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United Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors Weekly Sermon |
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(Pastor
Golden was out-of-town on Oct. 11 and there were no sermon notes from our
guest speaker) “A High Standard” October
18 “It was the best of times, and
it was the worst of times. It was the
age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness.
It was the epoch of belief; it was the epoch of incredulity. It was the season of Light; it was the
season of Darkness. It was the spring
of hope; it was the winter of despair.
We had everything before us, we had nothing before us. We were all going directly to Heaven; we
were all going directly the other way.” These famous
lines, which open Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, hint at the
central tension between love and family, and on the other hand, oppression
and hatred. The story is set around
the year of 1775, and depicts the turbulent lives of people living in Paris
and London. One city is in the midst
of recovering from a bloody revolution, and the other is living in the fear
of the English crown, doing everything it can to prevent the same from
happening there. The novel is set
in a time of change, where familiar ways have been called into question;
where authority struggles to maintain control in an uncertain environment,
and where people seek definition and meaning as the familiar systems and
structures wane under the pressures of new ideas. The background
of this tale is not that uncommon to us.
We also are living in a time where life is being redefined. Long-standing values are being challenged,
and people are seeking new direction for their lives. We have witnessed
changes in our economy; the lows, and the highs, where benefits are delayed,
and changes in our security, as the cost of war and civil protection,
continue to grow; and changes in the very definition of what an acceptable
household should be. There is nowhere
that has not been affected by these changes.
Not even the church! I have recently
returned from a leadership conference near Kansas City. The conference was held at the Church of
the Resurrection, which is the third, if not the largest, United Methodist
Church. The church has a weekend
worship attendance of about fifteen thousand, with sixteen worship services
on their four campuses. The church was
started in nineteen-ninety with four members and grew to five thousand in
worship attendance by nineteen-ninety-eight.
In comparison, our church is only five years older. The Church of the Resurrection has, in its
nineteen years of existence, been an inspiration for change and vital
discipleship. The congregation spans a
variety of income levels, and ages, from infants, to senior citizens. In all that time, they have maintained a
single focus: “To build a community where
non-religious, and nominally religious people, become
deeply committed Christians.” It is quite
amazing how much change has happened in the eight years since I last visited
the area. I was quite surprised at the
changes that had been made at the seminary I attended. Buildings had been renovated and redesigned
for the needs of younger generations.
The coursework and programs were being offered to youth. I also witnessed these changes in the
families of the church I had served.
The youth I had nurtured grew up, and some had started families of
their own. And the kids that were too
young to remember me are now teenagers. I had been the youth director at
Trinity United Methodist Church.
Trinity had just celebrated its ninetieth birthday the week before my
arrival. Trinity was created from
three struggling congregations, back in the day. When I worked
there the church was experiencing new life.
It had opened its doors to welcome all people, regardless of
definition. In fact, it became known
throughout the city as a church that would accept all people. That reputation
drew in all sorts of folks: many educators from the colleges, seminar staff,
young people and old, rich and poor.
There were various races and ethnicities; and same-sex couples. Trinity
prided itself as being “A joyful people daring to live out God’s inclusive
vision of justice, righteousness, and reconciliation in the midtown of Kansas
City.” And they lived up to this call,
serving food to the poor twice a week; offering a clothing bank, and an
annual mission trip to South America.
The organist played inspiring music and there was a jazz band. Social justice was their strength. Our scripture
reading is from the Letter to the Hebrews, Chapter Five, and starting with
verse one. In today’s reading, we hear
of Jesus being described as a priest without compare. There is no priest; there was no priest who
could ever come close to the witness of Jesus. The letter depicts Jesus as a
high priest; a high priest that is like other priest in his selection by God,
his vulnerability, and his function.
He is a priest of the people.
In being like them he can deal gently with the ignorant and the
wayward. Jesus is regarded for his
weakness, and his ability to suffer. Jesus knows
us. He is able to relate to us, and is
able to intercede on our behalf. Being
God’s son does not exempt him from being obedient to God. He approaches the priesthood, with reverent
submission. Jesus worships. He is devout, and can live in fear of God,
just like us all of us. And since he
is like us all, he sets a high example for us to follow. We look toward
the life of Jesus Christ as our high standard for faith. We look toward Jesus example of life, and
curb our sinfulness. And as ministers of
the gospel, we accept our responsibility to intercede in the lives of others,
helping them to see God’s ways, and responding appropriately. And it was the
worst of times. In the eight years
since my departure from Kansas City both of the churches have experienced
change. Both churches, Trinity and the
Church of the Resurrection, have experienced some let downs. I have always
been encouraged by Trinity’s newsletters, in how they had expanded their
ministry into the lives of their neighborhood. How they had engaged in great building
projects such as adding an elevator, and the refinishing of the stained glass
windows. But I was quite
surprised to hear of what had not
been reported in the newsletter; that the artistic organ music is now a bone
of contention, and that the jazz band is no more. The choir is only a third of the size I
remembered, and that the people that had felt accepted have drifted to other
churches in the suburbs. The various adult study groups have dwindled to one,
and there is no Sunday school for the children and the youth, and that of all
of the youth that I had nurtured none of them are attending any church. Most distressing of all was hearing that a
retired pastor had had an affair with one of the parents. When I attended worship services last
Sunday, the worship attendance was close to our own. The Church of
the Resurrection was not the same either.
The large sanctuary, which I knew eight years ago, had been
replaced. It was the size of a toy, as
compared to their intermediate, “intermediate”, worship center today. The church had retained its gigantic choir,
but had to encourage livelier worship experiences to meet the needs of
younger generations. This church also
experienced a loss when one of its pastors had an affair with a coworker. This fairly
conservative church found that they were not reaching the younger inhabitants
of their community, and they realized that this new generation was very
hostile to a Christianity of exclusion, which treated people differently. In an attempt to reach out to those younger
people, the pastor gave a message that encouraged the church to move more
toward inclusion. The result was that
eight-hundred, eight-hundred people left the church; probably about
ten-percent of the worship attendees. Now for you all
to do something in that magnitude, every man, woman, and child would need to
leave our church about sixteen times. That church has
recognized this changing age dynamic across the nation; where the United
Methodist Women will probably cease to exist in fourteen years. I was surprised to hear of the high goals
and standards that church had set for itself.
Every leader, paid and volunteer is expected to tithe in response to
God’s generosity in their lives. The
church has set the goal to have one-third of its leadership between the ages
of eighteen and thirty-five by the year two-thousand and eleven, and they
have instigated a program with their third-graders to identify potential
future pastors. They have a plan to
nurture those third-graders all the way to adulthood, where they can explore
a call into the ordained ministry. As
an example of this church’s high standard, I have provided you a copy of
their volunteer leader covenant. Would
their standard be something that you could live up to? Two churches,
two destinies. Each responds to Jesus
in a different way. Each of us is also
in the need of forgiveness, needing Christ’s forgiveness. May we approach our high priest with the
commitment to live by God’s ways. In the Name, of
God the Creator, Christ the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit that sustains our
lives, Amen. Pastor Golden
Neal |
