The End of the Church

“The End of the Church”

Last week, we spoke about the beginning of the church. This week, we need to talk about the end of it.

We need to talk about the end of it, not because the institution of faith will end - not at all. God will continue, Christ will continue - and as we celebrate today, His Spirit will continue forever.

But let’s not confuse God’s eternal nature with our correctness. With our goodness. With our “rightness.” And to that end, let’s not confuse God’s eternal nature with the institutions or social norms we have created.

This is especially true today. In a time when so much seems so wrong. There is an impulse in all of us to get hung up on what we think the solution - or even the right thing - is. But for us, we must remember that we are not God, and in that spirit return to scripture to find the way to make things right.

John 20:19–23 ESV

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

John 20:19-23

Pray

[picofriots]

As we begin today, we must acknowledge context. In particular, our own context. The people around us are hurting and angry. We are hurting and angry. I know I am.

More than 100,000 dead from Covid; a number that exceeds 33 9/11 events. A number that almost doubles the total killed in action in the Vietnam war. All in just 5 months. And that doesn’t even include the states that stopped counting Covid deaths - causing a dramatic rise in the number of pneumonia deaths - just to reopen sooner. We have reduced the value of human life to a number. It’s just a flu. It’s inevitable, some say.

Forty million unemployed because of the virus. Countless people left without needed food, or supplies, or support. Students left wondering what life will be like now. The elderly left alone, and the sick seemingly abandoned. All these, along with the families of those who have died are so much more than a statistic. They aren’t just figures that support our points or back our reasons to support or not support people or programs.

And just this week we have borne witness to the awful reminder of the power of fear and hate. George Floyd, the next in a completely unacceptable long line of people of color abused by a system that harbors hidden prejudice at best, and outright hatred at worst.

Then, in light of these events, we choose sides. We broadcast our hate for “the other.” Those who aren’t from here. Those who don’t do things the way we think it is right. We sometimes hide our intentions behind thinly veiled dog whistles - after all when someone says - or retweets - racial epithets, cold and unfeeling remarks, or even death threats, we cannot act as if the truth isn’t really that if all people who don’t think or act like they want them to were suddenly gone they wouldn’t be happy. As if winning, or our cause, or what we want is more important than human souls.

This isn’t a game, church. This is life. And the life we are living right now - online, in our heads, and in the world - is not our created purpose. We can’t just turn off our faith so we can turn on social engineering or get our way.

And to be completely transparent with you, I am struggling. I am struggling to love those who would hate me. To want to serve those who only serve themselves. To follow Christ, when EVERYTHING in my head tells me that I will end up giving away everything I think is important just so someone on the other side of whatever issue has my soul so wearied can feel justified in their hate because of my tolerance.

I just can’t anymore. I want to love. But I can’t stand by while my patience and love allows others to be hurt. How could any of us?

Our response to those around us, to the world, to all that we think, say and do - especially around those with which we disagree - all point us to one difficult truth.

We are broken. We are selfish. We are surrounded by hate, and mistrust; some of it greatly self inflicted.

And there in the middle of all of that - I have to ask the question that I fear we aren’t asking.

What on earth must God think of it all?

[picofletter]

That was the question asked by Jim Lyon, a leader in the greater church. It was, I imagine, a difficult letter to write to a church that probably doesn’t totally agree. A feeling, I admit, that I share with him today.

In this letter, Jim so eloquently points to the fact that Jesus has felt this turmoil and pain. After all, just as with the death of His friend, and the hurt felt by the community around Lazarus, Jesus wept. And as the world around us seems to fall apart; as cities burn, as injustice reigns, and as hate and disaffected posturing rules our lives, we must remember that He weeps with us - and for us - too.

But the one point that I would like to add to that thought, which is implied I believe in the letter, but not explicit, is why Jesus weeps.

You see, when I ask what God must think about the world we are creating in our own image, I think the answer is obvious, if not complex.

In light of all the loss, all the hate. In the context of a culture that endorses, if not foments, racism. Seeing a world that would rather get up in arms about going to the barber shop than join with those who are oppressed and live in fear - in light of and in fact in SPITE of all of that - God still loves us. And offers us the one tool needed to bring this world what is needed to find Him and to find life.

But to get there, to get to that answer, we must end our idea of faith, of life, even of church as we know it.

Now what do I mean by that? Well simply this. We have stopped viewing life as a gift. Well to be fully truthful, we view OUR lives as a gift - but not always anyone elses. We now talk about “human capital stock” and tell people to stay in their lane - as if their only value is what they do in life. We view life - at least in others - as essentially working animals. They do some job, get money to eat and to live, and ultimately to give it back to us as we offer them goods and services. And in gratitude for being allowed to live, we ask them to just be grateful and never make any noise. We move the goalpost for success depending on race, or political parties, or social class.

Do what we want, give us what we need, don’t get in our way or make us uncomfortable, and we are ok.

We have become so selfish, and more to the point, we have fallen in love with stuff and with self more than life.

We tweet, and post, and talk in the barber shop about the cost of riots, but never show concern for the cost of lives lived in turmoil and injustice. Of fear constantly surrounding others.

We want people to risk their lives so that our 401k’s go up, while never showing enough concern for those around us who might be vulnerable - or even better - to support them by simply caring enough to wear masks. Instead making the safety of others a political game.

We focus on living a long life - investing in retirement accounts so that we can always be comfortable, as if God intended us to live comfortably forever! We never pray asking God about that do we? Imagine a world where we pray asking God if we have too much, and if we need to give away all we have to the poor - just like He said.

We think that the rewards of faith are our houses, or our cars, or our jobs, or vacations, or all those things that bring us “joy,” as if someone who has nothing can’t feel God’s presence or blessing or joy.

We even act like our opinion, or our agendas are God’s true gift to the world, broadcasting it to our “friends.” And worse, we receive those updates from others, and then talk about them behind their backs, never valuing them more than the conversation that they inspire and the social points we get for dogging on them.

Philippians 2:3 ESV

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

[phil 2:3]

We - God’s people - have chosen self over others; comfort and conformity over concern for everyone else. Completely ignoring the scripture that tells us otherwise.

But that isn’t how we are supposed to live - even if the world, and sometimes the church - tries to convince us it is. That is nothing more than projection. People who are selfish trying to convince others to be selfish - because if we are all selfish, then God can’t be mad at my selfishness.

How selfish.

God’s gift to this world isn’t us, it isn’t even the church we have created - it is life!

Psalm 139:14 ESV

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

[ps 139:14]

We are fearfully and wonderfully made. ALL OF US! Not me. Not you. All people. Life is the gift of God. And through Christ Jesus, a new life! Every moment with His mercy. Every moment lived in His grace. Every moment filled with hope of His eternal love and salvation! It is all the true gift of God! Not the life we live online, or in the eyes of our friends, but the life that lives into the lives of others.

And just like I told our children, the gift is amazing, but it is our response to that gift that is important.

I have told this story before, but it bears repeating. My father, when surrounded by those who served with him in Vietnam, tells of how the only response they can have to those who gave their life for them, and all of us, is to live. Not to shrink into a corner and wonder how much better life could have been, but to take the gift offered, and appreciate the gift, to have gratitude enough to do something with it.

And the same goes for our lives. When we name-call. When we devalue others. When we fail to take up the cause of those for whom justice has rarely been found. When we live for ourselves and not for others, when we demonize people on social media and act as if we are the only important person or cause on the planet, we are not living the life given to us by Christ’s sacrifice!

We are living for us. And that wasn’t God’s point with all of this! That isn’t the call of the church. And that isn’t the true gift of His Spirit that we are called to receive.

That gift, it turns out, is the very core of God. The reason behind His constant provision. The reason behind Christ. The reason behind grace. The reason Jesus wept! The gift of God, shown through Christ Jesus, is that God feels what we feel and experiences what we experience.

In short, because God loves us, He has empathy.

[nazi trial empathy quote]

At the Nuremberg trials, Captain G. M. Gilbert spent time investigating and analyzing the minds of those men who had carried out perhaps the greatest expression of evil in modern history. To figure out how a person could hate enough to destroy another life.

After the dust settled and he had time to reflect on what he learned from all the defendants, the Captain came to the conclusion that they all had one thing in common. One aspect of the human experience that they all shared above all others.

They lacked empathy.

To which, he concluded, must be contributed the very nature of evil.

And I agree.

The absence of empathy is nothing more than the absence of God, and the abundance of our own selfish nature.

And we must understand that Christ shows us the life of God. What it looks like, and what is possible. And in that life, He offers endless empathy for ALL people! And in fact, He constantly rebukes those who selfishly cling to social dogma, and tradition, and self-congratulatory behavior!

In short, Jesus came so show us what God was like, and what we see is the very picture of empathy. Of love for others, and not love of self.

That is the core of His Spirit. That is, after all, the driving force behind His offering. The why of it all. We were, and forever are, in need of Grace and Mercy. And Christ, in His empathy for us and our condition, gave His life for us.

And we must do the same, church. Even when all our souls are screaming not to. Even when the world around us tells us we aren’t really what we think or say we are when we do it! At ALL costs, we must receive this gift and by it be changed.

You see, when Jesus tells us to receive the Spirit, the implication is that we don’t naturally do that! We don’t naturally live with His Spirit! We naturally hate. We divide. We want our own way. We get angry when people oppose us. We are afraid. We are broken!

But Jesus gives us a new chance! This day reminds us of the result of His sacrifice - this gift of new life! His Spirit! Not a spirit of fear or timidity, but of justice! Of Grace! Of mercy! All those most important aspects of an empathetic heart!

Jesus gives us all we need to stop being a part of the problems of this world and to start being the solution!

[endoftheworld]

But instead, we look around and see things we don’t like. We see others as objects of hatred, or obstacles that must be overcome to get our way. We even use events like this past week to justify our worldview and to bolster support for hatred.

The end of the world - and the end of the church - may very well be coming, but that isn’t God’s will.

That is on us.

But there is hope in these moments. Just like with riots, or plagues, or any catastrophic event in life, sometimes the end of something is the beginning of something better. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, so too can the church take this moment and prayerfully look in the mirror of our souls. To stop selling blessings and start selling Christ! To stop looking for the Spirit to make us the same, and start finding diversity to be a strength! To stop finding reasons for injustice and instead faithfully bring justice to the oppressed, not power to those who hate.

To stop trying to be the place that has the best program for children, or youth, or young adults or seniors or music. To stop trying to one up the church down the road, or to do like another body does. To stop thinking that church is the only place to grow spiritually, while at the same time treating it like a social club! To stop peddling selfish faith and selfish life!

More important, to stop linking worldview to our apparent faith. To stop assuming God belongs to a political party or agenda. To stop castigating anyone who lives a lifestyle we don’t like - as if their sin is greater than our own! To stop pretending to love others and never offering more than socially accepted idiomatic speech! To stop being or supporting ANYTHING that would ever condone acts of hatred, words of division and selfishness, and dishonesty - implied or overt! To stop being a tool for those who care nothing for God or people but care only for gaining advantage, money, or power!

That is, after all, the prelude to what we are experiencing today.

Instead, we must receive the gift that God has offered. This new life! A new hope! Not the spirit of the world around us, but the Spirit God intended for us! We must be remade by Him so that we can help to remake this world in God’s image!

[god’simage…truthjustice?]

Not an image of our nation when we think things were better, but the image of the living God! The image of a people who have received God’s Spirit! Who forgive sins, not who hold things against others! Who see beyond mutual admiration, and see the heart of truth that lives within every person and every situation! Who sees all people as worthy of grace and mercy! Who stop seeing the differences in our skin, or our politics, and start building the bridges needed to bring not only justice - which scripture CONSTANTLY reminds us is necessary - but to bring equity to ALL PEOPLE!

AND THAT EQUITY, THAT JUSTICE, THAT GRACE, THAT TRUTH - IT IS ALL POSSIBLE WITH CHRIST! BUT IT IS STILL RELIANT ON US TO DO IT! ON OUR ACTIVE PARTICIPATION! ON OUR HAVING EMPATHY FOR ALL PEOPLE! WE MUST RECEIVE THAT GIFT IF WE ARE TO BRING IT TO THE WORLD!

And I hate to break it to you, but we must understand that we aren’t imbued eternally with that gift just because we are baptized. Faith isn’t as easy as ABC, though we have done a good job pretending it is. Faith is a never ending process. It is something that we must receive every single day. This is something that we must want. IT IS SOMETHING THAT WE HAVE TO THIRST FOR SO MUCH THAT WE WOULD GIVE UP OUR LIVES AND OUR WANTS FOR IT, JUST AS JESUS DID!

And our unwillingness to even care about others, our hatred of their causes, our selfish desire to make everything about us and what we want or can get - our desire for this world to be rid of people who don’t think like us socially or politically - that my friends will be the end of the church. And the end of us all. BECAUSE WHETHER YOU ARE READY TO ADMIT IT OR NOT, IF THE CHURCH DOESN’T STAND WITH THE OPPRESSED - OR WORSE - IF THE CHURCH IGNORES THE OPPRESSED, IGNORES THE HURTING, IGNORES THE TRUTH, GOD WILL DESTROY THAT TEMPLE THAT WE HAVE CREATED IN OUR OWN IMAGE, AND REBUILD ONE IN HIS IMAGE!

That is the entire message of Christ, after all.

[pentecost]

And today, in this moment, He invites us to receive His gift. To change our lives. To change this world. To be at peace, and to bring His peace to our neighbors. To those affected by viruses, by brutality, and by racism. To look into the faces of those in pain and those in fear and not see an enemy or political obstacle, but a human. A creation of God. Someone of value to this world, and to us all.

Basically, God is inviting us to stop living into the lies that we have created to control each other, and start living with the true freedom that comes from Christ. To live in the truth which sets us free. The truth that God loves all people enough to be with them for eternity. There is no slave nor free. No jew or greek. No black or white. No gay or straight. No male or female. No democrat or replublican. No American or immigrant. There is God’s creation. Christ in all! And even if we blindly seek to destroy it all with our selfish desires, God will rebuild what must be rebuilt from the ashes of our own avarice.

But, church, we can end that, and begin everything anew, right here, right now. We can rewrite the way this country - this world - experiences! We can change what we see, if we are just willing to live into Christ’s Spirit!

There may come a day, church, when our souls are so empty that we cannot empathize with the pain this life inflicts on others. But that is not this day. There may come a time when we can’t see past the color of someone’s skin and into the constant fear and persecution inherent in the system in which we all live - but that CANNOT BE THIS DAY!

THERE MIGHT BE A MOMENT WHEN THIS WORLD SITS IDLY BY AND ALLOWS HATRED TO RULE AND DIVISIVENESS TO TEAR APART ALL PEOPLE - TO BE THE PUPPETS OF THOSE WHO STAND FAR OFF WITH NOTHING TO LOSE AND UNLIMITED POWER TO GAIN - BUT THAT IS NOT THIS MOMENT!

GOD CALLS US AWAY FROM THAT LIFE! AWAY FROM THE CHURCH OF SELF AND TO HIS BODY! HE CALLS US TO LAY DOWN WHAT WE THOUGHT WE NEEDED AND TO RECEIVE HIS REAL GIFT, THE GIFT OF CHRIST - HIS SPIRIT! TO LIVE OUR LIVES IN GRATITUDE FOR EACH MOMENT, NOT LONGING FOR WHAT WE CAN GET NEXT! TO REJOICE WHEN OTHERS GET WHAT YOU WOULD WANT! TO SUPPORT THOSE MOST OPPRESSED! TO ACTUALLY CARE - NOT TO FEIGN CONCERN BY TELLING PEOPLE YOU ARE PRAYING - BUT TO GET UP, GET OUT, AND GO SUPPORT THOSE WHOSE LIVES ARE BEING TORN APART BY THE INACTION OF THE PEOPLE WHO CLAIM TO BELONG TO GOD!

PENTECOST IS THE END OF THAT SELF-RIGHTEOUS PIETY THAT DOMINATED THE PHARISEES! IT IS THE END OF THAT CHURCH OF ME, AND THE BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH OF THE ALMIGHTY GOD! THE BEGINNING OF HOPE! THE BEGINNING OF OUR TRUE LIFE AND MEANING!

PENTECOST REMINDS US THAT WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED TO HAVE BEEN OFFERED A NEW LIFE! BUT WE MUST RECEIVE IT! EVERY DAY. EVERY MOMENT WE LIVE. WE MUST PUT AWAY SELFISH DESIRES - THOSE THINGS PAUL REMINDS US IN ROMANS THAT NEVER ALLOW US TO DO THE THINGS WE KNOW WE ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!

WE MUST PUT THAT OLD SELF OFF AND RECEIVE THIS NEW GIFT! THIS NEW LIFE! NOT ONE THAT IS CORRUPTED BY OUR SELFISH DESIRES - BY OUR HATE, OR OUR AGENDAS - BUT ONE THAT IS BORN ANEW BY THE RENEWING OF OUR MINDS! BY OUR PUTTING TO DEATH THOSE THINGS THAT ARE COUNTER TO CHRIST - COUNTER TO LOVE AND JUSTICE AND GRACE - AND ALLOWING GOD TO BRING TO LIFE HIS SPIRIT IN US!

CHURCH THAT IS WHAT WE WERE MADE FOR! WE WERE MADE TO LOVE! WE WERE MADE TO OFFER HOPE! WE WERE MADE TO BUILD BRIDGES, WE WERE MADE TO BRING JUSTICE TO THE OPPRESSED, AND PEACE TO THE WORLD! WE WERE MADE TO TAKE UP THE CAUSE OF THOSE WHO ARE HURTING. TO LOVE THE UNLOVED. TO MAKE IT OUR DUTY TO LIFE A SIMPLE LIFE, AND HELP OTHERS TO THRIVE. WE WERE MADE NOT JUST TO BE OURSELVES, BUT TO BE THE BODY OF CHRIST! ONE THAT CARES AND SUPPORTS ALL THE OTHER MEMBERS - GOD’S LIMITLESS CREATION - SO THAT ALL PEOPLE MIGHT KNOW PEACE! ALL PEOPLE MIGHT KNOW LOVE! ALL PEOPLE MIGHT NOW MERCY! ALL PEOPLE MIGHT KNOW JUSTICE! SO THAT ALL PEOPLE MIGHT KNOW GOD BECAUSE HE LIVES IN US!

1 Corinthians 9:19 ESV

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

[1 cor 9:19]

And empathy is key to it all. To the hurting we must become hurt. To the strong we must show true strength - strength of character and of God. To the weak we must become weak. We must be all things to all people, we must do all things possible, so that by all means Christ might be glorified!

And as Paul says, we must do that “for the sake of the gospel, so that [we] may partake of its blessings.” True blessings. Not stuff. But lives. Lives lived. Lives poured into. Lives changed by our willingness to stand by Christ as He stands by the oppressed.

That is the race before us. It isn’t easy. It might not be what we wanted or expected. But that is our race. We. Must. Run it.

And we run it not for ourselves, but for the sake of Christ, and those for whom He died.

Pentecost is the end of the church of the empty word, and the start of the church of the empty tomb. Of endless possibilities. Of the very Spirit of God!

The church without boundaries. Without borders. Without affiliation. The church unleashed from the bonds of social expectations and bound to each other - and to all creation - by the bond of empathy. The Spirit of the God who gave up everything for us.

And we are surrounded by that Spirit. It is in everything, and binds everything together, but we must take hold of it. We must receive it. Every day.

This is the moment. The longer we live within the bonds of slavery to this world, the harder to come out of those ways. Make today the end of the church of us, and the beginning of the church of Christ. The outward expression of the inward truth, that all people are created in His image. That all are worthy of love and respect. And that He died for all, not just for us. And we must give our lives for them too.