Good Reasons Not to Join a Church

“Good Reasons Not to Join a Church”

 

Romans 5:1-11

September 21, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

Much has been written recently about the decline of religious affiliation in the United States.  If you’ve been following the topic you may be aware that according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life [religions.pewforum.org] our country will soon no longer be majority Protestant nation, the only statistically growing religious communities in the United States are Islam and the Latter Day Saints and the fastest growing segment of the our population is those identifying themselves as “spiritual not religious” (14.5%).

This trend is especially true for those under the age of 50.   In the book unChristian (Kinnaman, Barna Group, 2007) the Barna Research group did an extensive survey of Millennials (ages 18-35) who even when raised in the church are leaving religious affiliation by historic numbers; 25% of those under 30 list no religious affiliation, 3 times the number of those over 70 years old (Pew).  (If you need proof simply ask yourselves if your children come to church?)

The book found a number of reasons that young people avoid the church and it is not increasing trends in atheism.  Over 90% of Americans believe in God.  The surveys found that young people were turned off by the judgementalism of the church, the churches’ involvement in politics and local churches’ unwillingness to trying something new.  In a word, those under 35 don’t find people living like Jesus in the churches and they cannot reconcile our stated beliefs with our actions.

 

Remember the old preacher’s story about the trick horse at the church picnic?  For entertainment, the church invited a cowboy to bring his counting horse.  He asked the horse, “How many people were in the garden of Eden?”  And the horse stamped the ground twice.  The cowboy asked, “How many days did it God take to create the world?”  The horse stamped out six.  The cowboy asked the horse, “How many disciples did Jesus have?”  And the horse stomped twelve times.  The crowd clapped.  And then feeling cocky, the cowboy asked the horse, “And…how many hypocrites are there in this church?”  And the horse started to dance on all fours.*

 

There are a lot of good reasons not to join a church.   One of them is that we will let just about anybody in, even people who struggle to live up to their ideals.  We don’t have a sign up over the door reading, “Only saints allowed!”

When the apostle Paul writes his letter to the new church in Rome, as we have heard in our scripture lesson this morning, he suggests a radical grace, twice:   “….while we were still sinners, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…but God proves his love for us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us…”  God loves us before we join the right church, before we are baptized in the right manner, before we confess the proper creeds, before we practice the true religion.  God acts to save us before we believe and do the right things!   That means the doors of our churches are open to everybody …everybody….even the kind of folks who fail.  

Who wouldn’t be welcomed at our dinner table?  Well, God loves even them and as such they are welcomed to Christ’s church.

That’s enough to give anybody a pause when we think about joining a church.  Do we really want to be hanging out with riff-raff?  (Just look around you at the characters who are here this morning, saying nothing of this preacher!)

 

            One Sunday morning, a mother went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get ready for church, to which he replied, "I'm not going."

"Why not?" she asked.

I'll give you two good reasons," he said. "One, they don't like me, and two, I don't like them."

His mother replied, "I'll give YOU two good reasons why YOU SHOULD go to church. (1) You're 59 years old, and (2) you're the pastor!"

 

            There are a lot more sinners in the church than saints.  That might be one reason not to join a church.  In fact, we could make a whole list of them.   Just consider the expectations of church life!

            You know what I mean.

Think of those people you most admire for their faith.  Picture in your mind the father, mother, brother, sister, neighbor or friend that you would name as an example of someone who really puts their faith into action, someone who lives everyday the values of our religious tradition.

            Ellen Ferrell….Doris Selbig…..Einer Cook…..Bishop Lawi Imathiu….Ila Davidson…..Elizabeth Brownhill….Juntaro Arakawa….and many here at the Wayfarer I wouldn’t want to embarrass by speaking their names out loud.   These folks have names and faces.  These folks live their sermon they just don’t preach it on Sundays.  We learn from their examples and are inspired to our own vital faith as a result.

            These folk have many things in common and one in particular.  They are making or made their church membership a meaningful resource for their spiritual lives.  They do so in very practical, specific ways that we come to admire and wish to emulate: they pray; they attend church regularly…you can count on them to be here; they study the Bible and are eager to learn more about their faith; they go out of their way to serve others whether to bring a hot dinner to a homebound friend or to go off to a mission trip in Mexico; they don’t practice their religion alone but seek out the community of kindred spirits; and they are generous, generous with their time, talent and money.

            Such behavior is obvious to all of us, we admire and our inspired by it.  In fact such behavior is the basis of our ‘unspoken expectations’ for what a person of ‘real faith’ is all about.   Those who make a commitment to such expectations get the most out of their church experience, as they grow closer to God and to those who share the journey. 

These expectations aren’t rules and regulations.  Neither are they “means of spiritual superiority”.  The ones we admire the most for their faith are always quite humble about it.   Rather they see prayer, church attendance, study, service, community and generosity as a “means of grace” and grace is always humble, non-judgmental and ever learning and growing.  

            And…. they are expectations none-the-less.  If we are looking for a comfortable, convenient Christianity…a religion we can visit every now and then when we can fit it into our busy schedules…..well, we might want to give church membership a second thought.  In a United Methodist church all people are welcome to get involved at whatever level of interest they have.  All people in the community can come to us for the sacraments, for weddings, memorial services, for counseling, for assistance whether members or not. 

We refuse to suggest that God loves a church member more than any one else, that is not how God works according to the Bible and that is the basis of our informality about church membership as United Methodists.

A kindergarten teacher gave her class a "show and tell" assignment.* Each student was instructed to bring in an object to share with the class that represented their

Religion.   The first student got up in front of the class and said, "My name is Benjamin and I am Jewish and this is a Star of David."  The second student got up in front of the class and said, "My name is Mary. I'm a Roman Catholic and this is a Rosary."  The third student got in up front of the class and said, "My name is Tommy. I am Methodist, and this is a casserole."

And yet, if folk do choose to officially join the church they can assume a set of expectations of what that means.   These expectations are time tested and honored behaviors of those we all admire for their faith, courage and love.  I am going to talk about three of them this morning and another three next week:

 

-Prayer; people of mature faith pray daily for the church, its leadership, the concerns of the people and the world as well as practice spiritual disciplines for themselves.   (Matthew 7:7-11)

 

“Prayer is a form communication between God and man and man and God. It is of the essence of communication between persons that they should talk with each other from the same basic agenda. Wherever this is not done, communication tends to break down.”
(Howard Thurman in A Strange Freedom, cited in Christianity Today, April 26, 1999, p.105.)   That’s true of our relationship with God as well.

Prayer doesn’t require a set form; one can pray with eyes closed or open, in silence or with music or while jogging or taking a shower.  Prayer is simply and profoundly opening oneself to listen to and be heard by God.  You don’t need a Ph.D.  You don’t need the right words.  All you need is the right heart.  Remember the story that Jesus tells:

 

‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. ¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. ¹²I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” ¹³But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’ (Luke 18:10-14)

 

-Attendance; people of mature faith attend Sunday worship if they are in town.  (Psalm 65:1-4)

 

            We worship for many reasons and can worship in any location.  And community sanctuary worship gives us a particular experience of the divine that we can’t get anywhere else.

 

“A pastor baptized a baby. After the baptism, the pastor said to the baby, in a voice loud enough to be heard by parents and congregation, ‘Little sister, by this act of baptism, we welcome you to a journey that will take your whole life. This isn't the end. It's the beginning of God's experiment with your life. What God will make of you, we know not. Where God will take you, surprise you, we cannot say. This we do know, and this we say - God is with you.’”
(Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989, pp. 52-53).

 

            Notice how many times we hear the word “we”.   We are not in life as solitary entities rather our life is in relationship.  Sanctuary worship is a gathering unlike any other form of worship because we, with all of our individual agendas, experience the God that draws us together and find us in community.  We cannot be all that God calls us to be as individuals without sacred community.   That is what we practice here each week.  Church members are expected to be here when they are healthy and in town.

 

-Study; people of mature faith participate in at least one class or workshop a year in order to grow in their faith, learn about the Bible and expand their spiritual understanding.  (Psalm 119:105-108)

 

            In any endeavor in life almost all of us realize that “you shall reap what you sow” (2 Cor. 9:6).  The more we invest in our study at school, the physical exercise of our bodies, the more we give to our marriages, our kids and our friendships the more we will receive in return.

            Isn’t that also true of our faith?  Sixty percent of Americans can’t name five of the Ten Commandments.  In fact, more Americans can list the ingredients of a MacDonald’s Big Mac than they can the Ten Commandments (USA Today 03/07).   The more we get to know the Bible and think through our own personal theology the closer we can grow to God and each other.  Church members are expected to do so.

 

The research suggests that the decline in religious affiliation will end when religious people reclaim their beliefs as a way of life not just an institution to maintain.

To those under 50 who denounce the church for its hypocrisy, I listen and respect such input as it is often correct and then ask where they have found a community of perfect people I can join.   Haven’t heard of one yet.

  All are welcome at church, even the people we don’t like, even the people who don’t get it, even the people who fail….like me.  All are expected to pray, worship and grow.    Such expectations might not be significant for everybody but they are for folks who join a church.

 “Our greatest ethical, political need right now is not for new or better rules. What we’re dying of is a lack of imagination. We need some great gift that would enable us to imagine our little lives as caught up in something greater than ourselves, as contributing, in their countless personal acts, to something public and cosmic.” William Willimon of Duke University in Theology Today (1995)

            For people like us, people who God loves before we get it right, church commitment could be that very gift.

            Amen.

 

*          Source unknown

A River Runs Deep

“A River Runs Deep”

Psalm 46

September 7, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

            So often we bring the meaning of an event, a possession or a relationship with us.  We do so in a myriad of ways.  The date of a calendar may mean birthday, anniversary or retirement while the same date to another means just another day.  To the listeners of a piece of music may bring back memories of first-love or a broken heart.   Two students get a “C” on their test and for ones is a miracle and for another it’s a failure.

            For me the last pitch of the 2012 World Series between the Detroit Tigers and the San Francisco Giants will remain with me until my dying days; Miguel Cabrera striking out with a full count in the bottom of the ninth as he watched a surprise fastball from Sergio Romo come streaking across the plate.  For others here this morning you may be thinking, “What is he talking about?!”

            We supply the meaning to an event, a possession or a relationship.

            It’s true of history as well.  If we look we may find God right in the middle of the most mundane.

            Hezekiah was a pious and powerful king of Judah (727-698 BCE) during one of its most difficult periods of history.   He watched as the Assyrian armies routed the armies of the northern Kingdom of Israel and sacked its capital Samaria (722 BCE).   He paid a vassal tax to the great empire to the north to keep the southern Kingdom of Judah and its capital Jerusalem safe.   When Assyria’s great king Sargon died, Hezekiah openly rebelled (705 BCE) in an alliance with Babylon which would prove to be disastrous in a number of ways (2 Kings 20:16-19).   The Assyrian king Sennacherib led his armies to capture all of Judah and surround Jerusalem itself (701 BCE).  The siege would fail due to a sever illness of Sennacherib which required him to return home and in no small part to Hezekiah’s well.

            In preparation for his resistance to the Assyrian empire, King Hezekiah ordered that Jerusalem’s water supply be secured by the drilling of the Siloam tunnel (2 Kings 20:20, 2 Chron. 32:3-4) through 1,749 feet of solid rock under Mt. Zion.   This aqueduct connected the spring of Gihon, the principal source of water for Jerusalem, with a series of cisterns within the city walls.   Part of this reservoir system can still be seen today.

            In ancient warfare walled cities could often survive a siege by a much powerful army if they had a source of water.  Without it there would have been no hope at all against the mighty Assyrian army.

            When they returned home frustrated in their attempts to capture Jerusalem along with all of the other cities of Judah with which they had already been successful, the Hebrews behind the walls of Jerusalem saw their salvation from immediate destruction as the work of God.   King Hezekiah was highly praised.   Later prophets (Note Isaiah 22:11-f) would see Hezekiah’s gamble in international politics,  rather than his trust in God, as laying the seeds of the eventual destruction of Jerusalem and exile of Israel by Babylon a century later (586 BCE).

            But in the year 701 BCE with the Assyrian army returning north and Jerusalem saved from destruction behind its stone walls and underground aqueduct, the people rejoiced in the power of their God.   Scholars suggest that such a moment helped to inspire the writing of Psalm 46, our scripture lesson for this morning.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
   the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
   God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
   he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our refuge.

             The walls of a fortress and the life saving waters of an underground well became symbolic of God’s constant presence in the lives of the faithful.  We hear that same imagery in Martin Luther’s classic hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”.   The imagery of “still waters run deep” or “a river runs deep” used by poets, songwriters and sages speak of inner spiritual resources available to all that can make all the difference when times are difficult.

            For the people of the Judeo-Christian tradition such imagery symbolizes the God found within each heart that may protect us from assaults from without.

            In the gospel of John (chapter 9) Jesus healed a man born blind.   The man was minding his own business, hadn’t called out for help, and didn’t know who Jesus was.  That he must beg for a living suggests that he has been abandoned by his family of origin to fend for himself.   To answer a theological argument among his disciples about the nature of suffering (“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”) Jesus heals the blind beggar to prove a point.    God doesn’t cause anyone’s suffering to punish or to teach a lesson.  Suffering isn’t inherited because of what your family did or did not do in the past.   Indeed, there may be no logic to suffering at all but with the God of Jesus there is always a reason to heal. 

            After Jesus applies a mud made of spittle and dirt, he instructs the blind man to go to the pool of Siloam to wash and there he regains his sight (:7).   Once again, like seven hundred years before, the symbolic ‘waters of salvation’ are used to restore and give a second chance.  This time the man takes it and finds a new relationship to God through Jesus (:38).

            Just as the Samaritan woman found at the well when Jesus offered her “living water….those that drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give will become a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (John 4:10-14). 

            No one can deny the power of symbol and image to articulate that which is true.  Consider Robert Frost’s classic poem “Spring Pools” for its ability to express the timeless cycle of birth, death, change and growth inherent within life itself:

 “Spring Pools”, by Robert Frost (West-Running Brook, 1928)

 These pools that, though in forests, still reflect
The total sky almost without defect,
And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,
Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,
And yet not out by any brook or river,
But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.
The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods --
Let them think twice before they use their powers
To blot out and drink up and sweep away
These flowery waters and these watery flowers
From snow that melted only yesterday.

 

As we take Holy Communion together this morning what is this ancient rite and its elements symbolic for you?   The comfort of ritual long practiced?   The story of the God who will pour out love and grace in the life, death and resurrection of an innocent carpenter?   A well of sweet water that can quench a thirst deep within?

In the sacrament we are offered the symbols of nourishment that only God can provide.   Yet in many ways it will be each of us who bring to the table the meaning of this moment.  

I pray it connects with the river that runs deeps within us all.

Amen.

Gone Fishing: Over the Earth and the Sea

“Gone Fishing: Over the Earth and the Sea"”

Acts 17:22-31

Psalm 8

August 24, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

In Psalm 8 of the Hebrew Scriptures the congregation sings,

 

O Lord, our Sovereign,

   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 

While the cantor sings,

 

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

   the moon and the stars that you have established;

 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

   mortals that you care for them?

 

 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

   and crowned them with glory and honor.

 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;

   you have put all things under their feet….

  the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,

   whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

 

O Lord, our Sovereign,

   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 

Ever notice how we are so often drawn to bodies of water for our vacations or weekends away?  Whether it is sitting on the deck of a lake cottage, or watching the waves on a beach, casting a fishing line in a babbling brook or swimming in a beautiful pool, humans yearn to connect with water.   Watching a sunset from the deck of a cruise liner or paddling out into a kelp bed in a kayak there is something that can be relaxing and peaceful about our relationships with bodies of water.   Setting sail into a storm or stacking sandbags against a rising flood reminds us of the primal power of water when set against human endeavor.

In the Biblical record creation begins with light and water as God on the second day harnesses water’s chaos that life might begin (Genesis 1:6-8).  Our bodies are 57-60% water on average, our brains 70% water.  We take in and breathe out H2O with every breath in an atmosphere comprised globally with water vapor in varying degrees. 

It’s not surprising to me that we so often define our notion of rest and recreation in and around water.  Whether a tropical island paradise or watching the whales out of Moss Beach, there is something very human….and let me suggest spiritual…..in our relationship with water, not just for consumption but for orientation in this life.

 

Does the fish know about the water?

This may sound like a Zen Buddhist koan; a riddle used by a master to assist a student or pilgrim on their road to enlightenment.  

 In the normal course of events, a fish is born in, lives in and will die in water never experiencing any other reality.   By forcing water through its gills the fish will derive the oxygen it needs to live.   Water brings the fish its nutrients and food.   The power of current will direct its travels.   Water will permeate each moment of the fish’s existence, sustain its life and makes up most of its body.  Yet we can assume the fish knows nothing about water at all.

            Human beings are born in, live in and will die in a living spirit not of their own creation.   Religious traditions from almost all human communities and all epochs will describe the force which animates our being as divinity.   The Old Testament suggests that divine spirit is as pervasive as the air we breathe (Gen. 2:7, Job 27:3, 33:4, Ps. 104:29, 144:4, Isa. 2:22, 57:16).   Just as oxygen fills our every cell, the spirit fills our every moment.  With every breath we are connected to all living creatures that are sustained in the one common atmosphere.  Like the fish in water, the spirit permeates each moment of human existence, sustains our living and connects us with both past and future.  

Yet humans are very different than the fish in the water; humans can know about the spirit or we can reject or pretend it is not even there.  So in asking, “Does the fish know about the water?” we are left to ponder what we know about this spirituality in which “we live, and move and have our being”.

 

Those words are recited by the apostle Paul during his stop-over in Athens, Greece during one of his missionary journeys through Asia Minor.   There in the capital of Greek culture and philosophy he is concerned about the idols found in the city.   He is invited by a group of philosophers to debate.   They take him to the Areopagus, a place you can even see today, not far from the Parthenon, where the learned “men”* of Athens loved to gather and explore the ideas of the day.

Like a good debater he begins with disarming flattery; they are so prudent in their religion they even have an idol to “an unknown god”, so to cover their theological bases not wanting to alienate a mysterious deity should they unintentionally leave it out of their worship.   Paul quotes from some of their own philosophers in order to establish common ground.   The Stoics and Epicureans both adopted Aristotle’s notion of God as “the unmoved Mover”; attributing the created order to the hand of God but a Divinity content to stay in heaven, unattached and uninvolved with human history or individual lives. 

Then the preacher makes his point.   Paul argues that since we are children of the same God, idol worship is not only inappropriate, it is “ignorance” since it ignores the new thing this God has done in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.   God does not dwell at distant in the heavens like Zeus on Mt. Olympus.   Rather God is active and involved in human history and lives, in fact incarnate….”one with”….the human condition, so much so that God shared it completely, even death on a cross, to prove the point.

Paul invites these Athenian philosophers to repent of their idol worship.   This didn’t go over too well, as you can imagine.   Most in the crowd took off at this point but a few of them stayed, listened and believed, including Dionysius, a member of the council and Damaris* a woman who had been listening into the conversation (:34).  *(In patriarchal culture intellectual pursuit was considered “men’s work”, but as we see throughout the New Testament, women not only overheard the debates, they directly participated and became leaders in the church.)

 

No wonder we use water in the sacrament of baptism!

The ritual of baptism was a little used rite among the Jewish people that had its origin 200 years before Jesus was born.  It was a symbolic act of repentance, a spiritual cleansing, washing away the sin and stains of the past for a new beginning.

            Each of the four gospels agree that Jesus was baptized by the John the Baptist, who was drawing such crowds out near the Jordon river that the historians of the day recorded his fame and influence.   John the Baptist was offering baptism along with his apocalyptic message.   The faithful were to cleanse themselves in preparation for the coming new messiah who would judge the sins of the nation, usher in the kingdom of God on earth and bring about the end of the world as they knew it.

The promised future of God, long awaited by the faithful had begun.  

It is very fitting that a cleansing ritual of water is used to convey this symbolism.  Seventy-five percent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Water makes the crops grow and nourishes the animals we count on.  Life is impossible without water.

Isn’t that also true for the divine spirit?  Is the full potential of life possible without the spirit of God washing over us?   We are so much more than fish but do we know about the water? 

 

Psalm 8 suggests we are given “dominion” over the waters and the seas as evidence of the “glory and honor” by which God has crowned us as human beings. 

            Stewardship of our domestic water supply or the health of our oceans, lakes and streams are eventually spiritual matters.   That being the case how are we doing?

 

            The National Resources Defense Council reports that “In recent years…two major independent commissions reported that our oceans are in serious trouble -- in a state…of "silent collapse" due to over fishing, farm and industrial pollution, coastal development, climate change and inconsistent management of ocean resources (http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/policy.asp).  Facing a historical drought here in California citizens have yet to adopt requested water conservation targets and Central Valley agribusiness is drawing down groundwater supplies beyond all records (http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_25915949/public-apathy-drought).

 

            If God is creator and intends all of creation….earth, air and water…to be a blessing of life, isn’t how we treat the creation also how we treat God? 

 

            Harvesting hay by hand is some of the most labor intensive work on a ranch.  Today modern machines do most of the work but forty years ago when Bonnie and I worked on the Mackey ranch near the Oregon border the cowboys did it a lot by hand.   After the hay was cut, dried and bailed…each bail weighing 80-100 lbs….my partner and I would take turns driving a truck down the rows of bails, lining up a conveyor shoot which picked the bail off the field and lifted them up to the stacker.  The stacker would then lift the bail by hand into position on the back of the truck until it was completely loaded.   We would then drive the load to a huge barn and by hand stack the bails inside until it was full.   We figure that summer we harvested 400 tons of hay on the Mackey ranch and that my partner and I lifted each bail twice in the process.

            The summer was hot, into the 90’s most days.   The straw itches and the dust suffocates.    In the beginning of the morning each cowboy fills up their own gallon jug of water, covered with burlap which when wet will cool the liquid by evaporation.  The jug stays in the truck throughout the day and is refilled many times.  At the end of each load the cowboy can look forward to a cool and long drink of the most precious water, often pouring over it your head and hat to cool off as well.

            It was that summer on the ranch bucking bales of hay that I realized why God uses water for baptism.  Hot, thirsty and exhausted that water never tasted so good.   It gives new life, it revives the soul, and it cleanses and washes away the dirt that clings.   

 

            Water literally can be the difference between life and death. Without water there is no future.  That’s true for the planet.  Isn’t that also true for the spirit of God’s love and grace in our lives?

                                                                                   

            Amen.

 

Gone Fishing: The Belly of a Whale

Gone Fishing: The Belly of a Whale

Jonah 1:1-6, 11-17 

August 17, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

            Its summertime and we hang out the “Gone Fishing” sign to take a vacation or even a weekend away.  It’s a time to renewal our body, mind and spirit.  We are take a journey through a number of the biblical stories involving fish and fishing.   Today we are looking at a favorite and often misunderstood sage of Jonah and the whale.

Do you know the story of Jonah?

            Most of us know about the “great fish” which we usually identify as a “whale” but there is much more to the whole story.

            God calls Jonah as a prophet to Nineveh to preach repentance and forgiveness.

            Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, located today near the city of Mosul in Northern Iraq.  It was a great and wicked city known for its immorality and violence.

            During the 8^th century BCE the Assyrian Empire would control most of the known world, including Israel.  They were brutal oppressors.  Their General Sennacrib would actually destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel and sack its capital Samaria in 722 BCE.

            When Jonah gets the call to prophecy he runs away in the opposite direction from Nineveh.

            It may have been the fear of the task at hand.

            It may have been his hatred of the Assyrians.  They were Gentiles, not Hebrews.  They had terrorized his nation.  Jonah didn’t want them to repent.  He wanted God to destroy them.

            So he ran.

            So abhorrent was this divine call to Jonah that he would have preferred to die than go to Nineveh.  When a storm threatened to sink the ship on which he was escaping, Jonah tells the sailors to throw him overboard.   After some discussion and the throwing of dice, they do it out of fear for their lives.

            It is then that the “great fish” comes along and swallows Jonah.

            God saved the reluctant prophet’s life in the belly of a whale where he stays for three days.  There Jonah cries out in agony and wonders at the hand of a God who saves him from death.

            The fish spews Jonah out onto the land and God calls him a second time to go to Nineveh.  He goes this time and delivers the Lord’s message, “Nineveh you’ve got 40 days to repent!”

            To Jonah’s anger and amazement the Ninevehians do just that.  Even the animals confess their sin and ask God’s forgiveness.

            Now Jonah is really ticked off!

            He wanted this barbarian, sinful city destroyed.

            They were Gentiles after all, unclean and profane.

            In utter frustration Jonah stomps off into the desert to die in the sun.  He knows what God is like, “gracious…and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love…ready to repent from punishment” (4:2).   Revenge and violence have no satisfaction for a God like this and Jonah would just rather die.

            But then God causes a bush to grow that gives the prophet shade.

            God will not let him go.  Neither will God change from the course of love.

 

            The story tells us about ourselves in two important ways.  Like Jonah, we want God on our own terms and we want God to leave us alone.

 

            Remember the story about the faithful man caught in the flood?

            The flood waters are rising and a Sheriff’s jeep comes out to rescue him.  But the faithful man says, “No need to rescue me, God will save me!”

            The waters continue to rise past the door of his house and up to the roof.  The Red Cross sends out a motor boat to rescue the faithful man, but again he says, “No need to rescue me, God will save me!”

            Finally, with the faithful man standing on the chimney of his submerged home, as the flood water lap against his ankles, the National Guard sends out a helicopter to rescue him, but again he refuses the help saying, “No need to rescue me, God will save me!”

            The man drowns.  Instantly he is transported to heaven where in meeting St. Peter he asks to lodge a complaint.

            “I was faithful all my life.  I refused all help believing that God would save me.  Why did the Almighty let me down?!”

            Just then a divine voice broke forth and answered, “I sent a jeep, a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you want me to do?!”

            We want God on our own terms.

            We jump from church to church, denomination to denomination, running to find the worship style, the theology or the preacher that will agree with our tastes.  But the same God will find you no matter what the religion.

            We say we want our church to grow…to offer Christ to our community.  But for most that means having people come here who are just like us, not folks with new ideas or different colors or languages.

            We equate Christianity with the “American Way of Life”.  But God is no Republican or Democrat, no capitalist or liberal.

            When we expect God to fit into our prejudices and preferences we are exactly like Jonah who ran from God’s call because Jonah would have no part of a loving and gracious God’s attempt to save a foreign, sinful people.

 

            And we want God to leave us alone.

            Karl Barth, the great New Testament scholar once warned us that “the church is not only the place where man meets God; it is often also the place where man makes his last stand against God”.

            We want church to make us comfortable.

            Let’s be honest, we come here on Sunday mornings for succor not repentance; to learn how to cope with life not to change it.

            Its OK for a preacher to give you support as you struggle with your spouse’s drinking problem but God forbid if he suggests that you are part of the problem.  It’s expected that good Christians will rally around because of the neglect you take at home but God forbid if they suggest that nothing will change until you do.

            We expect the church to massage the past and manipulate our sentiments.  But it’s not OK in church to honestly suggest that we change.

            Jonah rushes to the cargo hold of a ship heading West to hide from the God that calls him East.

            How many of us come to church on a Sunday hoping that no one will notice how much we hurt…or doubt?  How many of us come to church to hide?

            Sometimes like Jonah we want God just to leave us alone.

 

            The story of Jonah also tells us two important things about God.

 

            God refuses to let us go and God refuses to be anything less than God.

           

            I went through a terrible crisis during my second year of seminary.  I graduated “Outstanding Student” of my University.    In graduate school the professors were brilliant.  The other students were brilliant.  Taking a full load, learning another language, taking comp exams, I was doing everything I could to keep my head above water. 

            I was in my early twenties.  Bonnie and I were newly married.  We worked five jobs between us and were on food stamps to make ends meet.

            There came a period of about 6 months of real depression.  I began to have panic attacks.  I began to have terrible claustrophobia, couldn’t even sit in a crowded classroom or travel in an airplane.  I thought I was losing my mind, maybe I was.

            By the grace of God and the insistence of Bonnie I started to see a therapist.  In spite of my dreams of being a preacher I was afraid I couldn’t cut it in seminary and the stress was overwhelming me.  One day sharing my fears, the counselor David broke into my fog and confronted me saying, “Bollwinkel, do you have something to say with your life or not?!” to which I responded, “Well, yes, I think so”.  “Then say it and let God do the rest!”

            It was a real turning point for me.  Graduate School never became easy but I dropped the expectation that I had to do it perfectly.   I gave up the notion that it was all up to me alone, that I had to be all things to all people in the process.  Within a few months the panic attacks and claustrophobia stopped and I have never been plagued by then again.  Thanks be to God.

                        I am telling you, God refuses to let you go.

            The Wesleyan doctrine of “prevenient grace” describes the action God takes to bring us into relationship even before we decide to believe.  Every prayer your mother taught you, every lesson of your Sunday school teacher shared, every act of loving kindness from a stranger or a friend, was an agent of God’s prevenient grace.

            Since the day you were born, God has sought to claim your life and bring you home.  And God is working on you now, whether you know it or not.  God refuses to let you go.

 

            In fact, God refuses to be anything less than God.

            Jonah resisted God’s call because he knew God so well.  The Ninevites deserved wrath and judgment.  These pagan terrorists deserved God’s punishment.  Jonah wasn’t afraid to tell them that.  He was afraid that God would give those Gentiles a second chance and change his mind.

            “I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, ready to repent of punishment”.

            The prophet wants God to sanctify Jonah’s prejudice and hatred, not change it, transform it, not use it in God unceasing plan of salvation for all.

            We are like Jonah when we come to a place of worship like this, hoping that God won’t notice or care about our sin.

            God won’t bless what we do to hurt ourselves and each other.

            Sorry.

            The God of Jonah doesn’t work that way.

            Our God moves us.  Disturbs us.  Disrupts the routine.

            Our God will not change from the course of love.

 

            Just before heavyweight champion Joe Louis was going into the ring with Billy Conn in 1941, reporters asked the Champion, “Are you worried about this fight?  Aren’t you worried that he will dance around you?”  Joe thought for a moment and then said, “Well, he can run but he can’t hide.”

            Neither can we.

            The story of Jonah is our story in many ways.

            We, like Jonah, want God on our own terms.

            Sometimes all we want is for God to leave us alone.

            But God refuses to let us go.

            God is like that.  God won’t be anything less.

 

                                    Amen.

Gone Fishing: 153?

Gone Fishing: “153”?!

John 21:1-13

August 10, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

Can you imagine a world without fish?   According to the United Nation World Food Program over half of all fisheries in the world are endangered or stressed to the point of threatening their sustainability; including types of tuna, shark and sturgeon.  The state of the ocean fisheries are a clear indicator of the health of our planet. Greed, pollution and ignorance can devastate a fish population. When they are managed well a fishery produces an enormous amount of food.  When they aren’t managed well it can bring ecological and economic disaster.

Check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium website for their recommendations for the fish coming from sustainable fishing and fish farms and the ones that don't. We should avoid buying or eating in restaurants fish that cannot be sustained or we will end up with a world without them!

Here in California the commercial and recreational salmon fishing season was shut down and severely limited between 2008 and 2011as the Department of Fish and Game reported record low salmon censuses.  In 2010 they estimated only 65,000 fish were heading through the Golden Gate and up the Sacramento Delta for spawning season.   All fishing was shut down completely, understandably so.  This year census came back to just under 1 million allowing a limited fishing season.

The diverting of fresh water from the Sacramento River delta to central and southern California, and the enormous pumps used to do so severely threaten the annual spawning run of salmon among other fish.  

One of the theories behind the dramatic decreases in Northern California salmon population is dependency of hatchery fish to make up the foundation of the school.  These fish all have the same genetic background so when certain environmental factors such as water temperature or krill availability are bad it affects the entire school at the same time.  Our salmon population doesn't have the genetic diversity to survive varying conditions.

Now I am sure you find this fascinating but you have got to be asking yourself, “Pastor Mark, what does it have to do with God?”  Go ahead, lets all say that together!  “Pastor Mark, what does that have to do with God?”

Well, I am glad you asked!

Could the genetic homogeneity of Northern California’s salmon population and its threat to survival be an analogy for the church? 

Churches thrive when they have a diversity of people in age, race and social standing.  They may struggle when they are made up of only one kind of people.  Such churches can lose their focus on their mission as a church investing their energy in maintaining their preferences in order to preserve their homogeneity.

Maybe that is why the gospel writer of John said there were "153" fish in the great catch?!

Consider:

There is One God in three persons; Creator, Son and Holy Spirit. There are four gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  There were seven days of creation; eight beatitudes; Ten Commandments.  Israel had twelve tribes, Jesus had twelve disciples.  It rained forty days and forty nights on Noah, the Israelites traveled forty years in the desert Exodus, Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness.  The birth of the church at Pentecost came fifty days after Passover.  In Revelations there will be 144,000 chosen martyrs singing eternal praises to God (12x12x1000).

Numbers have deep symbolic meaning in the biblical record.  Numerical symmetry is a tool used by the Bible’s authors and editors to convey spiritual significance.  When Luke describes “Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom Jesus cast out seven demons…” (8:2) and then reports Jesus confronting Beelzebul, the ruler of demons, noting that if the faithful aren’t prepared  ”unclean spirits can return with seven more evil than itself” (11:26), the writer of Luke wants the listeners to know just how universal evil can be, "seven" signifying the unity of creation itself.  John of Patmos picks up the inference in the Book of Revelations envisioning seven churches, seven lamp stands, seven seals and seven trumpets in eschatological battle with the seven headed dragon.

Numbers are important in the Bible. So where does the writer of John’s gospel get "153" fish in our text this morning?  153?!

Interpreters and scholars have been scratching their heads over “153” for centuries with no final conclusions. Some suggest a hidden meaning in the fact that 153 is the sum of the numbers 1-17.    The earliest suggestion may still be the most accurate.  St. Jerome (347-420CE) tells us that the Greek zoologists of his day recorded 153 different kinds of fish; and so by mentioning this number John may have been symbolizing the totality and range of the disciples' catch and symbolically anticipating that the Christian mission would bring in all people or at least all types of people; race, nationality, gender, class, social status. (Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, Anchor Bible Series, Doubleday, 1970, p. 1074, also note Matthew 13:47 "every kind of fish").

The fishing nets of Jesus don't discriminate, they don't exclude.  Everyone is invited to participate in the Body of Christ.   "153" may actually mean that when we say “all are welcome” in the church we mean all.  Diversity is a good thing; in fact it may be an essential thing for the sustainability of the church.

And it makes sense when you consider those at the beach that morning.  Sometime after Easter the Risen Lord Jesus appears to a group of his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias also known as the Sea of Galilee.  Simon Peter is there.  Remember him?  The first to confess Jesus as the Christ (Mark 8:29), the only disciple to try walking on water (Matthew 14:28-33).  It is Peter at the arrest and trial of Jesus the first to deny ever knowing him (Mark 14:66-72=s) and the first to run away when Jesus needed him the most (Mark 14:50).

That morning while fishing Peter doesn't even recognize the Lord at first.  In traditional fashion he is fishing naked, or in loin cloth only, and is so embarrassed when he sees his Master than he jumps into the water to hide himself.

Then there is "Doubting Thomas" the disciple who refused to believe in the resurrection reports of his colleagues until he had put his own hand in the wounds of the Risen Lord (John 20:24-29).  There are the fisherman James and John sons of Zebedee and two unnamed others.  And there is Nathanael.  Remember him?  The seminary drop-out who years earlier said of hearing about Jesus, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:45-51). Now he is there helping to pull in the catch.

What a crew!  Yet it is to the likes of these that Jesus appears.   Asking them to throw their nets in a different direction and haul in a great catch.  Jesus will make them some breakfast of fish and bread (remember last week's text and the feeding of 5,000...there will always be enough if we share...).

What follows is extraordinary as Jesus takes Peter aside and commissions him to "feed my sheep" three times (John 21:15-19).  Peter, the bold, uneducated, freighted and confused Peter, will become the leader of the earliest church in Jerusalem, will preach the first sermon of the church's history at Pentecost baptizing 3,000 that very day (Acts 2) and will die a martyr's death in Rome, where he is honored to this day.

The confused and doubting, the no-named and the famous, the courageous and the cowards are left in charge of the future of the church.  That we are still taking about their Jesus 2,000 years later suggests that this motley crew didn't do too bad of a job "feeding the sheep".  Thanks be to God!

I really relate to the character of Peter in our gospel lessons.   Our text this morning gives me great encouragement as a bumbling preacher of mediocre talent and as a fisherman.

My brother Paul and I started fishing for Blue Gill and Perch with cane pole and bobber with red worms on a hook at our uncle's lake cabin when we were very young.  Once after pestering our father for days he rowed us out from shore and sat patiently as we tried our best to catch something in deeper water to no avail.  For my Dad, a New York City boy, who thinks camping means a night in Motel 6, it was the one and only time he went fishing with his sons but we loved him all the more for it because at least he tried.  My brother still remember that day and laugh together to this day.

Moving out to California in my High School years I was introduced to salt water fishing for Sturgeon, Striped Bass and Salmon in the San Pablo Bay and along the Marin Coast.  And have been hooked ever since.

In my senior year of High School, after the autumn football marching band season was over, the band director came to me, the third chair trombone player, and suggested the perfect use for my instrument.  The first chair trombone player needed a practice instrument so he could have one at home and one at school without dragging his good one on the bus each day, so the Director suggested that I sell him mine for $ 40.  I immediately caught his estimation of my talent and future as a trombonist...one with which I totally agreed.....and sold my trombone for the $ 40.   With which I purchased a salt water fishing rod and reel that I still use today!  One of the best deals I have ever made!

Bonnie and I have taught both of our sons ocean fishing since they were in elementary school in Fresno; we'd drive over to Cambria, also known as the Fresno Riviera, and take them out on charter boats.  We try at least once a year to all go out together.  Bonnie is an excellent fisher-person, she and our older son seemingly impervious to seasickness. 

Being on the ocean, watching the whales, dolphins, seals and birds is a wonderful experience of the majesty of God’s creation.  It is an absolute thrill to have a fish on the hook that is big enough to fight back.  The State of California requires barbless hooks for such fishing and the fisher person has to use patience and skill to bring a fish in.  When the fish comes to the surface the flashing color and form is breath taking.  In ocean fishing one never knows exactly what is on the other end of the line so there is also the thrill of surprising grace.

And having said all of that, I'd rather see my sons catch a fish any day rather than myself.  For some primal reason to see your children succeed in any endeavor is more rewarding than your own success.

Isn’t God like that?  God must “smile down from heaven” watching the likes of Peter and Thomas and Nathaniel, Mary Magdalene, Lydia (Acts 16:11-15) or Junia (Romans 16:7) succeed in throwing the nets of love and grace far and wide, in new directions, catching a great harvest to build the foundation of the church so long ago.  

The confused and doubting, the no-named and the famous, the courageous and the cowards are still left in charge of the future of the church. Is God our Parent still smiling down on us as we endeavor to cast our nets in new directions?

I can't imagine a world without fish.  Neither can I envision a homogenized church succeeding in the future. The Apostle Paul writes, in the church "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)  Our diversity and openness to cast our nets far and wide may be our greatest hope.  That certainly is one meaning of the enigmatic "153".  And at the Sea of Galilee as Jesus fixes breakfast for his disciples we can take great hope in the fact that God isn't done with us yet.  God can use broken and confused people even like you and me to change the world in Jesus' name.

Amen.