I recently came
across some notes I’d taken from a book a group of us read together in the park
some years ago--— Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace?
There’s a story in the book that continues to trouble me. Yancey
retells a story told by a friend of his who works with the down-and-out in
Chicago.
A prostitute came to him in
"wretched straits"-- homeless,
sick, addicted to drugs, unable to buy
food for her two-year-old daughter. Yancy's
friend said, "I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story.... I had no idea what to say to this woman.
He said, “At last I asked if she had
ever thought of going to a church for help.
I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her
face. "Church!" she cried.
"Why would I ever go there?
I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse."
What struck Yancey about that story,
he says, is that—according to the gospels-- people much like this prostitute came
to Jesus-- not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the
more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge.
So he asks: Has the church lost that gift? Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to
Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome among his followers. What has happened?-- he wonders.
I've found myself pondering the
questions Philip Yancey was asking, as
he to pondered the meaning of grace.
Yancey quotes author Stephen Brown's
observation that a veterinarian can learn a lot about a dog owner he has never
met just by observing the dog. He goes
on to ask an important question:
"What does the world learn about God-- by watching us-- his followers?[1]
I could really resonate with
Yancey when he observes how-- like fine wine poured into a jug of
water-- "Jesus' wondrous message of
grace gets diluted in the vessel of the church."[2] I think he’s right. Jesus'
gospel of grace has been diluted and distorted by the church
You've probably heard me say it before:
"Everything we do is witness.
Some of our witness is very positive...
and some of it is very negative witness."
A lot of people have been turned off by people who call themselves Christians…
and some have been wounded by the church. For some time I’ve been saying that I think the
wrestling with the tension between LAW and LOVE in the church is a sign that we
may be on the verge of a new kind of Reformation. I believe that we need to recover a sense of
urgency to focus on Jesus’ Great Commandment:
the commandment to love. When he
was asked what was the most important commandment, Jesus said, “Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself.”
It sounds simple enough. But it isn’t easy to LIVE the great
commandment. God’s ways are not our
ways.
In the book of Acts, we have an account of how the early church worked
through a crisis. Who is included in
God’s salvation plan? In chapter ten, Luke tells how the Roman
centurion Cornelius, who was seeking God, had a vision in which an angel of God
told him to send for Simon Peter… and how Peter had a vision that challenged
his ideas about what it means to be a person of faith.
While Peter was still trying to figure out what to make of the vision
he had seen of the assortment of unclean animals on a sheet and the command to not call profane anything
that God has made clean, he was led to the house of Cornelius. There he preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ, and proclaims that he now understands that “God shows no partiality.” In other words, God intends to include people
that—left to its own devices—the church wouldn’t include. That’s the context of the story we heard this
morning from Acts.
The circumcised believers had just witnessed the Holy Spirit falling
upon on all who had heard Peter's sermon.
But how could this be?-- they
wondered. The Holy Spirit is being
poured out even on the Gentiles?
We need to remember that Jesus and
his first followers were Jews. As a
faithful Jew, Peter had taken the regulations in the Jewish purity codes for
granted and observed them all his life. But
then he has a series of experiences that challenge his understanding.
Peter says, “Can anyone withhold the
water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit, just as we have? So he orders them to be baptized in the name
of Jesus Christ, and he stays with them for awhile.
It would have seemed very clear to some
people in the early church what God required of them. For many centuries, their religious tradition
had taught them that to be a “holy” people means to be separate... and to have very clear, distinct boundaries
between their community and those outside the community.
And yet, in this story in Acts, we
hear how the church was learning from the Holy Spirit and actually changing its
policies. The early church in Judea begins
to realize that they’re going to be in relationship with people they’ve always avoided--
and that the church should minister to
them.[3]
There were still a lot of legalists
who kept insisting that the Gentiles had to be circumcised and observe the Jewish purity laws in order
to be followers of the Way. But God
had a new vision for the church.
So--
what might this story be saying to us today? What do we see in God’s vision for the church
in our time?
I think we need to be asking
questions about how God might be at work in the midst of the struggle. How do we discern God’s will for the church--
in this time... in this context? Can we be open to the leading of the Spirit
further into the truth-- even if it
means we’ll have to change our minds about some things?
Like our ancestors in the faith before
us, we need to figure out what God’s will is for us in our time.
"Abide in my love,"
Jesus says. "This is my commandment,
that you love one another, as I have loved you.
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's
friends. You are my friends if you do
what I command you...."
Could it be that-- in order to be
Jesus' friends-- we need to be willing to sacrifice some of the things we've
always believed?
As we seek God’s will for us, we
need to study and faithfully interpret the scriptures. We need to learn how to talk with one another
about difficult issues. We need to
create a community of welcome and peace and safety where people feel safe to
come... and safe enough to let you know
who they are. We need to be a community
where we can all feel safe in sharing our hurts and doubts and struggles and
fears... a community where we can learn
and heal and grow together... a place
where people will know we’re Christians by our love.
We won’t always hear a clear answer that
we like-- an answer we’re all going to agree
on. A group of human beings isn’t going
to always agree on everything. So, as
we hear God saying, “What God has made clean, do not call profane,” can
we be open to whatever new growing edges God gives us in our life of
faith? Can we find ways to live together
in love-- even when we disagree with one
another about some things? Can we love
one another even when we disagree with one another about human sexuality… or
the church kitchen… or any number of things?
As the story unfolds in the New
Testament, it tells how the church discovered that God had “broken down the dividing wall of hostility
between Jews and Gentiles”[4] and founded a Realm that would cancel
exclusionary distinctions between “male and female, Jew and Greek, slave and
free”[5]... and brought them all together in one Body
of Christ.[6]
These are not easy times for the
church. But I'm convinced that God is up
to something.
God's love and grace are truly amazing! So how do we love one another, as Christ
has commanded us? How do we connect with
people who are seeking God? How do we
share the good news of God's amazing grace with the people who most need to hear
it?
As we seek to prayerfully discern a
clearer vision of what God has planned for us, we can approach the future as a
real Pentecost kind of adventure.
We need to be praying for answers to
questions like "Who needs to hear the gospel of grace and love?" Who among us? Who outside these walls? "What gifts do we have to offer someone
who is seeking God?" "What
can we do to reach out to them… and to minister to them?" Are we prepared to love anyone to whom the
Spirit leads us?
I think that-- if we are serious about living as friends of
Jesus and being part of the Church of Love--
we will find ways to connect with people who need to be reassured that they
are welcome and loved. We will find
ways to minister to them and with
them.
If we are serious about being friends
of Jesus, we will do what he commands us.
We have been chosen to go and bear fruit-- the fruit of love... fruit that will last.
The good news is that Jesus says
these things to us so that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be complete!
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
The Rev. Fran Hayes
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
May 10, 2015
The Rev. Fran Hayes
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
May 10, 2015
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