Memorial Day Weekend (proper 4, year C)

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.