josephholubsermons


 

September 13 -  Pentecost 15
Mark 8:34b

35th Anniversary Sunday at Lord of the Mountains Church

 What Will We Frontload?

"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."  Mark 8:34b

On a plane trip some years ago, a renowned religion professor tells of sitting next to a woman, and they engaged in a conversation that eventually got around to religion.  The woman said to the professor, "I am much more interested in Buddhism and Sufism that I am Christianity."  When professor asked why she said, "Because they are a way of life, and Christianity is all about belief." 

Christianity since the Reformation and especially since the Renaissance has put a great emphasis on belief; belief defined as assent to certain doctrines, or assent to a specific set of principles about God and God-things.  For the most part, western Protestantism has largely organized itself along the lines of shared beliefs - and the result has been incredible diversity and fragmentation.  An explosion of Christian denominations and expressions has resulted.   

There are literally hundreds of Christian expressions and denominations in North America. For example, just within the Lutheran expression there are like 36 separate denominations or organized groups - some are very small with only a handful of congregations and some, of course, are much larger like our ELCA.   A huge factor in this diversity is "belief."   It is, of course, not the only factor, but it is a predominant factor.  The same is true of the many other Christian denominations and expressions in North America - each one having its own history of diversity of beliefs on a wide range of things from biblical interpretation, to baptismal practices to a host of social issues and a million other things. 

But "belief" as an organizing principle goes even farther back than the Reformation.  Those of you who went through a catechetical experience in your youth, Lutheran or otherwise, may have had the agonizing experience of learning the Athanasian Creed - one the three so-called ecumenical creeds.   The Athanasian Creed had  its origins way back in the 5th or 6th century - the specifics of its origins are actually unclear.  The Athanasian Creed is long and laborious, and it is primarily about the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Oneness of God.  But the thing that stands out for me is the concluding line which says, "One cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully." 

Salvation, in this case implied as afterlife, is restricted to those who line up their beliefs with the beliefs expounded in this particular creed.  Apparently everybody else is left behind and cut out. 

There have been several times over the years when I have been told in a rather harsh way that either I am going to Hell, or if not going to Hell, some have been a bit more generous in relegating me to a status of second class in the Kingdom of God (whatever that means) because my "beliefs" don't happen to line up with those of my accusers on any number of issues.  I have been relegated to this purgatorial status with admonishing words like, "God has a special place for people like you."    

I have been your pastor for a little over a year.  I consider it a privilege to serve you and to be a part of your history.  I have learned much since I have been here.  I have learned much about the unique constituency of this congregational community and how this community has evolved over 35 years.  One of the unique things about this community is that we are a kind of melting pot of Christian expressions.  I have learned that we come from many places and many Christian traditions.  Some of us are Lutheran, but not all the same brand of Lutheran; also so many other expressions: Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Reformed, United Church of Christ, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, non-denominational, Quaker, liberal traditions, conservative traditions and numerous others.  Some of you don't come from any particular Christian heritage, and perhaps don't consider yourself Christian in any traditional sense, but came to this community, and for whatever reason(s) you are still around - and I am glad that you are. 

Most of these Christian traditions in which we have been nurtured, to a greater or lesser degree, frontload belief as the organizing principle and the glue that holds a community together.  And the thing is that history has repeatedly demonstrated that if someone(s) deviate too much from the accepted body of beliefs in a particular congregation or denomination, a conflict is set up and the conflict is usually resolved in one of several ways: the person(s) are asked to leave; or they leave on their own accord for a community that is more in align with their beliefs; or some have even created new communities and new expressions made up of people with like-minded beliefs.  All of this is largely the result of frontloading specific beliefs as the organizing principle and criteria for inclusion in a specific Christian community.

I have experienced, in my first year as your pastor, that this congregation is somewhat unique in that "beliefs" are not the glue that ultimately hold us together.  How could they possibly be with the diversity of heritage that exists here; the diversity of theological thought and human experience that is present within this community? 

Let me name for you what I perceive to be the glue the holds this community together, and what I hope and pray will continue to be the bonding agent in this community and the foundation of our life together as we move into the future.     

Phyllis Tickle;  writer, popular speaker, founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly, and a whole bunch of other accolades has written a book that was published last year, that has already gone through 5 printings, entitled The Great Emergence.  Ms. Tickle's underlying thesis is that since the church’s formative time in the decades after Jesus, it has undergone a major transformation about every five hundred years, (a "reformation" if you will) the last one being The Great Reformation of the 16th century in which Martin Luther was a key player.  She says that Christianity right now  is in the early stages of another transformation (reformation) that will stretch deep into the 21st century.  She doesn't presume to know exactly where it will take us, but she makes some observations of the current Christian landscape that are insightful and discerning. 

Citing many examples she describes a paradigm shift that is going on right now in our time.  She describes the existing paradigm, the one that most of us grew up with, the one that resulted from the The Great Reformation of the 16th century, with three words - three "b" words and the order is critical: "belief, behave, belong."   Ms.Tickle says that those three words in that order have characterized Protestantism and Roman Catholicism since the Reformation:  "Belief, Behave , Belong."     

Let me explain. In this existing familiar paradigm, adherence to certain doctrinal beliefs and moral conduct is necessary and required to gain membership and full inclusion into the specific Christian community whatever brand it happens to be.  In other words, belief and behavior is frontloaded;  primary, necessary, required - it's deemed the most important thing.  A sense of belonging, a sense of community and full inclusion only comes as a result of common belief.

In what Ms.Tickle names The Great Emergence, her term for this new Reformation, the "b" words are completely reversed.  She says these Emergent Christian Communities, that are springing up and taking root across denominational lines, are not characterized by "belief, behave, belong," in that order, but if anything just the reverse: "Belong, Behave, Belief."  The difference is significant!

In this paradigm of Christianity one belongs to a Christian community, one is a part of a Christian community, one is included not by virtue of common belief and behavior, but simply by virtue of a shared humanity.   Simply belonging to a Christian community may be as far into the Christian experience as the person desires to go.  But should she or he become desirous of more, or be led to more, or be convicted that there is more, personal transformation (behavior) and belief may finally emerge. But they emerge out of the crucible of relationship; the give and take of community life; allowing our diverse lives to rub up against one another and inform one another; in the sharing of who we really are with all our hopes and dreams, failures and successes, joys and sorrows, fears and foibles; all of our life experiences.  In these Christian communities rather than belief and behavior being frontloaded, belonging and cultivating a sense of inclusive community is frontloaded.  These communities do not require that everyone think alike, believe alike; look alike.

As you know this is the Year of Mark in our liturgical calendar.  Most of our gospel readings since last Advent have come from the gospel of Mark as have most of my sermons. As we have journeyed with Mark's Jesus this year, I have experienced a Jesus who frontloaded not specific beliefs, but frontloaded belonging. 

He practiced an inclusive table fellowship with those that the "believing community" had shunned, excluded and labeled as sinners and outcasts. 

He reached across forbidden boundaries of ritual uncleanliness to touch and embrace those that "belief" had quarantined. 

He crossed prohibitive boundaries between Jew and Gentile not armed with a set of beliefs but empowered with the love and grace of God. 

He confronted the Roman domination system and its temple collaborators with a call for social justice and compassion in the tradition of the prophetic voices of old. 

And in our gospel reading for today we hear Jesus issue the ultimate challenge that in my mind is the core of Christianity, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."  

That brings us full circle to the woman I mentioned at the beginning that was more interested in "a way"  than in "belief."   What I think she meant was she was most interested in walking a path of transformation that involved her whole being and connected her with others.. 

Taking up the cross is a way, a path of transformation, walking the same path that Jesus walked, a path of inclusive love; a path of unrestricted grace; a path that heeds a call for social justice and is willing to confront domination systems that oppress and dehumanize others.  Taking up the cross is to frontload embodying that grace wherever you are and everywhere you go: in this Christian community; in classrooms and boardrooms and family rooms; on grass covered athletic fields and snow covered slopes; with those who look do like you and do think like you; and especially those who look unlike you and think differently than you.  Taking up the cross is a way of life; a way of love; a way of grace; a way of justice; following the one who leads us.  Taking up the cross is not faith as belief, but faith as commitment to a way – Jesus’ way.  And along that way we will experience "salvation" in the deepest sense of its meaning: being made whole in love. 

For me the most important question we individually and as a community can ask and answer this anniversary day and everyday is, "What are we going to frontload?"  What are we going to put ahead of everything else?  What is going to shape and inform our total life together.  What energy will propel us into the future.

If we frontload belief it almost always in the end short circuits love, breeds a lack of respect and lack of toleration for differing viewpoints and almost always fractures community life. 

If we frontload the inclusive love and grace of God embodied in the life of Jesus, taking up the cross and following him in his way, it makes possible within the community toleration of diverse views; increases the chances of respectful disagreement when we finally do wrestle with issues of  belief; empowers us to remove the labels that have rendered people faceless to see the real people behind them; becomes that which characterizes our community; the glue that bonds us together; the energy that carries us to the future.    

What will you... what will we...  frontload?