem ; so we exchange a passionate patience “that is courageously committed to… the work of the kingdom of God no matter how long it takes or how much it costs” (Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor, p. 47) for busy work. As Pastor Eugene Peterson once said, “People are not comfortable with uncertainties and risks and the travail of creativity because it takes too much time. There is too much obscurity for poetry; people are more comfortable with prose. They prefer explanations of Bible history and information on God.” (p. 45)

• But what is the preferred approach of Jesus? He waits – and prays – he tells opened ended stories and has conversations in community – and then heads out to wait and pray again.

• This morning’s gospel is what? A story – and a rather weird story at that: it takes some time and conversation to figure out what might be at stake and how it matters to us, don’t you think?

Let’s be honest: we don’t know much about vineyards anymore. We’re a mostly urban/suburban people who may do some gardening, but the only time we even think about vineyards is on a wine-tasting tour. So we don’t organically even comprehend the symbolism Jesus is using. What’s more, this parable is filled with violent imagery that doesn’t ring true to our sense of Jesus as the Christ. So who the devil are WE in this weird story – and how does it have anything to do with the Ten Commandments that we heard about as the first lesson? 

Well, making connections takes some time – wandering through the vast wilderness of these poetic symbols takes time – and we’re not too good at resting and waiting on the Lord. But when we do – when we let the words of Jesus take up residency in our hearts and minds and we let the poetry wash over us slowly – then a few things come into focus:

• Mostly those vineyards have something to do with all the places in our lives we are called upon to bear fruit: fruit of repentance, fruit of the Spirit, fruit of God’s kingdom rather than the kingdom of self, ok?

• And this fruit bearing is bigger than just our individual lives. That’s one of the many places the “spiritual but not religious” folk get it wrong. You see, this obsession with self is part of the problem – it is an addiction – that keeps us from living into the counter cultural joy and integrity of God’s kingdom.

For that joy, hope and integrity comes through being connected to Christ’s body – the community – rather than trying to do it all by ourselves. And that is what unites the 10 Commandments with the gospel: the way of the covenant – the commandments and the laws of Torah are the promises made between God and the community – and all relate to living in that vineyard.

• Ours is not a spirituality just for an individual – we’re about being the community of the faithful – so let’s be clear that these promises are not merely moral instruction for a bygone era, ok?

• As Walter Brueggemann made so clear in last year’s Lenten lectures, the Covenant was a counter-cultural commitment that offered a clear alternative to the way of Pharaoh. 

You could live by the rules and obligations of Empire – the way of greed, violence and naked self-interest – or you could abide by the way of the Lord and nourish compassion, justice, patience and community. Are you with me? The commandments and Torah describe a bold and creative alternative to the status quo – and Jesus didn’t abandon either Torah or their counter cultural wisdom – and let me show you what I mean for this is why faithful Christian formation in the 21st century is so important.

The commandments begin: God spoke all these words saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” Do you recall Christ’s paraphrase? "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength."

The commandments continue: You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. How did Jesus restate this for his generation? “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

• The commandments say: You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. And Jesus said: Do not swear, but let your yes be yes and your no be no; anything more than that comes from the evil one.

And we can keep going and going and going, beloved; making it very clear that Jesus neither abandoned nor degraded the way of covenant: he trusted that the Lord our God had gone before him and offered his people the way of life or death – and he did likewise. The way of covenant – the way of God’s kingdom rather than the kingdom of self – is not only the way through the violence of the vineyard, it is the way through the alienation, the anxiety and the fear of our era.

So what we do in Sunday School – or adult formation – or worship should be no less revolutionary and challenging, yes? We offer an alternative – the gift of God’s grace to the world – not programs and quick fixes. As a community of faith, the Lord asks us to train one another – our children and ourselves – to learn to wait upon the Lord – to listen beyond the noise of our culture and nourish a deep quietness and patience in community and our hearts. 

• So let me ask you: what would it be like 50% percent of those who come to worship ALSO committed to some form of study in community this year?

• Do you think we could do that and go beyond our comfort zone and encourage one another to take a deeper step into the NEW covenant?

“The secularized mind,” writes Eugene Peterson “is terrorized by mysteries. Thus it makes lists, labels people, assigns roles and solves problems.”

But a solved life is a reduced life… We live in a cult of experts who explain and solve… when the Lord asks us to wait… to discover the Cross in the paradoxes and chaos (of the vineyard) and call attention to the splendor of the ordinary (as we) nourish a life of prayer with our friends and companions on the pilgrimage. (p. 65)

This moment is as pregnant with possibilities as was the era during which St. Paul spread first the gospel. What might happen if we, too, gave up “all that inferior stuff so we could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering and go all the way with him through eve death itself” in community?

I believe that Christ Jesus has gone on ahead of us in the work and now invites us to join him in the vineyard. Let us sing together our affirmation of faith…