THE CHURCH’S BEST ADVERTISEMENT
Rev. Dr. Dennis Winkleblack
Prospect United Methodist Church
Bristol, Connecticut
October 4, 2009
James 5: 13-20
Mark 9: 38-50
Today is World Communion Sunday. Since 1940, this first Sunday in October has been observed by the world’s churches as a day to celebrate the world-wide body of Christ and to remember each other in prayer. To remember that whatever geographical differences may separate us, whatever cultural differences may separate us, whatever political differences may separate us, we are in reality one church, a body of more than a billion people united by the profession that Jesus the Christ was God incarnate and is now the living Lord of our lives and who has shown us the way to salvation – which is to say the real, true, authentic life for ourselves and for the whole world.
One of the best things about World Communion Sunday is that it gives us a good excuse to think about our enterprise as a church. Gives us a chance to self-consciously reflect on ourselves as a gigantic body surrounding the world, to be sure. But also gives us a chance and an excuse to think about church, small and local. Like us.
Maxie Dunnam former president of Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, tells of an enduring a long lay-over in the Detroit airport. With lots of time of his hands, he began to walk and notice all the travel posters surrounding the gate areas. The purpose of such posters, of course, is to encourage people to want to fly a particular airline to visit the places on the posters.
For example, he said the one for New York City had the charming Lady of Liberty imposed over the Manhattan skyline. The one for Las Vegas had bright lights and a huge roulette wheel. The poster for Germany had the Bavarian snowcapped mountains in the background, with a beautiful tall steepled village church framed against the mountains.
He was weary, that day in the airport, he said, but he found himself reflecting: If the Church were to create a poster to invite folks to visit us, what would we want to put on it? What image would best attract people to the Church?
An interesting question, isn’t it? It’s something our ReThink Church Team thinks about every time we get together. Want to join us in helping to ReThink Church? See Jeanette Baker!
So, to this end of poster making, I propose we consider as our organizing principle the closing verses of the epistle of James heard earlier. I say this because it seems to me to be impossible to do an honest poster of church without including the three dynamics suggested by James: praying, celebrating, and caring. I’ll leave to the artistically inclined the actual poster. From me you’ll have to settle for brief word-pictures.
First, praying. James gets at this by pointing out the efficacy of praying for those who are sick. He writes: “Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them.” “The prayer of faith,” he goes on to say, “will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.”
Few things bind a church together like prayer, right? I’m sure many of you can attest to the power of a church praying for you. I certainly can. Sometimes “miracles” seem to happen. And sometimes they don’t. In fact, few things are sadder for pastors than to announce that “you all know we’ve been praying for the healing of so and so. Well, she died last night.”
But, we keep on praying, don’t we? We know that when we pray sometimes God says, yes; sometimes God says no; and sometimes God says wait. But, always, we believe, that God cares and responds – it’s just that God sometimes responds in ways that are impossible for us to discern in the moment.
But we keep on praying. And we find that even when we don’t get the seemingly best answer to our prayers, the church – the people in the pews right around us – are there for us, and help us get on with our lives and find new life and new hope and new possibilities. Which, when you look back on it, was in itself an answer to prayer.
As someone has said, “Prayer does something in us; prayer does something for us; prayer does something through us.” And as James said, “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.”
Which brings me to James’ second dynamic of faith: celebration. The church is a place of celebration. James says it this way: “Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.”
The early church was a singing church using the Book of Psalms as their hymnal. Methodists have always been known for their singing. Earlier we sang “Lord of the Dance.” We may not all be able to dance as we once could, but we dance in our minds because Jesus makes us happy and being happy makes us want to dance.
Although we often overlook it, our every day life offers all sorts of reasons for joy and celebration. But even when we are aware of being full of joy, many of us tend to control ourselves, lest any expression of joy slip out.
Life is so short and God is so good for us to be so up-tight with our feelings of joy. There are times when we just absolutely need to shout, to dance, to jump up and down if we have the ability. And, frankly, as hard as this will be for old guys like me, we have to figure out how to provide for this in our worship, too.
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord, writes the Psalmist. And then to emphasize, he says again, praise the Lord!
Tragically, we have bought into the cultural myth that anything really good at bringing us happiness must be purchased. But, too late in life, or sometimes never in life do we learn that purchased pleasures are fleeting at best. They come; they go.
The joy that comes from a close walk with God, however, is not dependent upon circumstances. The joy that Christ gives alone can be present in the darkest night as well as the brightest day.
And so it is no surprise that James reminds us that the church ought to be full of celebrating people.
Third, James says the church is a caring place made up of caring people. He writes, “Are any suffering? Are any sick? Call the elders. And confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another. The whole passage actually is a picture of a caring community.
When I was a district superintendent one of the responsibilities I took most seriously was to encourage small churches to keep on keeping on. As you well know, when money is tight, when attendance is down, it’s easy to lose heart.
So I’d often go into the charge conferences and everyone would have their heads down and I’d say, “you know, what you’ve got in this fellowship of your church, the richest people on earth would pay millions of dollars for to experience -- if they had any sense.”
And it’s true. The caring community of people in an average church is beyond compare. And it’s true right here!
If someone comes into our church I’d like to think we’ll do what we can to care for them. We’ll hold your hand, we’ll pray for you, we’ll give you a ride to wherever, we’ll visit you in the hospital or in prison, whatever need you have if we possibly can we’ll come together and meet your need.
Why? Because that’s who we are. Because through His Holy Spirit God has changed and is changing our DNA. So we almost can’t help but love you. That’s the church – a caring community, par excellence!
Now, this said, we must also admit that we could be a lot better about caring. All I’ve said about caring is true – if we know you and if you’re mostly like us. If you’re not mostly like us and if we don’t know you well, then it depends. Is this true?
For all our praying and for all our celebrating, if the world doesn’t see us putting caring for others at the very top of our to-do list , then they’re not going to be convinced that this so-called church of God makes any difference at all.
I say, world, but what about our neighbors on Summer street? If they don’t see us putting caring for others at the top of our to-do list, not at the bottom with our left-over time, then they’re not going to be convinced that the church is any better than the historical society across the street!
What can we do to be better at being a caring church? Well, some folks have an idea or two about how we can care better for our neighborhood and our city. You’ll be hearing more about this also.
Once upon a time, a little boy, after being tucked into bed for the night called out, “Mommy, I’m afraid to be alone in the dark. I want somebody to stay with me.”
His mother came into the room and said “Don’t be afraid. God is with you.”
The little boy thought about this and replied, “But I want somebody with skin on their face.”
Dear friends, Jesus was God with skin on his face. And now, you and I and all the other Christians in all the other churches around the world get to represent this God with the skin on our faces. Martin Luther, the great reformer, said we Christians are “little Christs.” And indeed this is so.
As it turns out, we’re the poster people for the church. If others don’t see Christ in us, then all the beautiful posters in the world won’t make a bit of difference, will they?
We’re the poster people. Praying, Celebrating, Caring.
Such is a privilege that is truly world-class!