GETTING OUT OF THE BOAT

Last week we were down by the river to pray, studying war no more, and wading in the water. This week we get the story of what happened the day after the baptism of Jesus and what happens to us following our baptism.

For the last two years we have been talking about a process called Natural Church Development. We have been taking a look at some of our weaknesses and especially questioning the passion of our spirituality. We’ve started a second Bible study and have a growing prayer chain. We’ve asked our committee leaders to build a time of centering and prayerful reflection into the agenda of each meeting. We have had some prayer learning moments in our Council meetings. We’ve taken other steps and are considering still more. A group called C.A.T.S is guiding this process, so called because getting them together is like herding felines.

But the neat thing about this process is that it is a process, not a program. A program we can do, evaluate, put it on the shelf, and then get back to the way things have always been. But if Natural Church Development becomes a part of us, then it is always evolving. It takes on a life of its own. Natural Church Development talks about “multiplication,” when things start to happen like pop corn popping. First it’s pop…pop…pop, and then it’s pop, pop, pop, and then it’s pppppop, pppppop, ppppop.

The neat thing about the Gospel story today is that John’s witness takes on this kind of a life of its own. It made two of John’s followers focus on Jesus and engage him. One of them, Andrew, went and found his brother Peter. Then they went to Galilee, the region from which Andrew and Peter came, where Jesus called Philip and he found his friend Nathanael. That’s a lot of mileage from one witness by John. The didn’t happen by goals and objectives. That didn’t happen by a strategic plan. That happened because some people discovered that for which the world has always been waiting.

God so loved the world that God didn’t sent a memo. Didn’t post an e-mail. Didn’t devise a strategic plan. God so loved the world that God sent the only Son so that real live people could spend real time with him and really learn to be loved by him, and be transformed by him. What happens after baptism? That’s what happens. Yes, and education, and practice and accountability and all that. But what has to happen over and over again is that people get introduced to people who get introduced to the savior of all creation. That’s multiplication.

There is another story about multiplication. Today we also heard part of the Noah story, the part where Noah gets out of the boat. Now, let’s be clear. I’m not asking you to literalize the story of Noah. It’s a far too wonderful story to get that kind of treatment. I’m not asking you to join that pathetic group of people who keep trying to find the remnants of the ark up on a mountain in Turkey so that they can bolster their faith. You’ve got enough sense to understand that this story is not history and you’ve got enough faith to understand that it doesn’t matter.

But how do you think Noah would feel if he were getting out of the boat? Do you think the animals would have been driving him crazy? Or do you think that, after the world shattering event, he would be a little scared of giving up the shelter of the ark? Why do you think he waited another week after the dove didn’t come back?

It’s a flood out there. It’s a flood of telemarketers if you don’t renew your call block. It’s a flood of solicitations if you make just one contribution to a good cause. It’s a flood of e-mails it you shop on line. It’s a flood of urgent messages if you are connected to a mainline denomination, and we’re connected with two. It’s a flood of human need that the good Samaritan never had to face. He only saw one man by the side of the road. It’s a flood out there.

This is our ark. This is where we have weathered the spiritual storms. This is where we can be vulnerable and trust one another to care. This is where opinions are respected, from the wise and visionary, even to the fool- hearty and shortsighted. You may hear “I disagree,” but you won’t hear “you don’t count.” Even when we’re driving each other a little crazy, this is our ark.

But there came a time when Noah had to get out of the boat and start building a new world. He did some of it well. The Bible tells us he planted a vineyard. Go, Noah. And he did some of it poorly. He got drunk and became an embarrassment to his family. Either way, he had to get out of the boat.

A lot of our conversations in this congregation are around the topic of how to get people into the boat. Whether it’s getting the yard mowed so that we look alive or getting more parking or working on publicity or letters to new residents, the basic idea is to have more people in our spiritual ark. Hurray for us. These are important conversations to have.

Two weeks several of us listened to Jim Griffith, a veteran church grower, tell us that in these days (not the 1950s but these days) the strategy of just trying to pull people into the boat will have limited results. He said that, in addition to doing the things we have to do to be more welcoming, we’ve got to get personally out into the mission field.

Here is the proof that we have stayed too long in the ark. When the news media people want to hear what Christians think about events, they go to the right wing. Where they get exclusionary, judgmental, compassionless drivel. We’ve stayed too long in the ark.

Last month Patricia and I attended a fund raiser in Boston for an organization that rescues Asian women who have been brought to the United States and then victimized. There was a whole coalition of supporting organizations doing this important work, and not one of them was religious. We’ve stayed too long in the ark.

You will remember that months ago our public discussion in America about immigration got so polarized that we could no longer talk sense to each other. We couldn’t tell when someone was trying to protect people from Nazi type raids or exercise appropriate concerns for the safety of our borders. Why was the church not in the forefront of clarifying that conversation? Why did we leave it to the media sensationalists to muddy the waters until the moment was lost? We’ve stayed too long in the ark.

And it’s starting to smell.

This weekend America is celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He had a Ph. D. from Boston University. He was called to a prestigious pulpit in Montgomery. His father was a respected leader and he had a network of support. He could have just worked for the needs of the people within walls of his church and been a popular and revered pastor.

But there was this thing called the Montgomery Bus Boycott. And then there was voter registration. And then there was a war in Vietnam. And then there was justice for workers…in Memphis.

Along the way, in the push and shove of public life, he made some mistakes. He had great moments and not so great moments. What we celebrate is not that he was perfect but that he was prophetic.

John the Baptizer didn’t point out Jesus because he was an interesting guy, but because he was the savior of the world. Andrew didn’t tell Peter (and Philip didn’t tell Nathanael) that Jesus was an entertaining speaker. The popcorn started to pop when the conversation focused on the Son of God. This was a message for the whole world.

God didn’t tell Noah to start a zoo. This was not the permanent collection. This was a moment of caring before the world got a new start.

And God didn’t call us together in this place because we are all nice people and should get to know each other. (Besides, some of us are still working on the nice thing.) God called us to this place, this ark, to save us from the flood, and then send us out following the dove.

In your bulletin is a partial list of where God might be calling you to go outside the ark. Give it some thought. Give it some prayer. It you know today, send it in with the collection plate. If you need some time, take it home and put it on your refrigerator, so you have to see it before you fulfill your own needs. Just ask God. When you get that feeling that the church should be working on a particular human need, let me know. I’ll connect you with other people. Two by two, remember?

This is the ark. That’s the world that desperately needs to hear of the love of God in concrete and factual ways. And the dove has already taken flight.