Sunday, August 23, 2015

Is the Teaching Too Difficult?

Sermon
13 Pentecost – August 23, 2015
John 6:56-69

Last Saturday in the courtyard of the Griffin Park apartments, the first St. Michaels Unity Day Picnic kicked off promptly at 11AM as scheduled. The mouthwatering aroma of barbecuing hamburgers and hot dogs and squeals of childish delight were evident for at least a two-block radius. I arrived at five past 11. The bounce house was already filled to capacity, and Rev. William Wallace, pastor of Union United Methodist Church, was getting the drip hose positioned for maximum water flow in the water slide. Children of all ages waited impatiently in line. It was hot and they wanted to get into that cool water as quickly as possible.

Under the picnic tent and scattered around the central lawn area were people from throughout the St. Michaels community – getting to know you conversations abounded. The Town Manager and two County Commissioners mingled with guests, and the Director of the Housing Authority was on hand to discuss the challenges of affordable housing in Talbot County.  DJ Randy had set up his audio system under a small tent and Christian Rock blasted through the air proclaiming the greatness of Jesus. At the very fringes of all of this activity a few residents sat in chairs just outside their doorways observing the festivities with wide grins on their faces. When I asked one lady what she thought of all that was going on, she said, “it is fine…most fine.”


At the center of the day’s activities was St. Michaels Police Chief Anthony Smith. Unity Day was Chief Smith’s idea, and it was Chief Smith who was the glue that held the day together…Truly, we could not have done it without Chief Smith.

The “Chief” is one of the forerunners in national law enforcement efforts to build and reinforce trust between communities and their police departments. Chief Smith’s key goal is the building of trust and mutual respect between all of the various community groups in St Michaels.

Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organized strategies to support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques. Techniques that proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and disention among community groups. Community policing has three key components: Community partnerships; organizational transformation; and problem solving. The intelligent and resourceful use of all of these assets culminates in a process of proactively identifying and prioritizing problems; researching what is known about the problem; developing solutions to bring about lasting reductions in the number and extent of the problems; and evaluating the success of the responses.

In essence community policing strives to integrate the police department into the community in a partnership that, at all levels, is dedicated to furthering the “good of the neighborhood” – or, the common good.

I sat in Griffin Park last Saturday and observed Chief Smith as he orchestrated all of the activities of the day, and I was truly humbled. He knew everyone and everyone knew him. He respected everyone and everyone respected him. He had time for everyone and everyone wanted time with him.

The Chief was hot, mopping his brow continually without ever pausing in his unceasing activity of orchestrating the days’ events. He was probably tired, and most certainly he must have had lots of other situations on his mind. Maybe he even had some aches and pains like most of us. Whatever was going on in the private world of Chief Smith, he never let it show. There was no doubt that without the Chief Unity Day would not have been just that – a glorious day when members of so many different community groups came together to have fun, to eat hotdogs and hamburgers, and to learn a little about each other. A day in which there was unity in the community.

Soon after Reverend Wallace started up the water slide and children were plunging through screaming with joy and excitement, Chief Smith called the crowd to silence and asked us all to have a seat. In a brief introductory ceremony the Chief asked all of the local clergy and the Director of the Community Center to stand beside him and to affirm their commitment to an interdependent partnership. A partnership in which we are all bound together as key community resources for safety, compassion, healing, and love. He asked us all to be his partners in community building, and we all said, “yes.” We all made the commitment to follow his lead in the task of furthering the good of the neighborhood – the common good.

“When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it? (John 6:60)

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus’ disciples continue to scratch their heads, still confused about the significance of the bread of life and mystified by what eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus means. Over the past five weeks, Jesus’ focus on bread has moved from the feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves of barley bread and two fishes to a long discourse in which Jesus defines himself as the Bread of Life without which one cannot attain eternal life.

The disciples are puzzled by this. After all, Jesus is a carpenter’s son, a common man, and yet he performs miracles and implies that he is God’s spokesperson – the one through whom they must pass if they are to enter God’s Kingdom. How can this be – who is this man?

The disciples want answers that they can understand. They want answers that will tell them who Jesus really is. They want straightforward answers and easy solutions to entering God’s Eternal Kingdom – they want the whole story and in plain language.

But Jesus tells them that there are no easy answers. In fact, he challenges them even further when he says, “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe…For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the father.”

Jesus challenges the disciples and confronts them with the hard truth, “this teaching is difficult.” There are no easy answers – there is no quick fix. It takes faith – faith in what cannot be seen – faith in what cannot be explained in everyday terms – faith in the act of giving oneself up to be one with Jesus – to follow him both literally and figuratively. Giving oneself over to being with and in Jesus, in every way, is the only way – the only way to freedom; the only way to peace; the only way to eternal life.

In this passage from John, the gauntlet has been thrown down – the message is a hard one to hear -  and because of this, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.” Simon Peter and a few others elected to stay, but even they encountered severe misgivings and challenges as they followed their lord on the remainder of his journey to the cross.

The gauntlet has been thrown down…who will meet the challenge? I believe that this is how Chief Smith experiences his work in establishing a community policing program. I believe that the Chief has picked up that gauntlet, and I believe that he is going forward, just like Simon Peter and the others, in faith, knowing that if he follows in the footsteps of Jesus – if he keeps going forward despite challenges and hardships – despite the setbacks – if he follows in the footsteps of Jesus, he, in concert with those who choose to partner with him, will make a difference. The neighborhood will be more peaceful, more loving. The common good will be served and we will all be closer to living in a world that pleases God and is therefore pleasing to us.

A gauntlet has also been thrown down for us here at Christ Church.

Just about this time last year, under the leadership of the Renewal Works Committee, Christ Church committed to focusing on spiritual growth and spiritual vitality. Christ Church committed to rediscovering who Jesus is, and what it means to follow him. Christ Church intentionally picked up the gauntlet and embarked on a journey of spiritual growth and identifying ways that God is calling us to grow.

The journey is in progress. Classes, conversations, forums, and sermons have helped in focusing our hearts and minds on spiritual issues – our relationship with Jesus. Talk is bubbling up around potential social justice conversations and mission activities. Involvement with community service organizations has increased. We are sitting - just as the disciples sat listening carefully to their Lord - we are sitting – listening to words in the classes, conversations, forums, and sermons – the words - that bring us as close as possible to the Jesus of 2000 years ago. Sitting and listening, scratching our heads about what does it mean for us to follow Jesus.

As we listen – if we listen with open hearts and with open minds – or, as Paul would say, with the eyes of our hearts – as we listen to Jesus, as we grow spiritually, and draw ever so close to him – what do we hear him say to us? What is the gauntlet that he has thrown down for us, both personally and as members of Christ Church?


Will the teaching be too difficult to accept? Or, like Simon Peter, will we say, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Will we, like Chief Smith, pick up our gauntlet and meet the challenge?

As we follow Jesus, weathering the hardships and the challenges – the setbacks, will the neighborhood of our personal, parish and community lives grow to be a more peaceful, more loving place? Will the common good be served? Will we be closer to living in a world that pleases God and is therefore pleasing to us?

Will we “…be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power?” Will we “put on the whole armor of God” and follow Jesus – all the way, down that long road that the challenge takes us and into God’s Eternal Kingdom. AMEN



Monday, August 10, 2015

The Bread of Life...

Sermon
Christ Church, St. Michaels Parish
10 Pentecost
John 6:35, 41-51

It seems difficult to believe, but I have now been with you here at Christ church for nine months….and what a nine months!

Arriving the day before Thanksgiving in 32 degree freezing rain fresh from our poolside condo in 90 degree Delray Beach….

Jumping into a new church family during the busiest seasons of the year…Advent and then Christmas…

Launching one of my favorite projects, the Bible Challenge….

Journeying to Cleveland with my husband for what turned out to be an incredibly complex surgical procedure requiring four months of recuperation and one additional surgical procedure….

And, three mission trips to Haiti – one in late January; one in May; and one just a few weeks ago in mid-July….

As of this moment, I think my head has stopped spinning, but I am not quite sure that my life will slow down all that much. There is a great deal going on here at Christ Church and in Bondeau, Haiti. New  fall and winter Christian education and formation classes; an incredibly rich Adult Forum program; Outreach Sundays, a new 2nd Sunday of the month program to be launched just after Labor Day; new partnerships in the Bay 100 community intended to bring Christ Church into closer communion and collaboration with multiple organizations in our neighborhood, and an ever proliferating set of partners and projects in our newly adopted mission site Bondeau, Haiti.

Clearly, the coming year is an incredibly important time in the life of Christ Church as well as in the majority of churches in the United States. Nationwide congregations are shrinking, pledges diminishing accordingly, Sunday schools are being disbanded for alternative mid-week programs that bring families together into conversation about basic Christian beliefs and behaviors, and those committed to bringing the Gospel into the world are scratching their heads – struggling with the challenges of bringing church to the un-churched, or the “nones” as they are so often called.

The Task Force for Reimagining the Episcopal Church is a committee that spent two years in discussions with thousands of Episcopalians about their hopes, dreams, ideas and concerns for the church and about the Church’s collective mission to serve Christ. They also studied how other churches and non-religious organizations have developed innovative approaches to pursuing their missions in a changing world.

At this year’s General Convention the Task Force presented their recommendations for changes in the Church’s structures, governance and administration to advance our Five Marks of Mission:


·        To Proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
·        To teach, baptize and nurture new believers
·        To respond to human needs by loving service
·        To transform unjust structures, to challenge violence of every kind, and to pursue peace and reconciliation
·        To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

This excellent and extensive report – far too lengthy to discuss in detail –concludes, “Jesus sends us together into the places where ordinary life unfolds. We are sent to testify to God’s reign as we form and restore community by sharing in God’s peacemaking and healing. This begins with deep listening to neighbors, relying upon their hospitality rather than expecting them to find us on their terms. In today’s increasingly diverse world, we must learn how to “bear witness” to, and receive from those of different cultures, faiths and beliefs, “eating what is set before us.” For many churches now disconnected from neighbors, this will mean attempting small experiments in sharing God’s peace as we learn how to form Christian community and witness with those neighbors.” (TREC Report)

The Task Force endorses the overall goal of “renewing ways not only of speaking to the world, but also of being together, driven by the commitment to collaborate across structures that may have no connectivity today,” and with three specific objectives designed to meet that goal: 1) Restructuring the spiritual encounter; 2) Reimagining dioceses, Bishops, and General Convention; and 3) Restructuring assets in service of God’s mission in the future.

Challenging goals… very challenging.

So, yes, I believe with all my heart – that this is an incredibly important year – an incredibly important year for Christ Church and for the Church as a whole - a year in which we must continually renew our commitment to our Baptismal vows -  A year in which we must, with renewed courage, creativity, discipline and faith, engage in our role as Disciples of Christ – A year in which we must, in partnership with our community, reach out, go beyond our doors if we are to achieve our dream of bringing the compassion and love made manifest to us in Christ, to our neighbors here in the Bay Hundred area and any other places in the nation and the world to which we may be called.

If we are to be a vibrant and lively church we must work at it – work hard with energy and with discipline and in community - in partnership - with good will and with hearts that are filled with courage, compassion, forgiveness and love.

As the Apostle Paul said in his Letter to the Ephesians,  “…be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil…Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Eph. 6:10, 14-17)

Yes, it is a lot of hard and courageous work that we are called to do– especially with Paul’s exhortations ringing in our ears and egging us on.

Some people ask me, “How do you do it – how do you do so much and always seem so calm?”

My response is always the same, “I don’t even think about what is happening. Jesus is always in me and with me. I know that I will be fine.”

And this, of course, brings me to today’s Good News.  “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’ ” (John 6:35)

A powerful statement made by Jesus to his followers so many years ago. A statement that transcends time and is as relevant today as it was then. A statement that provides us with the food - the peace, the love, the compassion, the strength and the faith - that we need to support us in our  work of re-imagining the Church, both here in St. Michaels and throughout the world. A fortifying statement as we put on the armor of God and go about the task of “renewing ways not only of speaking to the world, but also of being together, driven by the commitment to collaborate across structures that may have no connectivity today.”

Jesus is indeed the bread of life. He is our definitive disclosure of God in the world. He is the definitive model for our behavior. He is the definitive guidepost for our emotions. The sustenance, the nourishment, needed to keep us alive, spiritually and emotionally, as we traverse these challenging times of keeping our church alive and well – these challenging times of forming and restoring community by sharing in God’s peacemaking and healing.

Although I speak for myself only, in faith, I know that if we allow ourselves to feed on the bread that comes down from heaven, the true bread of life, we will be fed eternally – now and forever. We will be filled with faith and courage and love and we will be peaceful, effective and passionate disciples of Christ, who bring the Good News, the Gospel, to our community and to the world. 

We will become the bread of life for others - for the world. AMEN