The Fourth Sunday of Easter April 13, 2008
Nehemiah 9:6-15
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10
I had a conversion yesterday morning with a vestry member, who asked my opinion on how to maintain a sense of community here at St. Matthews after I leave at the end of August. I think the key is to reinforce a sense of belonging.
Let me give some perspective. Five years ago Deanna and I were on an exchange in England. I was standing in the Nave of St. Etheldreda’s Church in Guilsborough, Northamptonshire, and looking at the list of Vicars from John Tarrant today back to 1208...in a straight line. Ministry had taken place in that one building for 800 years. All of sudden I had a new understanding of belonging.
This sense of long term belonging becomes more and more important to me as I get older. I think of Jesus as the Great Shepherd of the sheep, the flock of the faithful. And then I think that we have been proclaiming this for almost two thousand years; it is the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” that we affirm, that we say we believe in every Sunday morning in the Nicene Creed. And the Church has been affirming this every Sunday since the early part of the 4th Century when the Nicene Creed was written.
I think of this in terms of the importance of our memorial garden. For years, decades, centuries to come, we will have the reminder that the people of God have been faithful here for a good long time. We see the niches that hold the cremains of our loved ones, and we are reminded that we are part of them...and they of us. We belong to something significant. It’s called the Body of Christ. Just as those English priests tended that small flock in Guilsborough, in that small village in the middle of rural England, so in a sense are we tended by their faithfulness: It’s part of who we are.
In reflecting on all this, I was struck by a line in the middle of the Gospel lesson this morning. It’s about halfway down, [John 10:26] Jesus says, “You do not believe because you do not belong...” It seems to me that he’s saying that belonging is a prerequisite to believing. That’s the exact opposite of what most of us embrace. A standard line from newcomers who come here is “I want to know what you believe before I decide whether or not I want to belong.” For most of us, believing comes before belonging. So why would Jesus change the order?
I’m going to repeat an old theme: Christianity is a communal faith. It is not only the community of us gathered here and now, but it is also the community of the “Great Cloud of Witnesses” mentioned in Hebrews 12:1. It troubles me greatly when I hear people say that they can be faithful Christians and not be part of a community. As I’ve told you on several occasions, the word” You” in the New Testament is almost always a plural you. When Jesus or Paul says “you”, they generally mean “all of you.” So I think that this is a plural “you” in the Gospel lesson and that Jesus is saying that these folks are running around like independent agents. He is saying to them, “You really can’t believe because you don’t belong to each other nor to me.”
Kathleen Norris, in her delightful little book of essays entitled, Amazing Grace makes an interesting observation about belonging and believing. “If we can determine what we give our hearts to, then we will know what it is like to believe.” (P62)
Like a lot of baby boomers, she speaks of her return to the church after many years of absence. She cites 1 Cor.1:22-23 as a key passage to understanding her dilemma. “For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”
She said that she was seeking in vain for both signs and wisdom. She experienced Jesus only as a stumbling block and foolishness...
She did not think she belonged because she just could not believe. She was self-conscious and often depressed after coming to church. What kept her coming back was a sense of connection with the members of the congregation. Eventually, Norris said, she came to believe because she belonged.
Another example is found in Rick Warren’s book the Purpose Driven Life, which many of you have read. It has a chapter on “Why You Need a Church Family.”
In this chapter he gives six reasons why an individual Christian needs to belong to a community.
1. A Church Family identifies you as a genuine believer. Warren quotes Jesus from the 13th chapter of John’s Gospel, verse 35. “Your Love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” The words “belief” and “believe” are etymologically linked to the Anglo-Saxon word “lief” which in turn is linked to the Anglo-Saxon word “luf” which means love. To believe is to love. Together, not separated, we are the Body of Christ, and love is the glue that holds us together. To be able to embrace this understanding of the Church means that there is an acceptance of being part of the greater Church. We are part of St. Etheldreda’s in Guilsborough.
2. A Church family moves you out of self-centered isolation. It concerns all of us. One of the ways we do it here at St. Matthew’s is with our small groups. Several years ago the vestry adopted this phrase: “St. Matthew’s is a Church of Small Groups, not a Church which has Small Groups.” Our small group system, made up of Bible studies, prayer groups, support groups and so on, is the backbone of our parish. There are groups which focus exclusively on prayer or personal support. Most are a mixture. But each group is the means by which an individual can be really connected. Paul states in I Cor. 12:26 “If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part of our body is honored, all the other parts share in the honor.” I think this is most easily experienced in a small group. I also recommend frequent pot-lucks, guest speakers and other programs that bring you all together and reinforce a sense of community.
3. A Church Family helps you develop spiritual muscle. Rick Warren states: “You will never grow to maturity just by attending worship services and being a passive spectator.” Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:16 that “As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” Over fifty times in the New Testament we find the phrases “one another” or “each other.” We are commanded to “love one another”, “pray for each other,” “encourage each other,” “admonish each other,” “honor each other,” “bear one another’s burdens,” and so on.
It’s in doing these things that we get stronger, both individually and as a body.
4. The Body of Christ needs you. God has a unique role for you. By your baptism you have been given a gift from the Holy Spirit. By your baptism you are called to ministry. Turn to P. 855 of the Prayer Book. Look at the very first line in the section entitled “The Ministry.”
Q. “Who are the ministers of the Church?”
A. “The ministers of the Church are lay, persons, bishops, priests and deacons.” You do have a ministry. But your private ministry is not the last word. Rick Warren makes an interesting point. He says, “Jesus has not promised to build your ministry; he has promised to build His church.” That’s the purpose of our ministry: to build the Church. So often peoples’ ministries get tied up in their egos and it becomes something other than ministry: it becomes an act of self-gratification, and the focus is on “me” and not on Christ and His Church.
5. You will share in Christ’s mission to the world. This is probably the easiest way for us to see the importance of an extended view of the Church. Paul writes in Eph. 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works...” When there are issues of famine in the Sudan for instance, it’s our connectedness with the greater church that allows us to be more effective in our outreach.
6. A Church family will help keep you from backsliding. This is a good Baptist term, but it’s self-explanatory. Rick Warren says that “None of us is immune to temptation. Given the right situation, you and I are capable of any sin.” I say ‘amen’ to that. In Hebrews 3:13, the author writes “Encourage one another daily...so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”
In closing, my prayer is that you all, the community of St. Matthews will grow stronger and more committed to Christ and one another. That is very best legacy I could have.
Amen
