The story goes.
That a year ago, or so.
On a Sunday not unlike this one,
late in the semester,
A congregation – A church –
gathered at this very time and in this very space,
that was made up entirely,
of the Jansson family,
a small choir,
our student managers,
and a guest preacher.
The details are not all that important,
but suffice it to say that this congregation,
this church,
had hit a rough patch,
and not for the first time.
Pushing the boundaries of Jesus’ assurance,
regarding 2 or 3 being gathered.
I came to interview around that time,
and it wasn’t clear to me then,
that this church was a sustainable enterprise.
Most universities in on the East Coast and Midwest,
were founded by churches,
and most of them held Sunday services,
through most of their history,
but most have similarly abandoned the practice.
I’m glad we did not,
I thank God for the Janssons, and Kennedys and Heuers,
Williamses.
for manifold reasons,
but especially for showing up,
when they were the difference between 0
and 2 or three, gathered.
Which is a wide gap.
I will continue to give it my very best effort here.
to build with you a vibrant, participatory, inclusive, welcoming, thoughtful, Chapel service and community.
You may be familiar with the shifting religious demography of our country,
which is becoming decidedly more plural,
more polarized,
less Christian,
less observant.
If you participate in a congregation at home,
it’s likely – across the denominational and political spectrum –
that you’ve noticed a decline in participation,
a few exceptions – including here in Rooke Chapel – notwithstanding.
As the church is less of a tether of social life,
less of a norm of American practice,
As it has been rocked by devastating scandal,
as it has becomes publicly identified with a narrow swath of American politics,
and as its public image has suffered.
there are those who wonder both, “does the church have a future?”
and “does the future have a church?”
I would submit,
that as we ponder the long arc of the church –
its trial and its sins,
we would note that the prosperity and politics of America in 2019,
are not going to be its end.
But it is changing, and it will change.
both in here and out there.
But, reminds Jesus, where two or three are gathered in my name,
I am there among them.
This is, I think,
in some sense literally – if not physically – true.
And it was, I think,
just as true when it was just the Janssons and the choir,
as it is today, with our 50 odd worshippers each week
(65 this week, but who’s keeping count?),
as it will be,
as we continue to build and grow in subsequent semesters,
and I earnestly believe we will.
It’s a special place, special people,
and a worthy endeavor.
I hope you feel the same
when I ask people,
why they come to our little congregation,
they tell me because it reminds them of home,
or because it doesn’t remind them of home, but it fits somehow.
or because it’s so welcoming
or because of the music.
or the children, the students.
or the timing , the brevity.
Which is all very lovely.
And I’m sure they meant to tell me,
it’s because of how thoughtful and meaningful and entertaining I am.
But I have to tell you something:
We’re going to disappoint you.
I’m going to disappoint you.
The church is going to disappoint you.
(Editor’s Note: I remember reading about Nadia Bolz-Weber’s practice of telling new members that they would be disappointed a long time ago, and it’s stuck with me ever since. I didn’t quote her in this sermon, but am deeply indebted to her.) .
and not just the big Church out there,
which we encounter in public in some hard ways
but the little church in here.
I’m going to wear the wrong thing,
or say the wrong thing
or show up in the wrong place,
or not show up in the wrong place,
or we’ll pick the wrong theme, or the wrong hymn,
or someone will say something unwelcome during lunch.
and you’re going to think to yourself, “I’m disappointed.”
And it’s at that point,
that our question today, “what is Church?”
becomes rather important and rather large.
if we think the Church is something more than a club,
or obligation, or activity,
then it matters.
and it matters all the more if Church can still be church,
after we’re disappointed.
Barbara Brown Taylor was once asked after a lecture,
a question which essentially amounted to “What’s wrong with the church?”
to which she replied,
the problem
is that it’s full of people (can’t find it. Let me know if you do.)
you may be familiar with what we might call the “Justin Bieber” phenomenon,
which I named after that great pop theologian,
after he reflected profoundly on his own sense of ecclesiology
“You don’t need to go to church to be a Christian,
just like hanging out in Taco Bell doesn’t make you a taco.”
Funnily enough, Dr. King said something not dissimilar in his Letter to Birmingham Jail,
which we will delve into next semester.
“But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world.”
Amid my own disappointment with the church,
in my late adolescent and college years,
I receded into my own mind.
It’s nice in there.
for a while.
Lord, I have prayed many a time,
save me from your followers.
But with time I realized,
that I can’t do it alone.
Showing up in a space like this is countercultural,
which actually makes us far more like Jesus’ early followers
than the post-war, baby booming American church.
And I for one, am pretty excited about that.
So, what is church?
Why do we gather,
if we will inevitably be disappointed?
What is church if
it’s not a building.
And it’s not a leader.
It’s not an activity,
I think Matthew 18 gets it pretty right.
Now, it’s possible that if you grew up in a particular sort of church,
you experience this text weaponized,
against “backsliding.”
To which I can only say,
God help us.
That’s not what it’s about.
But Matthew 18 is ultimately I think not about process –
it’s a profession that Christ is here when we gather.
And then a question:
What sort of community do we wish to be?
Matthew 18 is telling us 4 devastatingly important things:
People sin.
The church is a gathering of sinners.
We can handle things like adults.
It matters.
It matters that we gather.
And it matters because, I think,
we long for truth,
and beauty,
we long for connection,
and love which won’t disappoint.
which is to say we long for God.
And while we admit that the church will disappoint,
we gather,
because we believe,
ultimately, that God won’t.
and because we believe that changes something.
we’re committed enough to that notion
that we want to share it,
and cultivate it,
and learn it and sing it and celebrate it.
And when we get a glimpse of it,
even amidst the humanness and trial and difficulty,
as I do regularly with you here.
it’s a glimpse of something great.
We want our children to glimpse it,
so they know they are loved preemptively,
and by more than just their family.
And we want our students to glimpse it,
so they know they are more than grades and accomplishments and social capital
We want our old to glimpse it,
so we can all remember
that love – not loss or frailty or mortality – is the real story.
And as we share it,
it becomes
more real, somehow.
In our worship, sacrament and fellowship.
In our meals and studies and small groups,
something real is happening.
And that thing is,
countercultural and unpopular as it may be,
is church.
What is church?
it’s us.
Is the ecclesia,
the assembly,
the gathering,
the community –
this community,
here to receive and profess grace.
to share in Christ’s mission
and to build the kind of connections,
that help us learn to love better.
It’s good to be the Church with you.
Amen.