“Who Needs the Church?”

9/24/06

Confirmation Sunday

(Mark 9:33-37)

 

Two ministers were talking and one said, “I’ve got this problem with mice in my church building. I’ve tried everything and I can’t get rid of them.

The other minister said, “Oh, I used to have the same problem with mice but I solved it.”

“Really” said the first minister. “How’d you do it?”

“Easy,” said the other. “I just confirmed them and they never showed up again!”

Well, not this Confirmation Class! I’m planning on seeing a lot more of you and getting to know you better, now that you’ll be taking your place as official members of this church. And today we celebrate your presence among us, for we realize that whatever we have had to teach you during this confirmation process, you have also taught us and we will go forward, continuing to learn from each other.

That’s the way God works in the church, through each of us for the benefit of all of us. This is what the letter of James calls “wisdom from above”. God’s wisdom, shared among us. But James also speaks of another, so-called “wisdom” which is marked by envy, selfishness, hypocrisy and falsehood. This so-called wisdom, he says, is earthly and unspiritual.

So he sets up a contrast between the way of the world and the way of the church. Now I would never say that there’s no wisdom outside the Church. God works in the world as well as in the church. But I do believe the church has a special role to play in the world. The Church must serve as the conscience of the world. The Church must correct and counteract ideas and trends in the world when they begin to stray from morality and decency and justice. As the church has done throughout history, from its very beginnings, when early Christians resisted the authority of Rome and refused to worship the emperor, right up to modern times, when Christians refused to accept racism and the oppression of African-Americans. The Church must stand on the gospel truth, even when the secular world would like to ignore it.

Today, I believe, the secular world has strayed from the beliefs and principles that promote the greatest good among the greatest number of people. We’ve been speeding down a track that leads to extraordinary stress, illusory self-importance and self-reliance, crippling cynicism, shallow greed, obsessive consumerism, and constant competitiveness. We’re looking for love and faith and meaning in all the wrong places.

How did we get into this fix? How did we come to reduce everything to an episode of Survivor? We’re going as fast as we can, but we can’t keep up and we’re petrified that we’re going to be voted off the island!

Who has the right to call a halt to all this, to say, No! Stop! New Plan! We do. And because we are the Church, it is the Church-all of us-who must say, We will decide where we need to go in life and how we need to treat each other. We will decide what to teach our young people and what values to pass on to them!

In the gospel today, Jesus asks, Who is the greatest? Who is really the greatest?

That’s a constant questions these days in one form or another. Who’s the strongest? Who’s the smartest? Who is the richest? Who’s the coolest? That one gets me. Who’s the coolest?

I’ll go out on a limb and say that’s not a very important question anymore-if it ever was. Aren’t we tired of being cool? The questions I hear most today from teenagers and adults is: Is it real? Does it help me to live my life, to practice my faith, to trust in God! To be happy and fulfilled!

Where do those questions get answered? Who’s even interested in those questions? Where else but the church? The Church, which is holding and guarding the treasure chest of God’s truth for all time.

Is it any wonder we want to deliver this message to our children? This is what the Church is all about. This is what the Church is meant to do. The late William Sloan Coffin Jr. put it this way: “People often say, ‘The Church is a crutch.’ And I say, ‘Of course it is! What makes you think you don’t limp?’”

Can we all please admit-young and old-that we limp-emotionally, and spiritually? That we need help from God and from each other? That we are in this-not separate and alone-but as members of one body, one body of Christ! That we are measured not by how we control the world but how we live in the world. Not by what we squeeze out of the world but by what we give to the world. Not by the number of people we’ve passed up in fame and fortune, but b the number of people to whom we’ve passed on knowledge, comfort, kindness and strength.

Who needs the church? We do. All of us do.

The world today operates on what might be called “functional atheism.” Many people profess to believe in God but act as if there were no God, or no God to depend on. As if it’s all up to us. Not even us really, just me! If we have no heavenly parent then we’re not sisters and brothers and we don’t matter to each other and we’re all on our own, In the church we admit our need for God and claim each other as sisters and brothers.

If there’s no God or no God to depend on, then nothing makes sense, nothing is to be trusted, nothing is sacred. In the church we trust that there is a purpose for this life and a promise for the next, that even what doesn’t make sense to us now will be sorted out by God in the end, that we are precious, that God has made all life sacred.

If there’s no God or no God to depend on, then there is no good and evil, just different personal preferences, just different opinions we can enforce on each other. Might makes right! In the church, we believe God has given us the ability to distinguish right from wrong and the ability to help each other grow in understanding, through dialogue, not domination.

If there’s no God, or no God to depend on, we might as well collect all the toys we can in this life. In the church we say that’s a bad deal. We won’t worship things at the expense of our immortal souls.

In the gospel lesson for today, Jesus chooses a child as a symbol of his message. And I think he did so very intentionally, to offset the assumptions of so-called worldly wisdom.

For a child is not dominating, but dependent. Not self-sufficient, but almost helpless. Not cynical, but innocent and trusting, not greedy for things but greedy for love, warmth and kindness.

The church is where we can acknowledge our dependence, upon God and upon one another, where we can reclaim our innocence and idealism, where we can relegate things to their proper, subordinate place, and concentrate on our spiritual gifts.

In the Church, we can be the greatest, in God’s eyes.

That’s what we want for our children, because that’s what we want for ourselves.

Who needs the Church? We do. All of us do.

Amen.