Pasadena
Presbyterian Church "The Purpose of
the Church" Scripture:
Luke 7:18-23 The
disciples of John reported all these things to him. So John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the
Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for
another?” When the men had
come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask,
‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’”
Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and
evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind.
And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and
heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news
brought to them. And blessed
is anyone who takes no offense at me.” “Romeo,
Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?”
“Four score and seven years ago...”
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Little
bits of archaic language come to hold such meaning for us that they take
up residence deep in our being. Some
of the archaic words that reside deep in my being are those known as The
Six Great Ends of the Church. They
have been part of our Presbyterian constitution for over 100 years. As this church looks toward an important decision next week,
they are part of the foundation of why I am so supportive of the Session
and Trustee’s recommendation that has been put before us. For Presbyterians,
this is why the church exists:
“The greats ends of the church are the proclamation of
the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and
spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine
worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of social
righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world”
(The Book of Order, G-1.0200). Each
of the great ends is essential to the church, but I want to focus on the
final one: “the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.”
First,
we have to find our way through the archaic language. When I hear the phrase, “the exhibition of the Kingdom of
Heaven”, I can easily picture a box with a curtain in front which, when
opened, shows little figurines that exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the
world. Or, on the other hand,
I imagine walking through the Getty Museum, standing in awe before the
artistic gifts on exhibit there. I
think of other types of exhibitions, as well, such as the County Fair with
its cattle barns, cotton candy, and exhibits of home replacement windows. I think of the Los Angeles Auto Show and Exhibition, which my
sons rarely miss. We marvel
at each of these exhibitions and then go home, with new memories for our
personal collection, but without our lives having been changed. Still
and static, a box to look into, a museum to visit, a place to come and
marvel – and then go home unchanged: none of these is what it means for
the church to be an exhibition The
church is a live being, with a mighty calling from God, a strong power to
change people’s lives, and an essential witness to the world.
The
church, we say, is to be the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the
world. If that’s true, then
we’d better know what we are to exhibit. Let’s
begin with the conflicting images of the Kingdom of Heaven that we receive
from the media. Depending on
the source, God’s judgment is called down upon liberal Democrats,
right-wing Republicans, or lukewarm fence-sitters. (That includes all of
us, one way or another.) Depending
on the source, God’s judgment is rained down upon peace activists or war
planners, gays and lesbians, or people opposed to full rights for GLBT
folk, environmentalists or corporate C.E.O.’s.
We hear that the Kingdom of Heaven is paved with gold, and filled
with happy people who were raptured up there like a worldwide Star Trek
command to “Beam me up, Scottie!”
If you put all vitriolic judgments together, soon you realize that
no one will actually be in that particular Kingdom of Heaven - except
maybe God. The rest of us
are...left behind. Even Jesus
wouldn’t make it there: he broke too many religious rules.
In
the face of so much static, the only way to know what it means for us to
be Christians, and for the church to be an exhibition of the Kingdom of
Heaven to the world, is to return to the source: to Jesus Christ and to
the Bible. In Luke 7, Jesus
describes the Kingdom of Heaven by describing his ministry: “Report
what you’ve seen and heard,” he says.
“The blind see, the lame walk, those Imagine
if someone named Jesus were doing those things today. Of course it would raise the question of whether Jesus
is the Messiah. But even
these acts by themselves are not evidence enough to settle the
question. The issue is not
whether or not you believe that Jesus really is doing these things.
The issue is: are these the things a messiah does?
Most pointedly, can someone who gives time and attention to the
dead, the very poor, the outcast, the diseased, and the acknowledged
violator of the law really be God’s Messiah?
If
we hesitate to say “yes,” it is not because we’re waiting for one
more miraculous healing story. We
have plenty of those already. One
more won’t make a difference. If
we hesitate to say “yes,” it’s because we know that if we say Jesus
is the Messiah, the Savior of the world, we are saying that he’s the one
who shows us who God is and what God most cares about.
And that, of course, is to say what we, as his followers, are
supposed to be doing in the world if we confess that Jesus is God’s
Messiah. If
Jesus is the Messiah, then the harsh, uncomfortable, prophetic words he
says, and the people he heals, those he forgives, and those he welcomes
– this is what God is doing in the world, and what the Kingdom of God is
like. This is how we are
to live. This is what the
church is supposed to exhibit to the world.
That is the leap of faith in calling Jesus the Messiah. “Are
you the Messiah, the Anointed One, the One whom the world awaits, or
should we look for another?” we ask Jesus.
Jesus turns the question back on us.
“Take note of what you see,” he says to us, “and on that
basis, make your decision: the blind see, the lame walk, those who are
outcast are welcomed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor
hear good news. If you
don’t think that’s what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like, then you
better turn around and go somewhere else.
But if you can grasp that this is truly
what the Kingdom of Heaven is, then blessed are those who take no
offense at what I say and do.” We
hesitate at Jesus’ question to
us...unless we are at the bottom of society, or deep in grief, or living
in abject poverty – living in the need of hope.
We hesitate, and at some level, hope he is not the Messiah,
because we know the consequences of our answer are so enormous.
At the same time, the deepest part of our self hopes that he really
is the Messiah. We’re here because we already believe Jesus is the Messiah,
or we’re in the process of coming to that belief. We return to scripture to find the answer of what the
Messiah will look like. When
we do, we discover that Jesus as Messiah, is standing on solid and holy
ground. His
ministry exhibits the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. According to scripture, the Kingdom of Heaven is filled with
abundance, with justice for the oppressed and consequences for oppressors,
the weak are strong and the lame walk, the grieving are comforted and the
wounded healed, the hungry are fed and hoarders are sent away empty. In
the Kingdom of Heaven, justice flows down like water and righteousness
like an everflowing stream. The
lion lays down with the lamb. Friend and foe break bread together. Humanity’s
energy is turned from hatred and conflict to reconciliation and peace.
And blessed are those who take no offense at the gracious welcome
of God to those whom the religious people think should be excluded. God
needs the church to exhibit what the Kingdom is like because the reality
of the Kingdom of Heaven is so different from the way the world lives.
We can tell people God loves them, but they won’t really believe
it until they see that God’s love has changed other people.
They need to experience God’s love – the Kingdom of heaven –
through us, so they can trust that the promises of God are true, and they
can have cause for hope in their life. That’s why what we do in the
church is so important, from the most obviously sacred to the most
seemingly mundane. As
a child, I loved singing in the church choir from first grade through 12th,
but I was so shy that I was always afraid someone would actually hear me
sing. When choir directors
did something so seemingly mundane as to make space for me and always seem
happy to see me, they exhibited the Kingdom of Heaven to me and I
experienced, through them, the love of God. My
home city of Dayton, Ohio was, for many years, ranked as one of the most
segregated cities in the United States.
After a federal judge ordered busing to desegregate the Dayton
public schools in the 1960's, a prominent black civil rights leader was
murdered on a sidewalk in the downtown Dayton business district in broad
daylight. In response, church
people from all over the valley rode school buses for a whole year to keep
the children and the drivers safe: a Black and a White church member
riding on each bus together. The
church exhibited the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. In
the Kingdom of Heaven, all tears are wiped away and suffering is no more.
We can’t get rid of pain and suffering in the church today, but
unlike much of the world around us, we can face it and not plaster over it
as if everything is fine. We
don’t make anyone walk through the valley of the shadow of death alone.
If someone says their marriage is in trouble, or they’re ill with
cancer, or fighting addictions, we don’t turn away and shun them.
Even if we don’t know what to say, we sit with them or call them
on the phone. We help with
the ordinary tasks of life. We
inquire about their life. We
listen and love. And whatever
comes, we hold them within our fellowship and show them the grace of God
with the same care with which we hold a newborn kitten until it can walk
on its own legs. The church is an exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the
world. The
Kingdom of Heaven is not only about the joys and struggles of our personal
lives, however. The Kingdom
of Heaven is a reign of peace and abundance – not just for a few
but for all God’s children. So
the church works for peace by supporting our government as necessary and
critiquing it when appropriate, by learning about those we do not
understand, and by refusing to bear false witness against anyone. The
church works in the political world and the economic world to make good
education and housing, food and medicine available to all God’s people,
no matter who their parents are or where they live, in this country and
elsewhere. As we lobby and
tutor, write letters and ladle soup, build coalitions and re-roof houses,
the church is an exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. The
Kingdom of Heaven is a beautiful scene where all creation is
healed. Rivers are clean, the
air fresh, the soil rich. So
the church models care for the creation by living simply, by treating the
environment with respect, by organizing clean-up days and lobbying both
government and industry for responsible action.
The church is an exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. The
Kingdom of Heaven is the reign of God where the entire rainbow of
God’s people live together in joy and peace, singing praise to the
One who creates and loves us all. Yet
across the world, Sunday morning is still the most segregated time of the
week. That’s why the
ministry of this particular congregation is so important:
It demonstrates to us and to the community that we don’t have to
fracture along race or cultural lines.
When we come together in one body and love one another as Christ
has loved us, the church is an exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the
world. Yes,
the church is at times like those other exhibitions I mentioned earlier:
as smelly as the cattle stalls at the County Fair, as static and
unchanging as a painting on a wall in the Getty Museum, as materialistic
as the cars unveiled at the Auto Show. That’s because the church is human. Yet
even in our sinfulness, the church exhibits the Kingdom of Heaven.
For the Kingdom of Heaven is filled with imperfect people who
nevertheless reflect the goodness of God, lame people who have learned to
walk, blind people who have seen a vision, deaf people who have heard
God’s call, broken people who have been healed, people whose silent
voices have finally been heard, unwanted people whose unnecessary shame
has been washed away, frightened people who have opened their hands and
hearts to others, people whose lives have been changed by the love of God.
The Kingdom of Heaven is filled with redeemed sinners, all, who
have been made whole by the love of Jesus Christ.
“Are
you the Messiah?” they asked. We
respond, “Jesus is the
Messiah, and we want to follow him!” What is the sixth Great End of the Church? To be an exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. This is the church we are to be, for this generation and those yet to come. Amen. (c)
Copyright 2007 by Barbara A. Anderson.
All rights reserved. Permission
granted for non-profit use with attribution. |
