September 14, 2014
Scriptures: Exodus 18:8-11a, 13-15, 17a, 19, 21-23; Acts 9:1-6
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Vermont Public Radio just concluded one of their fund-raising drives. Over the span of this drive I noticed something. They pitched VPR in a lot of different ways, depending on who they were appealing to. First of all, they entered into a partnership with the Vermont Food Bank and Hannaford’s Supermarkets.. Every pledge that was made to VPR resulted in Hannaford’s donating 10 meals to the Vermont Food Bank. VPR appealed to people who wanted to see their pledge accomplish more than just the perpetuation of public radio. Vermont Public Radio – it’s not just about radio. It’s about feeding the hungry.
Sometimes they played clips from business people whose organizations are sponsors of some portion of the programming, and these people always talk about how good VPR is for their business. The message: Support VPR and improve and increase your business. They excitedly lifted up names of people who had called in from Montreal with a pledge. Clearly VPR wants to grow its share of the Canadian radio listener market.
They said if you listened to Vermont Public Radio that meant you were a “life-long learner”, clearly appealing to educators and folks for whom education is important. Interested in technology? Listen to “Click”. Do you like indepth newsy kinds of talk shows? Listen to On Point. Do you just want the news? Morning Edition and All Things Considered are for you. Is the absurd bordering on the macabre more your style? This American Life has that genre covered. If you are obsessed with the weather, VPR has the “Eye on the Sky” weather report ad nauseum throughout the day with meteorologists Mark Breen, Steve Moleski and Lawrence Hayes piping in several times every hour. In other words, whoever you are, whatever your interests, VPR is for you. However you define “radio”, VPR is there.
The same could be said for the church. Before we address the question: Why Church? we have to ask which church? Whose church?
Theologian Jürgen Moltmann lifts up any number of ways to think of “church”. There is the church that exists within specific cultures. The Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t look much like Puritan New England Congregationalism. We can think of the church in sociological terms. We can discuss church in terms of the kind of polity or bureaucracy that governs it. We can think of the church in terms of specific historical ages. We can think of “church” in terms of comparative religion.
What about particular spheres of influence, wonders Moltmann. How does today’s “New Monasticism” compare with the Social Gospel Church of the 1960’s? For those who were with us this summer for our August “Spiritual Classics” series we might ask: How does Dorothy Day’s church compare to that of Thomas Aquinas?
Then, Moltmann asks it this way: How is any description of “church” influenced by the person or persons doing the 
describing? Would an Episcopal bishop describe the church differently from an Amish elder? In the Methodist system, would a district superintendent’s description be different from that of a pastor of a local church? Would the description of “church” offered up by the clergy vary greatly from that of a lay person? Would a seminary professor in ecclesiology describe the church differently from a local church lay leader? How is the description influenced by the particular interests of the one doing the describing?
Moltmann answers this series of questions this way: Christ, he writes, is his church’s foundation, its power and its hope…It is only where Christ alone rules, and the church listens to his voice only, that the church arrives at its truth and becomes free and a liberating power in the world.[1]
With that said, we are going to respond to the question Why Church? in three ways.
Why Church? First – because we need something outside of ourselves to use as a plumbline when it comes to measuring and understanding human identity and purpose.
The Burlington Area Ministerial Association met this past Thursday. We were asked by our convener to take a moment and share where we were at spiritually and emotionally as we gathered on the thirteenth anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001. With an edge in her voice Sister Arlene said:”I am concerned. I am concerned for our world. If we don’t soon begin to look at someone greater than ourselves for guidance I don’t know where we will end up.”
Why Church? Second – because the something greater than ourselves is actually a “Someone”. When Saul of Tarsus was arresting Christians he assumed he was dismantling a new, upstart religious organization that was as heretical theologically even as it was becoming increasingly popular. The realization that stopped him in his tracks was this notion that he wasn’t persecuting an organization; he was dismembering a body – what he would come to call the “body of Christ”.[2]
This is the mystery of the church – that Christ is the cornerstone.[3] That Christ is the “head”.[4] And that Christ is the body – Paul writes: “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.”
This is why some people find it upsetting when there are national flags flying in Christian sanctuaries. With nothing but gratitude for the hard-won freedoms so many of us enjoy in this country, still we realize that this nation of ours was very late coming to the game. Long before there was a “United States”, and long after it has faded into the footnotes of history, Christ will be alive. Christ is the foundation upon which we build our hopes for justice, for peace, for righteousness and for the fulfillment of the promise that the day is coming – it is now here – when everyone will have a place at the table of this earth’s blessings.
When the church is as it should be people are able to draw close to Jesus, to hear his voice, to sense his presence, to discover their purpose.
Saul of Tarsus learned that when he persecuted the “Church” he was striking at the heart of Eternity. While he could not kill what had already been resurrected, he could inflict hurt and harm on the will, work and ways of the God he longed to serve. Saul’s conversion was fully and completely to Jesus Christ as evidenced by his passion for the body of Christ – the Church.
Why Church? Third – and finally – Leadership is developed here. Life’s calling and vocation are discerned here. It is when we commit to a community that we are unwilling to leave even when things don’t go our way – that’s when humility grows in our soul. That’s when the true price of love is learned and paid. That’s when the message of Jesus’ forgiveness – not only of our friends, but our enemies, too – comes home to take root in our hearts.
Moses may have been born with certain traits that lent themselves to his mission; but it was in the trenches of committed community life that he learned both his limitations and his full potential. Why Church? Because in spite of all the messages our culture tries to convince us of to the contrary, we can not honestly know our limits or fully reach our God-given potential in isolation.
I began to take piano lessons when I was 6 years old. My first public performance was in the Third Grade. It was a school event and I was absolutely terrified. As I continued to take lessons my fear of performing only intensified. When I began high school I was encouraged to enter competitions – and I was always a wreck doing it. My hands would shake; my forehead would perspire.
We were at church one Sunday when I was a sophomore in high school. The priest made an announcement from the altar that the parish was looking for someone to play the organ on Sundays and during the week at the weekday liturgies. When the service was over I told my father to wait just a moment because I wanted to speak to the priest. For years my Dad had urged me, cajoled me, tried to bribe me into playing the piano for people when they would come to the house. He pushed me when it came to the competitions my teachers wanted me to enter. And always I resisted. I explained to him that I just wasn’t a “performer”. So you can imagine Dad’s shock when he asked me what I needed to speak to the priest about and I told him I was going to volunteer to play the organ for church.
“You are going to do what,” he asked in amazement. Church – Christ the King Church – and this church – is a place where I was allowed to develop gifts I had, and to rediscover a vocation I had forgotten – a call to pastoral ministry that had laid dormant.
Why Church? Because we need Someone greater than ourselves in order to know who we truly are. Because we need the body of Christ – mystically in the Eucharist and practically through committed relationships if we are to become who God intends us to be.
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[1] Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit. Published by Harper & Row Publishers Inc., 10 east 53rd Street, New york, NY 10022. © 1977. Page 5.
[2] I Corinthians 12:27.
[3] Ephesians 2:20.
[4] Colossians 1:18.
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