Rev. John Simmons
The Community Church of Sebastopol
July 20, 2008
Luke 22: 14-19
Some two thousand years ago a man named Jesus began to talk to the people around him about God and the meaning a relationship with God has in everybody’s life. He recognized that not everybody this relationship or paid any attention to it. Most of the people of his day were involved in the world of commerce and were concerned about making a living and storing up enough funds and goods to insure a good life.
Jesus pointed out that there was more to life than commerce. He emphasized the relationship with God and the relationship with people. His heart was filled with compassion for the oppressed of his day. He lived in a country occupied by the Roman Army and ruled by a Roman Puppet Government. The leaders of his religion had mostly given over to accommodating Rome and its puppet government as it made their life easier. Jesus spoke out against this oppression and yet his central message was for the life of the ordinary person. He was by nature a healer. He understood that as people drew closer to their creator they would gain strength for the lives they had to live. He gathered followers about his to teach them about the true value that came out of a life lived with God.
He was an itinerant preacher roaming the land of his fathers. People often gathered to hear him speak. Many found not only challenge but comfort in his words. As the crowds around him grew first the religious leaders of his day became alarmed, then the Puppet Government and finally Rome.
Jesus knew that his radical teaching of love and primary allegiance to God would eventually bring him into conflict with the powers of his day. He tried to prepare his followers for that day by reinforcing his teachings of God’s love and the way God called people to live lives of caring and compassion for those about him. He accepted all of the people that came to hear him preach and many people accepted what he had to say.
As he expected the collision with the powers came to be and he was arrested, tried and crucified.
This would have seemed to end the story accept even after his death his followers saw and felt his presence among them. It gradually dawned upon them that it was up to them to carry forth his teachings.
The last meal before he was arrested he had supper with his disciples. The theme of that supper is the theme of this sermon. We begin after the death and resurrection. We begin when what has become the church began.
The scripture this morning is heard most often on the Sundays we have communion. Today I would like to take it out of this traditional setting and place it where it also belongs in the beginning of the church. Church is not a word attributed to Jesus. Its origin is Greek meaning both a building and an assemblage.
In the days after the death of Jesus people gathered together for comfort. They found more than comfort. They found the presence of Jesus alive and in their midst. We know of at least two such meetings from the scripture both of which are recorded in the Book of Acts. We also know that during this time getting together as followers of Jesus was dangerous because both many Jews in places of high power as well as the Roman military and political system were concerned that the followers of Jesus might be fomenting a rebellion. We can assume that other followers of Jesus met in smaller group both for comfort, protection and to remember the wonder of Jesus’ life and the many things he had taught them. It was in these gatherings that his ministry continued.
One of the safest places to gather was in homes especially around meals. Although there were only the disciples at the supper before the arrest of Jesus reports of what went on at that meal must have spread. Although I am sure the exact words and actions varied at these meals three things must usually have happened: the breaking of the bread, the sharing of wine and the remembering the words and stories of and about Jesus. Today we refer to these times and events as the early church. I think we can rest assured that the term church came into usage much later. At the time they were simply the gathering of the followers.
Over the years after the crucifixion we can assume that these gatherings continued and spread throughout the world of Jewish communities. We can also assume that people talked about many things as they gathered together. One of the issues was surely “What must we do?” One of the answers must have been “What Jesus told us to do.”
The reading of the gospels makes it clear that Jesus was not concerned about an organization. His words and his behavior supported actions on a simple but broad scale. His concern was that they open their lives to Spirit of God, they pray together and alone, the tend to the needs of the poor, the oppressed, the ill, and that they stand in solidarity against those who would enslave them. We know that the disciples and other followers went about teaching these basics and about the life of Jesus. We can also assume that the meeting around a common meal continued as a format in the early life of the followers of Jesus.
By the time of the writings of Paul and the gospels we can see what was emerging from these gatherings. The structures are varied, there are ecclesiastical terms emerging, and there is not agreement in all things. We also can see that people are joining these gatherings and that they are outgrowing the simple coming together for meals.
On Easter Sunday in 1944 I joined the church. I had to make a simple confession that I believed that Jesus was the son of God and my personal savior. I’m not sure what I needed a savior for, but I readily agreed. During that same service I joined, many friends in our church’s baptistery and we were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I was eleven at the time. My biggest impression was how big the baptistery was. It was at least ten feet by twelve.
Every Sunday morning we had two services during which communion was always served. There was always a long prayer. Our minister always memorized the scripture and followed its recitation with a very eloquent sermon. He was every bit as good a preacher as our own Gene Nelson. His sermons, like Gene’s, were about social issues, following the action of Jesus. Our church was also very active in social concerns. We also had a large and very active program for the youth in our community. We probably tended more toward the social than the service part and learning part of ministry, but they were there too. You have to understand that I grew up in Hollywood, California and Southern California was the playground then as it is now. Only then there were fewer people, no smog and we were just minutes away from warm, water beaches.
The church had a profound effect on my life that was centered more with my connection with God although that still left plenty of time for the social life. As then and as now the summer camp and conference programs were very significant for me. It was there in June of 1948 that I committed myself to the Christian ministry. I’m still discovering what that commitment means.
Even as a youth I was very involved in the ecumenical church movement and discovered that not all churches were the same. Our beliefs were not dissimilar, but our practices in worship varied quite a bit. It wasn’t until I got to graduate school and studied church history that I learned how much the church had changed from those simple house meetings to the complexity that makes up the world of Christianity.
I had grown up in a church where action, understanding, learning and caring for one another were far more important than arguing about beliefs, worrying about sin, hell and damnation.
The thesis for this sermon came to me after attending our June church council meeting. There was some concern expressed about the fewer number of people joining our church. The brief discussion raised some questions for me.
Why do we come to church? Do we come out of a common set of beliefs? Are we concerned about what will happen to us if we die without joining the church? Do we feel the need of joining together under the armor of God against the power of the Devil? Are concerned about being consumed by the fires of hell? Do we feel that the water of baptism protect us from evil?
You know I’ve filled out a lot of surveys about why I come to this church and listened to the responses given my many and none of the question in the paragraph above were even raised.
The number one answer as to why we come to church is because of the sermons of our minister, number two is our sense of community and number three is our youth programs. There are of course a number of other reasons among which are our willingness to take stands on social issues, our inclusiveness of people who believe differently, organize their lives according their own understandings and the discovery that we are not all created exactly alike. People like our variations in music and the many activities in which they may take part. They like the general openness of our church. They like that they can be involved just as much as they want to be. They can be leaders, team players and even spectators.
They can give financial support to the church or they can pass the plate right on by without a single murmur from their neighbor in the pew. They can come when they want and if they are missing someone may inquire if they are all right or tell them they miss seeing them but no one asks them to defend their absence.
We serve good coffee after each Sunday morning’s service and sometimes an additional treat. They can ask the minister to marry them, bury their loved ones and visit the sick. They can attend a variety of programs on different subjects. They can send their kids to camp and conferences. They can even go to such hot spots as Nicaragua and New Orleans and spend a week or longer repairing houses and building schools.
The amazing thing is that all of these opportunities are available to us and our families whether we are members of the church or not.
1940 was a year a difficulty for my family. All four of my grandparents died. My brother had polio, my mother had a hysterectomy and we built and moved into a new house. One of the highlighted memories for me was my mother telling after my grandparents had all died that they were now in heaven watching over me. I suppose she meant to comfort me but on the contrary, all four of my grandparents loomed as huge figures of judgment when they were alive. To have they watching me the rest of my life was more than I was willing to believe. That ended my belief in heaven right then and there.
Sin, hell, damnation and salvation were not big parts of my life. They certainly had little to do with my relationship with God. Jesus was a role model for me that I was never quite able to achieve but in spite of this major shortcoming I have always felt the spirit of God as close to me as I was willing to let it be. I joined church at eleven not because I understood everything but because I did believe in a universal creator I called God. I joined church because what I had learned of Jesus’ teachings seemed right on to me and I at least wanted to try to follow in his footsteps. I joined church because the people were kind and loving to me.
I served as an interim minister at a church in Sunnyvale some years ago. One Sunday a young boy named Mark came up to me after church as asked if he could join church. He was a little young for what I would call a believer’s baptism but then God had not yet named me judge of the universe. His parents and two older brothers were with him. His parents though he was too young for this step. I asked Mark why he wanted to join church. His answer was quite simple, “I want to eat in church like everyone else”. I knew that he meant he wanted to take communion and his parent wouldn’t allow it until he was a member of the church.
I talked with the family and suggested I would be glad to have a few sessions to prepare Mark for church membership and they somewhat reluctantly agreed. We spent a few sessions together, I mainly asking questions and he answering them. They were not complicated questions. At the end of the session I felt it was important to let this be the time for Mark to confess his faith and be baptized. There was something in his spirit that would not be denied.
In that particular church after the sermon I invited anyone who wanted to join church to come forward. Mark eagerly came to the front of the church. I asked him the traditional statement and he answered yes. Then we both headed for the baptistery. The church practiced baptism by immersion. In that church as in our communion followed the sermon. Both of Mark’s parents were deacons in the church and I asked them to come forward after the baptism and the communion service and serve Mark his first communion in the baptistery. Mark came out from under the waters and his parents came forward and served him the bread and the cup. It still brings tears to my eyes. They was not a dry eye in church that morning, surely the Holy Spirit was amongst us.
Now I’m not going to invite anyone in church to come forward at this time to join church; that is not our custom. Usually we baptize infants and confirm young people into membership when they grow older. For adults we have periodic classes on church membership and then on a given Sunday they are invited to join with our church in a variety of ways: some come transferring their membership from another church, some come simply affirming their faith, and those who have not been baptized are and then make their statement of faith.
What I am going to do this morning is to ask those who joined church as adult to think about why they took this action. For those who have not joined out church I am going to ask you to think about why you have not taken that step. Then the ushers are going to pass out paper and pencils for you to write out your answers. That last statement is not true for the question is an inward one for you.
I have wondered why more people have not joined our church. One of the reasons I pointed out earlier was that they can have everything we have to offer without taking this step. But I wonder if there is not more.
Among the dating singles of our community of all ages one of the big questions seems to be commitment. I don’t have enough time to go into all of the reasons people offer as to why they are not ready for a committed relationship. But I think one of the big ones is fear of failure. That is certainly a valid fear for we see far too many committed relationships fail.
But then let’s transfer this to reasons for not joining this church. Are we afraid of not living up to our commitment? If that’s your answer then look around and you will see any number of us who have not lived up to our commitment but are still members of this church. Some people will say I don’t believe in God. Then that poses a different problem. What is it that you do believe in? Something brings you into this place, can you define it?
Some people may say I have certain theological problems with this church. There are any number of members of may have theological problems with this church or even with what our minister espouses. We are a community of diversity. We are not the right church for everyone. That is not the question I’m asking. I’m simply asking could we be the right church for you?
We do ask some things of people joining our church. The list I’m making is my own but it is a beginning. We ask you to believe in a creator that created a cosmos in which all things are in balance and where the universe is for the good of all. We ask you to believe in Jesus who came teaching us the paths that lead to peace and understanding among all people of the world. We ask you to believe in social justice for all. We ask you to be open to all of the members and friends of this church. We ask that your lives reflect the teachings of Jesus in so far as you are able. We will give you the opportunity to share your talents of wisdom, of money, of friendship, of good humor. We will ask you to share your needs with us when you feel like doing so. We will invite you to share your life in the church with your family and friends.
We will also ask that when you are unable to do some or any of these things that you know that we accept you as you are and God loves you as you are and there is always another opportunity.
We are not exactly like the early church. We have succumbed to organization. We have ordered our services. We have ordained ministers and called staff to serve our needs. We still break bread and share the cup even though it be only once a month. We do from time to time ask what would Jesus have of us and how can we work to meet his expectations. And while out Jesus talk may not always be audible it always underlies what it is that we are about and we’re always willing to enter into more Jesus talk with you whenever you want to begin the conversation.
Whether you choose to join this church or not you will always be a part of our community as long as you want to be. I just want you to know I’d be glad to have more members because of the richness my life the church has provided me.
I know it is not for everyone. I have a daughter who went as far as baptism and a son who comes to church when it is an important family event. But for seventy-five years it has stood me in good stead and I’m even ready for more.
The title of this sermon is a question: “Who is the Church?” The answer is that all of us - in whatever way we choose to participate.