10/13/2024 ~ The Weekend of What Has Been Called Columbus Day and Is Now in Many Places Called Indigenous Peoples’ Day ~ Canadian Thanksgiving Day ~ Proper 23 ~ Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost ~ Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Psalm 22:1-15; Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Psalm 90:12-17; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1019927638

It’s Not the Particulars!

“You know the commandments: ‘No killing; no committing adultery; no stealing; no bearing false witness; no defrauding; Honor your father and mother.’” — Mark 10:19.

When we had announcements last week I made two statements about Congregational Associations. I thanked Carrie for being the representative in Skowhegan at the NACCC Association which spans the State and has 37 member churches.

I also said Sunday afternoon I would be attending the United Church of Christ Cumberland Association meeting. The U.C.C., a larger denomination, has six Associations in Maine. Cumberland alone has 33 churches.

Congregational Associations date back to the mid 1600s. The long standing Congregational understanding of the covenant commitment to and with other churches in an association is to respect and honor the other churches and even collaborate with them at times.

Now, when I was a pastor in New York, the local association was geographically large, not as large as Maine but still a dauntingly size. The Association had only 27 churches but spanned an area the size of State of Connecticut.

Back then I held a number Association offices, including Moderator. In those various offices I traveled all over that expanse of territory.

When traveling a distance alone in a car some people listen music, some to a book. I listen to academic lectures, often lectures on history. I know— history: boring!!! Well, boring for most people. Not for me.

Why history? This is a given: to be a good theologian you need to be a good historian. Christianity is steeped in and based in history.

Our Christian claim is Jesus was real, lived in history, at a specific time and place, that God has been present from before the creation throughout all time, is present in the world here, now, today. Our claim is the church of Christ has survived throughout history. So I think knowing history can help us understand where we are now. (Slight pause.)

As I traveled all over that Association I once I listened to lecture which said that, despite the title of the famous book by Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire neither declined nor did it fall.

Things did change but during the time described as a decline and a fall by Gibbon, the Roman Empire remained intact and functional. In fact, in that era Rome was led by two very competent emperors— Diocletian and Constantine.

They were seen as competent because they foresaw, anticipated, identified change in the Empire as that change approached. They dealt with those changes, made structural adjustments in how Rome was governed as the changes happened. They identified what’s happening as it was happening is important. Why?

Instead of simply repeating what is already being done time and time and time again, competent leadership looks at a larger picture. Seeing the larger picture means you ask what’s coming in order to anticipate what might change. Seeing the larger picture means exercising foresight.

And so the Roman Empire did not really decline as much as it simply changed, constantly changed. Of course, everything changes constantly. Constant change— that’s a basic lesson we all can and should all learn from history. (Slight pause.)

These words are in Mark. “You know the commandments: ‘No killing; no committing adultery; no stealing; no bearing false witness; no defrauding; Honor your father and mother.’” (Slight pause.)

There are at least three episodes in this reading. Commentaries suggest the writer of Mark meant them to all be seen as one and that insight, seeing the passage as a whole, could be a key to understanding the thrust of this reading.

So to start we need to grapple with this idea: what is said to the rich person is not meant as a call to abandon the world, become a wandering mendicant, a beggar. You might say the disciples left all they had to follow Jesus. But their future is described as ample.

So the concept presented is we, the church of our era, cannot flee the arena known as the world. That’s been true forever. We need to grapple with the idea that this is the time and this is the place in history during which we are all called to live and to serve.

Since both the rich person and the disciples keep the commandments we need to also grapple with the idea that keeping the commandments is not enough. Why? The commandments are just details, particulars. We need to look at the larger picture.

Hence, these questions need to be addressed: what does the world really look like… now? And how do we, how should we respond to the real world… now? (Slight pause.)

There are at least two answers here. First, yes the world looks like it is broken. If you think that’s not true, please listen to the news. What are we going to do about that?

Second, things change constantly. The world changes constantly. If you think that’s not true, please listen to the news. What are we going to do about that?

Well, this is what history suggests to me: the details do not matter as much as seeing the larger, the entire picture— envisioning, foreseeing. That is an imperative.

Put in a more colloquial way, do we pay too much attention to the tree— each individual tree— and miss the fact that a forest is right in front of us? That forest, that collection of trees, the systems in the world around us, are waiting to be identified and inviting us to grapple with them.

Let me put that trees/forest concept another way. In my Seminary Church History survey course the professor was painfully aware we were covering 2,000 years of history. That’s some history, isn’t it? So the students needed to keep up with the reading. Fall behind, it’s hard to catch up.

Hence, each week we had a 10 question short answer quiz, four possible answers for each question. The professor was generous. The tests were only 5% of the grade.

Further, each week one of the answers on one of the questions was always “Sir John Free-be.” Check that box, the one with the answer “Sir John Free-be” and get at least 10% on each quiz without doing the reading.

This same teacher also said the importance of facts is to give context. But it is much more important to know and understand the broad sweep of history, the big picture.

Knowing Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 is not as important as knowing what the voyages of that were are about, why they were initiated. The voyages illustrate the start of a new economic system. That system, new in that era, we now call capitalism.

The individual fact— the tree— that’s Columbus. The broad sweep— the forest— that’s economic systems. Which is more important— knowing about Columbus or knowing and recognizing that shift in economic systems, a shift which changed the world?

So what is a larger picture in Christianity? Our Christian forest is not about specific rules. Our Christian forest is about how we live our lives. The trees— living within the rules— that’s good. But living out from the rules is our calling.

Put another way, Scripture constantly asks this: where is our heart? And perhaps that exactly explains the interaction Jesus is having with the rich person. Jesus is asking where is your heart? (Slight pause.)

Have you ever considered this? Love is not a rule. Why? A rule is static, immoveable, immobile. It’s a noun. Love is an action, a motion, a verb. (Slight pause.)

Here’s another question about anticipation and identification. What is the purpose of this Church? That’s a question with which this church has been grappling and will grapple, a question with which any church should never stop grappling.

But in order to faithfully grapple with this question foresight, anticipation is a necessity. Foresight, anticipation is a necessity. Foresight, anticipation have nothing to do with the programs we have, who the pastor is, even who the leadership is. Each of us, each individual, needs to faithfully grapple with the question ‘what is the purpose of this church?’ (Slight pause.)

So, what does history teach? Immoveable does not work. Action, motion does work. Change is not easy. But change is inevitable. Success is not a goal. Being faithful is a goal. (Slight pause.)

Let me make one suggestion as to what being faithful might entail. Faithfulness means living out from the rules, living out from the reality of now into the reality of what can be. That means seeing the big picture.

What is the big picture? The big picture is seeing, identifying the way of life to which God calls us.

And that, my friends, suggests yet another step, a really, really big step. We— all of us together— need to trust God to guide us. Amen.

Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine
10/13/2024

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “This is a quote from a Jesuit, Greg Boyle. ‘We are not invited to an allegiance to a system of beliefs— do this and don’t do that— but to a way of living, a way of loving, a vision where we take seriously what Jesus took seriously— inclusion, non-violence, unconditional loving kindness, compassionate acceptance.’ — Greg Boyle, S.J. Or as I indicated in my comments, the commandments are merely the particulars. Our call is not to live within the commandments but to live out from the commandments.”

BENEDICTION: The Word of God guides us and assures us of God’s saving grace, God’s healing love, God’s eternal promises. May the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.