Pentecost
II Corinthians 4: 5-10, John 14: 8-17
May 30, 1998
I’m pleased to report to you that the religious faith of 70 million unchurched people residing in the United States is alive and well.
Polls have shown us that 70 million people pray, occasionally read the Bible, and embrace many teachings of Christianity, and yet have chosen not to belong to the church.
It’s not that they are against the church. It’s just that they see no reason to affiliate with a dead organization. Many of these 70 million are what Bishop John Spong has called the growing number of the “Church Alumni Association.” They’ve been there, done that, and describe themselves as “Recovering Methodists, Lapsed Catholics, and Burned-Out Baptists.
Their theme song is the same as Frank Sinatra’s, I’ll Do It My Way Who can blame them when you see the glaring hypocrisy of church people? Members who profess one thing and usually do something else.
Who can blame them when you look at the low level of clergy leadership? When I was younger (before I was ordained) we used to say clergy are like manure. They are sometimes useful – if they are spread out. But if they congregate together, there’s an awful stink.
Who can blame them when you think of how badly the church has performed? The mainline churches are now, at best, considered sideline institutions.
Who can blame them when you look at the record, and / view the poor quality of even the so-called Saints? Who can 7 blame them for saying, “I’ll do it my way”?
Several years ago, I ran across a memorandum to Jesus as a management consultant Erm might have written it. It’s an analysis of the original members; those eleven disciples who made up the first church of Jerusalem. Here’s what it said:
“It is the staff’s opinion that most of your people are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Both Thomas and Philip demonstrate questionable attitudes. At best, they undermine morale. We also feel it is our duty to tell you that the greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau has blacklisted Matthew. Thaddeus had definite radical leanings, and James registers high on the manic/depressive scale.”
This imaginary assessment is close to the picture we find in the Gospel record. Is it any wonder that 70 million people have taken a long look at the church, and concluded, “I’ll do it my way?
Yet here we are celebrating the birthday of this community. This community that has questionable founders, incompetent employees, and half-hearted supporters. Here we are, some wearing red, all affirming our loyalty to an old institution that my wife often points out, “Should have been bankrupt and deep into Chapter Eleven many years ago.” Why are we here? Why do we celebrate this birthday? Why don’t we throw in our membership cards and join the 70 million member church alumni association?
If I were God, I certainly would have done it differently. I would have created a better organization. I would have made more stringent membership standards. But God didn’t. Instead, God entrusted the mission to earthen vessels, meaning clay pots, occasionally meaning cracked pots. He/she entrusted the pots to the fine wine of the Gospel, What a strange way to run an institution.
And what seems even stranger is that we come together to acknowledge that the spirit has come to this motley crew. And that God has entrusted us with His mission. Amazing, surprising, madness; but it’s the madness of God who tells us that, “My spirit will be with you till the ends of the earth.”
Earthen vessels, clay pots; why is it that God has chosen to entrust the store to the likes of us? I don’t know. All I can do is to be thankful and celebrate this day with a group who is trying “To do it God’s way.”
There’s an old legend that has Jesus meeting an angel on the front porch of Heaven. It is said their conversation went like this:
Angel: “We’ve missed you. Where have you been?”
Jesus: “I’ve been to earth.”
Angel: “Were you gone long?”
Jesus: “I suppose you could say that I died rather young.”
Angel: “How did you die?”
Jesus: “Martyrdom by crucifixion.”
Angel: “Oh, you must have had great influence dying in that way.”
Jesus: “No, I ended with eleven friends.”
Angel. “How then will your work continue?”
Jesus: “I left it in the hands of my friends.”
Angel: “And if they fail?”
Jesus: “I have no other plans.”
Today, we celebrate that the treasure of God has been placed into these earthen vessels. For “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed.” And so, we will continue because God’s spirit is the lifeblood of this community. And God has promised that He will be with us forever.
Amen