9-28

“WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CHURCH IN THE 21ST CENTURY CALLED EMERYWOOD?”

I Corinthians 13

by Robert U. Ferguson, Jr.

9.28.14

Recently I learned a new word from a colleague from the past — ecotone. This is the place where two ecospheres meet and come together, merging as one from that point forward. Where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico is a massive ecotone. Let me quote my friend to get this definition exact: “An ecotone is always a place that is fragile, unstable, shifting, fluid, risky, filled with danger and yet, at the same time, it is a place that is incredibly fertile, where new life is spawned and new hopes are born.”1

Today we find ourselves, according to my friend, in the 3rd great “historical ecotone.” The first was in A.D. 410 with the fall of Rome. The second was in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople. When the third began is anyone’s guess, but it is symbolized by the fall of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. This event, he suggests, portends the “transition from modernity to postmodernity” — a transition which both preceded this event and continues to this day.

This “ecotone” is a wonderful image to describe the situation in which Christianity and the church find themselves today. We are in as unstable and fluid a situation as I have known the church since its earliest days. As Christ-followers, we are resident aliens,2 living in a world that is not our own. The cultural marriage of church and state, always tenuous, has, like Humpty Dumpty, fallen off the wall and will never be put back together again. As Christians we are no longer the dominant cultural force...our beliefs and values are no longer commonplace.

The biggest challenge for us lies in the emphases of contemporary, postmodern culture: individualism, personal narrative, relative truth — and therefore relative ethics. (What I believe is right for me is right, as long as it does not harm you directly.) These all fly in the face of an institution built on community, meta- narrative, i.e., the big, all encompassing story, and objective truth/ethics. For two centuries and more, right and wrong were easily distinguished in our Christian culture: just go read the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount or the epistles of Paul. Whatever they said, that’s what you did. End of discussion.

This is all gone...whether that is good or not, history will tell. The reality is that being inseparably connected to governmental and society powers had its perks, but the downside was much greater. It is very difficult to be prophetic to a government or society when you are perceived as one of the powers of that establishment.
The result is that churches must now, more than ever, establish their own raison d’etre. We must demonstrate to the world that we are not only necessary, but a vital component of a vibrant and living culture. We must show our communities that without churches the foundation upon which moral and spiritual life depend will be eroded and never replaced.

At Emerywood we are facing a crossroads in our existence. Do we batten down the hatches, keep doing the same old, same old, and hope and pray for different results? Do we recruit young people so we can teach them how we did it so they can do it the same way? Do we jettison all the structures and programs of the past just to replace them with the latest fad in church life? Obviously my answer to all of these is no.

I see a better way, one that is more encompassing but is also quite challenging, for it is one is which nothing is secure, nothing is nailed down except our commitment to God through Jesus Christ. Let me share it with you.

It is my belief that we find ourselves in a situation analogous to the early church. They were a small cadre of believers in a pagan, polytheistic world. They had to learn to work from beneath rather than from above. They could not depend upon the social structures to assist them in any shape, form or fashion. There really was no road map for them — it simply did not exist. They awoke every morning, wondering if Jesus was coming back that day or if the Roman Empire would squash them like so many insects. Their life was tenuous, uneasy, and uncertain. All they knew was that through Christ they knew the love of God; therefore, they were called to live out this love in a world that was completely at odds with their beliefs.

If Emerywood is to succeed in the coming years, it will be because we follow their secret: we learn to love others and in so doing, out-love the world. The key to the early church was not just the truth/gospel they proclaimed, but the love which they shared — with one another but also with the larger world in which they lived. This church had neither army, nor arms ,and no power — but it overcame one of the greatest empires the world has ever known, solely through its love. The early church loved Christ and each other — and it looked for ways in which it could share that love with a world.

What people want to know, more than anything else, is that they are loved. Victor Hugo said it best: “The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.” In my experience, when people know that they are loved, they will respond to that love. Every time. The gospel of Jesus Christ spread because it was and is a gospel of love.

Now, to be sure, the early church often got it wrong — they were sinners saved by grace. A quick perusal of I Corinthians will convince us that Corinth struggled with significant theological, ethical and spiritual issues. Partisan bickering over who was the best preacher, which clique was the most spiritual and who possessed the greatest talents and gifts — these were destroying the Corinthian church. Immorality, a given in their pagan world where temple prostitutes were common, had spread throughout the church as well. Their observance of the Lord’s Supper and the Agape Love feast had evidently descended into an event just this side of a drunken orgy.

Paul’s initial answer to this is an emphasis on ethics and morality; but he then moves to stress the necessity of Christ-like love. Paul knew that no matter now many rules and principles he laid down, someone would always find a way around them or ignore them. Paul also knew that if love was the motivating principle of the Christian life (and it was and is), then the ultimate answer to challenges both inside and outside the church is to understand and practice agape love. Paul believed that if he could get the thread of love woven into the fabric of their church as the essential, sine qua non of their existence, then all else would fall into line. If you loved the other then you would not be willing to divide into competing factions and/or to undercut or ridicule or cut down the other in an effort to lift yourself. In fact, Paul knew that if you loved Christ and the other as Christ taught, then you would place the other ahead of your own desires.

I believe that the church which flourishes in the 21st century will be one which is founded upon and lives out this imperative of love. With all the information available, with all the claims upon our time and energies, the world does not need another organization. What the world needs is a community in which it will be loved and be given the opportunity to love others.

Love is irresistible. When we love others, they respond to our love. It is through our loving others that they discover the love of Jesus Christ. We do not just wake up one day and discover that God is love. Think about how we came to God in Christ: direct experience of God is minimal; we experience God through other human beings. We are loved into the kingdom — and then we turn around and love others into that same kingdom.

What does it mean to love others with the love of Christ? Listen again to those verses of our text:
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.3

Too often we think that to love someone we have to like or approve of them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Love means acceptance of the other. Approval of or even “liking” another have little or nothing to do with love. Why? Each of us has our personal cultural blinders on which pre-determine how we see the other. Love enables us to set those aside and accept the other even when they come from situations and cultures radically different than ours.
Love looks to the inside, to the person created in the image of God. Loving them does not mean that we give them carte blanche to run all over us — sometimes the loving act is the tough act. However, when one leads with love/acceptance, then our differences fade away in importance.

The church which thrives will be, in my opinion, the church which best loves not only inside, but even more so outside the walls of their community. It is one thing to love people who are already inside, but quite another to love that person who is outside, whom we do not know or understand. Love, if we really love, works to bring that person from the outside to the inside, to give them the acceptance and understanding they need and seek.
Now, many of you are sitting there wondering, what’s so revolutionary about this? Nothing, and everything, concurrently. Yes, this is the old commandment of Jesus — and yet it remains the most difficult. For love always asks these questions:

• Not, what can you do for us? Rather, what can we do to help you know God’s love?
  
• Not, what have we done in the past? Rather, what is the loving act in the present? (Love is what we do, not what we say.)
• Not, what about me and my feelings, desires and wishes? Rather, what about the other’s needs and how can we show love to them?

If we can get the “love” right, then all else falls into place. On any issue of significant change of operation or direction, the question is not “What have we done or what do we think we ought to do?” The question becomes, “What communicates and shows love to others? How ought we to conduct ourselves so that the world knows that they are loved?”

For instance, in a recent sermon I raised a peripheral question which we have been kicking around for over 10 years: Ought we to change our name? Are the words “Emerywood” and “Baptist” so restrictive as to keep people from visiting us? The answer usually given depends on our personal perspective. Nothing wrong with that — that’s the way all of us work. However, what if we asked a different question: “Would changing our name open us up to touching more people with the love of Jesus Christ? Is it possible that something as mundane as a name is keeping people from experiencing God through our community of faith?”

Or, consider the question of either enlarging this sanctuary or building another. The question usually revolves around cost and whether we can afford it (not a bad consideration in and of itself.) There is no doubt that we are greatly limited by this space, especially in our pulpit and choir areas. What if we framed the question: “Would building/remodeling allow us to share the love of Christ with more people? If so, then how do we accomplish that goal?”

Or consider the question of how we organize ourselves in SS classes, small groups, Ministry Teams, Women’s Ministry, Men’s Ministry, the Diaconate, etc. The question has usually been, “How have we done this in the past?” What if we changed that question to: “What would allow us to most effectively and efficiently show love and acceptance to persons who do not know Jesus Christ?” 

Or, even take it to a personal level when considering where we will be involved in the life of our church: “How could I be of service in helping someone to know and love Jesus Christ?”

Personally, I love the openness of our congregation to new ideas and new ways of thinking and perceiving. There is nothing wrong with that. However, openness will fade as a primary purpose, for it is at best a methodology, not a purpose. We need each and every facet of our church to ask one question: “How are we enabling people to come to know the love and grace of God in Christ Jesus?”

Consider our Music and Worship Ministry. Rather than ask, “What style of music and worship do I like,” what if we asked: “What style of music and worship touches people with the love of Christ? What do others need in order to come to Christ?”

At present we have some exciting ministries transpiring in our church. I will not name any for fear of the sin of omission. However, we have much work to do. There are several priorities which I believe we must have at this point in our church’s life if we are to see our church become more effective at sharing Christ’s love. These include:

1.  An immediate emphasis on two significant ministries which need re-organization and retooling:

1.1. Andrew Ministry — wherein we reach out and enable visitors to become a part of our community.
1.2. Stephen’s Ministry — whereby we minister to those in times of physical, emotional and/or spiritual need. (These all intertwine, so that if you have one you usually have all three.)

Evaluation of our physical facilities:
2.1. A 3 year plan for bringing our physical plant up to date so that we are not embarrassed by it.
2.2. The appointment of a team which evaluates our worship needs and recommends to our congregation a plan for addressing these needs.

The reality is this: despite our best intentions our vision for EBC is far too small. Most of us ask, “What’s the church doing for me? How are my needs being met? Here’s what I like/want...” We have all heard that hymn sung time and again. I know more verses than I wish to admit.

The problem is that these are the wrong questions and they will never get us to the right answers. Right/ good answers only come with asking right/good questions. The best questions move in the area of purpose, meaning, and calling.

Why do we exist? What is our purpose as the body of Christ?
What does our faith mean to us? How does Emerywood help us to live out that meaning in our world?

What is our calling under Christ in our specific arena? What does God need for us to be in High Point, North Carolina.

We need a broader vision for our church...a vision beyond that of a small, nice, neighborhood congregation known for quality worship and being nice people. We need a compelling vision which says that we will be the place where the hungry, the hurting, the hopeless and the helpless go when they can go nowhere else. We need a vision which says that we will go against the trends which say focus on your target audience solely. We need a vision that compels us to build a church on the love of Jesus Christ. We need a vision of a church which dares to reach across ethnic, economic and social barriers to welcome all persons in the name of Christ. We need a vision which is inclusive, diverse, multi-ethnic and accepting of all — for that was the vision of the early church and that is the only vision that is worthy of the name of Christ Jesus.

Are we up to it? You will determine that answer...I cannot. I have tried, on more than one occasion, to stimulate such a vision. For the most part, it has not worked well. Or, let me put it this way: you have congratulated me on a good sermon, but we have seen nothing but minimal effort expended by the majority of our congregation. We have gone back to our old ways, our comfort zone, and cheered from the bleachers while the staff rallied forth. We cannot do this any longer. For one, we go through staff and dedicated members too quickly doing this. Secondly, we are dying faster than we are replacing. Either we will all step up to the plate and work together in sharing the love and grace of Jesus Christ with others, or we will give God no reason to bless us and watch our slow demise all the while singing “Kum Ba Ya.”

Frederich Nietzsche told a wonderful parable, “The Madman in the Marketplace.”4 The madman runs through the marketplace with a lamp crying out, “God is dead...God is dead...” The people, who themselves live as functional atheists, mock him in his belief. They have killed God, Nietzsche believed, yet they were unaware of their deed. At the end the madman finds himself looking at huge temples and church buildings. He asks, “What are these now, if not the tombs and monuments of God?”

If we refuse to be those people whose primary focus is sharing the love of Jesus Christ, then we are living as if God is dead. If we do that, then we can write “Ichabod” above the door — for the glory will have departed. To paraphrase a question from our Lord: “What shall it profit a church, if it gain the whole world and lose its soul? Or, what will a church give in exchange for its soul?”

We are living in an exciting time — a historical ecotone fertile with the right questions. The world is asking, in one form or another, all the right questions of the meaning and purpose of life. The question is whether we will recognize the opportunities and venture out in faith, or will we pull inward, seeking survival as our modus operandi? May God guide us in our decisions and overwhelm us with his love. For in the end, it is only God’s love in Jesus Christ which possesses the power to transform our vision, our understanding, and yes, even us.

Amen.

1 Timothy George, Between Sweetness and Nausea, First Things, 8.25.14. 

2 William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens, 1989.

3 I Corinthians 13: 4-7.
4 Frederick Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra.