What
does it matter that we believe in God? I was at a clergy conference this week
with Alan Roxburgh – who authored the book that many of us are reading. He
reminded us of the distinction between growing the church and being a people
who follow Jesus. Growing an institution is actually pretty easy – just give
people what they want. But is that really what we are here for?
He
also began to explore what he calls the crisis of the euro-tribal church. We
live in a culture that is formed by a relatively new narrative. He calls it the
wager of modernity. We live with the idea that we can have all the good things
in life without reference to God. We have replaced God with three ideas or
constructs. We believe in the state. We believe in capitalism. We believe in the
self. All three of these, if properly constructed will give all the good things
we can expect in life. In our world, God is seen as useful, but not necessary.
Much
of what we have done in the church in general follows this cultural myth. We
become obsessed with technology, or management theories, or advertising, or
strategic plans. None of these actions require any faith in God. What if we
started at a different place? What if we started with faith in God and sought
to discover what God is doing around us – and sought to discover how we could
join God’s work?
I
love the story of the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. He has
great showmanship! The prophets of Baal look foolish, limping around, cutting
themselves. Elijah trash-talks. Where’s your God? Is he napping? Then Elijah
makes a great show of preparing his sacrifice. He drenches it with water. God
answers his simple prayer by burning it all up in an instant.
If
only we could do that! I bet we could pack the place if only we could offer
miracles on demand! This is our problem. We think we can do it all without God.
Just show us how God, so we don’t need you! Or if that fails, we expect the
diocese to offer us wonder-workers to lead our parishes. Miracles aren’t even
necessary as long as the priest is well spoken, and understanding, and dynamic,
and doesn’t need much money. I’m sure we could keep this thing going forever
without any need of God at all.
Our
choice is how we choose to live a life of faith. Will we say we believe and
continue to act as if we don’t? And will we keep trusting in our cleverness and
our experience and our wealth (or at least the wealth others have given us)?
Will we instead admit that we are loved and accepted despite what we bring and
who we are? Will we give up the notion that well-dressed, spiritually deep,
emotionally healed selves are not what God desires?
Jesus
is in Capernaum. There is a centurion who lives there. He is well regarded for
he contributes to the synagogue, even though he cannot be a member. He has a
slave who is ill, and he sends for Jesus to heal him. As Jesus is about to go,
he gets word from the centurion. Capernaum is a small place – smaller than the
graveyard beside our church. Someone could have shouted down the street. “I’m
not worthy to have you under my roof. I’m used to sending and receiving orders
– just say the word and it will be done.” And so it was.
Jesus
commends his faith. He hasn’t seen faith like this in all of Israel. What kind
of faith do we have? Notice that the centurion didn’t say, “Don’t trouble
yourself Jesus, I can handle it.” He believed Jesus would heal. He didn’t
expect God to do anything different. He trusted in the God he knew.
There
is freedom in this. It is not our job to think up a way to keep this institution
going. Our job is to follow Jesus. Don’t we believe that God will give us
everything we need to follow Jesus? Don’t we believe that God’s Spirit will
guide us and correct us along the way? Don’t we believe that it is God who
saves and transforms us? Maybe we don’t have to work so hard.
At
the clergy conference, we spent an afternoon going out into the world to see
where we could find God at work. You can imagine the resistance. You want us to
talk to people – strangers – about spiritual things? It’s not so complicated.
People are people. We’re all trying to make our way in the world. We’re all
trying to find meaning and purpose. There is a desire for the love of God
everywhere.
We
don’t need to convince anyone. We don’t need to be any different to follow
Jesus. We need to trust. If we try to see with the eyes of the Holy Spirit in
us, we can see pain and loss in others. We can see deep desire for God’s
presence. We can see love. God is always and already at work. Don’t we believe
that? Let’s go and see what God is up to.