on the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost...
Sunday, November 16, 2008
From the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 5: 1Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ 9For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ 11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
"Going Deeper" A
Sermon Preached by at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton United Church of Christ
The Protestant Church is on the decline in this country. That’s what the statistics show. All the historic mainline denominations here in the United States – Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, and our own United Church of Christ – have experienced declines in membership over the past several decades.1 Those of us “of a certain age” have seen this decline happen before our very eyes and remember when the Church was held in much greater esteem than it is now. When I was growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, every respectable and upwardly mobile citizen was expected to be in church on Sunday morning. How things have changed! Now, our culture is usually indifferent – and sometimes openly hostile – to people of faith. Back then, Sunday mornings were reserved for going to church. Secular organizations respected that Sunday morning was off-limits for scheduling activities. Now, all sorts of events are scheduled for Sunday morning, including work, sports, community activities, even family get-togethers. Church is just one of a multitude of options competing for our Sunday morning time. Back then, stores were closed on Sundays. Now, Sundays are the second busiest shopping day of the week. Back then, prayers were routinely offered in the public schools. Now, prayer is forbidden at all public school events, including graduation ceremonies. Back then, the authority of the local church pastor was widely recognized in the community. Now, the authority of the pastor is recognized only within that church – and, I would add, sometimes not even then! In 1965, there were 34 UCC churches in the Massachusetts Conference with over a thousand members, including the one in which I grew up. Now there are only three. Back then, Christianity was considered to be an American civic tradition. The Church was an authoritative institution that served as the conscience of the community, and mainline Protestant denominations such as ours stood at the center of the religious establishment. Now, we live in a post-Christian world of religious pluralism and multi-culturalism, a world of increasing secularism and materialism. To quote Bob Dylan, “The times, they are a-changin’”—and have been for a while. We see it in our own church here. How many of you talk about the “glory days” of an overflowing Sunday school and a full sanctuary for not one but TWO worship services. The glory days of “Wedded Ring,” “Icebreakers,” and musical productions. Yes, it is a new era for the Christian church, and for our church here, too. And the question we must ask is how do we remain relevant in the post-Christendom, secular, pluralistic 21st century? For an answer, let’s look more closely at this morning’s Gospel lesson. The disciples are out on the lake in their fishing boats, but their nets have come up empty. Seeing their lack of success, Jesus tells Peter, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Peter is skeptical. “Master,” he says to Jesus, “we have worked all night long and caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they do so, they catch so many fish that their nets start to break. Jesus tells his disciples to go deeper. And that is not just advice for those fishermen. I believe it is meant for us, too. Because all of us – not just here in this church, but in Christian churches throughout the country, perhaps even the world – have tended to stay in the safe and shallow waters. Tony Robinson, a writer and pastor in our denomination, the United Church of Christ, puts it this way: “Both liberal and conservative Christian churches have offered reductive, reduced, cut-to-size versions of the gospel. Conservative…evangelicals have tended to reduce the gospel of Christ to ‘being saved,’ the promise of ‘life after death.’ It is reduced to eternal salvation.” And “liberal Christianity has its own shallow waters, its own gospel reductionism [of] ‘Civic Faith.’ Civic faith is the strong encouragement to be a caring and considerate person, to help others, to play a responsible role in society…” “There is nothing wrong with any of these qualities or activities…” continues Robinson. “And yet, we wonder if something is missing? We wonder if we have risked the deeper waters of Christian faith? We wonder if we have risked being in the presence of God?”2 Christ invites us to go deeper, because it is then that we will find abundance – the joy-filled life he promises. When Christianity served as a civic faith, the message was “be good, be respectable and perhaps God will love us back.” But that completely distorts the message of grace the Gospel offers us. The point Jesus makes over and over again is that he has come to save the lost, forgive the sinner, heal the sick, love the unlovable. The Gospel message never been about the church as an important institution in society; it has never been about church membership which gives one power and influence. The Gospel message has always been about having a relationship with God through Christ. Christ came to change lives, that we might live abundantly. This essential Christian message is starting to be reclaimed by the institutional church. There is a paradigm shift taking place to make the Christian church relevant again to future generations: that is the shift from a membership model to a discipleship model of church. In membership model churches, growth is measured in numbers. In discipleship-model churches, growth is measured in depth of faith. The primary goal of a church which is mainly focused on membership is to get and keep members. The emphasis is on recruiting people in order to fill board vacancies and increase the number of pledging units. Sound familiar? But a church whose primary goal is to make disciples for Jesus Christ is a church where people are more intentionally focused on building and deepening their relationship with God and helping others to do the same. And I believe that our future here at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton lies not in making more members but in making disciples. Afterall, in his Great Commission, Jesus doesn’t say, “Go therefore and make members.” He says, “Go therefore and make disciples.” Churches which are living in to this new model are emphasizing six spiritual practices, or “marks of discipleship ,”3which nurture an individual’s journey of faith and help us to make a deeper connection with God. You have heard us talk about these before, and they bear repeating. The first mark of a disciple is weekly worship. From the very beginning of the Christian church, the life of the faith community has revolved around the regular gathering of believers for worship, fellowship, communion and prayer. Coming together as a family of faith helps us renew and deepen our relationships with each other and with our God, 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. Weekly worship is the linchpin of a discipleship church. The second mark of a disciple is daily prayer, through which we can develop a deep personal relationship with God. Prayer is not saying the “right” words in the “right” way at the “right” time in the “right” position. Instead, it is sharing honestly with God what is deep in our heart. Prayer is sharing with God our hopes, our dreams, our fears, your troubles. And remember – no matter what sin you have committed or mistakes you have made, God loves you and God wants you to draw closer into relationship, a relationship that can grow and be nurtured through daily prayer. The third mark of a disciple is reading the bible. Ninety one percent of all households in the United States own at least one Bible; the typical household owns three. And most of them are gathering dust up on a long-forgotten bookshelf. Those adults who do read the bible, usually do so for less than 10 minutes a day. If reading the bible is our best way to learn more about God and is the first step in developing a deeper relationship with God, then we need to spend more time reading it than we do the daily newspaper! Yes, there are some parts of Scripture we’re not going to understand, and there are some parts we’re not going to like even when we do understand them. But the bible is the living, breathing, dynamic Word of God. It is complex and nuanced and needs to be studied, reflected upon, wrestled with, interpreted, and understood in light of our own context and experience, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The bible helps us better understand God and the story of God’s people, and it is essential if we are going to grow in discipleship. The fourth mark of a disciple is serving – serving God, God’s church, and God’s people. You have heard me say many times that you are all “ministers.” And to “minister” means “to serve.” Servanthood was one of the fundamental practices of Jesus, and as the body of Christ, the church, we are called to do what he would be doing if he were here in earthly form. The church is called to serve – to minister – to people. And when we serve others, we are serving Christ and growing in discipleship. The fifth mark of a disciple is developing spiritual friendships. This is considered a Christian practice and an important aspect of discipleship because the Christian faith is all about relationships – with God through Christ, and with one other. If we are to become more than people who show up on Sunday mornings and maybe come to a meeting or two during the month, if we are to become more than just members of this church and begin to get serious about our faith, then we will need to move beyond the social friendships we have and begin to develop spiritual friendships – relationships based not only on love, but also on accountability, support, commitment, encouragement, and spiritual growth. And the sixth mark of a disciple is giving. Ah, you knew I’d get around to it during this Stewardship season! What preacher worth his or her salt could resist the opportunity to tell you to give! You might even be thinking that the church is always asking for money! Well, guess what? I’m not going to ask you for anything. Instead I’m simply going to remind you that all of our blessings, all of our bounty, all of everything we are and we have comes from God. A membership church asks for money, and people resent it. A discipleship church demonstrates a generous spirit rooted in the generosity of God. And so, I ask you to remember from whom all your blessings flow, and to give back generously to the One who has so generously given to you. And so, there you are – six ways to grow in discipleship. They are not presented as a mechanistic approach to the Christian faith, but rather as habits of the soul that open us to the wonder and mystery of God’s active presence in our lives. They are ways that we can go deeper in our faith. Are they hard to do? Sometimes, but that’s why they’re called practices – we have to keep doing them to get good at it. Do I ever fail in my practice of them? Of course! Will they buy our way into heaven? Absolutely not. But they will keep us focused on the things of God. And that is the beginning of becoming a disciple and a discipleship church. Amen.
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| 1For more specific statistics, refer to “The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey Reveals a Fluid and Diverse Pattern of Faith,” Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, February 25, 2008, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/743/united-states-religion. |
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.