The Waking Dreamer: The Church

Showing posts with label The Church. Show all posts

Monday, February 16, 2026

All We Need

1 Corinthians 1:1-9[1]

I’m not sure which is harder: renovating an existing building or starting from scratch. I’ve had some experience with both. Those of you do-it-yourself-er’s out there know what happens when you try to renovate an older home. There’s always something underneath what you can see that makes the project take three times longer than you expected. The home in Houston where I lived was a mid-1960’s Ranch style home that had been “redone” by the previous owners. Unfortunately, they had cut a lot of corners in the process. A lot of corners. It seemed like every time we started a project, we had to spend a significant amount of time undoing what the previous owners had done. It was frustrating at times, but the end result was satisfying.

Building a new structure from scratch presents its own challenges. If you’ve never had the pleasure, let me assure you that all the delays—from permits to suppliers to contractors—can make it just as frustrating a process. Maybe more so. As some of you know, one of the churches I served in Houston was destroyed by fire in 2010. This was a congregation with maybe 40 members. We had a great insurance policy, so we were able to hire architects to design a beautiful building. And with a little bit of “value engineering,” we were able to build that beautiful building with very little money out of pocket. But it wasn’t an easy process. We had to spend $300,000 just on moving dirt around to comply with the new flood plain policy. I guess I’d say building something new took only twice as long as expected, so maybe it was a little easier. Maybe.

There are people who would debate whether it’s easier to lead an existing congregation to thrive, or to build a new congregation from scratch. An existing congregation typically has the “critical mass” of resources needed to thrive. But with those resources come established traditions, and traditions are slow to adapt to the times. With a new congregation, you have a “blank slate,” so to speak. You can come up with new “traditions” that seem to work best for the specific time and place you’re trying to serve. But all that takes time and a whole lot of energy on the part of a few people, maybe primarily one person. I think how you approach this question depends on your gifts. Some people have the gift of coming into a new situation, seeing exactly what the needs are, and organizing a group of people to meet those needs. They have a knack for the work of planting a new church. Others have the gift of working with an established congregation to lead them forward. In both cases, as a friend of mine put it years ago, leadership is essentially about listening. You listen for the needs and try to respond appropriately.

Two of our scripture lessons deal with communities facing challenging situations, almost like “rebuilding.” In our lesson from Isaiah, the prophet was addressing people living in exile. Everything they had known—at least those who could remember it—had been taken from them. They had been uprooted and dropped in a place that was strange and seemed very far away from God. Their greatest challenge was maintaining their faith. In that place where they all felt displaced the Lord spoke through the prophet to change their focus. The people of Israel had focused all their attention on restoring what they had lost from their past. But through his “Servant,” the Lord God commissioned them to something much bigger than they had imagined. They were going to be “a light to the Gentiles,” to “bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isa 49:6, NLT).

I think the believers in Corinth had some similar doubts about what they were doing. They were a new congregation. The Apostle Paul had started the church in Corinth during an 18-month ministry there. But they had become confused about how they were supposed to live their lives together in Christian community. They were divided, and the factions were pulling the congregation in very different directions—some closer to their Jewish heritage, some away from it. One of the fundamental challenges they faced was how Jewish Christians and Christians from other nations could live together in one community of faith. And I would imagine the people in Corinth saw the task of trying to integrate people of such different backgrounds as next to impossible. It might have been similar to trying to build a congregation from two groups of people who speak completely different languages.

But the Apostle began his instructions with the assurance that they already had everything they needed to accomplish the task. He reminded them that everything they did was built on “the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:4). That’s a pretty good foundation. More specifically, he told them that they had already been fully equipped by the Spirit to carry out their work: “in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind ... so that you are not lacking in any gift” (1 Cor 1:5, 7). He’s talking about the “gifts” of the Spirit they needed to do the work of ministry and build up the body of Christ. And just in case they had any lingering doubts, Paul encouraged them that their faithful God would strengthen them to the end (1 Cor 1:8).

We’re living through a time of sweeping changes: changes in culture, changes in family structures, changes in our economy, and also changes in the church. Many of us may feel like the people of Israel: we may feel like refugees living in a strange land! We may find ourselves grieving that what was so familiar in the past is gone. Others among us may see ourselves more like the people at Corinth. We may be eager for the future to come, so eager that we’re not willing to practice patience and understanding toward those who may seem to be “dragging their feet.” We may be thinking that it’s impossible to forge a true community from people who have such deep differences in the way they look at life.

I think in both cases, the challenge of our Scriptures for today is to re-direct our focus toward what God is doing among us. It’s often called a “new thing” in Scripture, something unexpected, something we can’t even imagine. I know that it’s hard to see the past and things that we have cherished for decades seemingly slipping away. Instead of wringing our hands about the way church “used to be,” I would say that perhaps the way to move forward positively is to always be open to the possibility that our God is calling us on to something new, something bigger than we can even imagine. That means having the courage to let God lead us into the future that he’s planned for us. At the same time, some of us may feel stuck in frustration that things aren’t changing fast enough. I think it’s important for us to remember that God’s timing isn’t our timing. It’s also important to remember that the Spirit has fully equipped us with all we need to carry out our mission.

Life has changed so much, just in the course of my lifetime. It can be hard to look back on what worked so well for so long and see that they’re not working now. We struggle with not understanding why they’re not working. We struggle with trying to re-energize those programs, trying to figure out a way to rebuild them. It’s a little bit like renovating an existing building. It’s also hard and scary to think about what new things God may be doing among us, because we’re used to the way things have been. But if God is the one who is sovereign, and if we’re trusting God with our lives, then that always means recognizing that while we may not know what God is doing in and through us, we place our hope and faith in God to lead us. At the end of the day, Scripture reminds us that our faithful God will complete the work he is doing among us. It seems to me that’s where our faith is rooted: in the promises of our faithful God. He will always be with us. He will always guide us. He will always give us all that we need to accomplish our work. And he will complete the work he is doing among us. May we trust him as we seek to be faithful in completing the work he’s called us to do.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Relationships

Ephesians 4:21-5:2[1]

Last week we saw that we demonstrate the quality of our faith by the quality of our relationships. It doesn’t take a person with greying hair to know that relationships can be complicated. They can be wonderful, and they can be aggravating. They can fill our lives with meaning and purpose, and they can leave us feeling empty and confused. They can be joyful, and they can be painful. And sometimes they can be all of that at the same time. I’m not talking about any specific kind of relationship, but rather all of our relationships. All that makes us human means that we all approach all of our relationships with all of our flaws. I think, given that reality, “complicated” is the right word for relationships.

As we discussed last week, according to St. Paul, we take our faith in Jesus “on the road,” so to speak, in our relationships. That’s where we demonstrate the strength or weakness of our faith. That’s where we discover that we still have much to learn in order to grow more like Christ in our daily living. In our lesson for today, Paul gets specific about what our faith means for our relationships. Perhaps uncomfortably so. He talks about honesty, anger, and stealing! We might find that surprising. After all, these days we tend to idealize the early church. We think that they were perfect “saints.” And here’s Paul telling those first Christians to stop lying to one another, to stop taking their anger out on one another, and to stop stealing from one another. Apparently, the first believers were just as flawed in the way they conducted their relationships as we are.

Paul starts off by telling them to “stop telling lies” (Eph 4:25)! That’s pretty blunt! It presupposes that they were lying to each other! I would imagine that most of us would take offense if someone told us to “stop telling lies.” We all tend to assume that we’re honest people. Or at least that we’re “honest enough.” But we live in a world where the standard operating procedure seems to be “say whatever it takes to get what you want without having to give up anything to anybody.” In that world, we have all kinds of subtle ways of “bending” the truth to suit ourselves.

The problem is that dishonesty in any form erodes the fabric of our relationships. Instead, Paul quotes from the prophet Zechariah: “Let us tell our neighbors the truth.” In a world where “truth” seems to be for sale to the highest bidder, we might ask the question Pontius Pilate posed to Jesus: “What is truth?” I don’t think Paul wants us to be brutally honest to the point that we actually damage our relationships. There’s a time for speaking the truth plainly and openly, and there is a time for not telling everyone everything you know. Instead, Paul gives us direction about how to be truthful when he says, “Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words” (Eph 4:29 GNT). I think that’s the bottom line for Paul: because we’re connected to one another in relationships, we’re to speak to one another in a way that will be helpful, in a way that will “do good.”

Paul’s instructions about our relationships continue in a way that continues to be uncomfortable. He says, “When you are angry, do not sin” (Eph 4:26, NIrV). I would say that for many of us, addressing our anger is just as touchy as questioning our honesty. When it comes to anger, it’s usually someone else who has a “problem” with anger, not us. Our anger is entirely “appropriate” and “justified.” At least in our own minds. But the problem is that anger is not only something we feel deeply, it’s also powerful. The question is how will we use that powerful emotion. We can take anger as a warning signal that we’re off track in some way. Perhaps we’ve misunderstood someone, or we’re holding onto an unrealistic expectation, or we’re trying to control something that we can’t control. Or we can simply take our anger out on the people around us. When we do so, we use the power of our anger to harm others. I would suggest that’s the “sin” Paul wanted us to avoid.

It’s said that it can take years to build up a relationship, but only seconds to destroy it. That’s the power of anger. I’m not talking about the fact that we all lose our temper from time to time. I’m talking about letting anger control us to the extent that we say hurtful, hateful things to others. But we can choose how to respond to our anger. Psychologists tell us that anger is usually a response to either fear or hurt. If we can pause when we’re angry, take a breath, and try to see what is driving our anger, we have a chance to use our anger for good. And that means using our anger to correct our faulty behavior in our relationships. And the key to dealing with our anger in a healthy way is to “be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (Eph 4:32, NLT). Perhaps the first step toward doing that is to realize that we can’t simply impose our expectations on others. Rather, the way of forgiveness and kindness is to accept people for who they are.

Finally, Paul addresses the quality of relationships in the body of Christ in a way that might seem shocking. He says literally, “Thieves must no longer steal” (Eph 4:28). It’s uncomfortable to think that there were thieves in the early church. Some Bible translations display this discomfort with Paul’s words when they render this as “those who used to steal.” But that’s not what Paul says! Paul simply says, “Thieves must no longer steal.” It would seem that the early church contained people from all walks of life, including people who made a practice of stealing.

Again, most of us assume that we’re good, upstanding, honest people. We would probably insist that we’ve never stolen anything in our lives. But there are all kinds of ways of stealing. In the Bible, the prophets and apostles called not paying fair wages “stealing.” Of course, some ways of stealing are more subtle than others. We can steal a person’s good name by spreading gossip! We can steal a person’s trust by deceiving them or betraying them. We can steal a person’s innocence by taking advantage of them. The basic premise seems to be “I want what you have, and I’m going to use any means necessary to get it, regardless of how it might hurt you or anyone else.” I think Paul’s words about stealing here are not just about money or possessions. He’s talking about a fundamental way of relating to one another that seeks not to take advantage of anyone, but rather to do good to others.

Relationships are complicated. And it’s uncomfortable for us to talk about dishonesty, anger, and stealing in church. We want to assume that those are faults from which we’re inherently immune. But they’re part of the human condition, and St. Paul rightly saw them as a threat to our relationships. More than that, they undermine our ability to bear witness to the new life God is creating in each of us through the Spirit based on our faith in Jesus Christ. We can reassure ourselves that we would “never” do anything like that. But the uncomfortable truth about all of us is that we are all equally flawed and fallen. We may not all give in to our flaws to the same extent. But we are all susceptible to dishonesty; we’re all susceptible to taking out our anger on others; we’re all susceptible to stealing, particularly in their more subtle forms. Paul’s call to us, however, is to strip off those behaviors like a stained garment. He calls us to clothe ourselves with kindness, forgiveness, and love. He calls us to seek to do good to others, and not to harm. When we live like that, we will try to help others, not hurt them. We will look for ways to give to them, rather than trying to take from them. And as we do so, the quality of our relationships will demonstrate the genuineness of our faith. And the more we demonstrate the genuineness of our faith through the quality of our relationships, the more the quality of our relationships will draw people around us into our community!

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

God's Mighty Power

God’s Mighty Power

Ephesians 1:15-23[1]

I’ve said many times recently that it’s a difficult time to be the church. It seems like the pandemic and everything we went through changed so many things. One of the great challenges we face is the diminished influence we seem to have in our communities. People of all ages view Sunday as “fun day,” not the “Lord’s Day.” And as such a great many people who once regularly attended worship are spending their Sundays doing everything but coming to church. It can leave those of us who are here feeling inadequate, weak, and wondering where we’ve failed. It makes us question whether we’re doing anything right. It may even cause us to doubt whether it’s “worth it” to continue to devote our time and energy to the church at all.

Believe it or not, church attendance is not at its lowest point in history. It’s not even at the lowest point in the history of this country. Church attendance in this country was at its lowest point by percentage of the population in the early 1800’s. I’m not entirely sure why that was the case. It was a time when the world was turning from “superstition” to reason. I’m sure that played a role. But the simple truth was that the people in that time didn’t think the church was an important part of their lives. The fact of the matter is that it was even worse during the Middle Ages. Most people literally only went to church on Easter Sunday. That was the case for centuries. It wasn’t until the changes leading up to and following the Reformation 500 years ago that people began attending worship more regularly. It makes me wonder how those who continued to worship at that time kept going in the face of such overwhelming odds!

The church to which Paul was writing his letters, like our lesson from Ephesians for today, was facing overwhelming odds. Although they looked to the same scriptures and worshipped the same one true God as the Jewish people, they were opposed and harassed by many of the Jewish religious leaders. And they faced the same opposition from their own former friends, neighbors, and family from all the different people groups that made up the church. Because they no longer worshipped the “gods” their communities worshipped, they were harassed, attacked, and even expelled from their lives. And although the Romans were in charge, they could care less about what they considered an offshoot sect of the Jewish religion.

It was in that setting that the Apostle Paul wrote Ephesians. He begins this letter with long expression of his thanks to God for all that God had done in their lives to bring them to faith in Jesus, and to change them into a people who would love and serve God. God’s grace had already been at work in their lives through the message of the Gospel and through the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In our lesson for today, he shifts to a prayer for the church. There is a sense in which Paul could say that he knew they already had everything they needed in Christ to live fully into their commitment to following him. At the same time, I think Paul knew the struggles they faced, and so he prayed for this church, just like he prayed for all the churches he had encountered.

The gist of his prayer was that they would be able to continue to live out their faith confidently in the face of all they had to overcome. The focus of his prayer was that they would know “the confident hope” God had given them through Jesus Christ (Eph 1:18). As we saw last week, the hope that the Psalmist held out for the people of Israel in hard times was that their help came from the one who made all the heavens and the earth. If he had the power to create all things, then he had the power to help them. This week, we hear the Apostle Paul encouraging the believers of his day that, despite the hardships they faced, their hope was in the one who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand, “far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come” (Eph 1:21, NLT).

We may take that for granted because we’ve heard it many times—perhaps all our lives. But Paul doesn’t want us to take it for granted at all. In fact, he “piles up” words to describe God’s mighty power in raising Jesus from the dead. The reason for that is because Paul calls us to take a step beyond trusting the God who created all the heavens and the earth. He calls us to trust in the God who has the power to overcome everything that opposes his purposes in this world, as well as everything that threatens to harm us in any way. And he demonstrated that power once and for all by raising Jesus from the dead and giving him the “name that is above every name.”

Although we may not always see it visibly, the promise is that God’s mighty power is working right now to change all things and all people. And he is doing that precisely by what he is doing in and through the church. Paul could compare what God is doing in and through us to what God did when he raised Jesus from the dead. With the same power God exerted when he raised Jesus from the dead, he is working in and through each and every one of us right now! When we doubt whether what we’re doing is making any difference, we can look to the empty cross and remember this promise! The empty cross is a visible reminder to us that Christ is not ruling over all things from afar, but in and through the church! In fact, Paul celebrates the victory of Christ’s reign over all things as if it is something that has already been accomplished.[2] You may have noticed that today is “Christ the King” Sunday. It is the day in the church calendar when we celebrate the wonderful promise that Christ is reigning in and through us to make all things new. In a very real sense, every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, which points us to the final victory through God’s mighty power in and through Jesus Christ.

That may not make much sense when you look at things. Life seems to go on just as it always has. Those who are willing to stop at nothing to gain wealth and power are still getting away with it. Those who use violence to control and oppress others are still wreaking havoc in people’s lives. And it can seem like our gathering here to sing the songs of the faith, and hear the Scriptures read, and pray the prayers that have been prayed for centuries isn’t making much difference. But the mystery of Christ’s reign in and through his body, the church, is that God’s mighty power is at work in all of it, right here and right now. Everything that we do in this church, even that which may seem “ordinary” and “insignificant,” is a part of that hope. The risen Christ who reigns at God’s right hand over all things is working even now, though it may seem frustratingly hidden and subtle. Though all has not yet come to the place where “every knee” bows and “every tongue” confesses Jesus Christ as Lord, everything we do here today, and as a church, is a part of what he is doing in and through us to reach that final goal.[3] May we continue to serve Christ faithfully in that confident hope!

[2] Ralph P. Martin, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon, 23: Paul offers the “assurance that there is no part of the created order which is capable of effectively and finally thwarting the divine purpose, since Christ the head of the universe has already been installed in place.” Cf. Pheme Perkins, “The Letter to the Ephesians,” New Interpreters Bible, XI:384-85

[3] Cf. A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians, Word Biblical Commentary 42, 79-81.

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

On A Mission

Matthew 9:35-10:16[1]

When I was growing up, there were only two avenues for those who felt “called to special service” in the church: either serving as a pastor or a missionary. At least that was all I knew. When I “surrendered to the call” at the age of 17, I’m not sure I had a very clear idea of what my path would look like. When I was a freshman in college, I knew I wanted to earn a Ph. D. degree and teach in a college or seminary. And I pursued that path for 13 years. After finishing my degree, I taught at the Baptist seminary in Fort Worth for 9 years. I wrestled with feelings of being pulled toward pastoral ministry, but I didn’t think I had what it took to be a pastor. The truth is that I knew what to expect in an academic environment, and I had no idea what to expect in a pastorate. I would say that’s still the case, and it’s one of the things I like about my role. The one thing I (thought) I knew for sure was that I didn’t want to be a missionary, because they were supposed go to an impoverished country in Africa or Asia.

As it turns out, during my time at the Seminary, I also wrestled with feelings of being pulled to serve as a missionary. The head of the Baptist mission agency was a persuasive speaker, and I found myself gripping the arm rests on my seat on more than one occasion when he was sounding the call to serve on the mission field! And, at one point I actually volunteered to go live overseas to teach in a mission seminary in Prague. Unfortunately, the details didn’t work out. But as many of you know, I’ve spent some time in a variety of places. I taught at a mission seminary in the Philippines for 2 months in 1994. I visited Pastor Manuel in Nicaragua in 2000. And I met the Presbyterian nuns in Cameroon in 2011. As those of you who have served on the Membership and Outreach committee or on the Session know, I still have a keen interest in supporting mission partners both here and around the world.

A funny thing happened along the way. The mission field moved! Most observers of our culture would say that this country is now just as much a “mission field” as anywhere else. And you can find all kinds of outlets for mission, from working with impoverished communities, to helping victims of violence, to sharing God’s love with those who have never had much of a meaningful relationship with a church. I personally think this is a golden opportunity for the church in our day. There’s another shift that’s taking place in our culture. Most people under 40 aren’t satisfied to simply “send a check” and let someone else do the work. They want to “get their hands dirty” by getting involved directly in mission projects. I think that makes this post-pandemic era an exciting time for the church in our society. If our churches are going to thrive, everyone is going to have to step up. We can no longer expect the “paid staff” to do the work of ministry. We have the opportunity to reclaim the fundamental Presbyterian conviction that “every member is a minister”!!

It might not seem at first glance that our Gospel lesson for today relates to this idea. The gist of the lesson is that Jesus was sending the Twelve, his hand-picked ministry apprentices, to go out and extend his ministry of preaching and healing. Since they were the “Apostles,” we might think that our lesson only applies to “special” people serving in “special” roles. But a closer look at the lesson in the context of Matthew’s Gospel as a whole makes it clear that Matthew presents this story in a very different way. Like the other evangelists, Matthew was writing his gospel for a particular Christian community. And the message he wanted to convey in this passage was that Jesus not only commissioned the “Twelve” to extend his ministry. That commission was also intended for the church of Matthew’s day, and in fact for the church of every day! From this perspective, the church that seeks to follow Jesus faithfully has always found itself to be “on a mission”!

We see this reflected in our Gospel lesson in some subtle ways. For example, both Mark and Luke report Jesus’ commission to the Twelve Apostles, and they report something about them carrying out their work. On the other hand, Matthew, who has the most developed account of this episode, says nothing whatsoever about the Twelve carrying out this commission! It would seem that Matthew was directing Jesus’ original commission to the Twelve to the early church community for whom he was writing his Gospel. They were the ones he wanted to encourage to follow Jesus’ original instructions. Again, I think the point is that the church of Matthew’s day, and every day, is meant to carry out the original commission to the Apostles.

We see this also in that Matthew takes some of the traditions about Jesus’ teaching and connects them to this “sermon” to his church about carrying out the mission of the kingdom of God. For example, Jesus’ admonition that “What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops” (Mt 10:26) in this setting serves as an encouragement to bold proclamation of the gospel. In Luke’s Gospel, this same teaching serves as a warning against hypocrisy: “whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops” (Lk 12:3). It might seem confusing at first, but in a very real sense both Matthew and Luke were using Jesus’ teachings much like we would read Scripture today. They were taking them and applying them as they were led by the Spirit to the life situations of their respective church communities. Pastors everywhere continue to do the same thing every Sunday! Matthew has interpreted this saying as an encouragement to believers of that day, as well as every day, to carry out the mission Jesus gave us without fear.[2]

I could go on, but I think you get the point. In Matthew’s Gospel, this passage was meant not just to reflect the call to mission of a select few. Rather, Matthew saw everyone in the church as called to the “mission” of extending Jesus’ work. We’re all called to take part in sharing the good news of God’s love. We’re all called to take part in offering care to those who need it. That’s true regardless of how “actively” we carry out that work. Whether we go overseas or across town, whether we preach and teach or serve behind the scenes, we all share the same joy. To this end Matthew quotes Jesus’ promise that even the ones who simply offer a “cup of cold water” (Mt 10:42) get to see themselves as equal partners in the mission.

I think this perspective is going to be crucial for the church in our day. We live in a time when many people prefer to go and do rather than sitting back and watching. I think the more we can orient our ministry as a church toward “going and doing,” the more we will thrive in this strange new world. As we create opportunities for everyone to take part in the mission of sharing God’s love, we encourage more people in our congregation and in our community to step up and join us. When we do that, we will be reclaiming the conviction that we’re all “on a mission.”

[2] M. Eugene Boring, “Matthew,” New Interpreters Bible IX:260: he says Matthew makes this a “foundational principle of Christian discipleship.”

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

One Whole Body

1 Corinthians 12:4-14, 24[1]

Today is the day that we celebrate the birth of the church. All those centuries ago, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God swept through the group of Jesus’ disciples, empowering them to become bold witnesses for Christ. And the book of Acts tells the story of how they went out in the power of the Spirit to do unimaginable things in the name of the Lord Jesus. As they proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ to any and all who would listen, thousands responded. And what began in a backwater corner of the Roman Empire became a thriving movement. The power of the Spirit working through the church of that day would eventually change their whole world, including the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

When we look at our churches today, it may seem like a stretch to think that the same Spirit is still working in and through us. Churches that were filled with people 50 years ago are now partly, or mostly, or in some cases completely empty.[2] When you look around, you might be forgiven for wondering whether the Spirit who we say we believe empowers us “to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace” has passed us by.[3] Although the Church is thriving in other places around the world, in this country it’s a very difficult time to be the church!

While there are a lot of people saying a lot of things in about what churches “need” to do to thrive, I would say the place to start is with our own hearts. I’ve said before it is my firm conviction that only as we carry out our work in the power the Spirit supplies can we hope to achieve any lasting results. That applies to this and every other church. It’s one of the foundational themes of the NT. Everything we do in our Christian lives is the result of what the Spirit of God is doing. Everything we do, from praying, to worshipping, to planting seeds of faith, to growing in service to God, to living lives of kindness and respect, to sharing the love of God, will thrive or not thrive to the extent that we rely on the Spirit of God.[4]

That’s why we have to start with our own hearts. It’s not going to be enough for us to work hard for the sake of the church. That still presupposes that whether or not this church thrives is in our hands. But as St. Paul once confessed, “In ourselves we are not able to claim anything for ourselves. The power to do what we do comes from God” (2 Cor 3:5, NIrV). If that was true for Paul, how much more is it true for us. We start by recognizing that none of us can “make” this church thrive by our own efforts. We must look to God diligently, consistently, faithfully, and sincerely to pour out the Spirit in and through us if we hope that what we do will have any lasting results.

In our Scripture lesson from 1 Corinthians, St. Paul says it this way: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us” (1 Cor 12:4-6). Jesus promised, “I will build my church” (Mt 16:18), and the way he’s been doing that is through the presence and power of the Spirit working in the church. I believe we can trust that Jesus will keep his promise. I believe we can trust that the Spirit will continue working in and through us all. And I believe God will continue to supply us with what we need to carry out the ministry of the kingdom in this community.

With that in mind, we might wonder what we can do. Well, first and foremost, we can pray. Let me be clear about this: we don’t pray because it’s some kind of “magic wand” that will “miraculously” turn things around. We pray because that’s how we open our hearts to the work of God’s Spirit and align our lives with God’s kingdom. I invite you to join me in praying that God will pour out his Spirit and empower us to carry out his work in this community. I’ve been doing that since I came here. And one of the times I pray that prayer is on Sunday morning during worship. All I do is ask God to pour out his Spirit to help us thrive and to bring us the people we need to help us. Please join me in that prayer!

But St. Paul also knew that there was another dimension to a thriving church. He said it this way: “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other” (1 Cor 12:7, NLT). Many of us probably don’t agree with that statement. We think that if anyone has a “spiritual gift” that can benefit the church, it must be someone else. But St. Paul makes it clear in this passage that he believes that the Spirit of God works through every part of the body of Christ. That means that there’s no one who’s contribution is “dispensable.” For this or any other church to thrive, it takes every one doing what God enables us to do. We can’t sit back and expect someone else to do it for us. It’s going to take all of us working together as one whole body of Christ if we want to thrive as a church.

Whether we see this time in which we’re all working so hard to live faithfully as the body of Christ as a crisis or an opportunity depends on our point of view. We can lament that our churches are nowhere near as full as they were ten or twenty or thirty years ago. And if we take that approach, we will likely continue to watch the church decline. Or we can take the opportunity to step up. Each and every one of us. I believe that if Christians in this culture truly opened their hearts to God’s Spirit and truly aligned their lives with God’s kingdom, it would revolutionize the church. It would revolutionize our world! I believe that if Christians in this culture would embrace the promise that the Spirit has given each and every one of us gifts to help the church thrive, we couldn’t contain all the people in our buildings. If that’s what we want to see, it’s going to take all of us working together as one whole body of Christ.

I realize that all this may sound too simple to make much of a difference. But in my experience, a simple shift in mindset is one of the most powerful ways to effect change. That’s what I’m asking you to do today. I’m asking you to shift your mindset and trust in the power of God to build up this church. We don’t have the power in ourselves to do what needs to be done for this church to thrive. Only God can do that. But God has always accomplished his work in through people like you and me. And that means we’re all called to step up. If we keep doing what we’ve always done, we’ll keep getting the same results. I’m asking you to step up in a new way. Pray for the people of this church. Reach out to ask someone you know how they’re doing. When the people of God open their hearts to the Spirit of God in prayer and turn to God by aligning their lives with the kingdom, great changes can happen. And not just in this community, but throughout the whole body of Christ. Let’s join together as one whole body of Christ to do unimaginable things in our time through the Spirit of God!

[2] Yonat Shimron, “Study: More Churches Closing than Opening,” Religion News Service 21 May 2021, accessed at: https://religionnews.com/2021/05/26/study-more-churches-closing-than-opening/. The report suggests that in 2019 about 4500 protestant churches closed, while only 3000 were started. This compares with 2014, when there were 3700 closures, but 4000 openings. For reference, there are about 320,000 to 350,000 protestant churches in the US.

[3] The Book of Confessions 2016, “A Brief Statement of Faith,” 11.4, p. 312.

[4] Cf. Henri J. M. Nouwen, A Cry for Mercy, 109: “The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to his followers, is the great gift of God. Without the Spirit of Jesus we can do nothing, but in and through his Spirit we can live free, joyful, and courageous lives. We cannot pray, but the Spirit of Christ can pray in us. We cannot crete peace and joy, but the Spirit of Christ can fill us with a peace and joy that is not of this world. We cannot break through the many barriers that divide races, sexes, and nations, but the Spirit of Christ unites all people in the all-embracing love of God. The Spirit of Christ burns away our many fears and anxieties and sets us free to move wherever we are sent. This is the great liberation of Pentecost.”

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Building Together

1 Corinthians 3:1-11[1]

Anyone who has ever taken on a home renovation project knows that it’s rarely a job for one person alone. Most of us simply don’t have the skills to do everything that needs to be done once you started pulling up the linoleum and tearing down the sheetrock. There’s always something underneath the surface of things that winds up taking three times longer than you thought you’d need for the whole project! For me it was trying to turn a “Texas Lanai” into an indoor room. For those of you who don’t know what a “Lanai” is, it’s a kind of enclosed sunroom that actually sits on the ground. It was only after we had started the demolition that we discovered the concrete slab underneath was sloped toward the middle, like a drain. What a headache!

I think that we’re always involved in some form of “renovation” in the church.[2] The way things keep changing in society makes it a challenge just to keep up, let alone try to grow. These days it can feel like everything we do is vital to the survival of our church. That’s a lot of stress for anyone to take on. It’s a good thing that we in the Reformed tradition believe that ministry is something we all share together. I shudder to think what would happen if everything we did as a church was my responsibility. But even more importantly, it’s not even our responsibility together. Because, at the end of the day, building this or any other church isn’t something we do at all, it’s God’s work. We are all called to be partners in that work, but any growth that may come will be the result of what God is doing in and through us.

I think Paul was addressing shared ministry in our lesson from 1 Corinthians for today. As I mentioned last week, the Apostle Paul had founded the church at Corinth. After he had moved on, other teachers came and some of them were helpful, while others were not. A teacher named Apollos was one of the helpful ones. There were others who apparently thought they had more authority than Paul because they claimed to come from Cephas, or Peter. As a result, people in the church became confused about how they were supposed to live their lives together in Christian community. They were divided by their loyalties to different teachers, and the factions troubling the congregation. They seemed to be arguing among themselves about who was following Christ best!

But Paul redirected the conflict. He embraced Apollos as a partner in ministry, although we don’t know whether they ever actually met in person. But Apollos worked with Priscilla and Aquila, who had worked with Paul. For that reason Paul could embrace the ministry of Apollos among the Corinthians as a fellow-worker. And so he could say to them, “After all, what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants who helped you to believe” (1 Cor 3:5, CEB). They were both equally serving the church by carrying out the role that had been “given to them by the Lord.” By embracing Apollos as a partner in ministry, Paul was modelling the kind of shared ministry he encouraged them to practice among themselves.

But Paul made it clear that the real basis for growth—any growth—in the church is the work of God. That’s why Paul could say that “I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow” (1 Cor 3:6 CEB). He was careful not to take any credit for the work that God had been doing through him and Apollos in the church at Corinth. He says, “neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but the only one who is anything is God who makes it grow” (1 Cor 3:7 CEB). It comes as no surprise then, when Paul addresses this issue later in 1 Corinthians, that he emphasizes that what matters is working “for the common good” of the body of Christ, the church (1 Cor 12:7). One facet of “shared ministry” is that we work together for the good of the Body of Christ.

Paul also emphasizes in that section of 1 Corinthians that the only way that will happen in any congregation is if everyone is working together. And so Paul teaches the people in Corinth that each member of the church has a “gift of the Spirit” with which to serve others (1 Cor 12:4-6 GNT). He says that “there are different kinds of spiritual gifts,” but they all come from the same Spirit. He says that there are “different ways of serving,” but it is the same Lord that we serve. He says that “we all have different abilities,” but it is the same God who works in and through all of us. Another facet of “shared ministry” is to recognize that we are all called by God to share in the work of this church by using the gifts that the Spirit has given us. I know some of you may be thinking “I don’t have any gifts that can be useful to the church.” But St. Paul the Apostle insists that you do. I think it’s just a matter of recognizing that what you can do for the church is your “gift of the Spirit”!

Paul went further and instructed the believers at Corinth that if they wanted to join in the work of building up the Body of Christ, they had to build on the right foundation, and they had to do it carefully. The foundation upon which to build up any church is Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor 3:11). After all, he is the only true head of this or any other church. And only as we align our designs with his purpose will this church thrive. A further facet of “shared ministry” is that we are all following Jesus Christ, who said “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). The only “agenda” that will enable this or any other church to thrive is the one set by Jesus Christ.

We are all working to build up this church together. That’s important. The more people we have helping out, the more this church will thrive. Today we recognize that by installing new elders and deacons. But you don’t have to serve on a committee, a board, or even on the session to help with the work of building up our church. This church will grow as we all join together, doing what we can do to the best of our ability, recognizing that we are all “God’s coworkers,” using the gifts and talents God has given us to build this church. But ultimately the growth of this church is a bigger job than any one person can accomplish. At the end of the day, if this church grows, it will happen because Jesus is building his church. We will grow because God, who is able to do “far more than we could ever ask for or imagine” (Eph 3:20, NIrV), has given the growth!

[2] In fact, that’s the “motto” of the Reformed tradition: “the church reformed, always being reformed according to the word of God.”

Monday, October 10, 2022

Where Jesus Is

Luke 17:11-19[1]

There’s an ancient saying that has defined what “church” meant for hundreds of years: “Where Christ is, there is the Church.”[2] For most of church history, it really meant the opposite: “where the church is, that’s where you find Christ.”[3] It was another way of saying that there’s no salvation outside the church, which was what Christians believed for centuries. But I find that vision of what Christ is doing in the world to be too small. God is working in Christ through the Spirit to accomplish his work of salvation in this world in all kinds of ways that we may never even know about. And that means nobody can put limits on where Christ is!

One of my favorite theologians insists that we should read this ancient saying differently: “Where Christ is, there is the church” is more of a mission statement.[4] In other words, where we can perceive that Christ is working in the world, that’s where the church should be working. As the Matthew 25 initiative of the PCUSA reminds us, Jesus said he was with the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the strangers, the sick, and those in prison. In fact, Jesus told his disciples that he was the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the strangers, the sick, and those in prison whom they had encountered. My favorite theologian concludes that if that’s where Christ is, then that’s where the church should be.

We’ve already heard the message in Luke’s Gospel that Jesus came bringing the kingdom of God that breaks through all kinds of prejudices and boundaries. In our Gospel lesson for today, we see that played out with the bitterness that separated the Jewish people from the Samaritans. The Samaritans were descended from those who were left behind when the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell. But they were also descended from the gentile peoples that the Assyrian conquerors brought in to solidify their hold on new territory. That took place 700 years before Jesus’ day, but the bitterness between the Jewish people and the Samaritans hadn’t diminished one bit over all that time.

I find it interesting that when we meet the group of “lepers” in this Gospel lesson, there’s no initial mention of ethnic boundaries. Their common illness made them all unclean and outcast. And like many who are outcast, they bonded together despite any other boundaries that might have otherwise kept them apart. Because these men were all “unclean” and therefore socially outcast, they were excluded from all the normal activities of life—from family to community to worship. When they cried out to Jesus for mercy, they were obviously asking him to heal them from their disease so they could go back to their lives.

Jesus’ response that they go show themselves to the priest might seem strange to us, but when someone was healed from a skin disease, that person was to appear before the priest. The priest examined them, and if there was no further sign of disease, he declared them to be “clean.” That meant being able to re-enter their lives—family, community, and worship. I wonder whether when these ten men first heard Jesus tell them to go show themselves to the priest, they might have looked at their mutilated skin, and then back at Jesus. I wonder whether they may have thought that he had forgotten something: the part where he was supposed to actually heal them. But he said “go,” and they went. And in doing so their skin was restored.

Luke tells us that one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned praising God with a loud voice, and fell at Jesus’ feet to thank him. It’s only at this point that we learn he was a Samaritan. As a Samaritan, no Jewish priest anywhere was going to pronounce him clean. Simply because of the fact of his birth and his heritage, he would always be viewed by any Jewish person as “unclean” and therefore outcast. But it was this man, who had lived his whole life on the wrong side of the prejudices of his world, who had the ability to “see” that he had been healed by Jesus. He had the faith to see that it was through Jesus that he had been given God’s mercy that healed him.

In response, Jesus said to him, “Your faith has saved you.” This man’s ability to see beyond his healing and to recognize the grace of God at work through Jesus was a kind of faith that not only made him physically well, it also made him spiritually whole. I think this story reminds us that those who live on the “wrong” side of the prejudices of our world are often more sensitive to the presence of God’s grace than those of us who are “respectable.” Jesus asked where the other nine were, and why only a “foreigner” returned to give thanks. I think part of the answer might be that they were so excited about being healed they didn’t walk but ran to the priest. They couldn’t wait to be declared “clean” so they could return to their lives on the right side of the boundaries and become “respectable” again.

I wonder if this might provide us with a way to think about the church in our time. I wonder whether the church isn’t a bit like the other nine men in this story. We can still get so caught up with living our lives on the right side of the boundaries in our world that we miss the fact that Jesus is out there working with the “outcasts.” If that’s where Jesus is, then that’s where we should be. It leads me to think that if we want to personally experience the new life of God’s kingdom, or if we want to see renewal in our church, we need to be out there working among the people on the other side of our prejudices, because that’s where Jesus is.

[1] ©2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/9/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/91tpPTkHVYo .

[2] This idea originated in the early Second Century with Ignatius of Antioch, in his letter to the church at Smyrna: “wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the universal church” (Ignatius, Smyrnaeans, 8.2; often translated the “Catholic church” but in the setting of the early Second Century that translation is anachronistic).

[3] This development started with Ambrose of Milan in the late 4^th century, who said “Where Peter is, there is the church, and where the church is there is eternal life” (From his commentary on Psalm 40 [41]). In more recent days, the phrase has developed in the Roman Catholic Church to “Where Peter is, there is the church, and where the church is, there is Christ.”

[4] Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 126. He understands Christ’s presence in the world in two ways: “whoever hears you, hears me” (Lk 10:16), in which Christ promises to be with us in the proclamation of the gospel, in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and in the fellowship of the body of Christ (cf. ibid., 123-25). The second way is the one alluded to above, “whoever visits them visits me” (Mt 25:40). Moltmann insists that we can only truly be the Church and truly live in the presence of Christ if we link the and “seek the fellowship of the crucified one in the poor” (ibid., 127).

Thursday, June 02, 2022

How Will They Believe?

John 17:20-26[1]

I think it’s hard for those of us who grew up in church to witness its diminishing influence in our society. To some extent, it’s the result of cultural changes that have been in the works since long before any of us were born! The history of American Christianity bears witness to the way the influence of the church has waxed and waned from the very beginning until now. Many of us grew up in the wake of the most recent of several “great awakenings” that renewed the importance of the church in people’s lives. But that renewal has been fading for decades now.

The declining interest in church participation is not only due to these broader changes, however. I would say that there is a very real sense in which the cause of this decline lies at our feet. People have lost interest in church in many cases not in spite of what we’ve done, but because of what we’ve done. There are churches in our circle of influence that still publicly “shun” those they deem to be “sinful.” And there are a lot of churches who practice something similar to shunning by denying the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper to those who aren’t “deserving.” But perhaps the worst black eye of all is the way in which we who call ourselves members of the Body of Christ treat one another, sometimes over the most insignificant differences of opinion.

In our Gospel lesson for today, I think Jesus calls us to a different way. Jesus called his disciples to a unity that is grounded in the unity he shared with the Father based on the love between them. Jesus prays, “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us” (Jn. 17:21). He says it in several different ways, but essentially Jesus prayed for the disciples “that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me” (Jn. 17:22-23). I would say Jesus understood that his disciples would experience this unity as they were connected to him, and therefore as they were connected to the Father. What creates true unity in the church is the fact that we have been enfolded into the relationship of love that unites Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus says that the purpose of this unity among his disciples is “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21). The idea of “believing that you have sent me” may seem like a strange way to describe faith. We’re familiar with “believing in” Jesus, but it’s not so common to hear about “believe that” Jesus was sent by God. In John’s Gospel, however, this is one of the questions associated with Jesus, his mission, and the faith he calls people to have in him. The Jewish leaders continually debated his identity based on the question where Jesus came from. He tried to tell them in many different ways that he had come from the Father, and he called them to believe this. This is one of the important ways that John’s Gospel frames faith.

In fact, this is so important in John’s Gospel that Jesus repeats here it a little differently. It is his desire “that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (Jn 17:23). Here the idea of “believing” is replaced with “knowing,” which is not unusual in John’s Gospel. Not only does Jesus ask that his disciples share the relationship of love that he had with the Father, but he also wants the world to know that his disciples shared that relationship. I think at least one way in which the world would know this is by the way in which his disciples live out their unity with one another.

I guess the real question, though, is how we promote this kind of unity among people like us, who hold very different ideas about what we consider important in life. We can get very attached to our opinions, and we can be stubborn at times about holding onto our viewpoints. I think it takes a unity that is deeper and stronger than anything we can create ourselves. What really makes the church one is the unity that God creates—the church is the one people of the one God. It’s the unity that Jesus Christ creates—the church is the one people of the one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s the unity that the Spirit of God creates—the church is the one people of the one Holy Spirit. This is the unity that enables the world to believe in Jesus through our witness.

I don’t believe this kind of unity is about the absence of difference. I believe that one of the signs of a healthy community is their ability to disagree. The bond created among us by the presence of God in Christ through the Spirit doesn’t eliminate the differences among us. It means that the differences don’t divide us, they make us stronger. That happens when we deal with differences by focusing on our agreements without engaging in “mud-slinging” or “name-calling” or in any other way tearing down brothers and sisters in Christ who hold different views about crucial issues. The ties that bind us together are stronger than our differences of opinion!

When I was serving in Houston, the PCUSA was dealing with some divisive issues. A friend of mine who was the pastor of a nearby church led an education session during a Presbytery meeting. In that meeting he shared that their church was not “of one mind, but we are not divided.” That has stuck with me for many years. Bearing witness to our unity in Christ doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything, but I think it does mean that our disagreements don’t divide us. When we can show our world this kind of unity, especially now, I think our witness can be a way for them to believe.

Monday, January 10, 2022

And the Story Continues ...

And the Story Continues …

Luke 3:21-22[1]

One of the challenges of our day is that it’s so easy for many of us to feel disconnected. If you have children at home, you’re connected to other families through their activities. Those of us who have extended families nearby have a connection there. And we come to church looking for a way to feel connected. But the pandemic has thrown a great big wrench into all those connections. Just the simple fact that some of us choose to get vaccinated and some of us don’t has the effect of weakening our connection to one another. And now this new wave of cases may have us all feeling like we’re wading through “deep waters” (Isa 43:2).

Those who study what it means to thrive in this life tell us that we need a sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. These days it seems like all the options for having that sense of belonging are in question. Our national identity as a people has been fracturing for years. Even our connection to faith has been changing in recent decades, as people become less interested in maintaining any kind of religious heritage. These days, most folks don’t care about names like “Presbyterian” on the church sign, and many have given up on church altogether. When the main sources of our belonging to something bigger fail us, where do we turn?

I think our Gospel lesson for today can help us with that question. Yes, I’m talking about the story of Jesus’ baptism. It may seem strange that Jesus’ baptism has anything to do with this, but if we pay attention to the details, we might be surprised. I’ll share one hint at the outset: Luke’s version includes some important details that are different from the way we typically understand Jesus’ baptism. But that’s why it’s all the more important to pay attention to them.

First, Jesus’ baptism in Luke’s Gospel occurs as “all the people” were being baptized. It’s not entirely clear from the English translation, but in this version, Jesus’ baptism is framed as if Jesus were one of those standing in the line to be baptized by John. After Jesus was baptized, someone else stepped up for their turn. In other words, in response to John’s preaching about true repentance through daily acts of mercy and justice, the “people” came to be baptized. And Jesus took his place among them.

This may raise some eyebrows among us. The people who came to be baptized by John were coming to demonstrate their repentance. From that point of view, it may seem strange to us that Jesus needed to be baptized. While I wouldn’t say he needed to repent of any sins, I would say he needed to be baptized. The reason is that by doing so, Jesus identified with the Jewish people, even with all their failings. And he did that on purpose: Jesus redeemed the Jewish people by becoming one of them, and he redeems us all in the same way.

A second feature of Jesus’ baptism in Luke’s Gospel is that only Luke tells us that everything that followed happened “while Jesus was praying.” The “heavens opened,” the Spirit descended to him as a dove, and the voice from heaven all came to Jesus while he was praying. But that too seems to be an intentional detail in Luke’s Gospel. Although it may seem strange to us, Luke describes Jesus as coming to an understanding of his calling and purpose the way any person would. We might say that Luke tells us the story of Jesus’ baptism without a halo. In order to carry out all that he would do, he needed God’s confirmation. And so his baptism launches him into the work of God’s kingdom to which he had been called.

More than that, Luke emphasizes perhaps more so than the other Gospels that Jesus needed the power of the Spirit to carry out his ministry. We tend to assume that, since Jesus was both fully divine and fully human, he had all the knowledge and power he needed from the very beginning. But Luke tells the story more from the perspective of Jesus’ full humanity. Like one of the prophets of old, “the word of the LORD” came to him to commission him for his work. And the Spirit empowered him to carry out God’s saving purpose.

The gift of the Spirit to Jesus at his baptism not only launched his ministry, but it also set in motion everything that follows. And that means that what happened that day in the Jordan river was a part of God’s larger story of salvation. By taking his place among the people lined up to be baptized, Jesus was stepping into that story of salvation. By serving in the power of the same Spirit that had empowered the prophets of old, Jesus was stepping into that story. And when the Spirit came upon the church to empower them, the story continued.

If we look at the story of the church in the book of Acts, we see more indications of how the story of God’s salvation continued. When Luke refers to his “first book” as being about “all that Jesus began to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1), the implication is that with story of the church, the story of God’s saving work continued. And when Luke concludes Acts in a way that doesn’t really provide an “ending,” the effect is to declare that the story of God’s saving work would keep going. And so it is that each of us, in our own baptism, take our place in God’s ongoing story of salvation that began with Abraham and continued through the prophets and through Jesus and the early church, and still continues to this day. That’s the “something bigger” that we all belong to. That’s what keeps me going day after day, week after week, and year after year, even in times of crisis. As we all take our place in the Body of Christ, the story continues.

Monday, August 24, 2020

God's Work

God’s Work

Matthew 16:13-20[1]

Some of you know that I serve on the Board of Directors of the Omaha Presbyterian Seminary Foundation. Our mission is “to seek, develop and support excellence in Christian leadership through the PCUSA.” With that in mind, we sponsor programs to help pastors and churches thrive in the 13-state region that includes much of the Midwest and some of the mountain states. For example, when Christy Dempsey was our pastoral intern a couple of years ago, the Seminary Foundation paid for most of her salary. Another way we work is by providing scholarships to seminary students to help offset the high cost of their education. Every year at this time I have anywhere from 40 to 60 applications from students at PCUSA seminaries.

One thing I’ve noticed is the many different “answers” the applicants have for what the church needs to thrive in the 21st Century. Some of the answers are amusing in their youthful idealism. Others are really quite thoughtful. I find it ironical, however, that I’ve hardly ever read that the church needs to return to their dedication to faith, because ultimately whether the church thrives or not depends on God’s work among us. The music, technology, education, and community outreach are all important. But I think the fundamental answer is to be found elsewhere.

I believe that our Gospel lesson for today points us in the right direction. Unfortunately, many are drawn into the centuries-long debate between the Catholic and Protestant branches of the church about the “true” church. I think that misses the point. Regardless of whether you define the “rock” upon which the church is built as Peter himself, or Peter’s confession of faith, or something else altogether, it seems more important to me that Jesus said “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). The bottom line here is that Jesus is the one who builds the church, not me, or you, or anybody else.

That reminds me of something St. Paul said about his ministry. The church at Corinth had become divided by their loyalties to different teachers. But Paul says that all those teachers were just workers in God’s field. One plants, another waters, and another one reaps the harvest. But whether or not there is a harvest at all depends on God as the one who “gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7). We can discuss policies and programs all day long until we’re blue in the face (something Presbyterians seem to be “good” at), but unless we look to God to give the growth, I would say we’re just spinning our wheels.

So how do we promote the vitality of this congregation by looking to Jesus to build his church? I think this introduces the second important dimension to what it takes to help churches thrive in our day and time. At its core, this kind of work is spiritual work. It’s not organizational, it’s not programmatic, it’s not marketing. It’s spiritual work. It’s true that those things are important. But at the end of the day, building the church requires that we do everything we do in the recognition that God is the one who gives the growth. That means that it is crucial for us to pay attention to our spiritual lives. In order to truly promote God’s work in this world, we have to align our hearts and minds and lives with God’s ways.

I think that’s something of what St. Paul was talking about when he urged the church at Rome to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1). He called them to be “transformed” in their minds and hearts so that their lives might reflect “the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). This is at heart a spiritual endeavor, one that we can undertake only by spiritual means. We Presbyterians have traditionally called them the “Great Ends of the Church.” But it’s simply a matter of making worship, service, and witness the core of our lives rather than something we do from time to time. Whenever the church engages in that spiritual work, we experience God’s work of transforming and renewing our life together.

In one sense, this spiritual work is not the calling of just one person, or even a few. It is the work of the whole body. Building up the church in our day and time is something that takes all gifts that God has given each and every one of us. It takes all of us giving the best we can give to be the body of Christ, to be a community defined by faith, hope, love, and witness. God builds the church in partnership with us.

In another sense, building the church isn’t something we do at all, it’s God’s work. When our lives are centered on the faith, hope, and love that define what it means to live in a relationship with God, we will grow. Perhaps not numerically, but we will grow. At the end of the day, however, we will grow because Jesus is building his church. We will grow because God has given the growth. We will grow as the result of God doing his work in and through each and every one of us.

The Waking Dreamer