Rev. Cathy George's Sermon from Opening Sunday, June 25th
June 25, Proper 7, 2023
Emmanuel Dublin
We begin the summer season at Emmanuel this morning. 36 years ago, the last Sunday in June in 1986, was my first Sunday as your summer priest. The church had nearly closed. The only people in the pews that summer morning were the 5 search committee members I’d met with; Ned Whitney, Gus Crocker, Clint Yeomans, Diana MacVeagh, David Howe and their spouses. All have gone on to glory, but Dede and Charlie MacVeagh who are here with us today. We combined two services, added a coffee hour, we rolled up our sleeves and bought a swing set, and sandbox, started a bible study and choir, and we welcomed people from across the wider Monadnock region to this community of faith. In a few summers time we convinced the Bishop we didn’t need to put a lock on the door --
Last week the New York Times published the 4th newsletter in a series focused on American’s moving away from religion. Here are the titles of each newsletter 1. Lots of Americans are Losing their Religion, Have you? – 2. Christianity’s Got a Branding Problem - 3. The Largest And Fastest Religious Shift in America is well underway. And - 4. Why Do People Lose Their Religion, 7,000 people share their stories. The series covers Judaism and Islam but is predominantly focused on Christianity. I recommend it because it is not simplistic, it does not suggest there is one answer. It takes seriously the many contributing factors causing the decline. And it includes the fact that with mainline churches in decline, the spiritual quest in our culture is still alive.
In the 1950s many synagogues and churches were built and congregations grew. In 1954 the words “under God” were added to the national pledge of allegiance, and in ‘56 “In God We Trust” became our national motto and was stamped on our currency. Over the past 10 years, 6-10,000 churches in our country have closed every year to become apartments, skateboard parks, laser tag arenas or are demolished. In 1998 62 % of 1000 people randomly surveyed felt religion was important, whether they practiced one or not. In 2023 it dropped to 39% .
American society, across race, religion, economic status, cultural heritage is voting with their feet. Yet, the research tells us that people are not just walking away, some are seeking spiritual grounding in other forms: the need for prayer, the practice of meditation, the connection to nature, a desire to contribute to those in need, needing to be part of a community, is all still there, maybe not being met by the church, but is a need unmet, or is being met in a myriad of other ways.
This says something , we are created with a need for or a quest to understand what is beyond us , transcendent. Church or no church, humans are finite, and we have a desire to connect to what is infinite, beyond, and it is done in many ways. The research tells me we are not alone in wondering what the future of the church is. Jesus’ teaching in Matthew’s gospel, and the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar in Genesis, tell us something about the nature of God, about what God is like, and how God intervenes in human life. They help me try to answer a question I have been asking myself over the past few years, a question our wider culture is asking, a question I want to think about together this morning: why go to church?
My sister kept her journal in a box under her bed. When she was over at a friend’s house I would lay on the floor in her room, reach under her bed, slide out the box, open it and read her journal. I wanted to know what she was thinking and how she felt. One summer afternoon, she was down the street playing with her friend and I reached under her bed, pulled the box out, opened it and looked up the last place I’d left off and there in big letters were the words “I know you are reading my journal. Stop it. “
“For nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered” Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel “and nothing secret that will not become known” Nothing covered up, that will not be uncovered. Nothing secret that will not become known. These are life changing words of Jesus if we lived by them, J if I lived by them! When I was caught, I stopped sneaking in to read my sister’s journal. From high places to private rooms, from Presidential documents held in secret to white lies we tell every day.
Why do we come to church? The creeds, confession and liturgy speak to one person, and are dead to the next. Others come to join efforts to reach out to those in need, another needs a place to be thankful, a community to belong to,or it’s the music, like the words of that hymn we just sang: Not here for high and holy things, we render thanks to thee, but for the common things of earth, the purple pageantry of dawning and of sying days the splendor of the sea. The royal robes of autumn moors, the golden gates of spring, the velvet of soft summer nights, the silver glistening of all the million million stars the silent songs they sing.
Jesus’ teaching is one reason why I come to church. I don’t hear the message that the truth exists and that it matters and that there is moral foundation at the center of the universe - that we can’t fool God, or each other, we can’t cover things up, we can’t pretend that no one sees.
When Jesus was brought before Pilate to be questioned and he was being steered in the direction Pilate wanted his answer to go because wasn’t sure Jesus was guilty as charge and Pilate did not want to bear responsibility for his death, Jesus replied with the mission of his life: “for this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” The truth is on you, Pilate. Telling the truth is on you and me.
So often Christianity gets it so wrong. Its abuses are so obscene people can no longer darken the doors, or its message is usurped for political gain, or the institution pays more attention to the trappings,rules and rituals than the heart of Christian faith and its people. When it is used to exclude and diminish and hurt people rather than care for them - - I get it, I get why I have stepped away at different times and I get why some people run away.
There is a lot to be said for meeting God in nature, in garden dirt, in the infinite waves of the sea, and the sweet smell of summer air, the beauty of art, and the challenge of a sport, to find God in work and friendships.
Why go to church? Because when the church gets it right, it is where we talk about, think about, pray about what matters in life. It is where a mirror is held up for me to see who I am and who I am not, who we want to be, who we can be. Where else am I told to forgive, 70 times 7, to care about someone else as much as I do about myself, or invited to see all God’s children as our own?
I go to hear Jesus’ message about sparrows, sold two for a penny, God’s care for what is common, of so little monetary value -- yet no sparrow falls to the ground without God knowing. And we are of more value than a sparrow.
Hagar, in the story from Genesis, of little worth and value as a woman, and yet in God’s eyes, of so much value. The stories in the Bible are rarely about perfect, valiant, self- giving heroines and heros. More often than not, the stories are about scoundrels, cheats, betrayers, hypocrites. Jealous Sarah, without compassion for Hagar. (She lives in a world where multiple wives was the norm but that doesn’t mean she liked it). Sarah insists Hagar and her son be banished so that her son Isaac would have no competition. She acts out of fear and jealousy. Abraham, sad to lose a son, talks with God. And God promises to have Hagar’s back, to care for her and her son and even more to make a great nation from them. Cast into the wilderness, their skin of water gone and their bread eaten, Hagar leaves her son under a bush and walks away to sit down, unable to bear watching him die, she yells ( the Bible says she raises her voice) and weeps and God hears the cries, supplies water, giving life, raising up the tribe of Ishmael.
What is rejected, what is cast out, what is weak and worthless, God not only pays attention to, not only rescues, but makes something out of what appears as nothing. Again and again our tradition reveals a God who is colorblind, race blind, tribe blind, gender blind, status blind. A God who takes nothing and makes something. Jesus’ young mother, the lost prodigal, the stoned woman, the dying daughter, the crippled man, the tax collector hiding in a tree. The message stands the test of time and speaks: God’s power is most closely felt and known in our weakness, in our need, it heals us and helps us and guides our daily living.
The Church is being reshaped and I hope reborn. Only 2 free standing Episcopal seminary remain, all 8 others have either merged with universities, or wealthy parishes or closed, priests are increasingly bivocational – and part time, I teach and mentor on line seminary classes and hope that having clergy working with one foot in the world and one in the church might increase the relevance of the church in the life of our culture.
Tell me the old, old stories of Jesus… but let the church change and become something new, centered on Jesus’ teachings - to challenge us, to inspire our care for each other, to set a standard for telling the truth.
At the foundation of it all is love of another order. Love beyond what makes sense. Caring for sparrows is one thing, but counting the hairs on our head? Where does that come from? In the throes of being madly in love, when every detail about your beloved gets your full attention. It never dawns on us to count the hairs on her head, his head, their head? Divine love is beyond purpose or sense, it is love of another order, love I need, love our world is desperate for.
Those are some reasons I go to church, what about you?