The Third Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2015

How to be a new church

         My favorite memory of Christmas was the greening of the church. When I was young, we would gather on the afternoon of the Sunday before Christmas. We would decorate the church with real greenery and candles (no plastic!) Then we would go from house to house downtown and sing Christmas carols. We would end at someone’s house or the church and drink hot chocolate and eat Christmas cookies. I carry the memory of this with me to this day. It’s why the Christmas season is so important to me.

         I’ve always hoped to re-create this wherever I’ve worked. It has not been possible. People don’t all live downtown – we are all spread out. The season has gotten much more busy. Fire marshals frown on the combination of evergreens and candles. No one goes caroling anymore.

         We all hold memories of some special or transformative version of the church. We hope, we believe, that if only we could go back to that thing that worked so well … we think we can restore what once worked. We are not alone. We all long for the greatness of our past. I think this explains why so many people had high hopes for Jesus. They thought he was coming to fix everything. They thought he would restore the glory of Israel. He would drive out the Romans. He would restore true worship. He surprised them all by dying and rising and creating something totally unexpected.

         This is how we find ourselves in much the same place as that first church. There is much written about the emerging church, and how the church must change in a new world. We have to let go of our established place. We have grown used to being culturally dominant. We think of our nation as a Christian nation, where we expect everyone to share our values and our worldview. Now that the world has changed, we can wring our hands in longing for the good old days, or we can imagine where God is leading us next.

         We used to have a place of privilege in our culture. Sunday was a holy day. Now it’s just another day of the week in our 24/7/365 economy. We may mourn that we have lost our place. We have also regained our freedom. We are no longer captives to the culture. We can critique it and serve it as God calls us.

         This is the task of that first church. The disciples had expected that Jesus would transform the structures that they knew. Jesus creates something completely different. Jesus saves us from more than the Romans. Jesus frees us from sin and from the effect of sin. We are free from death. Since this is true, we live in a new reality. We live in a new dominion, the kingdom of God. We are only temporary travelers in this world.

         We have a message of freedom. We remember that Jesus has come to forgive sins. The gospel is good news. We are not about judgment – that’s God’s job. Our job is to help people figure out how to be free of those things that bind them to death. We are a people of joy, not regret. We proclaim release to captives, not reasons for damnation.

         In our instant and open world we have to live lives of integrity. We have to live what we proclaim. It is no good talking about the love of God if live as if we don’t believe it. People judge us by how we love, not by how well we articulate our understanding of God. It is important for us to be ready to serve others. In our busy and isolated world, the best way that we might serve is to simply listen and care what people have to say and what they worry about.

         We offer an alternative to our hyper-individualized and self-directed world. We offer community. We offer accountability. We are connected to a way of worship that transcends fads and trends. We walk an ancient path together. When we gather, it may be the only experience in a week where people see others who are not of the same age, class, and education. We are a body that values the gifts that we all can bring.

         Like the early church, we are beginning a journey where we do not have all the answers. The dominant culture of the time had everything described and controlled. The early church had faith in Jesus, without knowing at all how they would organize themselves or how they might spread the good news throughout the Roman world. We need to recapture some of that curiosity and experimentation. The world will welcome our questions and it has no need of our easy answers.

         That first church challenged everything about their world. They challenged the role of women, the economy of slavery, and the state religion that gave god-status to emperors. The first Christians were misunderstood and disrespected. They changed their world. We find ourselves in a new place. We no longer control how the world around us operates. We have no idea what will happen.

         This is frightening and it is freeing. We can hold onto beloved traditions as long as they keep us hopeful and joyful. We can also let go of all the traditions that others need us to prop up. We are free to serve God and follow Jesus. We are free to proclaim a new message to hearts that have not heard. We are free to create new ways of journeying with others. This is faith; not believing in something that never changes, but believing in God no matter what happens.