Sermon from November 8, 2009
"What the Church Does"
Matthew 11:28-30

Do you remember the slogan used by the U.S. Army to recruit new soldiers? "Be all that you can be." It touched a nerve, because it appealed to a powerful theme in American life: realize your potential and be true to yourself. Side by side with that is another theme that says: Institutions are oppressive to reaching your potential.

It’s an updated version of David and Goliath. On one hand is Goliath: big government, big business, big military, big church; and on the other hand is David: the individual who must resist oppressive institutions in order to be all that he can be.

I’d like to propose an experiment to test the validity of those themes. I’d like to propose that you fast one week from all uses of television, radio, the Internet, i-Pod, print media, and, except for emergencies, your telephone. I suspect that one week without them would seem like an eternity; not unlike going without solid food for a week.

Do you realize how much of life reaches us through electronic and print media? Do you think you can be all that you can be without them? I don’t think so, and everyone of those media comes to us courtesy of not just one but many, large institutions. Your computer, e.g., comes to you from Dell, a very large institution, is guided by a processor from Intel, another very large institution, and runs an operating system created by Microsoft, another very large institution. And you haven’t turned on your computer yet. And you don’t want to unless you have installed your Security Suite from Verizon, another very large institution. You get the idea.

Institutions shape our lives. We can’t live without them, even though we profess not to like them. Here’s where I’m going with this. You can’t be all that you can be as a human being without another institution, the Church. If you turn to the Church only when you want something, the way you turn to medicine, law, and entertainment, you will deprive yourself of something you need in order to flourish as a human being. That’s a strong statement, and it raises two important questions.

The Church Our Mother
Here’s the first one: Why do I say that you can’t be all that you can be as a human being without the Church? I say it, because nothing is more important than God, and God is mediated to us by the Church the way your computer is mediated to you by Dell, Intel, and Microsoft. Any institution that can mediate God to us is basic to human fulfillment.

Here’s the second question: When I say that the Church is that important, do I mean that you should be here every time the doors are open or that you should devote the same time and energy to the Church as you devote to your home and work? The answer is no. Some lay people can do that; most people can’t.

Actually, Christ calls us as a community to something less rigorous but more pervasive than that. I can best suggest what I mean by a figure of speech. Protestants and Catholics give this figure of speech a place of honor in their understanding of the Church. Both say, “God is our Father, and the Church is our Mother.”

You never forget your mother. After scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl, that athlete will turn to the camera and say, “Hi, Mom!” A young soldier in harm’s way will turn his thoughts to mom, as she prepares Thanksgiving dinner back home. A mother mediates life itself and love and the meaning of things. She can serve as a reference point for her children for a lifetime. The Church does all that for us.

You can push the Church away as you might push your mother away. You can treat the Church as nothing more than a diversion to give you momentary relief from your life. You can go to her during a crisis, and then forget her when the crisis is over. I am here to ask you to treat our spiritual Mother better than that. I am here to ask you to love her with great affection. In other words make the Church central in your affections.

The Shape of Our Life Together
Now, let’s be even more real about all this. It may sound to you like I’m talking about church in the abstract. What I’ve said is true of every church on the face of the earth, but I’m talking about the only church we can do anything about – this one, BVBC. You know, people are alike in thousands of ways, yet each has a distinct personality. The same is true of churches. What is BVBC’s distinct personality?

I began to answer that question in October, when I told you the story of BVBC. I wasn’t just entertaining you. If you call this church your spiritual home, the story I told is your story. That story gives you an understanding of what kind of community this is. If you missed it, I hope you’ll download it off the Web or buy a CD and listen to it.

Today, I want to talk about the shape of our life together at BVBC. The shape of our life together means the habits we think are important – what we do and aspire to do better. They give BVBC its distinctive personality. We do a lot here. So, I have to boil it down with labels that do justice to all we do and which you will be able to remember. These labels and my explanation of them will help you see how you and those you love can flourish here as human beings.

Here are the three labels. I want you to think of BVBC as a safe haven, a training ground, and a base of operations. Let’s take them one at a time. I’ll say enough about each to make it real to you, and you will be the best judge of how much we are like that and how far we still have to go to be that kind of church.

First, think of BVBC as a safe haven. The Church at its best offers the safe haven of a shared life. In that safe haven human life can flourish. Look with me at five biblical marks of a church that is a safe haven for the people there.

Romans 12:10: Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. BVBC is a place where you can build lasting, even lifelong friendships. As you share small groups, classes, worship, dinners, sorrows, camping trips, Super Bowl parties and long conversations, your will form deep, satisfying friendships.

Galatians 6:2: Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. A haven is where you find support. People stop what they are doing and listen, when someone needs to talk. They provide money in time of need. They weep as they share each other’s sorrows. They cook meals, provide transportation, sit with anxious people in the ER, and pray for each other. When someone does something really bad, they don’t shun that person; they come alongside and say, “Today, you need me. Tomorrow, I may need you. Let’s just help each other.”

Mark 10:42-43: Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. A haven is a safe place. Here we learn to put aside our one-upmanship and ambition and serve and protect each other’s dignity.

Colossians 3:16: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. Admonishing each other makes this a place of accountability. Lasting friendships create expectations of each other that exercise a powerful influence on how you live your life. It’s not that you can’t challenge what people expect of you. You can. But true accountability gives you something to challenge. Sometimes the accountability goes deeper in a mentoring relationship.

Colossians 3:17: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. Romans 12:18: If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. It is a priority within the Church. A haven is a place of peace. As we maintain unity in a bond of peace, we become a safe haven for people in our polarized, contentious nation.

Can we build a church here like that? Isn’t it worth a sustained effort? Wouldn’t it be a safe haven for people who get beat up by life everyday? Maybe BVBC would come to be known as a safe haven.

Second, think of BVBC as a training ground. Colossians 2:28-29: We proclaim him (Christ), admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me..

That word perfect sends shivers down my spine, because I doubt that one person in a hundred will think it means anything other than a straitlaced, rigid hypocrite, who is the last person to know what a phony he is. That is a recipe for disaster in the life of any church. It rouses memories of the Church’s very public moral failures.

When I publish my world-famous, best-selling paraphrase of the Bible, I will translate the word like this: so that we may present everyone well-rounded in Christ. That includes moral improvement, understanding scripture, people, and culture, and developing skills for living and service for the entire congregation.

To be a training ground BVBC will need great wisdom and great effort. You can sense how fully engaged the Apostle Paul was when he said: To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy (Christ’s energy), which so powerfully works in me.

The Church at its best offers a training ground for wisdom and life skills. Human life will flourish as people grow in wisdom and skills for living. My contribution to BVBC as a training ground is the preaching here during the next three years. We propose to include nearly all sermons within seven categories.

First is Who We Are. Churches have distinct personalities just like people. What is BVBC’s distinct personality? What makes us that way? This sermon today is the second of six in this category. You can get a brochure that describes the whole series at the Information Desk in the Gathering Place.

Second is What God Is Like. A seasoned pastor said not long ago, “When I started ministry, skeptics wanted to know, ‘Does God exist?’ Today, they say, ‘I don’t like what I know about God.’” Sermons in this series take tough questions about God and help us to think seriously and prayerfully about them.

Third is Our Biblical Heritage. This category features sermons that present the central biblical writings, how we are to understand them, great Christian words we need to understand, and some difficult Christian doctrines.

The fourth is Home Sweet Home. Marriage and family are under great stress in our culture. We want to provide help in coping with this stress. Sermons in this category deal with marriage, children, singleness, adolescence, emerging adulthood, divorce, ageing, sexuality, and bioethical issues.

The next is the Renewal of Our Minds. These sermons will call us to look inward at the kind of people we need to be. They will talk about personal and communal prayer and scripture reading, repentance, service, and sacrifice – to name some of the more prominent.

A sixth category is The Jesus You Need to Know. Sermons in this category will look at isolated events from the four Gospels and sometimes will take the church through an entire Gospel in a few weeks to deepen our devotion to Christ the Lord.

The final category is Money, Membership, and the Sociology of the Church. We want to teach stewardship of money, time, talent, and the environment. We also want to address our deep distrust of institutions, including the Church. Sermons in this category will take us below the surface to the reasons for and benefits of our participation in a local church like BVBC.

And all this says nothing about what we do in small groups, Christian education classes, MOPS, Bible Study for Today, and special events.

Third, The BVBC not only aspires to be a safe haven and a training ground. At its best it is also a base of operations. Compassionate deeds will embody the love of God in the only way that most people can understand it. Human life will flourish under those conditions. Jesus’ words in John 20:21 push us out of the nest and into the world with a purpose. “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

We are part of God’s mission in this world. Consider the following. Many people here are involved in short-term mission trips inside and outside the United States. We see many and hope to see many more involved in the Alpha Course, which is Christianity 101 for beginners or seekers. Others are involved in Read Aloud Delaware, Habitat for Humanity, Sunday Breakfast Mission, AIDS Delaware, Sojourners’ Place, Love-in-Action, Financial Peace University, prison ministry, and volunteering in local hospitals.

I hear stories at random about how many of you just walk across the room to develop friendships and discover people’s stories and discern opportunities to tell your own story of how Jesus Christ made all the difference in the world to you.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
Here’s my appeal to you. Let’s build BVBC so that these three characteristics of our church’s personality thrive and reach their full potential. The Pastoral Staff cannot do that alone. Hundreds of you have to catch the vision of what I’m talking about and be fully engaged in building such a church here.

It won’t happen, if you treat BVBC as nothing more than a fast-food store or first-aid station. You’re glad to see the doctor when you are ill, and when you are well you forget about him. We can’t be a blessing to the Brandywine Valley, if the church is nothing more than that to you.

Let me tell you what I dream about. I dream that we would give people in our lives an invitation. We would not say, “Come to church with me.” That sounds like the policeman who says to the suspect: “Come along please.” Instead, we would say, “I wish you’d come check out what’s going on at my church. It is really good.” That sounds like: “I’ve got tickets to the Cowboys and Eagles tonight. Would you like to go?”

You’ll never convey that difference, if you don’t own what’s going on here and have a stake in making this a place where people flourish. So, what do you think? Are you in? I’m in. I don’t want to miss the possibilities. Christ is in this place.