August 31, 2003
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Every now and then, a
group of Christians will hold a conference and for a day or two ponder a
question. They will bring in scholars and experts and constituents and ask,
“what does it mean to be ‘something’ and Christian? What does it mean to be
Black and Christian? What does it mean to be gay or lesbian and Christian? What
does it mean to be a woman and Christian? What
does it mean to be male and Christian, or American and Christian? The question
is meant to recognize that even in the church we sometimes forget that each of
us, no matter our circumstance is a beloved child of God. When we forget that
and see some as made in God’s image and others as not, we eat the stale bitter
bread of prejudice and racism, and sexism, and every other “ism” that
plagues and divides us. Maybe the conference
planners have been asking the wrong question. Perhaps they have been making
things way too complicated. It just might be that the question isn’t what does
it mean to be ‘something’ and Christian, rather the question is simply what
does it mean to be Christian period. Jesus says that trust and
faith is him is the key to being a Christian. He says, “I
am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14. 1,6). He also tells us
that the key to right and faithful living is to love God, to love our neighbors,
and to love ourselves (Mark 12.28-31). What does it mean to be a
right living Christian today, in this time when everything moves so quickly and
change seems the only constant? It
means living in the assurance of God’s love for us. We ask, how do we get on
the path to right living? There are likely as many answers to that question as
there are people in this room. But based on our readings for today, I want to
suggest five, four from James and one from the gospel of Mark. First, we check ourselves
in three ways. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slower to anger. In some
ways, this is still the age of Howard Cosell, we like to “tell it like it
is”, as he used to say, usually before he said something accusatory or just
outrageous. It is the age of the quick tongue, especially when we feel that we
cannot let someone do something we don’t like, or say something we don’t
like and not respond, often in kind. We live in the age of
rage, where every slight is treated as an act of disrespect that must be met
with retaliation. So we deal with road rage, wherein the normal give and take of
driving on city streets and interstate highways gives way to uncontrollable
anger because someone doesn’t like the way we drive. A local dealer has a road
rage commercial featuring a trunk monkey and a tire iron. In real life, a real
woman was murdered in what is believed to be a road rage incident. James is not saying and I
am not saying don’t speak your mind when it is right to do so. There are
occasionally words we don’t have to listen to – we really have no obligation
to stay in the presence of a verbally abusive person. But we also know that
there are times when not listening leaves the speaker feeling dismissed and
devalued. I am saying that every
thought does not have to be verbalized, we can keep some thoughts to ourselves.
We can learn, and I am preaching to myself here, to count to ten or twenty
before we speak and act in anger. Psalm 4.4 reminds us that when we are
disturbed or angry, the thing we want to avoid is letting our anger lead us to
sin. There is a time to have
your say, there are times when anger, that profound combination of hurt feelings
and deep disappointment is justified. But there are times when speaking before
we give any thought to what we are going to say causes more hurtful words to be
spoken. Feelings escalate and no real good can come of our reckless speech or
careless listening and God is not pleased. Of course, we will have
deep feelings about things, it is what we do with our deep feelings that matter.
We know that keeping things bottled up inside us will make us sick, literally,
with high blood pressure, ulcers, chronic physical or emotional exhaustion. When our feelings are strong, do we react to what we feel
according to our love of God, our love of neighbor and our love for ourselves as
a reflection of our love for Christ? Or do we just explode saying and doing
whatever comes to mind. But, we say, we have to
react, even if it means an explosion of some kind because we cannot back down.
We don’t ever want to look soft or weak. But the second thing we can do to
stay on the path to right living is to know the difference between meekness and
weakness. To be weak is to lack
strength and to be without physical, emotional, or spiritual resources. Weakness
is about what we do not have; not enough body strength, not enough financial
strength, not enough strength of character. Meekness is about what we do have.
We are invited to welcome with meekness the word of God implanted in us (v 21).
That word does not ask us to give up what makes us strong. Instead it asks us to
receive all that God has given us with a sense of humility and thanksgiving.
Meekness is a stance we voluntarily take before God. In Christian love, and in
gratitude to God for every gift of life given to us and for the “us-ness”
that is ours, we stand humbly before God. That is what we declare to the world. The July/August issue of
DisciplesWorld magazine featured an interracial family on its cover. The article
had to do with whether such a family would be welcomed in Disciples
congregations. I responded to that question with a mixture of pride in who we
are and deep humility at the incredible thing God is doing here. The letter I
wrote is in the September issue of DisciplesWorld. Here is what it says: “The
interracial family on your (July/Aug) cover would be welcomed with open arms and
loving hearts at Broad Street Christian Church in Columbus, Ohio. God has
blessed us to be a multi-cultural, multigenerational congregation, and anyone
seeking to discover and deepen their relationship with God and Jesus Christ can
find a home with us. I pray that we are one among a multitude of Disciples
congregations that celebrates the uniqueness and the diversity of the people
with whom God has populated the church and the world as we “welcome one
another as God has welcomed ‘us’, for the glory of God.” I felt confident in
writing that letter because I am confident that it is true. I believe it is true
because I believe Broad Street Christian Church has captured the essence of the
third way of staying on the path to right living. That is, we try to become
doers of the word and not just hearers of it. We have some more studying and
learning to do and we will begin this week. Our board will enter a four- week
journey of discovering their spiritual gifts. In October and November all of us
will be invited to discuss Kennon Callahan’s Twelve Keys to An Effective
Church. There will be other opportunities to discuss and learn next year. As
we hear the word in Bible study, in personal devotion, and in worship, we become
doers of the word. Every time we welcome
guests and invite them to join us and become part of this body, we are doers of
the word. Whenever we act with compassion to reach out to people in need we are
doing the word. When we pray, when we
gather for fellowship and worship, when we stand up for justice, when we weep
and mourn and laugh and rejoice, with those in grief and happiness, we are doing
the word. Doers of the word stand with others. The fourth thing that
keeps us on the path to right living is our care for others. James tells us that
doers of the word will be blessed. One way the blessing comes to us is as we
care for the needy among us. In James day, the most needy were widows and
orphans. In many ways they still are. They are often the ones without enough
family or financial support who find their lives changed forever in the absence
of a loved one. Be the best religious and faithful people you can be, James says
to us. Reach out to people who will be uplifted by your care. Do something for
others and see how much God will bless you. Then there is the fifth
way to stay on the path to right living, and as we do to taste the sweet bread
of righteousness, so to speak. We can, according to the gospel of Mark keep
check on the condition of our hearts. Jesus is confronted by a
group of Pharisees who want to know why his disciples eat without washing their
hands. There are two things we need to know before we deal with Jesus’
response to their question. The first is that the Pharisees, though opponents of
Jesus teaching are not the evil folks they are often made out to be. They were the
traditionalists of their day. Their responsibility was to guard the traditions
of the faith. Today, they would be the ones who insist that only the King James
version of the Bible can be read in worship on Sunday. Church can only begin at
11 am, Sunday morning, and men must wear suits, women must wear skirts and hats,
and the only instruments in the building should be a piano and an organ. It was
good enough for Jesus, so the piano and organ are a stretch, and it is good
enough for us. The Pharisees said, if it was good enough for Moses, it is good
enough for us, including a number of rituals. The second thing we need
to know is that the concern for hand washing had little to do with hygiene. One
writer explains it this way: “People of the first century have no
understanding of hygiene. Pharisaic hand washing involves the use of only a
small amount of water poured over the hands to wash away ritual defilement, such
as defilement caused by touching an unclean object or person. While most of us
would want to wash our hands for hygienic purposes in some of the circumstances,
the manner in which ritual hand washing is done offers no hygienic benefit” (www.lectionary.org.mark03-08-31,
p. 3-4). Jesus has to remind them
that faithfulness is not really a matter of hand washing, that is about what is
outside the body anymore than it is about the Bible we use, the day and time we
worship, or whether or not we even have Sunday best clothes anymore.
Faithfulness is about how what is in our hearts comes out in a way that gives
glory to God. Jesus further exposes their hypocrisy by accusing them of giving
to the temple, not as an offering to God, but as a way of getting out of their
responsibility for supporting their parents. “In Jesus day, aging
parents often transferred property to their children, who then assumed a
responsibility for the parents’ welfare in their old age. Corban is a form of
deferred giving, similar to today’s tax [plan] of transferring title to a
charity now (and receiving a tax deduction now) with the provision that we can
continue to use the property until our death. In like manner, a person
in Jesus’ day could declare something Corban – that is dedicated to God, and
then tell his or her parents that their old-age support has been given to God.
In truth, the property has only been promised to God, but that promise gives the
child an excuse to dodge his or her obligation to parents. It is treachery
cloaked in religious garb. The religious establishment encourages the practice,
because the deferred gift ultimately ends up in the religious treasury” (lectionary.org,
p. 5). We want you to be generous
to the church, but not at the neglect of your family. And Jesus’ point is that
none of the outward thing we do will amount too much if our hearts are out of
shape. What is outside can defile us, but we can wash, we can give, we can act
and find redemption. What is most important is
the attitude that comes out of us. The condition of our hearts, the attitude of
our minds can lead us to righteousness or unrighteousness.
A bad attitude leads us to violate our most intimate relationships, take
what is not ours, say what is not helpful, and act as if the earth revolves
around us. That is evil Jesus says,
avoid such contamination. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
we are called to resist evil and strengthen our hearts with good things
– so that our relationship with God, with Jesus Christ, and each other is
good. We are called to live righteously and faithfully. We can listen before we
speak, keep our anger from descending into sinfulness and to live with humility. We
are called to do the word we hear and to listen for what God is calling us to
do. Listen as God calls us to care for the most needy and vulnerable among us,
and to always, always keep our hearts pumping with all that brings us closer to
Jesus Christ. That is what it means to
be a Christian, and it is what we are invited to do. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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