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Buenos dias, to our distinguished guests. Good morning,
bonjour, jambo, hi y'all, Tennessee contingent.
Are you awake this
morning? I was in a congregation once where right before the service
they told me that typically, about ten minutes into a sermon, there was
an individual in the congregation who would fall asleep and begin to
snore loudly, and that they were going to position one of the deacons
right next to him, and when he started snoring, the obligation of the
deacon was to give him an elbow and wake him up. And I took that as a
personal challenge—to try to keep this man awake. But sure enough, about
ten minutes into my sermon, I heard the snoring begin, and I saw the
deacon giving a very pastoral elbow, and there was kind of a different
noise, but the snoring continued. And then he reared back and really
stuck it in his ribs, and the man woke up and smiled and looked around
just like he knew what was going on. So, how many of you think the
person next to you may need an usher this morning? OK—the Chattanooga
group! They got caught up in the Independence nightlife last night.
Our topic today is “Why is
congregational life so important to sharing the peace of Jesus Christ?”
First, I’d like to look at a basic theological concept that has already
been referred to several times this weekend. As Christians, we believe
that the Word—God’s creative, restoring, action—became flesh and lived
among us in the life of Jesus Christ. Through the Incarnation, God
became present in the world in a particular era, in a particular
culture, in a particular religious tradition, in a particular political
situation. And as was so eloquently pointed out this weekend, the
particularity of Jesus was as a Galilean peasant Jew who, according to
his biblical genealogy, was of mixed race. While that particularity
initially limited who could see and hear God’s “in the flesh” word of
justice and peace, this particularity is exactly what made the Word
hearable, seeable, touchable, so that a decisive revelation of God’s
vision of shalom—justice, peace, wholeness for creation—could be
perceived and understood better.
The first human response,
we know, was twofold. Some who had a degree of understanding of the
vision formed companionship or community around the Word; those who did
not, tried to exterminate the Word by killing Jesus. But remarkably, the
execution of Jesus on the cross simply furthered the revelation of God’s
word in the life and ministry of Jesus. And it energized in the universe
the work of reconciliation and justice-making that Jesus was all about.
So, here’s a critical point for our topic this morning: following
the Resurrection—which was God’s resounding yes to the message and
vision of Jesus Christ—the Word was released into the world, through the
power of the Holy Spirit, as a universal message of hope and peace on
earth. It was released into the world so that it could become incarnate
or enfleshed or embodied in other times in history, in other places in
the world, in other cultures, in other generations, in other political
entities, to continue its work of reconciliation, justice, and
peacemaking. How does that continuing incarnation or enfleshment of the
Word occur?
Recently I was rereading
the seminal work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer called The Cost of
Discipleship—a classic work. In a chapter titled “Visible
Community,” he presents the link between incarnation and the purpose of
the local congregation. He asserts that the Word is not just a vague,
disembodied truth or a spiritual principle to be reflected upon. He
proclaims forthrightly—and this is one of my favorite parts—the Word
takes up space on earth. The Word takes up space on earth in the present
tense. It takes up space and, as Bonhoeffer put it, the space it takes
up “is in the shape of the church,” and he’s meaning the local
congregation, the fellowship—not the church building, not the shape of
the building, but the people who are community. And so, initially, we
proclaim, in response to the question, that we believe that the
resurrected Christ lives in the relationships, in the gospel
proclamation, in the sacraments, in the outreaching ministries of the
local community of disciples. It is in congregations that God’s word of
shalom—justice, wholeness, peace—time and time again is made visible,
touchable, hearable, seeable, understandable, in the real world.
I’ve read many books on
Christianity and mission. I’m always intrigued by new models of ministry
that are emerging in response to societal trends. However, I have not
found a single work that predicts the end of congregations as the most
enduring and faithful expression of the revelation of God in Jesus
Christ. As Martin Marty, the Christian church historian, put it:
“Something like the local assembly will remain fundamental.
Congregations will take on the varied colorings of different times and
cultures, but in every case they serve to perpetuate the embodiment
which is essential in the whole church.”
In their work
Congregational Studies, Carol, Dudley, and McKinney expand on this
theme in almost poetic fashion. And I quote from their work:
It is our conviction that God’s presence
to the world in the ministry and mission of Jesus is contained in and
through the life and ministry of local congregations as well as other
expressions of the church. Much of what the world sees and knows of the
gospel and its meaning for life, much of what it sees and knows of God’s
concern for the poor, the suffering, and the alienated, much of what it
sees and knows of God’s concern for reconciliation and peacemaking, it
sees and knows through the life and activities of congregations at the
local level.
Historically, we know that
the earliest human response to the Word made flesh was the formation of
community that sought to embody the vision and message of Jesus Christ
for the world. After embarking on his public ministry, Jesus formed a
fellowship of disciples quite varied in their vocations, religious
views, temperaments, and status in society. The dynamic church described
in the book of Acts and other books of the New Testament are also
examples of this. Emboldened by the Holy Spirit, the early disciples
incorporated even greater cultural and religious diversity as they
sought to become truly Christ living as community in the world. In fact,
these early followers of Jesus understood their baptism as not just a
personal response to the gospel, but as making a covenant to be in
sacred community with others, regardless of their background—generously
sharing the life, spirit, and vision of Jesus Christ with people who had
typically been previously strangers, foreigners, and perhaps even
objects of derision for them. The following passage of scripture from
the book of Galatians, chapter 3, is believed in terms of its original
source, to have been a statement publicly affirmed by early Christians
when they were baptized: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no
longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all are one
in Christ Jesus.” It was commitment to local community, without walls of
division.
It was in these covenant
communities of disciples that people grew in their understanding of the
peace of Jesus Christ and their ability, their capacity, to share it in
the world. They learned it through teaching; they learned it through
experience as they worshiped and shared table fellowship with others
from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. As they applied
the ethical teachings of Jesus in their daily interactions; as they
learned, in that local community of disciples, to resolve conflicts
without resorting to violence; as they learned to share generously with
those in need, especially the most vulnerable in the society of that
day; as they learned to serve others despite one’s position in the
larger society, they overcame cultural and religious prejudice through
acts of love and reconciliation, and they bravely shared witness of
Christ’s vision of justice and peace in circumstances of imperial
oppression and in the face of persecution. This local faith community
was an incubator of disciples—real disciples of Jesus—being motivated
and equipped to share the real vision of Jesus Christ in the real world.
These congregations became demonstrations of the way of Christ to the
peaceable kingdom, in contrast to the culture of violence, oppression,
and death occupying the larger society. They became—truly
became—prophetic signal communities of the future that could be if the
world increasingly embraced God’s peace, as revealed in Christ.
It’s also interesting to
note, for those of the Community of Christ tradition, that there were
similar and parallel developments in the early Restoration
movement—initial attempts to respond to the call, to seek to bring forth
and establish the cause of Zion, the phrase we use to refer to the hope
of the kingdom of God coming on earth as it is in heaven. Initial
responses to that call included reconciling individual lives in
community life; alleviating poverty by sharing equally; incorporating
immigrants who were being drawn to the movement—strangers, foreigners,
who were brought in to the center of the fellowship, and experiencing
persecution in the larger society.
The call today is for
congregations to recapture the vision and zeal and commitment of the
early Christian fellowships to this kind of justice and peace witness in
the world. I heard a story once about a church building that burned down
and was left smoking on Sunday morning, and the members gathered to look
at this scene and they were very sad, and a member who had been inactive
showed up and one of the members turned to this person and said, “We
haven’t seen you in a long time.” And he said, “Well, I haven’t seen the
church on fire in a long time.” We’ve got to recapture that fire—for
justice-making and peace. We are not necessarily the communities of
disciples that Jesus envisioned simply because we occupy the same church
space on Sunday mornings, or go through the routines of church activity.
Recently, the Community of
Christ received Words of Counsel, and I want us to understand this
morning that these Words of Counsel, though given to the whole worldwide
church, are actually focused, directed towards the congregations of the
church. This is a portion of now Doctrine and Covenants 163:
Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God’s
shalom, invites all people [Veazey emphasis] to come and receive
divine peace in the midst of the difficult questions and struggles of
life. Follow Christ in the way that leads to God’s peace and discover
the blessings of all of the dimensions of salvation. [Not just the hope
of eternal life, but wholeness, justice, and peace in this world is
included within the definition of all the dimensions of salvation.]
Generously share the invitation [the
welcome, hospitality], ministries, and sacraments through which people
can encounter the Living Christ who heals and reconciles through
redemptive relationships in sacred community [that’s the local community
of disciples.] The restoring of persons to healthy or righteous
relationships with God, others, themselves, and the earth is at the
heart of the purpose of your journey as a people of faith.
You [congregations of the church] are
called to create pathways in the world for peace in Christ to be
relationally and culturally incarnate [enfleshed, embodied]. The hope of
Zion is realized when the vision of Christ is embodied in communities of
generosity, justice, and peacefulness. [Verses 2–3a]
This is the call to
congregations of the church today. The full vision and impact of
shalom—healthy relationships with God, others, oneself, and the
earth—are to be realized through “redemptive relationships” in “sacred
community.” Or as Apostle Bolton recently put it, “One cannot be a solo
Christian.” In spite of the overwhelming trends towards radical
individualism, at least in the Western world today, our understanding of
the gospel says one cannot be a solo Christian. For healthy
discipleship, we need the fellowship of congregational life—here’s where
we also learn to be real disciples of Jesus, sharing the real peace of
Christ in the real world. We hurt; we fall out with others; we learn
forgiveness and reconciliation; we learn how to pursue peace; we learn
how to advocate for the worth of persons; we learn all the dimensions of
Christ’s peace—the personal, the relational, the communal, the
global—and then we are sent into our homes, our neighborhoods, our
schools, our jobs, to share the salvation that comes from experiencing
the peace of Christ.
I want to be clear: I
believe there can be many different faithful expressions of
congregational life regardless of size, regardless of the age of the
members, regardless of the location. It’s all about mission and
alignment with Christ’s vision and priorities, whether it’s six people
or 600 people who are meeting together. The point is we can do more
together about sharing the peace of Christ than we can do on our own.
Or, as the old African proverb puts it: “If you want to go fast, then go
alone. But if you want to go far, go together.”
Did you know that the
largest food bank in Florida was started by the Orlando congregation of
the Community of Christ through a Tangible Love grant from the World
Church? Other examples of congregational justice and peacemaking
response: congregations that are supporting shelters for victims of
domestic violence. Some congregations are taking the activities and
displays in the Children’s Peace Pavilion here at the Headquarters
Complex and they’re replicating it in their local congregational
facility, and the children of the community are being drawn to those
activities. Sponsoring Young Peacemakers Clubs in neighborhoods and
schools; Russian-American Friendship Clubs between young people of the
church; Outreach International/World Accord partnerships; Listening
Circles; interpersonal peacemaking training—it’s all going on in
congregational life now. Pastoral and advocacy ministries for immigrant
families; congregational sponsorships of peace scholarships for young
people wanting to study the principles of justice and peacemaking;
congregations participating in the Save Darfur coalition to stop
genocide in Sudan; congregational support for members who want to engage
in a Daily Prayer for Peace wherever they are in the world—these are
just a few.
I want to stress, this
morning, that I believe it’s important, given the vision and mission of
the Community of Christ, that every congregation of the church, large or
small, in the fifty nations where we are now located, every congregation
should have a peace and justice ministry of some type if we are aligned
with what our stated vision and mission is. Does that sound too
difficult or ambitious? There’s a basic model for congregational
response that can be used in any size congregation. It’s called, “How to
start a church-based peacemaker group.” It’s based on the “inward
journey/outward journey” that we heard about yesterday—the inward
journey/outward journey mission group model developed by the Church of
the Saviour in Washington, D.C. The inward journey is spiritual
formation—the deepening of one’s experience with the Spirit of Christ,
which is a nonviolent, restoring, peacemaking spirit—it’s going deeper
in that spirit. The outward journey is about sharing the peace of Christ
in response to “unpeace” in any aspect of the world around us—the
family, the congregation, the neighborhood, the town, the nation, the
world.
Very basic steps are
included in this model. Gather a small group of members interested in
deepening the peacemaking dimension of their discipleship, usually six
to twelve people—no more than twelve people. Make sure the group is led
by the members but has the support of church leadership. Why do we say
that? Usually the pastor is so busy with so many things—members can lead
and should lead these kinds of activities. Assign roles to the members
based on the group’s discernment of each other’s gifts: Who’s the
shepherd? Who’s the teacher? Who’s the organizer? Who’s the visionary in
the group? And you find ways to draw out the giftedness of the members.
Begin and end each meeting with prayer—this is a spiritual journey, the
inward journey, the outward journey. Always be studying something about
the inward journey or the outward journey of sharing the peace of Jesus
Christ. Always be working on some action, some project, that has
something to do with sharing the peace of Christ, no matter how large or
how small. Connect your group to other groups that may be working on
similar concerns. Take your concerns to the congregation, to the larger
denomination. Write a one-paragraph covenant for the group to describe
the group members’ commitment to the group and to each other. Now if
that intrigues you at all, I would invite you to go to the Web site
www.ecapc.org. That stands for “every church a peace church .org,”
and you’ll find ample information about how to implement this model,
which I think is an excellent model.
But now let me bring the
question of the importance of congregational life to peacemaking to an
even sharper focus. In his article “Religious Violence and the
Spirituality of Peacemaking,” Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer presents a sobering
view of reality today. He asserts that the dominant religion in today’s
world is actually violence. The dominant religion in today’s world is
actually violence.
What does he mean? Here’s
a summary of his points:
- First, although people rarely kill each other for reasons of
religious difference alone, they do frequently use God and religion to
justify violence and killing when conflicts over land, oppression,
discrimination, or any number of other grievances escalate between
individuals, groups, or nations.
- Number
two, he says in the midst of nonreligious conflicts people frequently
use religion to justify human violence with a subtle, or not so subtle,
reference to sacred text, divine mission, or moral purpose—“I’ve prayed
about it, and God has told me to do this”—bringing justification, divine
justification, to it.
- Third, when people cite sacred text to justify human violence,
they don’t have to misinterpret the text. Unfortunately, portrayals of
God as punishing and violent are dominant themes in various sacred
texts. The problem of religious violence, in other words, is rooted in
actual content, not misinterpretation of sacred text, he says.
- Fourth, the widespread acceptance of violence as the means to
address grievances or establish justice means that functionally, now,
violence is the dominant religion in the world today. If religion and
faith are about ultimate allegiance, then it can be said that violence
is the world’s principal religion. Where do we put most of our money?
What do we turn to when we feel that our security is threatened—is it
faith, or is it other means? Where are the sacrifices occurring?
- Fifth,
and finally, apocalypticism may be the most dynamic religious force in
the world today and is growing within diverse traditions. The
apocalyptic worldview roots hope in the vindicating violence of God at
the end of history—to say that it’s inevitable, that this is going to
happen. And so some actually make decisions on that basis—if it’s
inevitable, then let’s hurry it along. It’s growing rapidly among Jews,
Christians, Muslims, and people of other faith traditions for this
reason: bad news is good news in apocalyptic thought about the end of
the world. Bad news is good news—it’s all perverted, it’s turned around
in terms of the gospel message. It offers hope to some people who
believe they’re going to be the winners because it promises not only
will they be vindicated—whoever “they” are—but that their enemies will
die. That’s the religion of violence that’s expressed in all the major
faith traditions of the world.
In addition to the
increasingly dominant religion of violence, we must add the growing
tendencies in our lives to give in to our discomfort and fears about
cultural and human diversity. Despite what we say about God as the
creator of humankind, we continue to behave in ways that reveal our
still deeply entrenched racial and national biases. A religion of
violence coupled with xenophobia—which is the fear of and even contempt
for human beings who are culturally or socially different—is a lethal
combination for humankind and creation. However, it is the reality of
our time that is spawning the growing number of local, regional, and
international conflicts—a religion of violence to which people are
giving their allegiance. This reality hopefully does not cause paralysis
in our faith communities, or despair, but an awakening.
When we began this
morning, I asked you if you were awake. Now I’m asking, is your faith
awake? Are your prophetic eyes open in terms of the real reality of the
world today? Bottom line—we have choices to make. Will we passively or
overtly serve the dominant religion of violence and ethnocentrism—the
belief that, really, one’s own race and nationality is inherently
superior to others—or will we serve Jesus Christ, the revelation of
God’s peace for creation? There are streams of violence, fear, racism,
and nationalism competing with streams of compassion, hospitality, hope,
and peacefulness in our faith tradition and in others. The Community of
Christ, as an international denomination, has clearly signaled that it
chooses to follow the path of peace by stressing sharing the peace of
Jesus Christ as its primary emphasis—that’s our answer to the choice
that is put before us.
Recent sections of the
Doctrine and Covenants, in terms of guidance to the church today,
provide clear direction in this regard. This morning we are sitting in a
temple that’s dedicated to the pursuit of peace and that is meant to
call everyone and all of our congregations in the world to become
sanctuaries of the peace of Jesus Christ. That’s the purpose of this
temple. World Church leaders have indicated that our best understanding
of the meaning of restoration and the cause of Zion today is to be
engaged in ministries of healing of the human spirit, reconciliation,
and peacemaking—pursuit of the peaceable kingdom for which Christ gave
his life. Yet there is a separation between the vision of sharing the
peace of Christ and what is actually happening in many of our
congregations. We attend church regularly, we participate in
congregational life, yet we continue to harbor attitudes, behaviors, and
allegiances that serve to promote racial, gender, and economic
injustices in our world. We say we worship the Prince of Peace, yet we
ignore within our own lives and relationships the root causes of
violence in our families, in our congregations—emotional, relational, as
well as sometimes physical violence—in our neighborhoods, in our nation,
and in the world. It’s in the local congregations of the church that the
competing streams of violence or peace, fear or hope, individualism or
community, must finally be resolved.
I believe that through
spiritual growth, life-long disciple formation, and congregational-based
peacemaking ministries, we can root ourselves in a spirituality that
promotes compassion, that promotes inclusive community and peacemaking.
We can nurture a community spirituality with each other that stubbornly
challenges any attempts to justify racism, isolation, or violence as
unavoidable in the world. The recent Words of Counsel to the church
speak specifically to this end:
Above all else, [above all else],
strive to be faithful to Christ’s vision of the peaceable Kingdom of God
on earth. [That means it supersedes other allegiances.] Courageously
challenge cultural, political, and religious trends that are contrary to
the reconciling and restoring purposes of God. Pursue peace.
There are subtle, yet powerful,
influences in the world, some even claiming to represent Christ, that
seek to divide people and nations to accomplish their destructive aims.
That which seeks to harden one human heart against another by
constructing walls of fear and prejudice is not of God. Be especially
alert [be awake] to these influences, lest they divide you or divert you
from the mission to which you are called. [Doctrine and Covenants 163
3b and c]
The hope of Zion
ultimately rests on the viability of congregations that understand their
core mission as the call to embody the peace of Christ. It rests on the
viability of congregations to effectively shape and send disciples into
the real world; to share the real peace of Christ, in all of its
dimensions. John Courtney Murray once described the early Christian
church as a conspiracy. By that, he meant the ancient believers, despite
their varied backgrounds, learned to “breathe together,” drawing on the
literal meaning of the root words con equals “with,” spire
means “breathe.” They learned to breathe together the Spirit of the
peace of Jesus Christ and then share it, exhale it, to the world.
It’s my hope that the
congregations of the church will become an effective “conspiracy” for
peace that counters the insidious religion of violence and racism that
is tearing the fabric of our world to shreds. If local congregations
cannot, or will not, embody a vision of just, compassionate, peaceful
community that bridges human differences and promotes shalom—God’s
peace—as their core mission, then we have effectively aborted the gospel
for which Jesus gave his life. We have rendered the witness of the early
Christian church irrelevant. Other aspects of the church can have an
impact, can contribute. It’s in the local congregation that the setting
must be established where the peace of Christ will either flourish and
be shared or will be overcome by other influences. The future of the
Community of Christ depends on our choices and our determination
regarding the focus and priorities of congregational life and mission. |
