Run the Race before us: Sunday, August 14

Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56

Have you ever tried to distill the Good News down to one sentence?  If someone asked you, “Just what exactly is the Good News of Christianity?” what would you say?  I’ve been thinking about it this week, and this is what I have come up with for my answer for now:

Jesus shows us a new way to live that transforms us, allowing us to live a life of wholeness, love and deep satisfaction, connected to all people and all communities.

It is hard to distill the Gospel down to a sound-bite. And that sound-bite would need a lot more explanation and lived experience to go with it, but it is a necessary part of our lives as Christians to be able to define the Good News as we know and understand it.  And while it is good to get a handle on being able to express the Good News in a receivable format---it doesn’t make it any easier to live.

Just think about the words in my own current definition: new way to live (code for change): transforms us  (code for change); to all people and all communities (code for getting along with others).  And frankly, even the word “change” is a code word.  Change means loss; change means death; change means sacrifice and compromise.

And yet, we still often think of church as being a place we go to in order to be comforted and a place where we always know what to expect and where there are not any surprises. A place where people have their acts together and will treat me and all others the way we want to be treated. 

Sounds like a great place, I guess, if you are perfect just as you are and you don’t need any transformation in your heart, your mind, or your behavior.  A great place if you are satisfied with the status of the world, its communities and nations, and your relationships are wholly knit together just as they should be. 

Does this describe anyone’s current reality?  NO?  It doesn’t describe mine.  So, I don’t expect simply church to be “heaven on earth.” I also expect church---this gathering of people who worship, study, grow, and serve---to be more of a “boot camp” instead of a garden party at Downton Abbey.

Church is the community that stretches us, challenges us, and empowers and equips us for the ministry God has given us, which is the ongoing ministry of Jesus in the world: healing the sick, befriending the lonely, turning unjust systems upside down, and being living examples of mercy, compassion and forgiveness---even to our enemies, even to the outcast, the annoying, the leper, the hateful.

Today Jesus makes it clear that this discipleship thing is no garden party. Jesus says: I came to bring fire to the earth….to bring division. Not really comfort food for us to partake today.  But, it shouldn’t be surprising to us---not really---not if we are clear on what exactly the Good News is and what is our part in being agents of this Good News.

In the military, they have a method of scorching the earth that is used to completely remove an enemy from a geographical area by burning the houses, the food sources, and other resources that can be used to sustain the enemy. For Jesus, this cleansing fire is meant to burn out all the things we use, other than God, to give us security.  The fire of baptism Jesus provides is meant to eliminate our tendency to find our security in possessions, in wealth, in power, in status-----leaving us to understand that what sustains us and provides our need is nothing other than God.

Burning the earth is used in agriculture as well---farmers burn fields in order to provide for new growth---lush, green, verdant growth that can strengthen and replenish a depleted field.  The fire wipes out weeds and other plants that threaten the ability of the field to produce abundant growth, and makes room for new plants to take hold and flourish.  This method reminds me of the need for the fire of Jesus to burn all the “religiosity” within us, and in our churchspeak, that points to the illusion that we can guarantee our own salvation if we simply do all the right things, and follow all the right rules, and make certain to point out and call out those who are not living “right,” like us.  We need this type of religiosity burned from us because this understanding of Christianity puts us firmly in the driver’s seat and not God.  It keeps us in control---just the way we like it----but certainly not the way of Jesus.  Jesus’s way is the way of surrender---complete and utter surrender with the entirety of our lives---Not my will, but Yours, O God.

As theologians and preachers, Eugene Boring and Fred Craddock write in the People’s Commentary: “the peace of God is not an anesthetic that makes one numb to the conflicts of the world; indeed it may sharpen them. As Christ contemplates the cross he will endure in God’s service, he is not peaceful, but under stress and turmoil.  The road to God’s peace is not a detour around the cross but goes straight through it.” (pg. 230)

Pretty daunting, isn’t it, when we stand back and fully appreciate just what God is asking us---and empowering us---to do as Christians?  Here at Intercession, we are descended from a great cloud of witnesses.  A cloud of witnesses who ran the race set before them and who have handed the baton on to us now.  In 1848, General Albert Ellis invited others to join him in his home here in Stevens Point to worship as Episcopalians.  

About four years later, they moved to a schoolhouse on the north side of Clark Street and officially became a church on December 6, 1852.  The church built its first building in 1853 on the corner of Clark and Church St. with the Rev. Thomas Greene serving as its first rector.  They expanded and added a parochial school in 1875 (and an organ---the church existed for 23 years without an organ for goodness’ sake!) when the Rev. Ebenezier Thompson was its rector.

In March of 1880, with the Rev. William Henry Walter at the helm, the Sunday School expanded and a small building was added to the back of the church building to serve as a guild hall (what we call a Parish Hall).  Ten years later, the Rev. Reginald Weller had a rectory constructed on the south side of Clark St. between Church and Pine streets.  And then, the church realized it had the opposite problem that we have today.  Their church was too big for their building (whereas our building is too big for our church).  Rev. Weller and the church decided to build a new building, on the corners of Church and Ellis Streets, laying the cornerstore in 1892 and finishing the building in 1894 at the cost of $35,000 .  Today’s equivalent is closer to $900,000.  The first service was held in this building on January 2, 1894 with a congregation of 400.

In 1915, there was a fire which destroyed the guild hall and damaged the interior of the church building.  A time for reassessment.  The leaders of the church took this time as an opportunity to cast a new vision and they repaired the damage in the church and rebuilt the Parish Hall---the one we now use—so it could serve the entire community with a gym, a stage, and a bowling alley.  Proms, dances, dinners, and meetings were held here.

We live in a time and place that our ancestors did not know---a time when many people do not find the church relevant; they do not see us as having any particular Good News for them or their lives; they ask themselves: Why Church?

In response to this reality, our leadership, like the generations before them, have cast a new vision for us as we seek to be a flourishing and vital faith community in this Post-Christian world.  Leadership is reading the signs of the time and have determined that it is time to make a change that will enable new growth and fruitfulness.  While many of us are like Peter at the Transfiguration who simply want to build a place which would enable us to stay right where we are and sit in God’s presence, Jesus says no. Jesus says our role is to go down the mountain---into the world---head toward Jerusalem and the cross.  To carry the weight of what it means to live in God’s way, not the world’s way. 

And Jesus makes it clear: living this way brings division.  Not because Christianity demands division, but because we as people—in response to Jesus’ radical call to sacrificial love---often divide ourselves.  As we live this way of Jesus, people will call us crazy---even people we know and love; people won’t understand; people won’t believe it is possible; people will think we are wasting our time.  But we are choosing to live by faith---belief put into action---like the great crowd of witnesses before us.  We too have a choice to make: is it time to leave these buildings or are we prepared and equipped to put the time, energy and effort it will require for us to stay here?  Which path will lead to fruitfulness for our Vision and God’s mission to restore and redeem all people and all of Creation? 

Many of our Intercession family members have been working and struggling with this question, meeting, learning, talking, and researching to find out what are our best options.  These people have been carrying the weight for us in many ways.  But now we are arriving at a time when we, like the generations before us, must make a decision.  In September, our options will be explained and presented.  In early October, as a parish family, we will discuss and discern the gains and losses, the possibilities and challenges of each option.  After prayer and reflection, we will provide the Vestry, our leadership team, with our input which will equip the Vestry to make a decision.  A decision as to how we will run the race that has been set before us, at this time and place, how we will live and move as a great cloud of witnesses for the next generation---how we will respond to God’s call to restore all people to unity to God and each other in Christ.

The Gospel—when we let if fully enter our bloodstream and flood our heartspace---the Gospel changes everything.  How we see the world, how we see others, and how we see ourselves.  The Gospel changes how we live and move and have our being, so that we longer align with the world’s ways---instead we align with Jesus.

Joan Chittister writes: “The whole purpose of wrestling with God is to be transformed into the self we are meant to become, to step out of the confines of our false securities and allow our creating God to go on creating.  In us.”

In us, through us, with us, and for us.  We are living in an exciting time of Intercession’s history.  Trusting in God, we need not be afraid—in fact, Scripture tells us to be not afraid more than anything else.  So, like today’s Psalmist, let us sing out in prayer: “Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved.”