|
|
|
Mystic
Congregational Church, UCC Mystic,
Connecticut Sermon
from October 17, 2004 “Holy
Urgency” Rev.
Patricia L. Liberty
Scriptures: 2 Timothy
3:14-4:5 Luke 18:1-8 The Annual
Meeting of the Connecticut Conference of the UCC took place this weekend in
Suffield, CT. I was pleased to see
an early mentor among the retired clergy at the meeting. When I became pastor of little American Baptist Church after
my first year in seminary, Bob was the one who reached out and took me under his
wing. He taught me much of what I
continue to value in ministry nearly 25 years later. There are two things that stand out among the countless
pearls of wisdom he offered in those early years, and this is the stuff they
don’t teach you in seminary: · When you don’t know what to say,
for God’s sake shut up. ·
Always
take ministry seriously, just don’t take yourself too seriously in the
process. If
we are lucky, and I surely was, there are people who come along at critical
points in our life and teach us things we need to know; folks who become role
models who teach us about parenting, faith, getting along with others and so
much more. Paul
was such a teacher and mentor for Timothy, a young leader at the church of
Ephesus. Paul did his best to
encourage Timothy and teach him about the faith, but also about the qualities
that make for a good leader. As his
second letter draws to a close, Paul offers some tender, powerful and, though he
didn’t realize it then, timeless advice. First,
Paul tells Timothy to rely on the sound teaching he has heard and knows to be
true: things he learned from Lois
and Eunice, his mother and grandmother, and, of course, from Paul himself.
Timothy,
like most of us, was a Christian because of the witness of someone else.
Throughout the faith journey there are those who make faith come alive
and, in their own faithfulness, teach us what we need to know in the moment.
Christianity was never meant to be a solo journey; it is a communal
faith. Then, as now, we need one
another to keep us grounded in the best of what God in Christ calls us to.
There are lots of voices out there competing for our attention.
I believe that the time we spend together in worship and fellowship and
study and service provides the foundation that helps us stay grounded in the
faith and work of Christ’s church. I’m
often amused by friends who say, “I don’t need the church, I can worship God
anywhere”, or “I’m spiritual, but not religious”.
Of course it is true that we can worship anywhere. Which one of us hasn’t uttered a prayer of thanks for the
vibrant colors that light up the fall sky and the gentle rhythm of the season
that folds summer into fall? Of
course we have a personal spirituality and practice.
But ours isn’t a supermarket faith, where we can buy one part and not
another. It’s a package deal and
it everywhere assumes that membership in a vital community of faith is needed
both for encouragement in the journey and for participation in God’s mission. It’s
why I think the whole notion of inactive church member is an oxymoron. You can’t be an inactive church member anymore than you can
be an occasional employee. I wonder
what would happen if you walked in to your boss or supervisor tomorrow and said,
“You know, I’ve decided to go inactive for a while…I’ll show up from
time to time when I’m not too busy. Of
course I still want all the benefits of full employment. I’m sure you can work it out.
Thanks.” Second,
Paul talks about the place of Scripture. By
Timothy’s time most of the OT corpus, as we know it, was circulating in some
fashion, and there were rudiments of NT writings that were being collected.
The Bible as we know it wouldn’t be put together for another couple
hundred years, but there was a significant body of sacred writing that was
available to the early church. The
text is specific. All Scripture is
inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for
training in righteousness. In
Timothy’s time, one of the unsound teachings that impacted the church was
Gnosticism, which held that the true Christian faith was the result of special
knowledge and that only by belonging to the Gnostic community could one come to
that special knowledge. It was
kinda like the first century secret handshake.
Paul’s
exhortation to Timothy was to rely on sound teaching and Scripture. His instruction was cumulative.
The study of sacred text is both a communal and an individual discipline.
It calls us to struggle together for deeper understanding and create
spaces for those with whom we might disagree. Biblical
proof texting is a favorite past time of some branches of the church and there
is a Scripture for just about everything. One
of the hottest current debates has to do with the place of homosexuality in the
life of the Church. Dr. Laura
Schlesinger, a pop psychologist, offered an interpretation based on her
upbringing in the Jewish Tradition. Here’s
a response that’s been circulating on the internet. “Dear
Dr. Laura: Thank
you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a
great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people
as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for
example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an
abomination ... End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other
elements of God's Law and how to follow them. ·
When I
burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for
the Lord—Lev.1:9. The problem is
my neighbors. They claim the odor
is not pleasing to them. Should I
smite them? ·
I would
like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in ·
Lev.
25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided
they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this
applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify?
Why can’t I own Canadians? ·
I have a
neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. The passage clearly
states he should be put to death. Am
I morally obligated to kill him myself? ·
A friend
of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an ·
Lev.
21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my
sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be
20/20, or is there some wiggle room here? ·
I know
from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may
I still play football if I wear gloves? ·
My uncle
has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two I
know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable
expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for
reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging. Your
adoring fan, Mort” Regardless
of where we come out on the issue, it’s a humorous reminder that the Bible is
a dynamic book, and, in every age, needs to be faithfully interpreted and
prayerfully considered. Gnosticism
is not the contemporary church’s threat, but there are a host of others that
step up to the plate. What
keeps us on the right track is holding on to sound teaching, a holistic
commitment to scripture, being in a community
that challenges us in study and discipline and regular worship.
It’s a package deal. William
Loder writes: “The
insistence on holding to a resurrection hope, strange as it may seem, had
something to do with an embodied hope and a refusal to reduce faith and hope to
individual immortality. Then, as now, it was more appealing to learn how to be
special and satisfied than to be swept into the turbulence of yearning for the
reign of justice and peace.” When we think
canonically, the dichotomy takes us back to Jesus' own struggles. How could what
began as good news for the broken hearted who cried out for change become the
sedative for the comfortable? How
could the way of the cross become a pathway for success and a sanction for
protecting our own interests, personal or national? The
writer does not really engage the threat except by warnings.
Instead, there is an appeal to tradition and to turn people back to the
foundations. These concerns would
produce gospels and, eventually, an inspired New Testament, not to be a set of
rules, but to be a source of returning to the center with a diversity that calls
for critical engagement. From that
center the writer calls us to do the work of an evangelist (proclaiming the good
news) and to fulfill our ministry and not to be distracted by the religious
market place which advertises to people they can have all they want—now. There
is a holy urgency, then as now, for us to be people of the book, people of
community, people of personal faith and piety who do regularly seek out
corporate worship and instruction. |