Message Given at Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal in Covington, GA
https://www.youtube.com/live/4XJqqDQ_Gjo?feature=share&t=2145
Good Morning!
It’s good to be
back in the House of the Lord. I have to start with a correction from my last
sermon. I gave credit for the concept of “Ultimate Concern” to Karl Barth, who
was clearly on my mind. It is Paul Tillich who is noted for his writing about
Ultimate Concern. Both important theologians. I just want to give proper credit
where credit is due. My apologies for wrong information.
But again, it
is good to be back in the House of the Lord!
And that is
where we begin with our scripture. In Nehemiah we read that the people gathered
to hear the word of God, the Law of God read aloud. And then they wept.
The people of
Israel in this scripture are returning from exile and have just finished
rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and installing the Gates. This would have been
the first gathering in Jerusalem at the Temple in several hundred years.
Imagine the
pandemic raging so long that this beautiful building disintegrated waiting for
people to return and rebuild. Or worse that it had been demolished by a foreign
power and all of you were scattered and this place almost forgotten. Until
today.
And they read
the Word of God, the Law of God and wept. Most scholars agree that the Book of
the Law was actually written during the Exile. Previous to that it would have
been an oral tradition, so this could be the first time the Book itself had
been presented to the people in their homeland. And they wept.
Imagine opening
the Georgia Law codes and reading the law of the land and crying over it. There
might be many reasons to cry. As a former paralegal, I cry every time I see a
Georgia code book. It’s huge. A monstrous undertaking.
But our Psalms
today tell us a little more about how the people felt about the Law of God.
7 The law of the Lord is
perfect
and revives the soul; *
the testimony of the Lord is sure
and gives wisdom to the innocent.
8 The statutes of the Lord are
just
and rejoice the heart; *
the commandment of the Lord is clear
and gives light to the eyes.
9
The fear of the Lord is
clean
and endures for ever; *
the judgments of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than
gold,
more than much fine gold, *
sweeter far than honey,
than honey in the comb.
11 By them also is your servant
enlightened, *
and in keeping them there is great reward.
In
a lawless land, or a land of many laws or foreign laws, the Law of God is precious.
It was a code that was mandated by the covenant that they held with God, and it
stabilized their community. And, they had not necessarily been able to practice
their own laws, covenants, and beliefs while they were exiled.
This
book that they wept over is the foundation for our own beliefs preceding
Christ, the fulfilment of the Law. This practice of reading the Law, and
reading scripture continued. And in our Gospel, we see Jesus entering into his
public ministry by reading in the Synagogue from the text of Isaiah. He gives
his mission on the earth, a precursor to our mission on this earth:
We
are in a place of rebuilding. Not just after the pandemic, but after a period
of decline in the church overall. In the northern hemisphere, church attendance
has declined and affiliation with Christianity has declined, and now the
“nones” – those who claim no religious affiliation – outnumber those who do. But
is it really about the numbers? What does it mean to be in a country or
community where the people who have no religious affiliation outnumber those
who do?
Are
we spiritual but not religious?
We
don’t need church to be close to God?
There
are many paths to God?
(Pause
… )
I’ve
heard all of these and more as reasons to not attend church.
(Pause)
In
Corinthians, Paul tells us how we are members of One Body, the Body of Christ.
This is one of my favorite analogies as you may remember from previous sermons.
“Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the
members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”
The
scripture goes on to tell us how important each member is. Imagine trying to
function normally without being familiar with how your body works. Imagine
trying to function normally in your day, getting up, going for coffee or
breakfast in the morning, but you don’t know how your hand works, or your eyes.
We take for granted the members of our physical body because they are always
with us, unless we have experienced a tragedy.
The
members of our community in this room are no less important than your hands or
your eyes or your ears or your brain. This community cannot rebuild without
every member participating in the process. It would be like trying to get your
physical body to work properly when part of it is asleep.
How
do you feel when you are sitting awkwardly for a long period of time and then
try to get up only to find out your foot or leg or arm has gone to sleep? My
mom did that a couple of years ago and promptly fell and broke her foot. The
tingling of that asleep feeling in your arm or leg or foot is one of the most
unpleasant feelings to me. It’s a cross between a tickle and pain. It’s
horrible.
When
you look around here and see so few of us, you should be wondering where the
rest of our body is. Is it asleep somewhere? And if so, how awkward and painful
is it going to be when it wakes up and we try to move together. We should also
be wondering if we are making our body feel welcome? Are we actively engaged in
waking up the body where it might be asleep.
We
also need to ask ourselves if the reading of the Word of God is so precious to
us it would make us weep to hear it … as the people did in Nehemiah. How
precious is this place and the reading of the Word? How precious are your
baptismal vows? Is the change that Jesus has made in your life through his
commission so important to you that you could have a conversation with a “none”
and stand firmly in your commitment to the church body? Or do you feel like its
okay to be spiritual and not religious? That there are many paths to God?
The
best explanation I have ever heard between the spiritual and the religious is
this. We can all be spiritual, indeed, without going to church. We cannot be
religious without being spiritual. Religion, our traditions, our creeds, our
practices, our mission in the world only occurs when we come together as a body
of believers. Members cannot work alone in the world effectively. You can be an
eye in the world, but without a brain to direct you or a hand to help you do
what you see needs to be done, your eye is ineffective.
WE
are the body of Christ with many members. We have all been given gifts like
Father Edwin preached on last week. But if we do not come together as a body,
and bring to this body our missing members, or engage with each other like we
are one body, then we are asleep and a sleeping body simply dreams dreams
without actually doing anything.
Today
during the Peace, I invite you to look around intently and make eye contact
with each of the members of the body here and see the people here as intimate
partners in the work of Christ. And after church I invite you to stay and speak
to the members of the church – especially the ones you know the least. Get to
know the members of the body better. And when you leave, think about who is
missing and what it might take to wake them up and bring them back.
We
are in a place of rebuilding. It can only be done with all members of the body
participating or all that we want to accomplish in the world, or simply in
Covington or Conyers, the Newton and Rockdale, the mission given to us by
Christ, to
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