The Church: Jesus' Community of Love, Faith, and Grace - Not an Insitution

Brad Sullivan

St. Mark’s, Bay City

April 24, 2016

5 Easter, Year C

Acts 11:1-18

John 13:31-35 
 

The Church:  Jesus' Community of Love, Faith, and Grace - Not an Institution

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." 

Hearing those words makes me love Jesus even more and want to follow him and trust in him.  His commandment that his disciples love one another is part of his farewell speech and prayer for his disciples before he is crucified.  Jesus knew he was going to die, and he knew he had a pretty good following.   He knew that if he chose to, he could have asked them to fight for him, and they would have done it.  They might have even kept him alive in their efforts.  Of course, some of them would have died in the process, and he loved them far too much for that, not to mention that he knew it was not God’s will. 

Rather than disobey God, rather than risk harm for those whom he loved, Jesus chose to be killed.  Not only that, but remember that Jesus had been working for years to reform people’s understanding of God, of their relationship to God, and of their relationship to each other.  He’d been working for years to show people that love, faith, and grace are at the heart of their way of life.   For the people of Israel, he didn’t abolish the law of their religion, he fulfilled it through love, faith, and grace.  For the gentiles, who were added to Jesus’ movement after his resurrection, he came to show them as well, that love for one another, faith in God, and grace given by God and accepted and re-given by us, is the way of life, the way of life abundant and life everlasting which he gives to us.

This movement of Jesus, this movement of love, faith, and grace which he had spent years working on, was just getting started as Jesus was about to be killed, and he chose to trust his movement to his fledgling disciples rather than risk their lives or take up the sword against another.  That is the Jesus whom we love, the Jesus whom we follow, the Jesus in whom we have faith, the Jesus who loves us and gives us grace that we might receive his grace and then offer it to others.

Love one another, Jesus said.  Have faith in me, and follow me even when you doubt.  Receive grace to forgive you of all your misdeeds, grace to heal you from the shame of the past, grace to offer to others just as I have offered it to you.  Such is the life and the community which Jesus gave to us.  When I think on that, on that community for which Jesus gave his life, I cannot help but love Jesus and want to continue on as his disciple.

That is what I see when I see the church, not an institution.  There is a paradigm shift in that when we can see the institution of the church as the church, but it is not.  The shift is to see us as that community of people whom Jesus loves. 

Last week, Kristin and I watched Spotlight, the best picture last year which told the story of the Boston Globe newspaper breaking the story of the immense systemic abuse of children in the Roman Catholic church.  As I was watching the movie and then thinking about what Jesus commanded his disciples, I kept thinking, "How did Jesus’ community of love, faith, and grace become an institution so powerful and corrupt that children around the world were being abused by priests for decades with almost total impunity?" 

The reasons and many and vast and would take looking at most of church history to fully understand.  Without going into centuries of church history, however, I will look at one culprit that allowed this to happen, and that is the near deification of clergy. 

Children often thought of the clergy as God, or at least as speaking for God.  Adults did about the same.  Clergy were put up on a pedestal throughout the institution of the church so much so that no one dared go against them.  The people ended up under the thumb and under the rule of the clergy, and it wasn't just the clergy's fault; the people also elevated them.  There was a partnership there in raising the clergy up so much so that the people were under the clergy's thumb, the clergy claiming the place of Jesus within the church, but in the total opposite way that Jesus led his church. 

While the clergy were elevated above who they actually were, Jesus descended.  That was Jesus' way.

Though he was in the form of God, [he] did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

Over the centuries, the church began exalting their leaders so much so that when corruption and abuse became systemic, no one would stop it, because they couldn’t go against these exalted people. 

Now the abuse of children in the Roman church is one example of how far the church often can be from the community of love, faith, and grace which Jesus began.  It's a graphic example, but there are many ways that we can stray from the community of love, faith, and grace which Jesus began.  We also need to remember, lest we end up casting unfair aspersions, the Roman Catholic church is also a wonderful church which full of people and clergy of love, faith, and grace.  I brought up the abuse as a graphic example of  how divergent the church can become from the community which Jesus began.

Looking at this example, and how it happened, the exaltation of the clergy, we don't get to just point to Rome for that one either, lest we ignore the log in our eye for the sake of the speck in someone else’s; we often elevate clergy in the Episcopal Church too.  I’ve often heard that clergy are held to a higher standard of behavior than others, to which I continually counter that clergy are not held to a higher standard.  People may actually hold clergy accountable to standards of behavior to which they don’t hold themselves or others accountable, but there is not a different standard of behavior for clergy and for everyone else.  If there were, that would be an institutionalized system of ignoring the log in one’s own eye for the sake of the speck in someone else's.  Elevating the clergy, holding them to a higher standard, goes against what Jesus taught and is not the way of the community he founded. 

Jesus didn't set himself above everyone else; he descended.  He didn't set his apostles above everyone else; he said to become a servant.  Jesus’ church is not a place where we hold one another to various standards of living at all, in actuality.  Jesus' church is not a place of keeping score with one another, keeping track of sins. 

Jesus said on the cross, "It is finished."  This system of keeping track of  sins and trying to make right for our sins to God is finished.  No more sacrifices for sins.  No more tallies.  No more keeping score.  No more gospels of sin management. 

Gospel’s of sin management have often pervaded the church, people thinking that our prime purposes in the church is to do better, sin less, and get to Heaven when we die.  Even with Jesus’ help, such a Gospel basically puts Jesus in the role of a ticket puncher.  If you’ve believed in Jesus well enough and behaved well enough (even with his help), then Jesus punches your ticket and you get to go to Heaven when you die.  We'd like to add that it's not because of anything I do, it's purely because of the grace of Jesus, but then by how we talk about it, by how we live, these gospels of sin management basically make it so that you're earning your way to Heaven.  You're doing enough that Jesus will finally agree to punch your ticket.

Fortunately, that is not the gospel for which Jesus died.  That is not the gospel Jesus taught.  That is neither the faith nor the church which Jesus left his disciples.  “Love one another,” Jesus said, “that’s how they’ll know you are my disciples.”  Jesus’ command to us continues to show his love for us.  His disciples were a bunch of screw ups, if we’re being honest (if we're going to be counting sins, that is), and Jesus entrusted his church to them not in spite of their screw ups, not because they were screw ups, but completely regardless of their screw ups.  Jesus entrusted his church to his disciples because they were his beloved.  We continue as Jesus’ church simply because we are his beloved. 

We don’t raise ourselves or anyone else up in Jesus’ church.  We don't raise ourselves above anyone else.  We accept the fact that we are beloved, and that is often the hardest task in our life, to simply accept the fact that we are beloved.  We accept the fact that we are beloved of God, and we e receive the great love Jesus has for us, not because we are worthy, not because we have earned his love, but simply because we are beloved.  We believe in Jesus, accept his love, and follow him, even when we can hardly believe, desperately clinging to this hope of Jesus’ love for us.  Even when we give up that hope and faith in Jesus' love for us, Jesus' love that catches us even and especially when we fall, Jesus love catches us.  So Jesus asks us, commands us to accept his love.  Accept that we are his beloved and then live and give Jesus’ grace.  That is the community of the church.  That is what we see, or what Jesus would like us to see, when we see his church. 

Now, we often see the church as something else.  We see the church as a vast institution, like how people viewed the Roman Catholic Church, but the Roman Catholic Church is not an institution.  The Roman Catholic Church has an institution.  The Roman Catholic Church is a community of people who are beloved of Jesus.  Period.  Full stop.  Paradigm shift:  What is the Roman Catholic Church?  Not an institution, but a community of people who are beloved of Jesus.  Then, the Roman Catholic Church has an institution which at times serves it well and at times not so well. 

Our church too is not an institution, but our church has an institution.  We have a whole institutional structure in the Episcopal Church, but that institution is not the church.  That institution is what the church has created, what we have created over the centuries to serve us.  The institution is the tool we have constructed to help us order our lives.  The institution is a tool of the church, but not the church itself.  The church itself, the is the community of the beloved.  Jesus’ church is the gathered and often disperse community (those who no longer gather, those who no longer believe but are still caught in Jesus' love). 

The church is that community of people who know, and love, and accept, and forget, and mess up with Jesus’ love.  The church are those who believe in Jesus even amidst doubt, or stop believing in Jesus, and then fall into Jesus’ grace.  The church is not those who are climbing upward and striving to heaven.  The church is those who are falling, continually falling into Jesus' love and Jesus' grace.  What is who we are as the church.  We are Jesus’ beloved, not because of who we are, not because of what we do, but simply because we are Jesus beloved.  Amen.

"Have Some Kryptonite." - Sayings of Superman in Jesus' Kingdom

Brad Sullivan

3^rd Easter, Year C

April 10, 2016

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

John 21:1-19

"Have Some Kryptonite." - Sayings of Superman in Jesus' Kingdom

As we know, Jesus’ disciples and hoards of his followers were wanting Jesus to be a big gallant conqueror who would kick out Rome and end up basically ruling over all the other nations, so that Israel would not only remove Rome from power, but would also take Rome’s place as the world power, the empire over all nations.  Jesus told his disciples and hoards of followers that he was not going to bring about some huge military campaign to establish his kingdom, at least he said this implicitly.  He taught about not fighting against the governing authorities, turning the other cheek when someone hits you; he said, “My kingdom not from here, if were, I’d have angels coming, to my rescue, but as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”  Then he proved that he really was going to live by what he taught and not seek to conquer all nations by dying, dashing completely the messianic hopes that people had in him. 

As a story goes for a Messiah, it’s a rather lackluster ending.  Not very flashy, it’s a difficult cinematic climax.  It’s Batman vs. Superman, but superman doesn’t even put up a fight.  He says, “here, Batman, have some Kryptonite and do me in.”   “Lame,” many of his followers were thinking.  They were disillusioned.

Then Jesus was resurrected.  He cannot die again.  He could come and go at will at this point, appearing and disappearing.  He could presumably do anything now, and no amount of Kryptonite on Earth could stop him, and so he had a nice breakfast on the beach with his friends.  Even after resurrection, the kingdom of God was not brought about by conquering others. 

On the beach, over breakfast, Jesus got to turn around the denials Peter had given him.  Three denials, three chances to say, “I love you.”  Not only that, he asked him three times to feed his sheep.  Jesus gave grace to his disciples who abandoned him, and asked them to continue his work and ministry.  The kingdom of God is brought about through grace.

My guess is that Jesus was not overly fond of Rome as a world governing authority.  While there was much that was good about Rome, they were brutal, power hungry conquerors.  They would take over your land and then tax you to pay for the army that had just destroyed your people.  Jesus and his followers, ruling through grace, would definitely have been a better world governing authority than Rome.  The prince of peace ruling over all the nations would have been fantastic, except that to become that world governing authority, to supplant Rome, Jesus and his followers would have had to become just as brutal as Rome, killing or imprisoning dissidents, conquering nations who didn’t want to be conquered, forcing themselves onto people who didn’t want them there. 

The message of grace, the reality of grace, would have been destroyed in conquering and struggle.  The Jesus movement was not won by force, or threats, or coercion.  The Jesus movement was won through grace.  

Consider Saul who had been persecuting the church and even helping to put Jesus’ followers to death.  He was like Darth Vader hunting down and destroying the Jedi.  Then the grace of Jesus brought Saul back from the dark side of persecution and into the light of Jesus.  When Jesus spoke to Ananias in a vision, telling him to lay his hands on Saul so that he could restore his sight, Ananias was understandably wary to doing so.  I imagine he was also not overly pleased with the idea of giving sight back to the persecutor of Christians.  Like Jonah who didn’t want Nineveh to repent, that’s why Jonah fled, remember, and the fish brought him back.  He didn’t want Nineveh to repent; he wanted Nineveh to burn.  So like Johan not wanting Nineveh to repent, I can imagine Ananias not wanting Saul to regain his sight.  He deserved to be blind after what he had done.  He shouldn’t get to see and be healed.  The grace of Jesus allowed Ananias, despite his fears, to go to Saul, to lay hands on him and heal him, and to embrace him as a brother.

Then Saul became Paul, so great was his transformation through the grace of Jesus that he had to change his name.  He was a new person, and his old name would no longer do.  Paul then went about on a grace campaign, teaching about Jesus to all who would hear.  He went to gentiles, to non-Israelites, and the Jesus movement spread beyond Israel, even beyond Rome, and there was no military, no conquering, no force of any kind.  There was teaching and preaching, healing and caring for people, forgiveness and love.  The Jesus movement, Jesus kingdom, was spread through grace.

On a quick search through Paul’s letters, he mentions grace 86 times. 

Looking at our world today, how we live with grace and live out the Jesus movement, there is an awful lot of grace in the church.  There are very loud voices out there talking about Jesus, but voices which have very little to do with grace.  I was talking with my neighbor this weekend, and he was telling a story about how judgment often takes the place of grace in people who call themselves Jesus’ disciples.  He told a story of a man at work who looked at what another employee was doing and said, “He shouldn’t be doing that; he’s a Christian.” 

Ok, now there are certainly many behaviors and actions which we should not be taking because those actions are harmful to others and to ourselves.  Paul wrote in his letters quite a lot about behaviors we should and shouldn’t be following as disciples of Jesus.  With love and concern in our hearts, part of the Jesus movement is certainly to help guide each other in our behaviors so that we aren’t harming ourselves and others. 

That’s very different, however, from looking at someone else and saying, “He shouldn’t be doing that; he’s a Christian.”  As my neighbor said to this co-worker, “You don’t need to be judging him; you need to take a look at the log in your own eye before noticing the speck in someone else’s.”  The co-worker needed to be living with grace.  There seemed to be behind the co-worker’s statement an “or else.”  “He shouldn’t be doing that; he’s a Christian.”  He better shape up or else…he’s not really a Christian, or else…Jesus will reject him, or else…who knows what?  There was an implication that the he wasn’t really a Christian because he wasn’t following a certain list of behaviors well enough, as if following a certain list of behaviors well enough is what makes us Christian.

Good moral teaching is absolutely a part of being a disciple of Jesus, but the point of Christianity, the message of the Jesus movement, is not “behave.”  We don’t need Jesus for that.  The point of the Christianity, the message of the Jesus movement, is grace.  Being a Christian is receiving and giving the grace of Jesus. 

 The grace of Jesus doesn’t say, “Behave or else.”  The grace of Jesus says love God, love others, love yourself, and let your actions be guided out of that love.  The grace of Jesus says you’re going to mess up a lot, and when you do, I’m going to forgive you.  The grace of Jesus sees that those who cause harm do so because harm has been caused to them, or because they are afraid, or because they think they are right.  The grace of Jesus looks at that and says “forgiven.”  That is life in the Jesus movement. 

The Jesus movement says, “You think you’re not good enough, well join the club!”  We’re none of us good enough and we don’t have to be, because what we are is enough.  The disciples denied and abandoned Jesus when he was about to be killed.  Then when he was resurrected, they were so steadfast in their discipleship, they said, “Well, I guess we’ll go fishing.”  The disciples weren’t good enough, and yet they were enough for the grace of Jesus. 

They were enough for Jesus to say, “Feed my sheep.”   Saul certainly wasn’t good enough as he was persecuting the church, and yet he was enough for the grace of Jesus to transform him into one who would grow his kingdom not by conquering, but by teaching, healing, caring for people, and sharing grace.  That’s life in the Jesus movement.  That’s the life that we get to live as the Body of Christ, sharing and receiving and giving grace.   Amen.   

Obeying God: The Laws of Love and Grace

Brad Sullivan

2^nd Easter, Year C

April 3, 2016

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

John 20:19-31

Obeying God:  The Laws of Love and Grace

“We must obey God rather than any human authority.”  That was Peter’s response to the high priest of Israel telling them to stop preaching and teaching about Jesus.  Peter’s response claimed that the high priest had no real authority, certainly no authority given by God, but that the high priest was simply part of a human institution, a rather bold claim from a fisherman whose Rabbi had been condemned as a heretic by Israel crucified by Rome.  Then again, Jesus did tend to bring out some audaciousness in people.  I suppose being resurrected tends to do that.

When Jesus first met with his disciples, they had locked the door to the room they were in because they were afraid of most of Israel which had not come to follow Jesus.  Their plan was to duck and cover, hide until the heat went down and folks had basically forgotten about Jesus.  Then, Jesus was resurrected and appeared to them.  He gave them the Holy Spirit, just as he had been given the Holy Spirit after his baptism.  It was time for them to stop hiding and go to work, spreading the news of Jesus, his kingdom, his love, and his grace.

Jesus’ resurrection gave the disciples boldness to follow him and obey him in ways they hadn’t been able or willing to before.  There they were, in front of the high priest, being told to stop their preaching, and they were flatly defying him, telling him they had to obey God rather than the high priest.  Last time someone had done that, they’d sent him to Rome to be crucified, but as Peter well knew, the death they gave to Jesus, didn’t really take, so Peter boldly declared that he would be obeying God, thank you very much.

Obedience to God and the trust that comes along with it is rather central to our faith.  When asked in baptism, “Will you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord,” we say, “I will.”  Obedience to God and following in his ways is central to scripture.  Consider Psalm 119:33-35:

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will observe it to the end.  Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.  Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. 

Obedience to God, following in his ways and keeping his commandments is not just described as something that must be done; obedience to God is described as a delight, the longing of our souls, and a way which gives us life.

That is they way and the joy which Jesus’ disciples were following when Peter told the high priest they had to obey God, rather than him. 

Of course, the high priest was trying to follow in God’s ways too.

Obedience to God, or to anything for that matter, can be a joy partially because obedience can simplify life a bit.  Should I do this or that?  Well, following God’s ways, you should do that.  Ok, done.  Don’t have to think too much about it, don’t have to get too caught up in the subtleties and nuance of the situation.  Simply follow and obey.  Such simple obedience can be a wonderful shelter in a crazy, complex, and frighteningly ambiguous world.  We have to be cautious, however, that such simple obedience to God’s ways does not lead to harsh observance and strict enforcement of his laws.  Such is the problem with many radicalized groups who become so zealous for their understanding of God’s way that they end up harming others in God’s name.

Harsh observance and strict enforcement of God’s laws was how the chief priests and Pharisees lived in Jesus’ day, ultimately leading to Jesus’ death.  Harsh observance and strict enforcement of God’s laws was where Saul found himself when he was persecuting the early church.  Harsh observance and strict enforcement of God’s laws is how radical Muslims live, although they largely misinterpret or willfully misrepresent even Islam’s understanding of God’s laws. 

We want certainty in an uncertain world, and so we can end up zealously following God’s laws in ways that end up harming others.  In the movie Choclat, the mayor of a small town is ardent and zealous in his observance of the ways of the church, as is the town under his watchful eye.  They mayor even rewrites the priests sermons for him when he feels the priest isn’t being zealous enough.  You could describe the town as over-churched and under-graced. 

As the movie opens, the town is beginning their observance of Lent, and at the same time, a woman moves into town and opens up a chocolate shop.  This does not sit well with the mayor at all.  It is brazen and quite unseemly to tempt people out of their Lenten fasts with chocolates and sweets.  Even worse, the woman has a daughter born out of wedlock and she is not a Christian.  So, the mayor begins a harsh campaign against this woman and her shop, despite the fact that she is bringing a huge amount of healing to the community and the strained or dying relationships between many people living there.

They mayor was so zealous in his desire to follow God’s laws that he became a tyrant, and there was certainly no joy in his observance of God’s laws.  He was kinda miserable, because he was trying to follow God’s laws, but he was doing so without the laws of love and grace.

Faith, hope and love, or even faithfulness, hope and love, abide, and the greatest of these is love.  The law of love would keep us from harming others despite how zealous we become for God’s ways.  The law of love reminds us that obedience to God’s ways is meant to give us life.  The law of grace reminds us to be gentle, understanding, and forgiving in how we live out our obedience to God’s laws.  The laws of love and grace allow us to obey God’s laws with joy.

Without love and grace, it is little wonder that we often become ardent in our adherence to part’s of God’s law.  God’s laws and God’s ways give us grounding and some certainty in an uncertain world.  If we feel God’s laws are being threatened, then some of our stability and certainty is being threatened.  The world is suddenly dangerous and frightening again. 

That is when we remember God’s law of love and grace, and we put our trust in Jesus’ resurrection.  Like Peter, trusting in Jesus’ resurrection, we can follow Jesus’ ways without being afraid of those who don’t.  We’re going to follow in Jesus’ ways and not be threatened by those who follow Jesus a little differently that we do.  We seek to follow in Jesus’ ways, and we take delight in obeying God’s laws.  We give up some of our freedom and find ourselves set free in following God’s ways.  Ask the addict who had been free to use whatever he was addicted to and then gave up that freedom to obey the ways of God.  Doing so set that person free from the bondage of addiction.  Obeying God’s ways sets us free from any number of chains, that freedom gives us great joy. 

Jesus’ resurrection gives us freedom to obey God despite opposition from the world around us.  Jesus’ resurrection tells us to fear not when others don’t follow in his ways, because our lives are his, and he will keep us in this life and in the next.  Jesus’ resurrection allows us to obey God and to live out the laws of love and grace.  Amen.