"Rallying Our Faith" September 10, 2017

Exodus 12:1-14 Matthew 18:15-20 This morning is about trying to do the impossible! To quote our Calvinist ancestors, “Christian Faith is Pre-Destined from God”, so sinners are going to go on hurting themselves and everyone else, until God opens the hearts of individuals, absorbing God’s Grace, and we choose to forgive. Origins of Rally Day come from early 1700s after the Mayflower and before the Revolutionary War, when Protestant Revivals were held, described as “The Great Awakening”, followed from 1800-1870 with the Second Great Awakening, that left this area of the Northeast as The Burned Over District. These Religious Revivals sought to challenge the convictions and commitments of believers to deeper faith, to experience beyond understanding. After 300 years of Cultural Expansion, Theology, Science, Church History, Progress, all that has happened in our world, the task of a preacher today to ratchet our faith to a higher plateau, to deepen our relationship from “pseudo-community” who happen to pray at the same time, in the same pew, and listen to the same sermon, into one body: the Body of Jesus Christ, often seems impossible… But far more, this September, when we join in a “Rally together”, we cannot avoid memory of the many Protest Rallies and Protesting Protest Rallies that have given strength to so much hate, The New Covenant of Jesus Christ: that we would Love one another, Forgive one another, …is trying to do the impossible. Try to imagine how impossible the task before Moses! At any given worship service, we are thankful to have 100-120. Even Christmas and Easter, combining attendance at all our gatherings, there are always people missing. The Hebrew people living in slavery under The King of Egypt, were 40,000 souls. This morning, just as in the Book of Exodus, we are at the 10th Day of the Month. We start a new Program year, a new School year, Rally Day, Let us consider the past to be passed, and this the first day of the rest of our lives! Realize you were spared the end of the world, we, all our extended families and businesses have been saved from the flooding of Hurricane Harvey, Irma, Jose that is to come, and Kim Jon Un creating a Nuclear Missile for the United States. What if these were not by fate, but by God’s protection, what do you give for having been saved? Today, this day, each family, be that: an individual, a couple, or three and four generations, are required to commit to making an Offering to God in Thanksgiving for your life, the life of your beloved, the lives of your children, grandchildren, your neighbors, and all in your household. However, everyone must provide the same Offering, because this is not about personal salvation. God has saved us all! And by an offering, we are not talking about that 25 yr old jar of Sauerkraut at the back of your pantry. This is to be the best each of us could do, an unblemished perfect 1 year old lamb, that you are to take home, take into your home as part of your family, one with you, sleeping beside your children, eating from your hand, for the next four days. THIS Thursday night, after Choir practice, we are to gather together for the sacrifice, and with the blood of the sacrificial lamb still on our hands, we are to touch the doorposts of our home. Then, everyone is to roast the lamb with the same herbs, no boiling, no refusals. Everyone is to eat it the same way, together. With shoes on, prepared to run, ready for a long journey. Worship led by Moses was not about our understanding. It did not matter if you liked the hymns or anthem. It does not matter if you do not like lamb, the cost of lamb, or if you have a favorite recipe for mint jelly from your grandmother. Faith is experiential, driven by the purpose of Rally, Reviving our Relationship to God, affirming the Faith Reality that your life matters to God, you were saved by God! Imagine the impossible task before Jesus! How do you convince people to forgive? Especially when asking them to forgive their own brothers and sisters. Of all the people in God’s Creation, Church people, like you and I are the worst sinners, because we are people who concern ourselves with The Law, with Rules. During the 1700 and 1800s Great Awakenings in Massachusetts and New York, people responded to Jonathan Edwards condemnation of Sinners and Call to Faith, because they all knew themselves to be sinners in need of forgiveness. Today, we have been taught for at least two generations: I am Okay, you are Okay. That our parents and earlier generations did without so that we could have what we have, so we have indulged ourselves and our children. Instead of trying to acclimate to be part of the community, to repent and change to be part of the One Body, to get-along, we have excluded those who disagree with us, seeking out only a group of like-minded thinkers. I love the earliest identity of this congregation as the Religious Society, who acted as the Courts concerned that everyone forgive each other. Because the presence of Sin, a lack of forgiveness, has a way of festering like a wound, and becoming contagious. In those years, life was fragile. Today, between politics and global climate change we have a thousand other things to blame our problems upon, we have even named them Harvey, Irma, Jose, Kim Jon Un. What Jesus was teaching was not another Law or Rule, but a Relationship. Our lives are dependent upon our neighbor. Communion is not simply something I consume, Communion was/is a vulnerability to share ourselves wholly with God and everyone. Sin therefore is an infection that can and does harm us. Travelling with a group of Medical Students to the Hospital we built, we saw that Tuberculosis begins by a person getting a cut from a sharp reed, branch or blade of grass, not only becoming an infection, but now becoming contagious from the blood and breath of that person. I believe the problem with this passage for most of us, is that we confuse forgiveness with vengeance and atonement. I will forgive only if and when he says he is sorry, she pays for what she did. What we want is for those who have wronged us to suffer, to pay a debt for what we want to believe was taken from us. Forgiveness is realization that the wound to our relationship hurts me, wounds me so deeply that I become mortally ill until forgive. So I forgive, not because they atoned, not because I got what I wanted, but because relationship with one another, my wholeness with the body of the community is worth more to me than what I believed was taken. Someone taught me an old Medieval saying: The Church is like Noah’s Ark, a thing of Grace. The stench inside is often over-powering, but outside the world is being washed away in sin. Several years ago I recognized a problem in our church, this congregation. There were folks who came for worship Sunday mornings and left, receiving without participating in anything. When asked about membership they sheepishly replied, but if we join the church, you will ask us to do stuff. I responded “There is a simple solution: You do not have to be a member to serve, to be on Committees, to sing in the Choir, to teach our curriculum: everyone is welcome.” Is something going to be asked of you, if you serve on a committee, Yes, that you participate, that you think about your offering and your sacrifice, and your faith. Will students ask you questions, you may not be prepared to answer, Hopefully, they will make each of us think! What you receive by becoming a member is authority to participate in decision-making, the opportunity to truly make an offering as a sacrifice of this Body of Jesus Christ.