Sun, Jan 23, 2005 - The Unified, Diversified Light of Christ

Isaiah 9:1-4
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=isaiah+9%3A1-4

1 Corinthians 1:10-18
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=1+cor+1%3A10-18

Matthew 4:12-23
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=matt+4%3A12-23

Well, today marks the Sunday mid-point of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. And so today, around the world, Christians of different denominations get together to put aside their differences and worship and pray in the name of the one Christ. We take to heart Paul’s words to us, that we heard this morning, "Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose." And it is vital that we do this. Lutherans, Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Presbyterians, United, Eastern Orthodox - the list of Christian denominations goes on, but we should all be heeding Paul’s words and Christ’s wish that we would be one church. We all should be striving to put aside our arguments and strife in order to be of the same mind and the same purpose - in order to follow Christ - to teach about his love and sacrifice, to proclaim the good news of the kingdom, to bind up the brokenhearted, and to proclaim liberty to the captive. It is a huge job that we are being called to do - bringing the kingdom of heaven near - and arguments over church practice, or which hymns to sing, or how we call our bishops, although insignificant to the work that needs doing, nevertheless manage to stand in the way of us doing it. And so often we find ourselves unable to carry out Christ’s work, hampered by our own quarrels - like those in the church of Corinth, about whether we belong to Paul or Apollos or Cephas; about whether we belong to the Lutheran church or the Catholics or the Assemblies of God; whether we belong to the fundamentalist camp or the liberal camp, about whether we believe in creation or evolution, women pastors or celibate priests, gay rights or "traditional" marriage, pro-life or pro-choice. When there are as many denominations as there are issues to quarrel over, we know that we have failed. We find ourselves unable to live up to the clear Biblical witness that is before us - that we are to be one church, "united in the same mind and the same purpose."

Except that we have another Biblical witness - one that seems to say the opposite. We have stories in the Bible that lead us to believe that, actually, diversity and a multiplicity of choices and opinions are a rich part of our Christian heritage. The most important story we have, one that shows us clearly that God blesses diversity, comes from the Book of Acts. It’s a story we usually hear at Pentecost, but I think it’s appropriate today. Let me read it to you.

"When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem devout Jews of every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in their own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in our own native language? Par'thians and Medes and E'lamites and residents of Mesopota'mia, Judea and Cappado'cia, Pontus and Asia, Phryg'ia and Pamphyl'ia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyre'ne, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." [Acts 2:1-11]

Here we have, in one of the most important moments in the history of the Christian church, a story of the Holy Spirit blessing the disciples with the gift of tongues so that they can speak in the languages of their hearers. It would have been easy enough for the Holy Spirit to make it so that the crowds listening could all understand Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the disciples, but instead God chose to value the uniqueness and diversity of all gathered there by doing it the other way around. Now the sound of all these different languages probably wasn’t pretty - it probably sounded like the buses and subways during rush hour - with hundreds of conversations taking place, all in different languages. No unity or one tongue here.

So, what do we do with these two opposing Biblical strands - one for unity and one for diversity? Well, I want to propose that the unity to which we are called, the unity of the Body of Christ, the Christian church, is not a unity where everything is homogeneous and everybody is identical. I believe that there is room for our differences in the vast family of God. After all, within the Christian tradition, even within this congregation, I’ll bet, there are a wide array of beliefs that we as Christians have. With opinions on everything from giving Communion to infants, to the literalness of Scripture, to same-sex marriage, to baptismal practices, to the Virgin birth, to the gender of God, to what it means that Jesus is Emmanuel, not one of us has the exact same belief as any other Christian. And yet we are all Christian - we are all part of the one Body. There is room for our diversity, and I would even go so far as to say that there is need for our diversity.

How is this possible? Well, if you were listening to the children’s message, you might be able to tell where I’m going. In the children’s message I talked about light. For those of who you who missed it, I showed the kids, with a prism, how white light is actually made up of a rainbow of colours. What we think of as pure light is actually light made up of red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and violet light. What I wasn’t able to show them, because I’m not a science teacher, was that if one of those colours is missing, the light changes. It’s no longer white. Depending on the missing colour, it can be magenta, or yellow, or cyan, or just plain muddy-looking. But it’s not white, it’s not pure.

The church of Christ is like that light - indeed, we are still in the season of Epiphany, when we speak so frequently of Christ as the light that has come into the world. And like light, this Body of Christ needs the range of colourful opinions and beliefs that exist in order to shine forth purely. If we were all Catholics, the church would be missing the colour that women and married clergy bring. If we were all Anglicans, the church would be missing the colour that informal worship services bring. If we were all Baptists, the church would be missing the colour that infant baptism brings. If we were all Lutherans, the church would be perfect. No, I’m kidding. If we were all Lutherans, the church would be missing the colour that a deep sense of responsibility for one’s owns actions brings. I could go on, but you get the idea. All the colours of the rainbow are necessary to have white light. And it may be that all the colours of faith are necessary to have the white light of Christ shine forth.

You see, I don’t think that any one Christian has a monopoly on God’s truth. God is so vast and so complex that it’s simply not possible for one single individual to know the mind of God. But together, with the complexity of our combined beliefs, we come closer to the complexity of God. I read a column by a Lutheran writer, wherein he claimed that when it came to a particular issue, either God was on his side, or God was on his opponent’s side, but it couldn’t be both. But I think, in that case, he was wrong. The church has done some of its best work when we have worked together with people we don’t agree with, or with people who share a different understanding of faith than we do. The United Church continues to remind us that pure grace and forgiveness is not enough when it comes to issues of justice - people must actually change. The Eastern Orthodox churches remind us that tradition and centuries-old worship services bring us deeper in touch with our roots. The non-denominational churches remind us that God comes to whom God wills, and that God doesn’t give two figs about whether they’re a main-line denomination or not. Diversity within the family of God brings us closer to the one God, to the truth of Christ.

Jesus called his disciples from various walks of life, all with different opinions about God. But in their following him, as Simon and James in our reading did, they became united. They didn’t always agree on everything, but they walked together on the path Christ lay before them. And the same is true for us. Us contemporary Christians don’t always agree on everything, either, even within this congregation. But we do walk together on the path Christ has laid before us, and the Holy Spirit uses all of us to bring the kingdom of heaven closer. While it’s true that sometimes our disagreements get in the way of that, it’s also true that sometimes they help us to see Christ more clearly, they help his light to shine more brightly. Like the rainbow of colours combine to make a white light, our rainbow of denominations combine to make the church of Christ, the united Body, shine forth into the darkness of the world, increasing its joy.
Now it doesn’t make sense for me to have the last word in this sermon, since I’m only one voice - I’m only one colour of the rainbow. So let’s all sing together, with all of our different colours, the words of our Gospel hymn, number 755 in the blue hymnal.

We all are one in mission; we all are one in call,
our varied gifts united by Christ, the Lord of all.
A single great commission compels us from above
to plan and work together that all may know Christ’s love.

We all are called to service, to witness in God’s name.
Our ministries are diff’rent; our purpose is the same:
to touch the lives of others with God’s surprising grace,
so ev’ry folk and nation may feel God’s warm embrace.

Now let us be united, and let our song be heard.
Now let us be a vessel for God’s redeeming Word.
We all are one in mission; we all are one in call,
our varied gifts united by Christ, the Lord of all.

With One Voice, 755

Sun, January 16, 2005 - The Fellowship of Christ

Isaiah 49:1-7
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=isaiah+49%3A1-7

1 Corinthians 1:1-9
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=1+cor+1%3A1-9

John 1:29-42
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=john+1%3A29-42

In the movie, the Fellowship of the Ring, taken from the book by J.R.R. Tolkien, there is a scene where a young, only slightly adventurous hobbit, named Frodo is called to carry a weapon of destruction into the heart of evil to destroy it in order to save the world. It is a pivotal moment in the movie, and a touching one, because Frodo neither wants to nor is really even capable of carrying out such a task. His idea of achieving something big is to get the weapon out of his home village, across the land, and into the home of the elves, so that they can destroy it. Instead, he is called to go far beyond himself, far beyond any adventure he might have wished to have had, straight into the mouth of hell itself. It is, as Gandalf his friend describes it, a fool’s errand. It is dangerous, full of peril, and if Frodo fails, which he is almost certain to do, the whole world will be taken over by evil and destroyed.

Of course, since this movie and book are only the first of three, you can guess what Frodo does. He accepts the call and goes on a quest to destroy the weapon - a ring - and save the world. However, Frodo is not called to go on this journey alone. Instead, he is given eight other companions to help him, and these companions - this "fellowship of the ring" - help Frodo in such a way that he is actually able to destroy the ring and save the world.

But this fellowship is sometimes a difficult thing. It begins full of hostilities. The elf and the dwarf hate each other. One of the men is highly suspicious of the other and actually attacks Frodo at one point to gain control of the ring. Two of Frodo’s friends are just along for the ride and cause terrible things to happen because of their foolishness, but despite all of this, without them, without the fellowship’s weakness and mistakes and failures, without this flawed fellowship, Frodo would not have been able to save the world. Without them he would have failed, and died, but with this community, through the support and strength of this fellowship, he does, indeed, save the world.

Today’s readings are, believe it or not, about fellowship and being called by God to do great things in order to make the world a better place. These things aren’t easy, they’re maybe not even things that we would want to do, but we are called to do them none the less. And we are given a fellowship to help us.

So, to start, the calling. What are we called to do with our lives? Well, we’re going to leave J.R.R. Tolkien now, and go back to the Bible. And in our reading this morning, we hear the author of Isaiah begin by telling his, or her, listeners that they’re not called to "raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel." In other words, they’re not called to the mighty task of restoring Israel after its invasion by the Babylonians, they’re not called to bring back all of God’s lost Hebrew children. That task is, actually, too... well... small for them. It’s not too big, although it is a huge task. It’s actually too small, too light a thing. Instead, God wants Isaiah’s listeners to be a "light to the nations, that [the Lord’s] salvation may reach to the end of the earth." They are called to the enormous task of restoring not Israel but the whole world. They are called not to bring back God’s Hebrew children but to go out to all of God’s children wherever they are, no matter where they come from, no matter who they worship. It is a giant task, one that seems pretty much impossible to carry out, and yet that seems to be what God wants. And that seems to be what God is calling us to do, as well.

We are called not to be a light of God only in our homes and among our friends but to be a light to the entire world, to every single person we come across, in every single minute of our day, whether we want to or not, whether we feel like it or not. We are called to be living witnesses to the light of God, not just when we walk out of church and feel good about the world, not just when the sun is shining and the snow is melting, not just when people are nice to us, but when we’re tired, when we’re angry, when it’s thirty minutes to the end of work and we’ve just learned we have to work overtime. We’re called to shine forth the light and love of Christ in the world when we’re in pain, when we’re suffering, when people hate us. This is no walk through the meadow we’re called to. Like the hobbit, Frodo, who wasn’t called just to bring the ring to Rivendell, the home of the elves, a huge task in and of itself, but to bring it all the way to Mount Doom, to the heart of evil, we are called to something much, much bigger than ourselves, to something that seems impossible, to bring Christ’s light and love to the end of the world, to the heart of other people’s darkness. A fool’s errand.

But God does not call us to carry out this task alone. We wouldn’t be able to do it alone. Without the fellowship to support him as he grew weak, to remind him of the reason for taking on this difficult quest, to draw fire for him, to remove obstacles from his way, Frodo would never have been able to fulfill his mission. And the same is true for us. Without a similar fellowship, we, too, would be completely unable to carry out God’s call.

But, lucky for us and lucky for Frodo, that is not how we are meant to do it. Instead, we are given companions, to help us on our way. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, says as much when he says, "God is faithful; by God you were called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." God has created a fellowship for us, made up of other Christians and, most importantly, of Jesus Christ. And this is what is going to help us. You see, Paul tells us that through Christ, we have been given the grace of God, we have been "enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind. . . so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift." Because we are brought into fellowship with Christ, through baptism, we have all the tools we need to take on this impossible call. We have been given patience, endurance, love, and the ability to forgive others. We are made able to be this tremendous light to the nations, to bring the Lord’s salvation to the end of the earth. But we must do it in fellowship with one another. Otherwise we will fail.

A year ago this Sunday, we as a congregation embarked on a year-long process of determining where God is calling us. And after much thoughtful and prayerful consideration, you, the congregation, have highlighted six areas of growth that are going to help us to accept God’s call. The first one, which you have in this month’s newsletter, is relevant to today. It says, we will use our gift of hospitality to strengthen this community by getting to know better the people whom God has sent into the life of this congregation. This statement is about fellowship. It’s about walking together to help each other be a light to the nations. And through the coming months, we will be working to make this statement a reality. We will be looking at various ways to get to know one another better, to enter into fellowship with one another.

Now fellowships aren’t always comfortable. Just because people are companions, committed to helping each other achieve the impossible, just because they are a fellowship, doesn’t mean that everyone will get along. We may find, in getting to know one another, that we don’t always really like someone else, or agree with them. We may want to hide certain things about ourselves, or put up walls to prevent others from seeing our sins.

But the fact remains that without fellowship, we have no hope of even coming close to fulfilling God’s call to us. The gifts we are given through Christ are given to us as a group, to use as a group. And so we risk certain things for the sake of God’s call and for the sake of the fellowship. We risk our privacy. When we enter into fellowship with Christ and with one another, we risk people really knowing who we are - what our failures are, our weaknesses, our deep-dark secrets. We risk our independence. When we commit to being companions, we can no longer put ourselves first, doing what we want when we want. We have to put the well-being of the fellowship, and its goals, first. And we risk intimacy - when we become part of a community dedicated to answering a common call, we risk actually getting to know and love the people around us. We become vulnerable to sharing in their pain and suffering. We risk a lot when we enter into fellowship with Christ and with one another in order to answer God’s call.

But we can do it because Christ entered into fellowship with us first. Christ risked loving us, and being known to us, and entering intimately into our pain and suffering in order to be in fellowship with us, and then, knowing more about who we are than even we ourselves, knowing our failures and weaknesses and mistakes, Christ gave us his strength to accomplish the task God has set us to. "My God has become my strength," says the writer of Isaiah. "The testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you," says Paul. "He will also strengthen you to the end." We are not called to do what Christ has not already done for us. We are not, in fact, called to do the impossible.

Frodo, in the pivotal moment in the movie when he accepts the call laid before him, says, "I will take the ring, though I do not know the way." We are called to say the same thing to God - to accept the call to carry God’s light to all corners of the world, though we do not know what will come. But, like Frodo, we are given a fellowship, eternally bound by the love of Christ, and so we cannot fail. So, I encourage you, as you leave this place and go out into the world, to carry the light of Christ with you, to the end of the earth, knowing that you are supported and strengthened in your work by the people around you, and by Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God. Amen.