| Now, There's a Church for You |
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| Written by Bill Weisenbach | |
| Saturday, 12 April 2008 | |
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Now, There's a Church for You Text: Acts 2:42-47 That is to say that you and I, no less than they, live in the light of Easter. Easter, Acts tells us, was not just something that happened once to Jesus, a dead body once raised from the dead. Easter continues to happen, breaks out all over. Furthermore, Easter has communal and political implications. Here were these folk, a lot like us. They didn’t, have all that much in common. They came from different parts of town, different social groups, different layers of the socio-economic spectrum. And we know it's tough to get together across the boundaries of class and income. Now I know that some desire for community is instinctual, it’s natural. Have any of you ever seen a grizzly bear in the wild? I’m told it is an exciting sight, to say the least. They are massive, with heads about was wide as this pulpit and claws 3-4 inches long. The scientific designation of the grizzly is Ursus Horribilis (the horrible bear), a designation they received because of their meanness and ferocity. They have been known to demolish a cabin in order to get to a person inside. Grizzlies are mean to each other, too. They are said to be the most antisocial of all creatures. In fact, my nephew who lives in Maine, who, incidentally doesn’t always tell the truth, told me that because of rising frequency of human conflicts with bears in the field, the Department of Fish and Game is advising hikers, hunters, and fishermen to take extra precautions and be observant. They advise hikers to sew little bells on their clothing, so as not to startle bears that aren't expecting them and to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a bear. He also told me that they advise hikers to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity, foot prints and ripped bark and to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings. Black bear droppings may contain bits of berries, fish bones and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings, on the other hand often contain little bells and have the aroma of pepper spray. As I said, my nephew doesn’t always tell the truth, but the point that in spite of their seeming antipathy to one another, grizzlies travel in groups, even the most antisocial of animals live and move about collectively. This is characteristic of nearly all creatures. They move together--as a school of fish, a flock of sheep, a pride of lions, a drove of cattle, a gaggle of geese, a swarm of bees, a pack of wolves, a sloth of bears or a exaltation of larks. All creatures have a sense of belonging to one another, each according to its kind as the Book of Genesis notes, and this strong instinctive urge keeps them together. And of all creatures, we human beings have the strongest need to belong. One of the first things one learns in psychology 101 is that human beings have three basic emotional/spiritual needs: The need to have significance, the need to have security, and the need to belong. Of these three, perhaps the strongest and most basic is the need to belong, to feel a part of something larger than ourselves. But instinct alone could not explain the extraordinary behavior of this early church. Something special had happened to them. Here they were around the table, sharing with one another, looking out for one another. There is no sociological or economic theory can explain why these people, who had so many things that could divide them, where together. There was no explanation for them but Easter. Something new had broken out among them. It was life. It was Easter. It was resurrection. During my first months here as pastor of this church, I spoke with a few people in the congregation to get to know the church better and gather some of the ideas folk had for the future. During the discussion I asked them, "What does this church need to be the best church it can be? Tell me honestly what you think. Don't be shy." Someone said, "l think we need an even better Sunday school, better giving, more people willing to work and it wouldn’t hurt to have an elevator. But we’ve got a good sense of community, I hope you won’t mess that up. Another said, “When I think of some of the problems we have had over the years in this church, well, I think it's a testimony that God must really be with us cause we are still here!" In a way, those responses are right on target. The fact that we are all here, elevator or not, is a testimony that God must really be with us. When you think about all the things we have going against us -- the ways in which many of us were brought up, the prejudices we brought deep within us, the divisions of race, class, income, not to mention the limited parking. Of course it’s not easy, even grizzly bear community is hard to find. Life, as T.S. Eliot, observed, is "a vast wasteland" in which people can't find a place to belong. The painting, sculpture, and music of our time tell of this problem. Everything is detached. Nothing belongs. The spirit of the age has a sense of unrelatedness and despair. It’s easy to feel like strangers who don't belong. People appear that way, too, in the movies, poems and novels of our day. The central figures are usually isolated, solitary souls whose only claim to heroism is that they face a cold and often hostile world with grim courage. This years academy award nominees illustrate my point. With the exception of Juno that was light=hearted and delightful they were all filled with despair. In No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood you are presented with these isolated people and given no satisfactory solution to their problems. The family remains remote. Friendship proves disillusioning. Neighbors are self-centered. People in general are viewed with cynicism. But that wasn’t true of he Act’s church and it’s not true of this one. For we and they share something in common so profound that only the truth of mystery is able to embrace it. It is life. It is Easter. How do we know that Jesus was raised from the dead on Easter? Is there proof that Easter is true? When it comes down to it the only proof that Christ has been raised from the dead, that life is stronger than the bonds of death, that there really is a new power let loose in the world, the only proof is us, the church, a body of people whose life together is so new, so inexplicable by any other means, that the world should be able to look at us and say, "Surely Christ is risen, he has risen indeed." May it be so in this church and in your hearts. |
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