On
Church
Our Words Series
A Sermon for the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist
community of faith
By Griff Martin
Luke 7:1-10 and Acts 2:42-47
On October 7
Luke 7:1-10
After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the
people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued
highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he
sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his
slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying,
“He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and
it is he who built our synagogue for us.” And Jesus went with them, but
when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him,
“Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my
roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word,
and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority,
with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another,
‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does
it.” When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd
that followed him, he said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such
faith.” When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the
slave in good health.
Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon
everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the
apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in
common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the
proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together
in the temple, they broke bread at home[b] and ate their food with glad and generous[c] hearts, praising
God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to
their number those who were being saved.
The Sermon:
It’s a story we all know too well. Jesus is traveling, he
is on his way to Capernaum, and by now Jesus has made a name for himself. He
can heal the sick, he is offering some new teachings that are intriguing and
inviting, he tells stories that are catchy and get repeated over and over.
Crowds are starting to follow him.
Including a fellow who is never named in our story- we know
him as the Centurion. Which means that we know that he worked with the militia
of Herod Antipas and from there story we gather a few other things- he is a
God-fearer (meaning a non-Jew attracted to Judaism and practicing certain
aspects), we know he is wealthy (he has donated money to the temple), and that
he is well respected. And we know that he is compassionate, his request for
Jesus involves his servant, who he considers a friend.
Now the centrunrian does not come himself- maybe he is home
taking care of the servant, maybe as a non-Jew he does not believe he can come
with this request, the story does not tell us why he is not present, the story
just tells us that he sends Jewish friends to make this request of Jesus. And
note that, Jewish friends, its an important part of this story.
Some of his Jewish friends bring the request and then Jesus
begins towards his home. And then another group of friends arrive, with the
message “Jesus you don’t even have to come all the way to the house, just say
the words and my servant will be healed. That is how powerful you are.” Again
we don’t know why he sends this message- perhaps he fears that as a Gentile,
Jesus won’t be able to enter his house and he wants to avoid this scene or even
he wants to protect Jesus or maybe this is an incredible statement of faith on
his part. After all upon hearing the request, Jesus responds that he has not
found such great faith in all of Israel. Which is a statement we need not miss,
“I have never seen faith like this, this Gentile has more faith than all the
Jews. This outsider gets it better than all you insiders.”
And the story concludes with the servant healed.
So what is the calling in this text? The first answer to me
seemed so obvious, this is another story about inclusion and I jumped at the
possibility of preaching a sermon about inclusion. If you have been here for
any length of time or like even just one Sunday, you know the incredible
inclusion and openness of God’s kingdom is pivotal to my theological leanings,
it’s a place I constantly find God, God holding the door open, letting the
outsider teach this insider.
And the text seems to cry out for this sermon- the Gentile
man received into the Kingdom of God. This is the text that most scholars refer
to as the prequel to the Peter and Cornelius episode which occurs in Luke’s
second book. You see Luke is an inclusion guy- the openness of God’s
kingdom is pivotal to his theology as well.
But the longer I looked at the text another fact came to
me- how badly this Centurion wanted to be included in the kingdom and community
of God. And that is really an important part of inclusion, a part we don’t
notice enough…. It’s great if we want to be inclusive, but the follow up is
that we have to create something folks actually desire to be included in.
Which means maybe the follow up to all the work we have
done in being an inclusive community starts with some difficult questions: Do
people even want to be included in the church community? Are there outsiders
who want to be insiders?
And no matter what answer you give, as my grandmother used
to say the proof is in the pudding. So the answer lies in the rate that the
church is growing (and not just our church, all churches). And if you don’t
know- we are not growing, each year church attendance is decreasing. And I
won’t depress you with facts, but overall the church today is not an
institution that is growing at a rapid rate, in fact more often that not the
exact opposite is the case.
So the answer is no, people don’t want to be included in
the church community today. Most Americans no longer see church community as an
important part of their life. And before we point the fingers at all the bad in
their lives (too busy, sports on the weekends, Sunday brunch, not committed….
You know the reasons we have all heard and even said), let’s just be honest
about the problem, the problem has to do with the church.
The church at large today has failed to create a community
that people want to be part of. It’s that simple and it’s that sad.
And instead of asking the right questions and facing some
difficult tasks and asking what stays and what goes and what is still authentic
and what needs to be new, too many churches have fallen for some gimmicky
Church Growth type answer that tries to teach the church to do outreach in 5
easy steps or promotes a high attendance Sunday or even tries some big church
program, and these never work and they have never worked.
The question we need to ask is to look at a text like this
one is: what is it about this community that Jesus has created that makes
people want to be part of it?
And the answer is so obvious: it’s a community of care- the
story has compassion and care at every turn and in every word. Folks want to
belong to a community where they can be cared for.
And it’s not just a community of care as in carrying food
over to someone who just had a baby- it’s a community that cares enough to
carry another’s burdens to Jesus.
The Jews in this story have no obligation to bring this
man’s request to Jesus. There is not law for doing so in fact one could argue
there were laws on why they should not have done so, instead they seem to do it
because they genuinely love the man. It’s love, not law. It’s a community that
cares enough to carry one another’s burdens to Jesus.
And it would be so easy to wrap the sermon up now with a
simple call to be a community that cares, and cares enough to carry a burden to
Jesus- a community that prays together and takes care of one another. But I
still think that misses the point, this text calls for something even deeper.
But I should offer a true warning this morning: this call
to something deeper is not easy work. It takes something really scary to become
that community- it takes genuine honesty.
You see to become a community that is willing to bear one
another’s burdens to Jesus is not just about being the one’s willing to bear
the other’s burdens- it also means that we must be willing to share our own
burdens.
To confess to one another.
To say, I am really struggling.
To be honest about the stuff that we wake up in the morning
thinking and worrying about.
To be truthful about what is really going on in our lives.
To let the walls of prettiness and “I’ve got it
together”-ness fall away to really see who we are.
Last week I went hiking with Luke to celebrate one of us,
not me, turning 40. On our third day we went up Mount Quandry a shorter hike
just 7 miles but that 7 miles is a lot of elevation gain, about 3,500 feet and
it tops at 14,265 feet which is a hard place to hike. As someone who has some
heart issues hiking that high is difficult for me and I had not done a hike
like this in almost a decade.
Off we went and I quickly learned that Luke is a mountain
goat and can climb anything, I am not. And so I found myself having to say the
dreaded and most difficult words I know: “This is hard for me” and “Can we go a
little slower?” And “Can we stop and take a breather, well can I stop and take
a breather and you wait for me?” And “I just need a it of rest.” These are not
easy things for me to say, but I did and we did go a bit slower and we did stop
and take breaks and we still made it up and down the mountain an hour faster
than the guide book predicated.
It was not pretty or easy but we made it and I was honest
about it.
And then we came back to life and the truth is….I have to
admit sometimes this is hard and can we sit and have a break. And we all need
someone else to encourage and affirm us. It’s not an easy time to be a human
being today, we need each other. Life is not something we can do alone.
And our faith journey can’t be done alone, which is why we
have the church. It’s ridiculous that we try to carry any of this mess alone,
that is what we are all here for together. We are here to be a community and to
carry one another’s burdens. And it is not fair to be willing to carry someone
else’s burdens without sharing your own. To do that is not true community, that
is not equality or hand in hand.
When Jesus ascended and the Spirit came upon us, the Spirit
did not want us to create a church so that all of us would have something to do
at 10:00 on Sunday mornings, God sent us a community of support as we traveled
through life and tried to live like Jesus Christ.
God knew that we could not go it alone.
It’s why that second text, the text from Acts is all we
need to know about church planting: I don’t think that in Acts Luke is giving
us a detailed plan for church growth here. I don’t think Luke is saying if you
will do these 4 things the church will grow. I think Luke is simply telling us
this: it will involve sharing, generosity, serious devotion to the Word of God,
dedication to prayer, shared tables, and huge risks because those are the life
of Jesus.
The early church understood because of their experience
with the Creator, Christ and Comforter- everything had to change, they had to
be willing to become involved in one another lives
That is no different
today.
We create this by sharing,
by putting all things in common which involves our finances but also our
emotions and our stories, we create a community of caring for one another based
on Jesus Christ. A community that shares, that holds one another up, that
strives to live more like Jesus, that includes, that helps, that lives a bigger
story…. That is church.
And church it is time that we become that church.
And church when we become that community people are going
to want to be included.
We live in a world of exclusion, of pull yourself up by
your bootstraps, of act like it’s all together, and of false replies of “I am
doing good, I don’t need anything.”If we act just like that world, if we carry
those attitudes into this place, then what good do we offer?
It’s when we become the community that is willing to say, I
can’t do it by myself- but I can do with my church community…. they are willing
to carry my burdens and take me back to the feet of Jesus.
You are not going to hear that at a church growth
conference. It’s messy. But I think reading the Gospels, church is supposed to
be messy because church is about people and we are messy and God’s best work
seems to always begin in the mess.
We all long to be included in a community that cares and
that shares all things. That is church.
May we be that community for ourselves and for the
world.
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