Do you remember
the first test that you were ever given?
You probably don’t. And if you
were born after 1952 you almost certainly don’t remember the first test you
were given. In 1952 the Apgar Test began
to be used on newborn infants, and based on your vitality at birth you were
given a score between zero and ten. Your
medical records have that number – your first test score. And ever since then you’ve been tested and
graded and ranked constantly. You
certainly received measurable grades and rank in school, but there are also
lots and lots of other things. People
judge each other by their looks, their income level, whether they’re stylish or
not, their charisma, and on and on it goes.
Though we don’t do it in any formal
way, we have a very strong social pyramid.
Those people who are smart, talented, rich and good looking tend to end
up at the top. And let’s just be blunt,
on the bottom are those who are stupid, ugly, and poor. There are advantages to being on top, and
there are penalties at the bottom.
From the moment you are born until the
day you die you are in a life of earning status and approval. It can get exhausting!
I don’t think we should be too hard on
the disciples in our gospel reading when we learn that they have been arguing
amongst themselves who is the greatest.
The Bible doesn’t giving us the details of their argument, but their life
situation is probably a lot like ours – constant striving for status. You want to be as close to the top as you
can, because that is where the best benefits are.
When Jesus asks them what they were
talking about I imagine there was embarrassed silence among them. It was the silence of a child caught guilty
by his or her parents, and the child is frantically trying to come up with an
excuse or lie.
Jesus then
teaches, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
Now, you’re all
clever people and so am I. It doesn’t
take long for the wheels in our brains to start turning. So, that means that the way to greatness is
through servanthood, a sort-of reverse psychology. We could all easily strategize that we will
accomplish true greatness with Jesus through servanthood.
But is that what Jesus meant, just an
alternate path to the same greatness?
Of course not! He’d be just swapping one pyramid of status
with another.
To make it clear what Jesus really
means he takes a child into his arms and says, “Whoever receives one such child
in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who
sent me.”
Children in those
days had no rank whatsoever. Parents
wouldn’t haul them off to all sorts of events and activities like sports or music
lessons. Parents wouldn’t rearrange
their lives around a child’s schedule. Yes,
parents certainly loved their children but still, at a social level children
were of no account. Helping a child
would do nothing to advance you at all.
Jesus’ teaching to his followers creates an entirely different model –
an equal status model.
Today we celebrate Zion’s 175th
anniversary. It’s certainly a milestone
to celebrate! It is a celebration of
God’s grace active in this community for quite a long time. It is a good time to ask ourselves what makes
a church a church. You all know the
answer, at least to some level. I
remember learning the song here in this building during Sunday school. I’m not going to sing it because you don’t
want me to, but you’ll recognize the words:
The church is not the building.
The church is not the steeple.
The church is not a resting place.
The church is a people.
And then it goes on: I am
the church. You are the church.
We are the church together.
All who follow Jesus
All around the world
Yes, we’re the church together!
That’s absolutely
true! The church is the people! But in time I’ve learned that there is
more. The Lions Club is also the
people. The same goes for the Grange or
Masons or a garden club. What makes a
church a church? What makes it distinct
from other people organizations?
What makes a
church a church is that it is a community of grace. Everywhere you go in the world you are judged
and ranked – we talked about that before – your intelligence, your looks, your
income level, who your friends are.
But you aren’t – or you shouldn’t be
in church. In church we all have the
same very simple rank. We are all
sinners in need of God’s grace.
At my church in Victor, New York, we
have a sign over the sanctuary door. It
says, “Sinners Only. This is a Space of
Grace.” It’s kind of cute but also
deadly serious. If you don’t see
yourself as a sinner in need of God’s grace then you’re not going to find
anything of value for you inside. If you
think you can save yourself by your good works, or your social status, or your
wealth, then my congregation has absolutely nothing to offer you
whatsoever. And I know I can say the
same thing goes for this space. Our need
for God’s unearnable favor - God’s grace – unites us and equalizes us.
To me, what has
made Zion Zion for 175 years, and for Salem, its older sister, Salem for over
200 years is being a community of grace.
Sinners united in common need.
They are communities where people can breathe, they can be their true
selves, and they can escape the pointless rat race of status and power that
exists everywhere else in the world.
Churches are communities where people can be real before God and truly
receive God’s grace.
Now I know full
well from growing up in this congregation that not everybody got along with
everybody else. There were differences
of opinion and there were conflicts and fights. Some things went well and some things
failed. And I know full well that there
are people in this room that you delight to be around, and there are people in
this room who you wish weren’t here and you’d never see again. And sometimes people try to one up each
other. And sometimes conflicts and
issues in families and the community outside these walls spilled over into
here. No church is perfect – we are
indeed sinners after all – but there is still something deeper at work.
When you’re
celebrating Holy Communion and you see someone you don’t like stand up and walk
up to receive have you ever gotten up from your seat and stood in front of them
blocking their way and said, “No, you can’t receive communion. You aren’t worthy of it.” No, you haven’t done that. And you’ve never seen anyone else do it
either. Part of that is because of the
social pressure, it would be embarrassing to do it. Yet there is something deeper going on too. You know deep inside that you have no right
to bar someone from receiving God’s grace in the body and blood of Christ.
And have you
yourself ever sat here and said to yourself, “I’m not going up for communion
today because I don’t need it. I’m too
good for this.” I hope you haven’t felt
that way!
This building was
built in 1882 – Zion’s second sanctuary – and since that time thousands of
people – rich and poor, clean and dirty, reputable and shameful, have knelt
down before this altar in need of grace.
Similar things
could be said for baptism. You know the
old wedding ceremonies where the pastor would ask, “Does anyone have any reason
why this man and woman should not be wed?”
Do we ask that at baptism… Is there any reason why this child should not
be baptized? No! That’s totally absurd! The child is a human being created in the image
of God. It needs God’s grace and no one
dares get in the way of God’s work.
There is no
ranking in any of those things. None is
higher or lower than another. Jesus’
teaching to the disciples is just that.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
And so, as Zion
celebrates 175 years of being a community of grace we pray that God would
continue to bless and nurture this community.
We pray that it may remain a place where we go to be freed from the
world’s constant judgement and criticism and ranking. Here we can be ourselves: children of God,
sinners in need of God’s grace, Christians empowered to share God’s love We can
be ourselves before each other and ourselves before God. That is God’s good and wonderful blessing to
us in Zion.
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