4th
Sunday after Pentecost
July 6, 2014
Romans 7:15-25a;
Matthew 11:25-30
(1st Sunday at Cowenton UMC and Piney Grove UMC)
A play premiered at the Globe
Theater in London in 1960 called “A Man for All Seasons.” The playwright, Robert Bolt, later turned it
into a screenplay for a movie, which won Best Picture at the Oscars in 1966. It is based on the real life of Sir Thomas
More, an Englishman who lived in the late 15th and early 16th
centuries. You may be familiar with him if
you had to read his book “Utopia,” in school, or as being a Catholic saint with
many prep schools named after him, as a Renaissance man who educated his
daughters in the same classical tradition the as his sons, or perhaps for his
job title, Lord Chancellor, King Henry VIII’s chief advisor from 1529 to 1532. That was quite a tumultuous
time in England’s history, as King Henry sought an annulment from his first
wife in order to marry his second wife and in the process declared himself the
head of the Church of England, separating from Roman Catholicism. While others obeyed the king without question,
in order to keep royal favor and save their heads, Thomas More believed that
his obedience to Christ came before his duty as a royal subject. For this act of treason, King Henry had him
beheaded. For this act of putting God
ahead of King, he became known as a deeply principled man, a “man for all
seasons.” The phrase actually comes from
a quote from a contemporary of Thomas More’s, the grammarian Robert
Whittington. He wrote: “More is a man of
an angel's wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the
man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man
of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all
seasons.”[1]
In a similar way, I believe you
could say that Christ’s Church is a church for all seasons. Like Thomas More faced each season of his
life with steadfast faith and courage and dignity, who the church is doesn’t change with each season, either. As we sang [will sing] in our middle hymn,
“the church’s one foundation is Jesus
Christ her Lord… from heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride.”[2] The church is the bride of Christ. In the communion liturgy we say that “by the
baptism of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection he gave birth to his
church.”[3] This
is who the church is. This
doesn’t change. On Pentecost Sunday,
just a few weeks ago, we celebrated the church’s birthday, as the promised Holy
Spirit came upon the disciples and the message about Jesus spread to other
regions. Through the apostle Paul’s
work, those other regions developed local churches. And the local
church is God’s instrument for salvation, however odd that may sound. We are all baptized and become members of
God’s family in a local church. You
can’t be a Christian by yourself, you need the community of faith, the church,
to walk with you. And those rumors about
the church dying? Hogwash. God will take care of God’s church, you can
trust him for that. The existence of the church does not depend on
us, although together we make up the church.
Now, while the identity of the
Church does not change, just what each individual church looks like and how it
may act will change. The Church does go through seasons.
Pastors come and go, especially in the Methodist Church, and I am
excited to begin my season with you, however long God grants it to last. Different lay people step up to lead as they
are called and empowered to do so, and over time there will be different ways
of doing things, just as there are different ways of doing things now than a
generation ago. The mission and vision
of a particular congregation may change over time, as it adapts to meet the
changing needs of its’ surrounding community.
The fact that God intentionally planted it in a particular community
doesn’t change, but how it interacts with that community may well change, just
as technology changes and the cars we drive change. The core doesn’t change, but ways of doing
things probably will, and that’s ok. Our
God is the same today as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow, and yet
sometimes he calls us to new things. My
family’s move to Maryland is one of those new things. I was a pastor before and I am still a
pastor, but the local context where I pastor has changed. We still worship the same God, now we’re
doing so with a different congregation.
Nothing was wrong with the old place, God just called us to something
new.
So remember, as the church goes through
seasons, it does not mean changing who you are.
It does not mean changing traditions that are life-giving. It does not mean not honoring the past and
those who have come before. Cowenton [Piney
Grove] has a rich history full of the saints of God who loved to do his
will. And there are many saints here
now, continuing to seek and do his will.
The roots of the Church are staying put, as they are grounded firmly in
Christ. God has been active here, is
active here, and will continue to be active here, no matter what happens. God planted this church here for a reason and
we are still living into that call and becoming what God wants Cowenton [Piney Grove]
to become. As Paul writes in his letter
to the Philippians, God has already begun a good work in you, and he is faithful
and will see it to completion.[4]
The question I have for you this
morning, and I’d love to hear your reflections on it in the coming weeks and
months, is: What season are we in now? There are different ways to answer the
question. One answer is that we’re in a
time for rest, a time for shared burdens, and a time for learning from
Jesus. According to ancient Jewish
tradition, “yoke” refers to teaching and instruction in wisdom.[5] And wisdom that is born of enlightenment,
renewal, and reorientation lightens, rather than burdens the soul.[6] So perhaps we’re in for a time of learning,
too. The other thing about a yoke is
much more practical and that is that it’s meant for two. The burden you carry with a yoke you do not
carry by yourself. Christ’s yoke is born
by all of us; it is a load and learning that we share together.
One final way to consider what
season we’re in is to remember the liturgical seasons of the church. Right now, we’re in the season after
Pentecost, or Ordinary Time. There is
nothing special about this season liturgically speaking. However, at a spiritual formation retreat I
attended a while back, the author Robert Benson suggested that we consider the
current season of our lives in terms of the liturgical seasons. Are you in Advent, a season of waiting and
preparation? Are you currently in a time
of rejoicing at a great gift, such as during Christmastime? Or are you in Epiphany, having learned or
realized something life-changing? Lent
is not a fun time to be in, and yet sometimes we are there as well, in a season
of pruning and discipline and waiting for the coming resurrection in the Easter
season. What season are we in as a
church? I’ll tell you that personally,
I’ve been in Advent all spring, waiting and preparing for this move and still
waiting for this baby to be born. That’s
where I am. Where are you? And where do you discern that we are as a
church?
What has changed? And what are the core pieces of this church
that will not change? My first appointment
was a Hispanic church, and moving from there to my second appointment was so
different, that I actually made a list of which things were the same. All but one item on that list is the same for
serving here as well: We still serve the same triune God. We are still United Methodist. I am still a pastor and still serving
part-time. I will probably still get up
at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. The one
difference is that I am no longer in North Carolina. However, if we compare this appointment and
my previous one, I am still leading worship and preaching in English and still
doing so at multiple services on Sunday morning. I will still seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness. I will still be
working toward catching glimpses of that kingdom here on earth. And I will still be working towards meeting
the physical and spiritual needs of my surrounding community; just the local
setting is different.
Finally, a word about that change in
local setting. A few people in North
Carolina commented that our move to Maryland was uprooting our family. However, in following Jesus’ call to
Maryland, I don’t feel like we uprooted our family. We are not pulling out our roots in North
Carolina. Our family in North Carolina
will continue to be our family. My
previous appointment will continue to be the place where my daughter was
baptized and became part of God’s family.
That is all staying the same. Following
Jesus’ call here doesn’t mean we uprooted or cut old ties; it means we’re planting
new roots here in this community. It doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with
the old roots, or what we were doing before; it was just time to add some new
roots. It was time for some change. The church goes through seasons; that’s
normal.
I mentioned earlier that I’d like to
hear your reflections on the current season of Cowenton [Piney Grove], and I’m
serious. My contact information is in
the bulletin, whether you want to call me, email me, stop by, invite me over,
whatever, I’d love to hear your thoughts. The schedule I intend to keep for
these next few weeks is to visit in the morning and take naps and prepare for
Sunday in the afternoon. So, what season
are we in now? Whatever one it is, rest
assured that God is there, too.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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