Intro
I spent a lot of time last week
investigating the history of this congregation and in so doing was lead to
consider the early part of my connection.
I remember preaching at Westminster Presbyterian on a Sunday morning in
the Spring of 2003 so that the nominating committee might get a sense of my
style and theology. Later that afternoon
they invited me over here to this church building to get a sense of my
personality. We had a nice discussion in
the parlor and then they asked if I would like a tour of the church. I remember following the group down the hall
as they laid out what they had done and hoped to do with the physical
space. I remember being impressed with
some of the little decorative details like balloons in the nursery. This reflected a passion and a hope that we
had something to offer children. We
descended the stairs and entered the area of the food and clothing bank where I
was once again impressed by the way space that was once used for Sunday School
classes had been re-formed into a space to offer food to the hungry and clothes
to the naked. I saw the spark of a
people who were beginning to turn their attention outward, to the community. I remember that I asked questions about the
origin of the food and clothing bank, how many people come and how they get
their food and clothes. When I asked
questions of details and dates, the group easily answered my inquiries. But then I tossed a little tougher one their
way.
I
asked, “Why do you have this food and
clothing bank?” There was a pause
and then the first response made me laugh.
One of the members boldly chimed, “Because
the Presbytery told us we needed a ministry to the community.” We laughed at this until someone else backed
up this honest response with the statement, “That’s
where we started but it has become a way for people from the community to enter
our church, and we hope that some might even start coming to worship.” The group nodded in agreement at this
intelligent response and perhaps they also hoped that this might allow us to
move on with the church tour, but then I had to toss another tough one their
way.
Once
again I asked, “Why…why do you want them
to come to church?” I could see the
wheels turning in their heads and I began to wonder if I had gone too far in my
questioning. Perhaps they were beginning
to question me as a candidate. What kind
of minister is this guy if he asks questions like “Why do we want people to
come to church? Didn’t he go to
seminary?” And so as the silence
extended and approached the point of claiming that I was just kidding one of
the members, who had been relatively quiet until this point exclaimed, “Well, we want them to have what we have.”
We
want them to have what we have. Once
again, the group nodded in agreement.
She had given words to their feelings.
We want the people who come through these doors to not only get food and
clothing but to receive what we have within
us. We want them to come through the
doors on Sunday because we want them to have what we have between us. We want people
to have what we have. This was a good
answer and yet…it lead to one more question.
This
beautiful response led to one more question that I wisely restrained myself
from asking, for it is this question which has been grist for the mill and
fodder for my thoughts since I have been here.
The question I did not ask then but will share with you now was simply, “What is the what?” When we say we want people to have what
we have, it only seems fair that we should explore the question, “What do we
have?” What, brothers and sisters, is
the ‘what’ that we have?
‘That’
We are not alone in this
question. Communities from the beginning
of time have been pushed to ask questions about what draws and holds them
together. Churches, Elks Lodges, book
clubs, the Jr. League, garden clubs, boy scouts and on and on and on have in
some way at various times asked the question, “What is the what that we have?” If this is true, then it should come as no
surprise that our spiritual ancestors struggled with this question almost 2000
years ago.
Bear with me for a few moments as I
attempt to give you a brief tour of the scenario. It is the year 90. You are living in the costal metropolis of Ephesus, where you work and labor under the dominion of
the Roman Empire. Ephesus
is a booming city with lots of jobs, social life and influence. People have been flocking to it for years in
hopes of a better life. In the midst of
the day to day struggle you have found a place for your own hope. Some of the people who came to Ephesus were from Judea where Jerusalem is.
These people arrived decades ago with a strange message. They arrived with a story about God. The story was about the God of the Jews whose
name was not even spoken, but ironically enough this God became human in the
person of a man named Yeshua or in our common tongue, Jesus. Jesus, they claimed, had come into the world
to rescue the world from death. The
evidence of his love was found in
story of his journey to the cross and the evidence of his power was found in the story of Jesus’ resurrection from the
grave. Because, these people claimed,
Jesus had been raised from the dead, so shall those who follow him. These people shared this story with anyone
who would listen and before too long they had many little communities who met
in houses on the 1st day of the week to worship this risen Jesus.
All seemed well for a while. The people met in the homes of those who were
wealthy enough to have the space. They
sang psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
They read the words of the Hebrew prophets and the law. They read accounts of Jesus’ life which they
called the gospels. They prayed together
and they shared a meal of wine and bread.
Even though these groups met in different homes throughout the city,
they felt connected with one another.
They shared the belief and relationship with the same risen Lord. They were, as the apostle Paul would say, ‘of
one mind.’ Unfortunately, this did not
last very long. Before too long disagreements
emerged over what it meant to believe in this risen Lord. And as disagreements often do, it led to some
of the members leaving the community and forming their own communities. Just what, you may ask, would lead to such a
consequence? It was a disagreement over
‘what the what was.’
This other group we now call the
‘gnostics’ which simply means ‘knowledge.’
This other group believed that life came mostly through a secret
knowledge and that once you got that knowledge then your body and even this
world didn’t really matter. For the
Gnostics, the answer to the question, “What is the what that we have?” was
clearly, knowledge. The gospel of the
Gnostic claimed that if you embrace our community then you will receive a
knowledge that allows you to completely transcend this dirty physical existence
and enter a pure, enlightened spiritual existence where the physical does not
matter. The Gnostics preached this
gospel within the house churches and as the tension mounted some of them
decided it was time for them to leave.
Left
in the wake of this break in the union were the orthodox Christians. They were left confused, bewildered,
frustrated and perhaps even doubtful of their belief. Perhaps they were at a place where they too
were wondering, “What is the what that we have?” Far away in some other place
there was an old pastor of these house churches who heard about the situation
in Ephesus. He heard that the people were confused,
bewildered, frustrated and increasing in doubt.
He knew about the secession of the Gnostics and the confusion they left
in their departure and this old pastor felt compelled to sit down and write a
little letter to these struggling congregations. And now I invite you to listen for the Word
of Life.
[1 John 1:1 – 4]
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
4 We write this to make our joy complete.
4 We write this to make our joy complete.
“What” – The Word of Life
O h=n
avpV avrch/j , O is a pronoun and in our passage it
is rightly translated as ‘that.’ But, in
other places it may mean ‘who...which...or even WHAT.’ Right from the start we hear John the elder
dealing with the ‘what.’ What was from
the beginning… what we heard…what we saw…what we looked upon and touched. I want to stop John and ask, “What is this
what?” And then, without giving the
whole answer, he gives an answer, ‘the what is the Word of Life.’
The word of life, what is this? What does this mean? The elder wants to be clear that this ‘what’
was not an imagined spirit. They heard
the what…saw the what…and even like Thomas touched the what and now we proclaim
this what to you as life…eternal life.
What is life? Yes, it is a board game. It is also a cereal. Biologically it is determined by whether
one’s heart is beating or not. But it’s
more than that, is it not? When faced
with death in the movie Braveheart William Wallace replies, “Everyman dies, but
not every person really lives.” Life is
more than just inhaling and exhaling is it not?
(Deut. 30:19-20)
Is life happiness? Some would say yes, but I think this falls
far short. Have you ever heard of the
happiness paradox. In most instances,
when a person sets a goal; to lose weight, to get a driver’s license, to
improve their grades, the goal increases the chances of attaining it. Just the opposite is true in regards to
happiness. People who make happiness
their goal are less likely to achieve it.
No, life is more, deeper and richer than this.
So what is life? Life, real life, true life is living as God
desires. The more we share God’s
desires, the more we live. The more we
reject God’s desires, the less we live.
I realize this answer is a bit vague, but so in a sense is life. It is like the senator who was asked to
describe pornography he said, “I can’t define it but I know it when I see
it.” Is life like this? We can’t define it, but we know it when we
see it. Lets read what John has to say
about that?
The Fellowship and Joy
According to John, life comes
through more than just a word heard, it takes much more than that. “We
proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have
fellowship with us. And our fellowship
is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ…” Fellowship… Koinonia is the Greek word and it
simply means sharing with one another. It is used in various places throughout
scripture and carries a variety of meanings.
In Romans, Paul speaks of sharing resources. In Corinthians, Paul speaks of sharing in the
body and blood of Jesus. And in Acts,
Luke talks about sharing relationships with each other. Koinonia
is about sharing relationships, sharing pain and joy, and sharing resources. In Koinonia we give and receive from one
another. In Koinonia, we give and
receive from God.
I
recently heard Earl Palmer talk about Howard Munger, the man who wrote “My
heart, Christ’s home.” In this book Rev.
Munger encourages us to consider that life comes through personal relationship
with Jesus. You have likely heard
this. I heard throughout my youth and
early adulthood. And in fact, I agree with
it. No relationship has meant more to me
than the one I have with Jesus. However,
the words of John make me think that we should add one word to Rev. Munger’s
invitation. Life comes through a personal and communal relationship with Jesus
What we find here from the start is
that this old distant pastor claims that life, the word of life has something,
perhaps everything to do with how we share with one another and how we share
with God. Unlike the Gnostics who claim
that life comes through secret knowledge, the elder reminds the readers, that
life comes through God and through one another.
Does any of this sound
familiar? I hope so. A couple of years ago we formulated our
‘what’ (otherwise known as a mission statement) in the following way. MPPC
exists to glorify God by being a community (fellowship/koinonia) of Jesus so
rich, deep and faithful that it is worth sharing with others. I really like this mission statement as it
seems to echo the words of this old pastor who claimed that he proclaimed the
word of life to the people ‘so that they
might have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and his Son
Jesus Christ.” The old pastor had
community with God and others, it was life giving community, it was community
worth sharing. .
A return to the what
I can’t help but hear these words
and think of the response one of you gave to my question, “Why do we want
others to come to church?” The answer
wasn’t ‘because we need more people to keep the doors open.’ It wasn’t ‘because I’m tired of doing the
work and want others to do it.’ And the
answer wasn’t ‘so that they can help us meet the budget.’ No, this person said what the old pastor said
to these early Christians. She said, “We
want them to have what we have.”
Do we still want that? Do we want others to have what we have? I invite you to ponder that question for a
moment. (Pause) Now, I’m not a mind reader, but my guess is
that you have two answers to that question.
Knowing you all, I am guessing that your first answer is ‘yes, I do want
others to have what we have.’ The joy
expressed last Sunday is clear evidence of your desire of sharing what we have
with others.
But then, after getting past that
question, I would guess the next thought that entered your mind was something
like, “Now, what is it we have again?”
Am I right? I could take this as
the sign of a poor sermon, but just the opposite. I’ve spent 9 years and hundreds of ways
trying to remind us ‘what the what is.’
We never fully ‘get it.’
To whom shall we go?
Some
people have and others will grow frustrated with that and they will leave and
search for life in other places. This
reminds me of an episode in the gospel of John.
After feeding the 5,000, many people began to follow Jesus. But then, Jesus stopped to explain how he was
the bread of life. Being the ‘bread of
life’ didn’t mean they’d get free bread for the rest of their lives most of the
people quit following Jesus. For them,
bread meant life and if Jesus wasn’t going to provide that bread, then they’d
look somewhere else. When the crowds had
gone away, there were a few who remained.
Jesus looked at them and asked, “You
do not want to leave too, do you?”
And Peter replied, “Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life.” (John 6:68)
The way out
Everyone
is looking for life. Like children
looking for Easter eggs we search under bushes and inside trees. We look in malls, in television tubes, in
bottles, in banks and in jobs. We look
all over for life. Where are you looking
for life?
We are flawed. We are fallible. We are a funny sort of people. However, we are a fellowship. Not just a fellowship of any sort. No, we are a fellowship of Jesus seeking to
hear and see and embrace and embody the word of life that he offers. Not alone, but as John writes, together as a
fellowship a community. If you’ve been
here before I ask, “Will you continue this journey?” And if this is new to you then I ask, “Will
you join us in this journey?” I ask
this, as John did, ‘to make my joy complete.’
