NOTE: HERE ARE MY WORSHIP NOTES FOR THIS COMING SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2014. IT IS THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST CHURCH.
Insights
More and more in my life –
personally, professionally and prayerfully – I seem
Discernment is different
from suspicion which begins with mistrust and is most often self-centered
rather than God-centered. And it has nothing to do with finding fault or
judgment because true discernment is an act of trust. Specifically a trust that God loves the world
as today’s gospel asserts. Perhaps no one
described a spirituality of discernment better than our old friend, Reinhold
Niebuhr, who put it like this one summer in the Berkshires before an afternoon
Bible study: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot
change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the
difference.
For me, a spirituality of
discernment is a playful, tender and humble commitment to embracing God’s gifts
of awe, grace and joy as they already exist in our lives. We cannot create them
– we cannot negate them – our task is to embrace them as eagerly as a child so
that from the inside out the image of God that was placed inside us before the
beginning of time is strengthened. St.
Paul wrote:
The
fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and
then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift.
That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the
religious traditions and those who have never heard of them.
Did you hear that
– and grasp it? Our calling – and the fulfillment of God’s love in our hearts –
depends entirely on trust. Not doctrine,
not striving, not status or history or intellect, but trust – and trust is what
faith is all about. The New Testament
book of Hebrews puts it clearly: Faith
is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen. Peterson’s words in The Message are clarifying: The
fundamental fact of existence is that trust in God, faith, is the firm
foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on
what we can’t see.
And then we get the words
that are crucial for us on this day marking the 250th anniversary of
First Church: By faith
the men and women of old received divine approval. By faith we
understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen
was made out of things which do not appear.
By faith – by trusting – by
taking a long, loving look at what is real and then living in ways that turn
dreams into deeds. Our ancestors in the Scriptures did this – not perfectly –
but to the best of the ability, and so too our ancestors in this very
Sanctuary: they lived and acted by
faith. So let me think out loud with you
for a moment about two of our ancient ancestors – Father Abraham and Nicodemus
the Pharisee – for they both still have something to say to us – and especially
so as we contemplate this anniversary.
Insights
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Father Abraham – the
patriarch from which our Judeo-Christian tradition originates – was a man of
faith. He wasn’t perfect – sometimes he wasn’t noble and often he was a
confused coward – but he was a man of faith.
That is, he attempted to live by trusting the Lord.
God called him to
leave his home in what is now modern Iraq – and he obeyed. God promised that he would become the father
of a great nation even though he was chronologically beyond the realm of
fertility – as was his beloved wife Sarah – and in time this came to pass. There were a host
of humiliating failures along the way as well as a few bold acts of courage.
Time and again, Abraham would blow it and have to confess his failures and sin
to the Lord of hosts. And over and over the Bible tells us a story of God’s
forgiveness and renewal so that Abraham (and Sarah) might move forward by
faith.
St. Paul reminds us that the
fundamental reason we look to Father Abraham as one of our role models has to
do with his trust. It isn’t his
character that we seek to emulate or his intellect. More often than not when it
came to moral clarity or wisdom and common sense, Abraham was a failure. Here’s
why St. Paul says we still look to Abraham:
We call
Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but
because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what
we’ve always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, “I set you up as father
of many peoples”? Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God
to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make
something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed
anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.
Abraham is one of the
ancestors who informs our anniversary celebration: he shows us what it means to live by faith
and act by trust. His story also reminds
us that when we tell our own story, we don’t have to be afraid of the ugly,
broken or unredeemed aspects. We all
have them – shadow sides and histories we would rather keep buried and out of
the light – but that isn’t what happens in the Bible. At least not with Abraham
– all the dirty linen is put out there for the whole world to see – and not
because it is salacious or scandalous or exhibitionistic. No, that would be self-centered and a
spirituality of discernment is God-centered.
+ No all the muck
and failure of Abraham’s life by faith is put out there so that we know that
God’s love is greater than our sin. That
God’s grace is more potent than the totality of our failures.
+ So let’s be
honest: as a faith community, in
addition to some wonderful high points, we’ve also known what it has meant to
fail and live down in the gutter of sin.
We’ve made noble commitments and ugly mistakes. We’ve labored and prayed
as women and men of integrity, and at the same time, we’ve known what it means
to be caught up in the social evil of greed or racism.
And here’s why I believe it
is so important to say this out loud:
even at our worst God never quit loving us. Like Father Abraham, we faced our failures
and sin and found forgiveness and love over and over again in our 250
years. You see, the story of Abraham is
so powerful NOT because he got it right so often, but that he kept returning to
God’s grace. He kept trusting that God
was God and that God so loved the world that grace was sent into the very
structure of reality to give us a fresh start.
That’s the first ancestor
from the texts assigned for this day that we might benefit from knowing more
intimately. The second is Nicodemus the
Pharisee. And while he sometimes gets a bum rap for coming to Jesus in the night
and acting in a way that seems dense and even stupid, if you follow the
trajectory of old Nick’s story you will discover the power and faithfulness of
God’s grace in action yet again. So here are three thoughts to consider about
Nicodemus within the context of our 250th anniversary:
+ First Nicodemus is a man of power, influence and
profound spiritual commitment. He was a good and faithful member of the
Sanhedrin – the ruling council of the Jewish community in Jerusalem – that
served as a court for religious and ethical concerns in his day. In some ways he was a lot like some of
us. He had financial means and was
committed to living in a way that honored the common good.
+ Second, Nicodemus knew his Bible but sometimes was too
literal in his interpretation. That’s the challenge Jesus gives him with the
“born again” or “born from above” business.
It is as if Jesus is saying, “You are a smart man, my friend. And a good man, too. So if you want to become a truly loving agent
of God’s grace in the world, you’re going to have to go deeper than the
obvious. You’re going to have leave behind simplistic ways of interpreting
everything and start growing up by the Spirit.”
That’s what all spiritually
committed people must do in order to take their
+ This is where the third part of the Nicodemus story
becomes really important for us because at first old Nick doesn’t get what
Jesus is talking about. He shakes his head in confusion and returns to the
shadows. He goes back to his old way of
operating – which isn’t bad – but incomplete. And that’s something many
churches are very good at – going backwards towards what used to be true but is
no longer – and they can do that as long as the money holds out.
But that
isn’t what Nicodemus does – he doesn’t stagnate in his retrenchment – he
practices discernment. Apparently he
spends a number of years trying to figure out what new way God wants him to
embrace grace because at the end of Christ’s life, guess what? Nicodemus returns to the story first to
defend Jesus in the Sanhedrin against those who wanted his death. And then after the Cross, Nicodemus goes to
the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and anoints Christ’s body with myrrh and
aloe.
Hmmm… something has happened to this man, yes? His departure from the action at the start of
the story doesn’t mean he has remained oblivious to Christ’s invitation. Rather, it suggests that he took the time he
needed to discern where God’s love was calling him – he took a really long and
loving look at reality – and then re-entered the story in way that was tender
and compassionate and loving.
So much so that Nicodemus is now venerated as a saint
within the Eastern and Byzantine Catholic Churches of the world – honored on
the third Sunday after Easter as a sacred myrrh-bearer – and celebrated in the
Roman Catholic realm too along with St. Joseph of Arimathea on the 31st
day of August.
Conclusion
And I have to tell you, beloved, that says something to me about First Church. Like Father
Abraham before him, the story of Nicodemus tells me that God’s grace is ALWAYS
present in our story: that even when we
appear inactive – or on retreat or uncertain about how to best express God’s
love in the world – God is still
at work within us and will lead us in the right way at the right time if we simply
remain open to that grace. These sacred
ancestors remind us that sometimes the Godly thing to do is hurry up and do
nothing – to practice a contemplative way of discernment – so that when the
time is right, we’re ready.
+ About five years
ago, we made an informed and faithful decision to become and Open and Affirming
congregation. Some said it took us too
long to do this – they were impatient and even judgmental – but I suggest to
you that it was the right time and in the right way – and grace upon grace has
been the result.
+ Now after we made
this commitment, there were those within and beyond that asked: Well, what are you doing about that NOW? What ACTION are you going to take to make a
difference? And truth be told, we didn’t
know – the path of faith was not yet clear – so we waited and practiced a bit
of contemplative discernment so that when the right time came, we could respond
with love. And now we have some built
some tender and gentle alliances with those in our community who seek to keep
our children safe while respecting the integrity of their sexuality.
+ We’ve done
something similar with our environmental allies, too: we’ve practiced discernment before rushing to
judgment or action. And later today at
our anniversary concert we’ll share a new insight with those that are gathered
that has taken us decades to discern, but which brings a small measure of
healing and hope and grace into our ministry, too.
Like our ancestors Father Abraham or Nicodemus the
Pharisee, we don’t always get it right.
That is just a fact of life and a part of our history. But the greater
truth is that God’s grace is not inhibitated by our failures or sin. No, God
keeps coming to us over and over and over again – and THAT my dear friends is
the good news for today.
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