Proper 19, Year C
Sunday, September 15, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
The end is coming people! Repent or perish! It’s the end of the world! Such dire predictions have become rather
commonplace as of late, so much so that many of us hardly listen anymore, other
than to laugh and watch bad movies about the end of the world. I wonder if it was any different for the
people of Israel listening to the words of Jeremiah. He was after all not the only prophet to
predict the destruction of Israel. “For thus says the LORD: The whole land shall be a
desolation; yet I will not make a full end.” (Jeremiah 4:27)
Did the people take heed and really
listen to his message? Some probably
did. By and large, though, the people
probably thought he was a little nuts.
We’re not going to be destroyed.
We’re Israel; we have kings and armies, and wasn’t there some God that
looked after us? Of course Jeremiah was
right. God wasn’t lying, and Israel was
all but destroyed with only a small remnant left to carry the fire and rebuild.
The destruction of Israel and Judah
by Assyria and Babylon was really only an outward and visible sign of what had
already occurred spiritually. Israel and
Judah had all but ceased to exist before the nations were destroyed by
invaders. The nations were still there,
but intrinsically, the people were no longer truly who Israel and Judah were
created to be. They had stopped living
and believing as God’s people so eventually, the physical nations were no more
as well, and only a remnant remained to carry the fire of faith in God and in
God’s way of life.
There has been in the church, for
decades, a national trend of declining membership. People have been leaving the church maybe not
in droves, but church attendance is certainly shrinking. Church membership is shrinking. The number of people who call themselves
Christian is shrinking.
People leave for all kinds of
reasons. Some don’t feel particularly
welcome or part of a parish. Some feel
the church is hypocritical or hypercritical.
Some are searching for Jesus and just can’t seem to find him in the
church. Some just have a hard time
believing in Jesus. Some don’t want to
pay the cost for being Jesus’ disciple.
Some simply find their lives too busy with other things to have time to
be a part of a Christian community.
In all of
these scenarios, however, we have a common thread…people not living as
authentic disciples of Jesus. Sometimes
it is the people who leave that are not living as disciples of Jesus, and
sometimes it is the people who remain who are not (which is why the others
leave). There are a lot of people who
would claim Christianity as their religion, but who don’t really,
intentionally, live as Jesus’ disciples.
That being
the case, a shrinking of the church roles is really just an outward and visible
sign of the reality that was and is already present within the church. Many Christians are kind of nominal
Christians. They believe in Jesus, but
they don’t especially live as though they believe Jesus. For many, over the years, the church became a
kind of social organization, almost indistinguishable from the world around
it. They believe well enough on Sunday
mornings, but their lives during the rest of the week are not transformed by
the teachings of and their faith in Jesus.
The
national trend of declining church membership may simply reflect the spiritual
reality already going on. Perhaps once
the shrinking of churches is finished, what will be left will be the remnant, a
much smaller church left to carry the fire of faith in Jesus and his the way of
life he taught.
Now, lest
we fall into the trap of being hypercritical or hypocritical, there are many of
us who, even if having been Christian for years, aren’t that far along on the
journey with Jesus. Some of our lives
may not look all that dissimilar from non-Christians’, but we’re striving to be
full-time, intentional disciples. We’re
learning from Jesus and seeking to make his teachings a reality in our
lives. Like apprentices studying under a
master, we make lots of mistakes and often our lives don’t look like what Jesus
taught, but we are striving and we are learning as we hear Jesus’ teachings
over and over again, being shaped over years as Jesus’ disciples.
To be fair, I’m guessing many of us
have also at one time or another become complacent in our faith, assuming, “we
got the Jesus thing down, and we’ve got forgiveness for when we don’t follow
him so well, so…ah, we’re good.” Then we
get weeks like last week, with four of us here confirming the promises made in our
baptisms, eight of us reaffirming our baptismal vows, and all of us joining
with them in renewing our Baptismal covenant.
It was a powerful service last week with Bishop Fisher, having heard
about the cost of discipleship, which Jeff preached about last week, we renewed
our commitment to that cost, and the cost to which we committed ourselves is
this:
-
Daily prayer, scripture reading, worship and
fellowship with one another
-
Perseverance in resisting evil and when we fail,
repentance and returning to God and God’s way of life
-
Intentionally seeking and serving Christ in all
people, loving other people
-
Intentionally striving for justice and peace and
respecting all peoples’ dignity
-
Finally, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus in all
that we do and in all that we say
There is, as Bishop Fisher pointed
out, cost to such a life, and as Bishop Fisher pointed out, all such cost is
well worth it.
Today, then, we heard from Jesus,
telling us that the Kingdom of God is like a shepherd who leaves the ninety
nine sheep in search of the one sheep who was lost. Living out the kingdom of God life as
intentional disciples of Jesus, we all get to serve as that shepherd, seeking
the lost sheep and inviting them back to the fold. Inviting others to share in faith, or come to
church or Bible study, or simply to have a conversation about beliefs is often
not the easiest thing in the world to do, but there is in reality surprisingly
little cost to invitation. We may feel
uncomfortable for a time in the asking, but on balance, that’s not a very high
cost. Perhaps we are afraid that the
other person will say no, but that is not a cost of invitation. That is a response over which we have no
control.
Living as intentional disciples of
Jesus, we are taught not to control the outcome, but to invite. There is nothing threatening or coercive
about an invitation. Invitations to most
events are welcome and seen as friendly acts.
Invitation to church or to talk about faith need be not different.
Perhaps the invitation could lead
to conversation…conversation not to seal the deal, not to make the sale, but
conversation to converse, to learn about and from one another and to deepen a
relationship, conversation with lots of listening. You might find that the one you feel is lost
is actually part of the remnant, having left a hypocritical, or hypercritical,
or not overly faithful Christian community, the person you feel is lost may have
left the church in order to try to follow Jesus more authentically. Perhaps the two of you could then share in
each others’ faith, perhaps not even here, or perhaps only sometimes here to
share with your friend your way of worshipping and connecting to God through
our worship.
Perhaps the person you invite is
not a Christian and after conversation you realize will likely never be a
Christian. You still get to have that
conversation. You still get to share a
part of you by sharing your faith and you get to deepen a relationship with a
friend by hearing about his or her faith.
As intentional disciples of Jesus,
we are told to seek and invite. We don’t
control the outcome. Perhaps even with
all our seeking and inviting, the national trend of declining church membership
will remain unchanged. Perhaps even with
all of our seeking and inviting, only a remnant of the church will remain. If so, then so be it. We will continue to carry the light of Christ. We will continue to invite folks, to seek the
lost. We will continue to believe in and
live as intentional disciples of Jesus, with the cost and the joy that such a
life brings. Amen.
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