Sermon preached at the Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene on July 29, 2012, the 9th Sunday after Pentecost with Proper 12B: Ephesians 3:14-21
Glory to God whose power, working in us,
can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to God from generation
to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever.[1]
Several times in the
past few months I have said something like, “It is not our job to sell the
church. It is our job to tell the story of what God is up to in the
world.” Now, believe it or not,
sometimes I say things that trouble even me, and this has been one of them. I
am absolutely convinced it is true but it leaves me with many questions to
answer.
It is true. It is not our job to sell the
church. It is our job to tell the story of what God is up to in the world
including in my life. But for me, and I
suspect for many of you, it is difficult for me to talk about God in my life
without talking about the church. And
why should that not be? Part of what God
is up to in the world is the
church. The church is part of the good
news we have to tell. Except, of course,
when it is not.
OK, having tied myself
(and you) in knots, let’s cut to the chase.
The simple question here is, “What is the Church for?”
We can immediately
answer that with all kinds of theological language, some of which will be very
meaningful to those of us who hang around the church a lot, but will be almost
useless, and even off-putting to people who are not (an increasing number of
our friends and neighbors). So, in
simple language, what is the church for?
Donald Schell, an
Episcopal priest from San Francisco, who was for many years the rector of the
fairly well known Church of St. Gregory of Nyssa there, quotes a jazz musician
to answer this question. Clark Terry
says that the way to make jazz happen is three simple steps: “imitate, assimilate, innovate.”
This is what church is
for: In community we practice patterns
that have been given us—the greatest being the breaking of bread. We make those practices our own. This enables us in courage and freedom to
live with dignity, with justice and in peace.
It is that
simple. But, of course, it does not
always work that way. Schell writes,
Some churches
seem determined to equip people for action by offering a detailed guide for
facing every situation. People I know well, whether inside church
practice or outside church practice, agree that real-life guidelines that clear
and simple aren’t much use. Clark Terry isn’t just telling us how to make
jazz (and St. Paul [in Ephesians] isn’t just telling us how to worship).
They’re telling us how to make the music or say the prayers so we learn to take
a pattern, a melody, a gesture from someone else and make it so completely our
own that we can fit it to the unexpected. An imitation-based learning
process takes us to freedom.
So, St. Paul and Clark Terry
see creative freedom is born from discovering a common, acting together until
what’s ours in common becomes mine and then finding in what’s mine,
possibilities none of us have ever seen before and trusting them when we need
to act. Contemporary culture doesn’t expect Christian faith to make
people creative because church hasn’t been jazz. … it’s been more …
preaching conformity to suppress freedom.
Freedom. What do we
need for freedom [to happen]? We need to know that we have personal
authority (resourcefulness and ability to act) and courage (being willing to
act when we can’t guarantee an outcome). If I say that this is what
church is for, I think I can make good sense to anyone.
We’re doing church well when
we make a place of actual discovery of holy courage and blessed
creativity. Church community is doing its work when people risk
generously and compassionately in what they do together in church, and then
continue acting generously and compassionately in the unexpected moments and
situations they live outside church. [This may produce great
things, but more likely results] in the simplest acts of kindness and simplest
words of truth spoken courageously and creatively in the some ordinary moment
of life. What church is for is, I suppose, to please God, but not to
please God’s vanity or appease God’s wrath, rather to engage one another in our
holiest place so the habits, patterns, and hope we learn and practice there
will en-courage us to act in any place.[2]
Can you hear that is
exactly what St. Paul is saying at the end of this morning’s reading from
Ephesians?
Now to God who by the power at work
within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or
imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations
for ever and ever.
Imitate. Assimilate.
Innovate.
[1]
Ephesians 3:20-21, in the translation from The
Book of Common Prayer, pp. 102, 126.
It is one of the sentences of Scripture with which Morning or Evening
Prayer may be ended.
[2]
From a blog of July 27, 2012 at http://www.atthreshold.org/2012/07/27/just-what-is-church-for/
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