God in Our Midst: the Joys and Challenges of Community
Category: Sundays after Pentecost, Christian Community, Making a Space for All
Speaker: The Rev. Shearon Sykes Wiliams
“John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.” -Mark 9: 38-50
Communities are very important. Human beings are fundamentally relational and we need communities to keep us safe and sane and whole. Families are communities. Work places are communities. Churches are communities. Our identity is largely tied up with the communities of which we are a part. They give us a sense of history. They ground us and give us an interpretive framework for the world around us. As important as it is to have a clear sense of identity and boundaries, there is also a shadow side to communities. They can stifle creativity and innovation and be unwilling to change in response to new circumstances. It’s true of families. It’s true of work places. It’s true of churches.
The tension between the joys and challenges of communal identity are evident in today’s Gospel. John, one of the disciples closest to Jesus, is concerned that someone outside of Jesus’ designated followers is acting as if he is one of them. This man is healing people in Jesus’ name and that is a very big problem in John’s mind. And it’s understandable. John is just trying to keep everybody safe and clearly delineated, who’s in the family and who’s out. But Jesus has no such concern. In fact, he has the opposite concern. John is being exclusive but Jesus instructs him to be inclusive. It’s not John’s place to decide who’s in and who’s out. God is at work through the man healing people in Jesus’ name in a way that John just doesn’t understand. Jesus reminds him that grace happens in ways seen and unseen and that God decides who’s in and who’s out.
And Jesus goes on to use very forceful language to talk about the importance of not putting up roadblocks for people trying to find their way to God. He says that it would be better if “a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.” Now, let me be quick to say that I do not believe that we should take these strong words literally. But we do take Jesus’ admonition very seriously. If we cause someone to stumble in their faith journey, or if we stumble ourselves, we need to ask for God’s forgiveness, forgive ourselves, and begin again. We worship a loving God. So we don’t take them literally, but we do take Jesus’ strong words very seriously. His words are forceful because he wants to make the point that it is extremely important that we as individual Christians do not cause others to falter in their spiritual quest, and even more importantly, that we as the community of Jesus followers do not put up barriers to seekers, whether consciously or unconsciously.
And we are ultimately all seekers. No one ever “arrives” at the destination of faith in this life. That’s why early Christians were known as “the people of the Way”. They had a very dynamic sense of faith. They were not static. They were on the journey with Jesus, walking with Jesus, through thick and then, and we are too.
Today’s Gospel, at its root, is about humility. It reminds us that we are called to welcome all into our midst each time we gather in Jesus’ powerful, life-giving name. We welcome Jesus himself, we welcome the stranger and we welcome ourselves. We don’t get to decide who’s out and who’s in. That is God’s work. And that is a beautiful and wondrous thing.
We are about to do a beautiful and wondrous thing here at Saint George’s. And it makes my heart sing every time I think about it. Out of our desire to be the people God wants us to be, people on the Way with Jesus, we are about to renovate our nave and the chapel used by San Jose, at the other end of the building. And we are doing that because we want our worship space to reflect our core communal values and what we believe to be true about God. God is with us. God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ to be in intimate relationship with us, to lead us on the Way. God is not just off in the clouds somewhere. And the most important representation of “God with us” in our worship space is our altar. In our renovation, our altar will be brought forward, closer to the people, and it will rest on an altar platform so that we will be reminded that God is very much in our midst, transforming us and empowering us to do God’s work in the world.
Our renovation is about three things, three core communal values. Inclusion, Community and Flexibility. We are trying to make our worship space reflect who we already are and who we are becoming. We are a church that welcomes everyone on their faith journey, from the seeker who is really not sure about the whole church thing to people that have been committed members their whole lives, and everybody in between. We welcome questions and doubts because our questions keep us engaged and take us deeper and deeper into our relationship with God. We celebrate the whole people of God, black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, old and young. We are all included and none of us has ever arrived. So first and foremost, this renovation is about inclusion, and not just inclusion for inclusion sake, but inclusion as a Gospel value. Jesus told John not to worry about who’s out and who’s in and neither should we.
Secondly, and of course relatedly, it’s about building community. We are all in this business of faith together. God is in our midst, shown by the altar coming closer to all of you. The altar will be on a beautiful, wooden platform that everyone, whatever their physical limitations, will be able to gather around to receive communion in community. No distinctions. And because the altar will be moved forward, to about the level of the top of the current chancel steps, the choir will have more room and will be closer to the congregation as they lead us in song. They will no longer be closed off and separated from us. Everyone will be in closer proximity, the choir, the worship leaders and the congregation.
And thirdly, in addition to inclusion and community, our renovation is about flexibility. As the people of God, we are called to be open and responsive and not locked in place. So, we hope to have beautiful, substantial wooden chairs in the nave that can be moved for services outside of Sunday worship. On Sunday’s they will be in rows and function much like pews, but they won’t be attached to the floor so that at other times, outside of Sunday mornings, they can be reconfigured for smaller, special services. One example is
the Taize contemplative prayer service we have once a month. The chairs can be moved so that we can put our canvas labyrinth in the center of the nave, rather than laying it in our in the parish hall as we currently do. Many ancient European cathedrals have labyrinths that are actually laid into the stone floor to remind people that they are on a never-ending journey with Jesus, so having our labyrinth in our worship space will really enhance that service.
So our upcoming renovation is about 3 things, inclusion, community and flexibility. These are core values at Saint George’s. We believe that inclusion, community and flexibility at the very heart of the Gospel.
It’s also important for all communities and especially faith communities, to maintain a balance between their history and their future. And so our renovation will do that as well. We will still have our beautiful stained glass windows and all of our Neo-Gothic features that evoke a sense of timelessness and connection to our ancient past; the features that make us all say, “Our church looks like the classic image of a church and we like that.” Our building serves an important function in the neighborhood. It anchors the newness all around us with tradition. It grounds the neighborhood. And we will still have our wonderful baptismal font that looks like ones from the very earliest days of Christianity, the font that people have been baptized in for 65 years at Saint George’s. Many existing features in our nave will be brought forward. There will be continuity with our past. And it will also be forward-looking. Our nave will look like we are a people who are committed to inclusivity, community and flexibility, because we are. How our worship space is configured is very important. It both expresses and reinforces our image of God and of ourselves. Our renovation will show that we are informed by the past, we honor our past, but we are not locked in the past. We are willing to change. We celebrate who we already are and who we are always becoming. We are a dynamic, open and responsive people, removing stumbling blocks for others, and removing stumbling blocks for ourselves, on the Way with Jesus.
Source:
Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4, Ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Westminster John Knox Press, pp. 116-121