Sermons for the Month
Not "Are We?", But, "How Are We?"
DATE: November 6th, 2005
SERVICE: All Saints' Sunday
TEXT: Matthew 5:1-11“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
On this All Saints' Sunday I'd like to begin by telling you a story about a little and some medium-sized saints. A few of you have heard this account already; it was told by Pastor Kelly Fryer at a workshop that some of us attended last month. It seems that when Pastor Fryer's daughter Emma was in kindergarten the family lived in a rural area and she road a school bus with children and youth of all ages. One day she came home with a story to tell about middle school boys who were teasing a younger child. It was a particularly upsetting report because Emma knew the boys involved; they were church members and in the confirmation class. In fact, they may have made up the confirmation class.
Well, Pastor Fryer assured her daughter that she would talk with the boys when she next saw them, to which Emma replied that doing so was not necessary. You see, this 5-year-old had already taken care of it. "What did you do?" a surprised Pastor Fryer asked her daughter. "I went up to them and told them to pick on someone their own size," said the confident little saint.
While that may not have been the most eloquent way to challenge oppres sion, that child was being the church in the world. But … so were those boys. They all … and we all … are the church; we are saints. Pastor Fryer pointed out that one translation of Article 7 of the Augsburg Confession - which is the document that was written in 1530 to state what Lutherans believe - defines the church as an assembly of saints in which the Gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly. It's not hard to imagine that there has been considerable debate about what it means to teach the Gospel purely and administer the sacraments rightly, but I doubt that many people have gotten up in arms about defining the church as an assembly of saints, that is of believers.
Yet, we often do not act as if that's the case. Instead, the church is viewed as a building, or as the pastor, or as an entity that is referred to as "you" or "them" as if the church is somehow something "other", something "out there". But if we take scripture and our foundational documents seriously the church is not "it" or "them", but is US.
Pastor Fryer made the point that if the church is the people, then the church assembles 1 percent of the time and spends the other 99 percent of the time scattered. The question then is not are we going to be the church, but how are we going to be the church. Her daughter did it one way, and her confirmation students did it another way … unfortunately. Therefore, everything we do "in here" should be for the sake of making us ready to do ministry "out there".
For the early believers, to be the church was risky business. That's why the closing verses of today's well-known Gospel lesson - the beatitudes - are about persecution.
By the way - and this is a bit of a side note - did you ever notice that the characteristics Jesus lists as belonging to the people of the kingdom are those Jesus himself exemplifies? When he says that those who are persecuted for righteousness sake will inherit the kingdom of heaven we know that's possible only because Jesus was persecuted so that we might be righteous, that is made right we God.
To those first believers who stood firm and refused to proclaim "Caesar is Lord", Jesus says, "You are among the blessed." They were blessed not because all was comfortable and calm, but because they were in a situation that required complete trust in God. And, as they trusted a partnership was forged between them and God that resulted in a new way of living that had transforming power. In that way, they were, and we who follow them are, blessed.
I had already begun this sermon when I sat down to read an article in the most recent edition of "The Lutheran" by Dr. Walter Bouman who was my Systematic Theology and Worship professor in seminary. He died in August. Dr. Bouman wrote, or rather dictated, the article in July when he was living his last days here. He made many moving statements about being among those who blessed because they are experiencing a new way of living due to that partnership with God.
For example, he describes an interaction with a nurse on the hospital's oncology floor. She had come in several times to discuss his condition and on one occasion commented that she was hearing much laughter and peaceful conversation in the room. She asked, "What's going on?" Dr. Bouman replied, "I believe that Jesus, and not death, will have the last word." When she asked what that meant she was treated to a 10-minute version of Theology 101.
I was surprised as I read the article to note that Dr. Bouman referred to the very thing that I had been reading earlier in the day - the definition of the church in the Augsburg Confession which I shared with you a few moments ago. He reflected on what it means for us - for you, and you, and you, and me - to be the church.
This is what, in part, he said, "In the last chapter of Luke, Jesus tells the disciple community to await being 'clothed with power from on high.' We don't need to be 'clothed with power from on high' to join a bridge club, root for the Ohio State University Buckeyes, golf with our friends or champion causes with other like-minded people. But we need 'power from on high' to be the church…."
He then went on to talk about the need to put up with one another, to be a community of unity as we deal with disagreements in the ELCA over emotionally-charged issues. And certainly unity is an important by-product of "being clothed with power from on high" since it so impacts our witness. But, the main reason we need to be "clothed with power from on high" is so that we can be the church "out there" in a positive, transforming way.
We exist not for our sake, so that we can be safe and secure in a world all of our own, but for the sake of the world. We are to be a transforming force for people like that nurse who did not understand what it means that death does not have the last word.
Dr. Bouman ended his reflections by saying that he was prepared to leave the saints on this side of the grave and joins the saints on the other side. And, do you know what? Whether we are here, or there, we - the saints, the believers, the church - are those who are set apart for God's reign and that reign is both a present and a future reality.
I began this sermon with a story of a 5-year-old who was the church for someone else. When you think about it, she risked being persecuted for the sake of Jesus. Her example - and that of the boys she challenged - spoke to every person on the bus that day about what it means to be the assembled saints. So the question is not are we saints? Instead the question is, how are we saints? AMEN