Authentically Christian

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 8, 2010, the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-13
Luke 12:32-40

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

If there is one quote from John Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Faith” that most people of the reformed faiths are familiar with, it would be this one or one of the ten like it.

Meetings of the church are enjoined upon us by God’s Word; and from our everyday experience we well know how we need them. But how can such meetings be held unless they have been established and have their stated days? According to the apostle [Paul]’s statement, “all things should be done decently and in order” among us. It is so impossible to maintain decency and order — otherwise than by this arrangement and regulation — that immediate confusion and ruin threaten the church if it be dissolved.[1]

“Decently and in order,” this chestnut from 1Corinthians[2] could well be the mantra of Presbyterians and Presbyterian Worship. In a search of Calvin’s Institutes I found this phrase ten times, including the footnotes. That’s an awful lot. Sure, I’d expect to find grace and atonement frequently in Calvin’s theology but ten times seems to be a lot for a phrase that was never used by Jesus. In truth, I’m half right. Grace appears nearly six-hundred times. Atonement appears only once.

Being decent and in order is more important than atonement in Calvin’s Institutes. That makes me shake my head.

In seminary, I once worshiped with a mainly Hispanic Presbyterian congregation. Expecting to find an extremely charismatic wonderfully uninhibited service, I found possibly the driest worship service ever. I told this to the professor[3] who sent me to this congregation and asked him about the differences between my expectations and my observations. He told me that only the driest Presbyterian professors went and taught in seminaries in Mexico, what I saw was the norm. These folks just might have actually out-Calvined Calvin in regard to worshiping decently and in good order.

This is my little way of reminding you all, as if I need to do this in the sermon, that I am a fan of good liturgy. Good liturgy helps arrange our worship service into movements around the Word of God. We first “Gather around the Word of God” and then we “Hear the Word of God.” Next we “Respond to the Word of God” and finally “Depart with the Word of God.”

This acts as an outline, which gets fleshed out with prayer, confession, and reading and hearing God’s Word both written and interpreted. We then give our tithes and offerings, celebrate the sacraments, and receive the charge and benediction. Each of these movements is bathed in song and prayer.

These movements of the liturgy help organize the service so that we are sure to worship in a decent and orderly fashion. Calvin would be so proud. In my opinion though, this liturgy is a tool, like a hammer or saw. It is used to help build worship. It provides a discipline to help make us better disciples.

Good liturgy should be like a hangar or a mannequin, something that worship can be draped across to help it maintain its shape. Liturgy should never be a straight jacket trying to restrain the Holy Spirit within these walls or anywhere else.

I say this because scripture says that there is a difference between good worship and bad worship.

Imagine the prophet Isaiah screaming this at the top of his lungs at you as you head to the temple for worship on the Sabbath:

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.

The common response would have been somewhere between “who’s this nutcase?” and “uh-oh, we’re in trouble now.” He has just told the city of Jerusalem that they are no better than the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Suddenly, because the city failed to pay more attention to treating the poor and needy justly, they are compared to cities that burned because Lot could not find a handful of people worth saving. Isaiah tells the city, you bring your rams and your beasts, but because your heart is not in the right place, your offerings are worthless.

The people had been accustomed to this sacrificial system of atonement since before Moses brought back the particulars and they were recorded in the Torah. The temple leaders had even instituted a system to interpret what Moses meant so that the people who brought their “sacrifice without blemish” would know what a blemish was. Isaiah then tells them that there is a new Sheriff in town, and while a blemish on the ram is one thing a blemish in the heart and deeds of the one who brought it was worse.

Their offerings were futile. Their incense was an abomination. The Lord hates their festivals and the people have become a burden, a burden which the Lord is weary of bearing. Blood is on their hands because of the evil they do. They are first commanded by the prophet not to do good, but to learn to do good. They are so far gone from proper worship that they have to learn what it means to do good before they can even attempt it.

Their worship had become abhorrent to the Lord. Their offerings were no longer welcome. Justice had left their lives and their children had become rebellious against God. They were following the rules, but the rules no longer applied because they were no longer worshiping the Lord, they were playing the worship game.

Humanity has an inclination to manipulate worship to what we think serves God and suits us. When we pervert and manipulate worship, our offerings can become futile and our prayers rejected. Isaiah calls us back to the heart of worship, back to the good the people are to learn; seeking justice, rescuing the oppressed, defending the orphan and pleading for the widow.

The shame of contrived worship is that the people who think this way have often forgotten the first rule. The focus of worship isn’t the blessings we receive; it’s giving praise to the Lord while serving God’s good creation.

Luke continues this counsel when his disciples are liberated from the peril of possessions and enabled to reorder their lives to care for the needy pointing out that earthly treasure is unnecessary since it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Instead of storing our riches in barns that may never be built like we found in last week’s gospel reading, we are to seek “purses for that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.”

Of course, this passage is not without its barriers, ones that won’t be overcome by a silver tongue. Nor will I be able to explain them away saying something like “when Jesus says ‘sell your possessions’ he didn’t really mean ‘sell your possessions’;” it’s what Jesus said. Shoot, if I said that to you all right here I would hope and expect you to come up to me and say “you first” after worship.

Instead, let’s couple this reading with last week’s about the rich farmer who thought that his riches would be able to provide everything he needed. As you recall, this didn’t work out so well for the farmer. He had everything he needed for a long and prosperous life except the time. All of his wealth would not be able to buy him one more sunrise. Today we are again reminded that prosperity is no guarantee of a future.

This leads to some very important words in this difficult instruction, we are to store our treasures where they will not be subject to theft or rot. Instead our call is to seek greater wealth, riches greater than silver and gold. We are called to return to Isaiah’s prophecy and learn how to do good; seeking justice and rescuing the oppressed, defending the orphan and pleading for the widow. Justice, rescue, defense, and pleading on behalf of those who need justice, rescue, defense, and pleading lead to riches that will never be taken away where riches are often as fleeting as the seasons.

Another admonition we are given in our call to do good is to give alms. In giving alms we further the Father’s kingdom on earth. We know that all creation is a gift of God, so there’s a sort of a symbiotic yin-and-yang effect going on when we give to those who need. Hebrews 13 reminds us that when we help strangers it is very possible that we have unknowingly helped angels, messengers of God. When we give to one another we return to creation what has been created, for the glory of the one who creates it.

Giving alms is a conversion in how we understand God and how God’s practices lead us into transformed practices related to… possessions, social relations, and more.”[4] Isaiah teaches us that as we give alms, we make ourselves clean. We cease to do evil and learn to do good. In almsgiving we seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow as Isaiah taught. In giving to others, we return to God what God has given to us, not only in terms of physical treasure, but in terms of dignity.

There is a wonderfully circular quality in these verses. To give us the kingdom pleases the Father, and likewise, our almsgiving to neighbors in need pleases the Father. We do not give alms or do any kind of work to earn our salvation. We are to give alms in thanksgiving for what the Father has all ready done. We are to give alms for the glory of God, to show gratitude to God, and for the benefit of others.[5]

The Presbyterian Outlook magazine has commissioned a series of essays probing challenges to the church. In a recent issue of the magazine, Merwyn S. Johnson comes to this conclusion, “The Christian Community—including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)—finds its authenticity in Christ or not at all.”[6] He writes three things need to be present to be authentically in Christ: our community must hinge on Jesus Christ, quick fixes won’t solve the denomination’s problems, and Christ brings otherwise self-isolated, unique individuals together.[7] Interpreting these remarks in light of our readings, Dr. Johnson reminds us that while Isaiah calls us to respond to the Lord he knew, we must respond to the Triune God we know, particularly Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us.

Johnson writes that authentically Christian life should take its cues from Dietrich Bonhoeffer who wrote all Christians take their cues “from Christ, through Christ and in Christ.” In worshiping Christ we are reminded one of the greatest alms we can give one another is to offer God’s word to one another, the word that “pronounces us guilty when we don’t feel guilty and righteous before God when we do not feel righteous.”[8] We are blessed as we give God’s word and when we receive it.

This leads us back to our reading from the prophet Isaiah where there is a promise, a promise that the nation of Israel will be as white as snow even though their sins mark them as scarlet. The nation of Israel which is now red like crimson, but will be like wool. If they are willing, if they are obedient, then they will eat of the good of the land. If not, well, there is always the sword. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.

This is our promise too as the children of God. We are not forsaken; we are saved by grace through faith. We are called to be authentically Christian, not “fish on the bumper/rage behind the wheel” Christian. We are called to seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. We are to give alms and serve God as we would serve the master of the house, and we should do this for two simple reasons.

First, we might serve angels unaware. Second, we serve the master of the house and we never know when he is expected to return. So we are called to be ready when he calls upon us to serve from Christ, through Christ, and in Christ.

[1] Calvin, John, The Institutes of Religion, Translated by Ford Lewis Battles, from The Westminster Press. Albany, OR: Books For The Ages, AGES Software, 2.8.32
[2] 14:40
[3] This was an assignment in my “Introduction to Christian Worship” class taught by the one and only, the late great Rev. Dr. Stan Hall.
[4] Note for Luke 12:13-34, The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha. Harrelson, Walter J., General Editor. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003. Electronic Version, 2003..
[5] Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.), Office of the General Assembly, The Book of Confessions. Louisville, KY: Presbyterian Distribution Service, 2003, section 5.123.
[6] “Is Authentic Christian Community Possible?” The Presbyterian Outlook. Volume 192, Number 15, July 26, 2010, page 24.
[7] Ibid. page 22
[8] Ibid.