What is Church?

Jesus said, "If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone...For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." Matthew 18:15ff

Well – I have to tell you – for some of us this is day 3 of church, church and church!  Josh and I – and the clergy of this diocese and many of the people of this diocese have been together non-stop for 72 hours!  And are finally at the resurrection day of completion for celebrating the gathered faithful giving thanks to God in Christ.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about – let me explain.  Yesterday, as you may know from our announcements, we ordained Heather Cook a bishop and consecrated her ministry as a Suffragan bishop in our diocese.   Of course when a someone is ordained bishop – the person who does so – is our presiding bishop Kathryn Jefferts Schiori.  And it is her practice – maybe the practice of all presiding bishops to meet with the clergy of the diocese before the big event.

So Friday morning Josh and I and I guess about 100 other priests gathered at St. Michael and All Angels downtown to hear her – but she didn’t do much talking.  She had us think about God’s words at Jesus’ baptism – you are my son and with you, I am well pleased.  And she reminded us of our baptism – because at our baptisms – regardless of whether or not we are priests – God speaks those words to us as we are marked with the sign of Christ.

You are my beloved – with you I am well pleased.  She invited us to close our eyes, sit with the thought quietly for a few minutes.  And then she invited us to turn to our neighbor and talk about what that phrase made us think about.

And then, she opened it up – and one by one – many of us shared our thoughts on that phrase.

Someone once said to me – you know, priests are a little like fertilizer – they shouldn't be all clumped together, its much better to spread them around.  And yes, some truth to that.  Because we tend when we’re speaking in those situations – to want to prove our spirituality, our faith, our knowledge.  And, I’m one of that group, and yes – I lump myself and my insecurities in with that need to.  And listening to everything being said – I wondered to myself – Jesus, is this what you were thinking of when you talked about the church?  Jesus never seemed really keen on the religious experts.

  

And then yesterday – the 11am service at Redeemer – holy moley was that an event.  It started at 11am I got there at 10 and had to park down the road, on a side road that was already packed with cars.  And inside the building was swarming with people – clergy getting vested, a gazillion acolytes – choir members – people preparing the reception inside and outside.  Signs for restrooms and gathering rooms and special orders for the procession.  Hats off to the organization team, honestly, it was truly controlled chaos.

And then they line us up for the procession – and I was part of I think the 3^rd section of the procession which began with banners from every single church – our banner carried faithfully by Cynthia Frasier (thank you Cynthia) – then all the clergy (even though the first shall be last, somehow clergy always get the best seats) – then the bishops.  And as we process into the church – the church is packed like Easter morning – with Praise my soul the King of Heaven joyfully being sung full voice by everyone there.  It was indeed the church triumphant!  And I wondered to myself – is this it Jesus?  Is this what you imagined when you talked about church?

Because I totally underestimated that event – Josh and I scurried out of that service right after the sermon because at 2 o’clock we had a funeral.  Hugh Stierhoff, 83, member of Good Shepherd for at least 20 years if not more.  Taught Sunday school, came regularly, and it was pretty full in here.  Family and friends from near and far – I think we counted about 100 people.  And yep, in the midst of that I wondered – how about this Jesus – is this what you imagined your church would be?

And then – at the end of the service the the family and I and Josh processed to our columbarium – holding the “earth to earth, ashes to ashes and dust to dust” that we are at the last – and now we were down to 15?  18 people – gathered around a niche and tearfully saying final prayers – a small flock, a family taking comfort in the faith of God’s eternal promise.

This, I think, is what Jesus imagined when he talked to his disciples about church.  Its not a building – stones will always topple, Jesus said (Matt 24:1-2).  It’s not pageantry and banners and us looking and singing our best – they did that right before the crucifixion with those shouts of Hosanna in the highest (Matt 21:1).  It’s the small gatherings – its 12 disciples – or 18 vestry – or 15 mourners – or 2 or 3.  A community of people working through something in Jesus’ name – that is what church is really all about.

You know that phrase – where 2 or 3 are gathered there Jesus is.  You hear that one a lot, its pretty well know.  It’s either the phrase we use when only a few people have shown up for a church event.  Or we use it when talking about prayer and worship.  If only 2 or 3 are gathered to pray Jesus is there.

But this morning we have the phrase in context (and this is the only place it occurs in the scripture) is not about prayer or worship – it’s about conflict and disagreement.  Specifically when one member of the church has a conflict with another – feels they’ve been sinned against or wronged. 

So, that tells me something else about what Jesus thought church would be.  He thought it would be a community of people who make mistakes, who hurt one another, who disappoint one another – BUT – just as God does with us – it is a community of people who have been given the grace to work through hurt and anger and disappoint – in a whole, new way.

For example, let’s pretend Jesus is talking to a 21^st century Peter – he might say, if another member of the church sins against you in an email – do not reply with an email!  We’ve all been there, right?  We read this epistle in our In box that gives a one-sided, and totally unfair representation of an point of contention.  In the church – I think Jesus wants us to then go and talk it out!

Jesus has this crazy idea that relationships are in person – not on Facebook, or email, or through an opt-in opt-out dialogue box or tweeting or texting what we think and feel and want to say.  Jesus says – go and talk to the brother or sister you have an issue with because – you are a member of the church.  You are a member of a family that gathers in Christ’s name.

Please note, my friends, this instruction of Jesus’ is not to the crowds – this is specific to the people who want to be in a Christian community. I don’t say that to be exclusive – or to suggest we are any better than any other community or religion – but Jesus is saying, this community is to practice Christ-like behaviors when we are together.

You know, right that this is why we have committees?  We’re great with the jokes about committees – how many Episcopalians does it take to change a lightbulb?  1 to start the committee, 1 to suggest a motion, yadda, yadda, yadda.  But really – work done by committee is harder than just having one person do everything (the trap of church is that you know, one person doing everything)  Because in the committee we have to practice working together.

This – worship – this is practice too.  This is how as a community we practice reading the bible, praying the bible, praying for each other and the world, remembering Christ’s life and sacrifice for us, remembering our vows to seek and serve – this each Sunday is practice.  But conflict rarely comes into it because we are following a script!  It’s all spelled out, what we’re supposed to do.

But, when we have to deal with scheduling Sunday school – scheduling readers – making decisions about how we spend our money – how we raise our money – how we maintain the property – how we handle a problem – that’s when we see if we just talk the talk or walk the walk.  Where 2 or 3 are gathered struggling with something difficult in a loving way – that’s where Jesus says he is.

So, here we are again – start of the program year.  And it’s also a week that marks my third year as rector of this church.  And I have to tell you brothers and sisters I continue to be surprised that the people of this church do not know one another.  Very often I mention someone to someone else and they do not know who I’m talking about and I’m shocked because this is someone who attends regularly, who I see often.  And here we are in S’maltimore/Baltimore in a church that is not mega size!  So it seems in this community we need to do some relationship building, some being together in groups of 2 and 3 or more and working out what God wants us to be doing here and now.

I invite you therefore, if you have not participated on a committee or ministry team in this church for the last three years to try it out!  Get involved with some people and strengthen this community because it will not only be good for us as a church – but more importantly – it will be a witness to the beloved community that we are.  For that is what Jesus imagined a church would be – a beloved community of people who know that they too are beloved.  And that what we are called to do in Christ’s name to spread some much needed good news.  Amen.

- The Rev. Arianne R. Weeks