Scripture Lesson

From the book of Acts, Chapter 2:

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
⁴³ Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. ⁴⁴All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

"Encountering Christ in Worship"

A Communion Meditation Preached on Homecoming Sunday

by
The Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

This Sunday after Labor Day is being celebrated in churches around the country as the beginning of the new church year. And this first day of the new church year is referred to by different names. Some churches call this “Rally Day,” and the images this name invokes are appropriate: the football rally the night before the Big Game which gets the team and fans all fired up; the car rally where racers wait at the starting line for the final command to “start your engines.” Yes, it is a day when we want to get you fired up, get your spiritual motors racing, about the coming church year.

But at this church, we call this “Homecoming Sunday.” No matter how long you have been coming here, that name suggests that this is the place where you will find a spiritual home. But when we talk about “home,” we’re not talking just about the building, or the people inside of it; faith is a journey of finding our way home to God. In the words of St. Augustine’s prayer, "all hearts are restless, Lord, until they find their home in thee."

So how do we find our way home to God?

For Christians, Jesus is the way. After all, he said himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and early Christians were called “followers of the Way.” And his way is a pilgrimage into the heart of God.

And to get there, as with any journey, we follow the signposts¹. The Christian journey toward God, toward home, is marked with signposts which point Christians in the right direction, toward the wisdom of God, toward love, toward home. We can find our way to God by the signposts of prayer, contemplation, serving, healing, giving, hospitality; we can find our way to God by reading the bible, telling our stories, developing and nurturing relationships with other Christians, and – most important of all – by participating in the worship of God within a community of faith. Christians call these signposts “practices.” These are the activities drawn from our tradition that we do together in community and which form us in faith as we deepen our relationship with God.

From the earliest days of the Christian faith, Jesus’ followers – the people of the Way – were recognized by what they did. In our scripture lesson from Acts, we read that they were worshiping together on a regular basis, sharing meals, learning from each other, giving to the needy, and welcoming new members into their spiritual family.

The image of homecoming -- indeed, the inspiration behind “Homecoming Sunday” -- is finding or returning to that kind of community – people with whom we can share both our joys and our struggles on our way to finding God. And one of the reasons we search for this kind of community within the church is because it’s so hard to find in other aspects of our lives.

We live in a rapidly changing world. Our society is so mobile that we can’t seem to keep our friends and acquaintances for long periods of time. Beliefs and moral standards are constantly shifting, and there are many competing ways to order your priorities and find meaning in your life. But at the same time, we are hungry for authentic meaning, for rites and rituals that have significance, which will help ground us in our lives and give us hope. There are so many changes around us which we can’t prevent; we need one area of our life that is stable to give us a sense of security.

And that is the church. The church is one of the few remaining places in our culture, in our disconnected world, where people can connect with each other and with God. Within this sacred space, we can form our identity and find meaning and significance for our lives in the midst of a fragmented world.

As our lesson from Acts shows us, the first century Christians created a community through fellowship activities, by showing hospitality, by praying together, by giving and serving, by breaking bread, and by worshipping together. These spiritual endeavors united and grounded them in community and guided and supported them in faith.

And those Christian activities can do the same for us, for our life in community is at once current and ancient; both innovative and traditional. This community of faith is the place where we hold the wisdom of the ages and where we can explore and experiment with what it means to be a Christian in the world today.

This fall, we are looking anew at these different Christian practices, and we are introducing or expanding them as part of the life of our church. In a short while, during our prayer time, we will provide a time for deeper prayer and silent meditation as we invite you to come forward and light a candle as a tangible prayer for the concerns and people you are holding in your heart. Later this month, we will be introducing an evening prayer service which will offer extended periods of silence and meditation. Beginning next month, on Communion Sundays, I will be available here in the sanctuary at 11:30, after Coffee Fellowship, to share private prayers and anoint with holy oil anyone in need of healing. Beginning next week, I will be offering two different sessions of the six-week program “The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People,” which looks at some of these spiritual practices. We hope that this year, you will join us on a journey of rediscovering Christianity, and that this can be the place where ancient rituals can come alive in new ways to help anchor us and give us deeper meaning and connection in our lives; that this can be the place where we forge meaningful relationships in a disconnected world, drawing ever closer to the heart of God.

By now, we have all said good-bye to summer; young people have returned to school; and we have begun to return to familiar patterns and cycles. There is something comforting about the consistency and predictability of routines and rituals. They remind us of the constancy of God, the unchanging love and perpetual grace of God. Our rituals sustain and give shape to our lives; they provide meaning and direct us toward a deeper awareness and understanding of who we are, whose we are, and what’s important in our lives.

A ritual for Christians is Sunday morning worship – coming together as the people of God and a community in Christ’s name to be the church; coming together in this place to encounter Christ. The most important and meaningful ritual in my life is the practice of getting up on Sunday mornings and coming here. This is the place, and you are the people, around which my spiritual week revolves. If I can’t be here with you on Sunday morning, then something is missing out of my week.

And I pray you feel the same – that coming together with this family of faith to renew and deepen our relationships with each other and with our God means something to you. I pray you feel that being in this place, with all of us, is important enough to you that you will make a commitment to worship regularly; and that when you can’t be here, something is missing out of your week. I pray that you need Christ in your life enough that you will come here to encounter him each Sunday.

For it is in worship that we can share the expectation that God through Christ will be encountered, that forgiveness and hope will be experienced, and love will be known. Now I know that sometimes you may find my sermons to be boring or uninspiring; but even when that happens, God can still speak. I know that sometimes you have found the hymns to be unfamiliar, and you have been left floundering for the tune; but even when that happens, God is still present. Perhaps you have found the prayers monotonous; but even when that happens, God is still listening. Because worship is not about the sermon or the hymns or the prayers. It is about God being made real to us in Jesus Christ.

When we worship, we know that despite everything, week after week on Sunday mornings, God will be here. We hope you will be, too. Amen.

¹This imagery is adapted from Diana Butler Bass, Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), p. 71ff.