The Church Door

 These weeks of Lent on Sundays, we are focusing upon The Five Principles of Life of the Church as discussed in the book Frogs Without Legs Can’t Hear” by David W Anderson and Paul Hill. 

Last week we looked at the first principle: “Faith is formed through personal, trusted relationships.”

This morning we will focus on the second principle:  It is printed on the front of your bulletin: “The Church is a living partnership between the ministry of the home and the ministry of the congregation.”

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“And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.”  Acts 5:41-42

 There’s a story about a mid-west congregation that built a new worship space.  During the capital fund campaign one of the charter members died and left a generous sum of money to the congregation’s capital fund appeal.  However, the gift had a stipulation attached to it.  50% of the gift was to be used specifically for the entryway and entrance doors.  Instructions were given to the architect to redesign the entrance area since they now had more money.  Everybody was excited about the possibilities, and it seemed that everyone had an opinion on what it should be.

  -Some wanted an inviting garden like atmosphere with all glass doors and windows that would look out onto the pleasant natural environment.

- Some wanted a more formal entryway with bricks and stone and huge, expensive carved oak doors.

- Others wanted to create a baptismal area with a fountain, waterfall and places to sit for outside worship in good weather.

 It seemed that everyone had an opinion about what the entryway of their church should be like, and some even became very passionate about their ideas soliciting support in the congregation.  The members of the design committee, who were charged with the task of making a recommendation, found themselves split on how the entryway should be done.  In fact, one Sunday after worship a heated argument broke out between the two principle adversaries on the design committee, and it might have come to fisticuffs, had they not been restrained. 

 When the committee finally made a recommendation in a 5-4 vote, the man who “lost” could not let it rest.  Instead of letting it go, he went on a campaign in the congregation seeking support for his idea.  Later on, when “defeat” looked imminent he even made an attempt to file a lawsuit and get a court order to stop the congregation from proceeding with its plans to build.

 Obviously word got out into the media about this fiasco, and the congregation became the laughing stock of the community.   Many ended up leaving the congregation, and before long, what had been a thriving and vital fellowship, now had a stained and negative reputation.  They were known as "the church that went to war over doors."

 They finally got their beautiful doors and new entryway, but at what cost?  The price they paid for new doors was much higher than merely the dollars spent.  What was meant to be a welcoming and warm entry space had become a symbol of conflict and strife. The new doors, in reality, functioned more like a formidable barrier than an inviting entryway.

 Moral of the story?  (If you were thinking of leaving money to the church for a new entryway, please, think again.)  No, that's not the moral!

Of course, in so many ways church buildings are a tremendous blessing.  Our building allows us to do things that it would be difficult or impossible to do any other way.  It is a place for community worship, fellowship and study. We use our building to serve our community.   We have a wonderful pre-school and kindergarten that has touched many little lives.  We sponsor the 9 Health Fair.    The list of benefits of having a building is a mile long.

 But buildings are also a liability.  Every year I ask the incoming confirmation youth a question, “What is the church?”  How would you answer?  “What is the church?”  Nine out of ten answer, “The building.” Nine out of ten identify brick, glass and concrete as “the church.” 

 It is not hard to see what happens when we glorify the building.  We also glorify everything that goes on in the building.  We convey the message, that real Christian activity, real worship, real study, real faith all happen in the building. Now I don’t doubt that authentic Christian activity occurs in our building.  We can get consumed by the mindset that the church’s real mission and goal is to get as many people in our doors and into this building that we can.

 As leaders we take classes and go to seminars to learn strategies and programs on how to get people in and through those doors and into this building for “genuine Christian activity.”  In other words we can be idolatrous about the building, so much so, that when people are asked, “What is the church?” their first impulse is, “The building located at 4210 S Chambers Road, Aurora, Colorado.”

 The temptation to emphasize a building is nothing new.  It is as old as God’s people, anchored deep in the Old Testament.  There was a time when God’s people didn’t have a building - when they were nomadic. They had a tabernacle, a tent, and they dragged the thing with them everywhere they went.  The symbolism of tabernacle was powerful and profound.  One did not have to go to some special place to find God, but God traveled along with you.  And when you got to wherever you were going, even if it was merely a stop along the way, you pitched the tent and worshipped and prayed to the God who traveled with you.

 But Israel eventually left their nomadic ways behind and came to be settlers, and next came the buildings: the great temple in Jerusalem, shines and synagogues.  Eventually the people came to believe that the purest presence of God was confined to the innermost sanctums of the temple called the “holy of holies.”  And only the high priest could go in there - once a year - the Day of Atonement - to offer sacrifice for the sins of the nation.  

 The early Christian Community described in the Book of Acts had no such problem with doors and entryways, buildings and temples.  They didn’t have buildings!  At first they did worship in the temple.  Early on the early Christians were seen as a part of the Jewish community, a sect of Judaism, and were protected as a part of the Jewish community by the Roman Empire.  But that didn’t last, and soon they became a persecuted people and were driven underground - and it was the best thing that could have happened to that young Christian community! 

 Their focus was meeting in homes for a communal meal, at which bread and wine were shared emulating the actions of Jesus with his disciples at the Last Supper.   Acts tells us they spent time in the temple, but they broke bread together, sang hymns and proclaimed Jesus in their homes.  They were so tight knit as a community they even sold and shared their possessions so that no one in their community would be lacking in the basic necessities of life. 

 There is one thing to note. In Greek and Hebrew there is no word for “family” as we would define family today.  We would define family as those who live in our immediate household environment whoever it may be.  But in Greek and Hebrew there were no such terms.  What terms there were meant something more like “extended domestic relationships“ that included, clan, tribe, neighbors, friends, employees.  It was a much wider circle than we would define family. 

 The point is that the early Christian community did not orient around a building that had doors, and the passing on of faith did not hinge on how many people they could get in and through the doors of the temple.  But rather, the earliest Christian Community was based upon the sharing and nurturing of faith in their extended domestic relationships that included clan, tribe, neighbors, friends and employees - and faith spread like wildfire!

 The second principle of the life of the church is: “The Church is a living partnership between home and congregation.”

 I am not suggesting that we should sell our church building, totally restructure everything and function without it.  Not at all!  But I am suggesting that we begin to have a new mindset and adopt a new set of practices in our life together.

 I am suggesting that we do push the front doors of our church out - way, way, way beyond where they are right now, and I’m not talking about a new building project. 

 I am holding, in my hand, a Holy Love Church Directory.  What I have here are the expanded doors of the church.  This directory is a list of the doors of Holy Love Lutheran Church.  Your household is a door to this church, as you make a deliberate effort to nurture and cultivate faith in your home, around your table, in your family room with the people of your extended domestic relationships.  You become a door to this church when you extend hospitality and invitation. 

 When you practice in your household something like the The Four Keys, (caring conversations, devotions, rituals/traditions and service), the four foundational disciplines for nurturing faith that we are discussing on Wednesday evenings; you become an open door to the church; you will be engaged in genuine Christian activity; you will be the church; and you will be pushing the boundaries and doors of the church and the kingdom of God far beyond the confining boundaries of this building.

 We are called to pass on faith in Jesus Christ – that is our purpose. When we live with a mindset of church as building we bottle-up Christ within the walls of this place.  When we see our homes, households and extended domestic relationships as doors to the church, we are involved in the dynamic process of setting Christ free in the world. 

 The early Christians gathered regularly for a communal meal at which they shared bread and wine, emulating the action of Jesus at the Last Supper.  They sang hymns and proclaimed Jesus.  We gather around a similar communal meal this morning, with the bread and wine; singing hymns and proclaiming Jesus.  We would call this genuine Christian activity, and it is important that we are gathered here and are doing what we are doing. 

 But it is no more holy, and no more Christian, and no more genuine than what can happen in your own home, as you nurture and cultivate faith there, thereby extending the door to the kingdom of God far beyond the confining walls of this building.  

 We must never forget and must always keep in front to us, that it was God himself who pushed the doorway to the kingdom of God far out form the doors of temples and shrines and synagogues to ordinary places, and even to places of profanity like a bloody hill of execution.

 Let us not keep the cross of Christ bottled up inside this building but take it to the world – the world’s ordinary places, like our homes and family rooms and extended domestic relationships,  and even to the world’s most profane places.  Amen.