January 25, 2009 Third Sunday after Epiphany,
Annual Meeting Sunday
First Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont, UCC
Psalm 62; Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mark 1:14-20
The First Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont, United
Church of Christ, is a progressive, Open and Affirming congregation,
Open to All. We are diverse people on a journey together following
the way of Jesus Christ. We find unity in the shared quest for truth
rather than in one common creed. Our church provides a sanctuary
for spiritual nurture and growth through services of word, music and
silence, and through education, discussion and mutual support. We
feel called to promote Christ’s way of nonviolence, creating a loving,
just society for all. We care especially for our youth, for the
struggling people of our world and community, and for the health of
God’s creation. We expect there to be a cost to our faithful
discipleship, a cost of our time, talent and substance, and of our
selfless love, humble service and personal risk. This is a church of
courage and of comfort. This is a church of passion and of humor.
This is a church of Christ and of solidarity with people of all faiths
who are striving to create a world of peace and justice, mercy and
love.
Our Mission Statement is the product of years of conversation and months
of careful drafting. The conversations included every person in this
congregation who was willing to participate, and many people from outside. In
the end, the Mission Statement and entire plan were adopted by unanimous vote.
The result is a powerful, beautiful expression of what we feel God is
calling us to do and be—of who we have been, who we are, and who we hope to
be for the foreseeable future. We may not be perfect at fulfilling it, but that is to
be expected. What matters is that everything we do be consistent with it.
There is much boldness to the Mission Statement, but if we have been part
of this church for a while we can get so accustomed to most of it that it doesn’t
feel so bold anymore. For instance, Open and Affirming churches are still a tiny
minority, but we became one over ten years ago, and by now it feels like a matter
of course.
But there is one bold statement in there that can get us every time, if we
take it seriously, and that is the statement, “We expect there to be a cost to our
faithful discipleship, a cost of our time, talent and substance, and of our selfless
love, humble service and personal risk.”
For some of us that may push a button and make us want to run out the
door screaming, especially on this Annual Meeting Sunday. We feel that life
already asks us to pay more of a cost than we can afford. Our time is
overbooked. Our money was tight before the economy crashed, and now it is a
source of increasing anxiety. We want someone to serve us rather than having to
take care of yet another person, place or thing in our overcommitted life. We
come here for sanctuary, and yet the statement says we can expect personal risk.
Why would anyone in their right mind agree to such a statement?
I can think of two reasons. One is that if we are in our right mind, we will
look at this cost completely differently than if we are in our un-right mind.
Our un-right mind is the one that is addicted to self-concern. To this un-
right mind, agreeing to pay the cost of time, talent and substance, selfless love,
humble service and personal risk sounds insane, no matter how much is in it for
us.
Our right mind sees completely differently, but our right mind comes at a
cost itself. The hymn Be Thou My Vision is all about this first cost of
discipleship. It is the cost of letting go of our cherished, habitual way of looking
at things so that we can see everything through the lens of God. God is our best
thought, the hymn says. God’s presence becomes the light in which we see the
world. It says,
Riches I heed not, nor vain empty praise,
Thou my inheritance now and always:
Thou and thou only, first in my heart,
Great God of Heaven, my treasure thou art.
That is our right mind. Psalm 62 describes it this way: “For God alone my
soul waits in silence, for my hope is from God. God alone is my rock and my
salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken….Trust in God at all times, O
people….If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.”
The cost we pay to enter our right mind is the letting go of our own
understanding and control of our life, depending not on our usual knowledge or
skills of manipulation or riches, but depending on the Holy Spirit to guide,
protect and empower us. This is the first and most costly cost of discipleship.
Nor is it a cost we pay once and are done. It takes the hard work of a lifetime of
spiritual practice, falling and getting up over and over, to pay this cost. It takes
discipline, patience and persistence.
But in those moments when we succeed at being in our right mind, in those
moments when we turn our focus entirely to God’s will and Christ’s way and the
Spirit’s guidance and power, at those times all the other costs of discipleship
appear worthwhile. Then we can see the truth that the more we empty our self in
Christ-like service, the more the Spirit fills us anew. We can see the truth of what
Francis of Assisi said, that it is in giving that we receive, it is in paying the cost
that we reap the benefit.
Getting to that vision is the trick. Today’s passage from Jonah begins,
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.” As you may recall, the first
time God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, Jonah took off on a
fast ship in the opposite direction. In order to be transformed from his un-right
mind to his right mind, he had to be thrown overboard in a terrible storm and
swallowed by a huge fish and live imprisoned in its belly for three days. Only
after being belched back up on dry land was Jonah finally free and able to listen
to God with his right mind. Then, if you remember the story, you know that
Jonah fell right back into his addicted-to-self-concern un-right mind and had to
go through yet another ordeal.
We can read all this metaphorically. It often takes going down in a storm,
or living in the belly of a beast a while before we are ready to let go and turn to
God. Even then, after a little success, we can expect relapses into our un-right
mind if we are not careful.
The wisdom of 12 Step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous recognizes
how hard it is to enter and stay in our right mind. People with addictions often
have to hit rock bottom after a long fall through an excruciatingly painful hell
before they are ready to change. Then the work of developing and maintaining a
new life begins.
The first three steps of the twelve describe the process. The first step it to
admit we are powerless over our addiction—that our lives have become
unmanageable. This was the lesson Jonah learned in the storm and the belly of
the whale. The second step is to come to believe that a Power greater than
ourselves can restore us to sanity. This was the point Jonah reached when he was
spewed up on the shore and at last turned to God with faith and trust. The third
step is to make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as
we understand God—the point Jonah came to when he finally followed God’s
instructions and went to Nineveh.
This third step of handing over our will and life and mind is the greatest
cost of discipleship, but it is also the greatest source of power. And here is the
other reason why anyone in their right mind will gladly embrace the costs of
discipleship: because they pay off. Once Jonah set out to call the people of
Nineveh back to God’s ways, the whole city repented and changed and found
grace.
Like Jonah, Jesus came out of his ordeal in the wilderness firmly
established in his right mind and saying, “Repent, the realm of God is at hand.”
The Greek word for repent is metanoia, which means to change our mind, to shift
from the un-right mind to the right mind. The gospels show that the same thing
happened to the followers of Christ as happened to Jonah and Jesus—once the
disciples dared to leave the security of their old ways and follow, they became
part of the force that overturned the greatest empire the world had ever seen.
We will gladly pay whatever costs are required once we have the faith that
God will give us the guidance and power we need to change the world. We will
gladly pay with years of patient work for racial justice when we see results like a
man being judged by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin,
and being elected President of the United States. We will gladly pay with endless
prayer and programs to promote change when we see that a victory is possible,
like that President signing an executive order to end our nation’s immoral,
criminal practice of torture. If we have faith we will gladly pay the costs of
discipleship whenever we see there is more work to be done, for instance when
we see that a gay bishop is not shown the respect of being fully included in an
inaugural ceremony, or that full equality and the pursuit of happiness in marriage
are still denied people on the basis of sexual orientation. Anyone in their right
mind will see that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and will
pay whatever cost it takes to set it right.
The cost Christ asks us to pay always comes back down to this. We are
asked to lose our old life to gain a new life. We are asked to give up whatever
holds us back from fulfilling our deepest, truest self that God created us to be.
We are asked to pay the cost of bringing forth from our self what will give our
lives their fullest expression and meaning and joy. As the theologian Frederick
Buechner wrote, “The place God calls you to is where your deep gladness and the
world’s deep hunger meet.” Whatever is required to be the glory of a human
being fully realized is a cost that should give us joy to pay.
And here is the greatest reason of all to pay this cost. When a whole
community is on a journey together, each member seeking his or her own unique
expression of their true self, each finding their own way to use their own gifts to
meet the world’s deep need, that community becomes a force far beyond what
numbers can measure. A power flows through that community that can work
miracles, that can change and even save the lives of its members and can reach
beyond its walls to change and save the world.
We expect there to be a cost to our faithful discipleship. Let us find out
what that cost might be for us right now and pay it with joy.
Let us pray in silence, asking God to put us in our right mind, to put us in a
faithful disciple’s mind, so that we may have the wisdom and courage we need to
fulfill our Mission today and in the days to come. Let us pray in silence…
Sermon 01/25/2009