Month: September 2011

The theme for last night’s Commune service – our weekly emergent worship offering – was “salt and light.”

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus calls us “the salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” He reminds us to maintain our saltiness and to not succumb to the temptation to hide our light. He calls us to let our light shine before others, so that they may see our good works and give glory to God. (Matthew 5:13-15)

Giving glory to God may not always be a motivating force for our actions. In fact, I hazard a guess that few today would consciously think of giving glory to God when engaged in the mundane tasks of daily life like washing the dishes, driving the kids to school, responding to emails, or enduring yet another work or church meeting.

But imagine for a moment if you decided to do whatever it is you do – no matter how great or menial the task – for the glory of God. How would your attitude or behavior shift? What impact would this have on your expectations for yourself and the goals you set?

A line from the movie Chariots of Fire comes to mind. Rev. J.D. Liddell reminds his son, the brilliant runner Eric Liddell, “Run in God’s name, and let the world stand back in wonder.”

I don’t think doing something for the glory of God means seeking perfection, in the sense of some ultimate attainment. I think some notions of perfection are highly overrated. But what about faithfulness or wholeness? Perhaps joyful fulfillment is a more accurate phrase.

Seeking to do something for the glory of God acknowledges from the outset the gifts with which God has blessed us, irrespective of how insignificant they may seem. It is above all an orientation of praise and thanksgiving, giving credit where credit is due.

Here’s my letter to the Congregation in our newsletter, The Reporter, on Sunday, September 25, 2011.

One of my great joys each week is selecting the scriptures for the Sunday worship service. As has been the tradition of our church, I turn to the Revised Common Lectionary as my primary source and have found the readings well coordinated and thoughtful. My greatest difficulty is choosing two out of the four or six scriptures recommended for a given week.

You may have noticed by now that my general preference is to select one passage from the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) and the Gospel lection. As often happens, I found all of the readings incredibly inspiring this week, but had to prayerfully choose two on which to focus my sermon. The one I had the hardest time leaving out was Philippians 2:1-13. It begins:

“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord
and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be
in you that was in Christ Jesus…”

I encourage you to read further. This scripture is a tremendous gift to us. Take out “Philippians” and insert “West Medfordians.” Let us be of one mind, the same love, being in full accord. Let us forgo selfish ambition and, instead, in humility regard others highly. Let us open our eyes to the needs of others and the needs of the church as a whole. Let us strive through prayer to let the mind of Christ be in us.

Being a Christian takes work. It requires constant prayerful watchfulness. It demands humility that defeats selfish ambition. Yet all this work is worth it when we ponder the rewards of our labors.

Each week I write a column in the congregation’s newsletter, The Reporter, and continually seek fresh ways to communicate the need to remain hopeful and faithful in uncertain and difficult times. I was inspired by a talk Dr. Nick Carter gave to the Alumni Board at Andover Newton last week and penned the letter below for last Sunday’s newsletter. I find it necessary to be realistic about the costs of preserving the institution so that we can increasingly adopt the posture of a movement aimed at spreading the Good News. The nature of institutions is that they prize self-preservation, while movements seek to rally around a cause and gather momentum. Here’s what I wrote to the congregation.

Imagine for a moment that you have been in business for a long time. You have made a healthy profit selling horses and buggies.
One day you’re out in your brand new horse- drawn buggy and hear a strange noise coming up from behind. You look back to see a brand new car, the first you’ve seen. It’s big, beautiful, and isn’t drawn by horses.
What do you do? Do you doggedly dig in your heels and say I’m in the horse and buggy business and will never sell cars? Or do you see yourself as being in the transportation business and begin to explore what adding a range of cars would mean for your business?
This analogy was used this week by Rev. Dr. Nick Carter, visionary president of Andover Newton Theological School in reference to the future of seminaries. I think it’s as valuable in reference to the future of the church and, in particular, our congregation.
As with most mainline Protestant churches, we have seen drastic falls in membership over the past five decades while some other churches and social institutions have grown. Even our strong growth over the past few years has made only a tiny dent. With a few notable exceptions, we have kept doing what we have done for many years, hoping that others will be attracted by what makes us comfortable or sentimental. We have confined ourselves to an old model of governance and sometimes dug in to preserve positions of power and privilege.
Any person with good business sense will tell us this is not the way to be successful. One needs to be watchful for new opportunities to diversify the product range and improve the bottom line. At times you have to shift your model and activities to accommodate the new demands of those who need what you offer. The New York Times on Wednesday ran a story about how luxury hotels no longer market luxury. Who needs another plush bathrobe? Instead, they are marketing experiences that meet the demands of their clients in difficult times.
Of course, the church is not a business and our bottom line does not amount to money. Our mission is not to make a profit. We are called to proclaim the Good News and create opportunities for community to gather, for worship, faith enrichment, and mission that meets the needs of the destitute.
It is essential that we continue to revision who we are called to be today and what we need to do to serve God more faithfully in the present. Our work is cut out for us. Yet we are not alone in this work. God has not left us without hope. We need to turn to God with greater fervor. We need to dream bigger dreams. We need to turn to the experts on church revitalization and listen to each others’ ideas for our future. We need to live into the vision already born within our congregation.
We have achieved great things together over the past few years and have grown considerably, yet we still have work ahead of us to live into a fresh and inspired vision.