June 13, 2010 "How Then Shall We Teach?"

1 Kings 21
Luke 7: 36-8:3
Week after week, year after year, I am continually in awe, not only that the Bible written down thousands of years ago addresses circumstances of our lives, but that the lectionary selection of passages for the Catholic and Protestant Churches to work through the Bible together, should select passages so appropriate for our time. Listening to the story of King Ahab's coveting the Vineyard of Naboth, being willing to kill all that got in the way of his quest for land, his quest for what would satisfy him, conjures up circumstances around us, of the quest for oil at all costs, and of the fight for land and blockades in the Middle East.

Our Session are in the midst of a Major Mission Study. We are perhaps the most studied body of Christians, ever to have been Called to be The Church. We did a Mission Study of whether to have Co-Pastors, then another Mission Study to call the Co-Pastor, we then were studied by Alban Institute regarding conflict, then we studied the need for Building Renovations, then for the next Pastor, studied for interests in Christian Education, studied for what kind of Organ to recommend, studied for which translation of the Bible to teach, studied demographically, educationally, economically, studied for why we were able to get un-Stuck when many Churches cannot, we have even been studied genetically, because while we have a growing number who were baptized as Adults, we also have over 1/3rd of this congregation who are immediately related to ministers.

Several months ago, our Session came to the realization that our Church is in the midst of a Reformation. Not as visible as bulldozing a third of the Building; not as audible as changing Pipe Organs or adding choirs; not as tangible as Reforming Health Care (in S.Sudan); not a change that will require a Mortgage for the next 30 years; and we are not considering another Co-Pastorate; not necessarily adopting a Big Hairy Audacious Goal; but rather that there has been and continues to be a significant change to the identity of being The Church in the world, what we represent, what role the Church plays, and how we teach.

Decades ago, you memorized / recited The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Christian Faith and you were declared to have been predestined as a Presbyterian. In the Autumn you filled out a Pledge card of your giving; on Sunday mornings children went to Junior Church while adults came to Worship; we never went to worship midweek, instead Monday nights you came for Session and Committee meetings, Wednesdays for Bible Study, Thursday for Choir Rehearsal; and when the Offering Plate was passed you put in a tythe. The Change is from having set adherence to what Christians, let alone Protestants, even Presbyterians Must believe, to being in relationship as a Community of Christian Faith, who seriously pray and believe God acts.
The difficulty is that the former way had a clear curriculum, you could virtually pass a test whether you believed properly or not. How do you teach relationship as a community of faith? How do you teach that prayer is real and that God is not simply a philosophy or set of beliefs, but that the Holy Spirit of God does act in miracles especially in a world gone virtual?

This reformation has not occurred by vote or committee. Change began, as it does in the Church: with a child; and as change in the Church requires, with a group of women who were called to relationship as Grandmothers. We had a new staff member, who was a single Mom with a young child, a child who had not been baptized as an infant, had never before been in a Church. When she was very young, the child clung to her Mother. But when she matured from 5 to 6, or 7 Peggy, Martha and Ava committed themselves to worship God with the Child, teaching her how to find Hymns and how to sing, how to read the Bible, how to sit and listen, how to Pray, and that they representing the whole Church and God would be there for her week in week out. Eventually, the child now grown, chose of her own volition to be Baptized and led her Mother to be as well. Over a dozen years, the child grew and matured and was elected, ordained and installed as a Deacon, while the Grandmothers aged and passed, and the young woman began claiming other grandmothers.

The change occurred by refugees from decades of Civil War coming to a new and different country, where they claimed Mrs. Nichols, not as Ann, but with honor as “Grandmother”; where they claimed Jack, not as Mr. Howard or as an Elder, or a Dartmouth Grad, all of which he was/is, but in a faith relationship as “Grandfather”. In this and a thousand circumstances in our community, this change reinforced that you are a Pastor, not by years of education, not by ordination, but by accepting there are times when we need to be in a place not because we want or we receive anything for it, but because people need a Pastor. Where it would be wrong to preach your personal agenda or politics, because people need someone who gathers them in the name of Jesus Christ.
The change occurred by the Session determining that as The First Presbyterian Church we want to assist people with the resources of faith when people need us, to share weddings and the Sacraments, the building, to share in mission and in ministry regardless of membership sharing what people need, with sincerity and integrity.

A short-time ago, NPR interviewed a Movie Producer and Director, who described that people get into leadership, in politics, theater and movies, out of a desire for Validation, wanting to be applauded, wanting to stimulate emotion, wanting you to believe their story. He described having gone several years to a counselor, and after several months the therapist said “When are you going to stop trying to get me to like you and name what is bothering you what you have done wrong?” The Church does not seek validation, we are responsible for giving Validation! Whether a person committed murder, they thought painful images for the other person in their mind; they committed atrocious sins or were sinned against, our role in forgiveness is to Validate Humanity that still you are loved by God, still you are able to be forgiven, still we are in relationship, no matter what. Is that not what Jesus did for us once and for all time on the Cross as Savior? Teaching us that we are loved!

Culture has a formative power over us as human beings, we want to fit in, we want to succeed, we want to get along. But there are cultures which become destructive to life, destructive to human dignity. At those times, the Church which often is part of the culture providing validation and comfort to the challenged, must also be counter-cultural, offering a different formative power: not to succeed, not to win, but to challenge, to forgive, to claim, to empower.

According to the Old Testament, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had everything they could desire. Looking out over their kingdom, the King realized that adjacent to his palace and estate was a fertile little acre of property, owned by Naboth. The King wanted to possess this parcel of land to create a vegetable garden. Have you ever wanted something? Wanted it so badly that you could only see your own perspective, your own need, regardless of anyone else? The King tried to make a deal for the land; but to Naboth, this was not just land, this was not simply a vegetable garden, this is his inheritance, this acre of land was given to his family in the division of Moses! This land had been cleared by his ancestors' sweat, this land represented to him: his parents, his grandparents back seven and eight generations! Showing how corrupt the culture had become at forming people's values, when the King of all Israel and Samaria could not get what he wanted, he did not choose a different parcel, he did not offer a creative solution like share cropping Naboth's land, he went to bed and pouted. Whereupon Jezebel, who cared nothing for the culture or their faith, arranged a religious celebration, during which two unscrupulous fellows would be contracted to lie, to cause murder, a public execution by the State of the pawn who stood in the way of the King. After the deed was done, after the King's power has been abused, after religion has been manipulated, after Naboth has been killed, the King goes to inspect his new Garden, where he is confronted by the Prrophet Elijah, who reminds him of his relationship to God, reminds him of his relationship to serve the People, and his responsibilities as King. And Ahab demonstrates repentance, he takes off his fine clothes to put on Sack cloth, in humility, he prays to God for forgiveness, he fasts receiving nothing for pleasure. Whether Ahab truly repented in his heart, or whether this was just for show, does not matter to the Bible. He acted in the way necessary to be forgiven, and God forgives, at least within Ahab's own generation.

This week, a man came to see me from Tennessee, claiming to be on his way to Canada, looking for work. He was out of gas for his red Volvo. We acted in faith, we acted to help someone in need. The next evening on the news, there was description of the arrest of a man, this same man, driving a red Volvo stolen in Ohio. We try. There are no set answers or curriculum for life. There will be those who take advantage, but still when a person is in need, we respond as a Caring Christian Community.

Part of teaching, is not only the content, but also the context for what occurs. Jesus was invited into the home of a Pharisee for dinner. Mealtime is naturally intimate, this is your family, gathered together, where you feed guests from your table. According to custom, in a culture where one was barefoot or wore sandals, when you entered the house, you offered your guests not only to take off their shoes, but to wash their feet, leaving behind the soot and grime of the world outside. SO over dinner, when the Pharisee challenged Jesus that if he were really a prophet and teacher, he would have known that the woman displaying overt affection to him was one who sold her affections, who sold her intimacy, who sold her body for money. Jesus response was: culturally as Host, you should have washed my feet and personally welcomed me as an intimate trusted friend, but did not; she has bathed my feet with her tears and wiped them with her own hair, she has not been offensive, but has been personal and comforting in her human touch.

The irony of Jesus' challenging the Pharisee's hypocrisy, is that Jesus asked which one would be more thankful, one forgiven a little or forgiven a great deal? When in faith, it does not matter how large or how small the sin. Brokenness is brokenness. Whether a gigantic insult to God, or as tiny as a grain of sand, the sin rubs and wears on our relationship with God until repented and forgiven. According to Human Nature, the individual may be more thankful when forgiven more, but according to the Faith Relationship: A sin is a sin.

In many ways what we are doing in this Reformational Change, what we seek to become is more like the Christian Community of the First and Second Century, and less the institution that has at times been guilty of sin. How then shall we teach? By our relationships, by our being real with one another. I am told that during one of those earlier Mission Studies, the question came from one of the Session members, we had a Senior Pastor, we have had Co-Pastors, we have had an Interim Pastor, when we have a Real Pastor... when suddenly they realized what they had said to the Interim Pastor. From that time forward, the Installed Pastor has been referred to as “The Real Pastor.” Yet what we are naming, what we are trying to do, is for the Church to become Real.Would that our perceptions and our values, and our identification of ourselves as Christians were based on our being real with one another.

Then we would not try to dress 2 year olds up in tuxedos coaxing them to walk up an aisle at weddings as if adults. We would not have to worry about whether divorced parents could sit together for they would each attend a wedding to be present for their child. May our tears be real. May our relationships be personal. There are no easy answers, no one way of teaching, except to commit ourselves, attentive to what the Holy Spirit is Calling us to consider. The awesome power of faith, is that the Scriptures speak to us, of the coveting of Oil in the Gulf that has led to devastation; the coveting of Oil and Power and Land in the Middle East, that time after time has led to War; but also, that these same passages can speak to us personally, individually and intimately, about the coveting and hypocrisy of our lives; and the perpetual need of the Church to Reform as moved by the Holy Spirit.