500 Years of Protestantism: What's Next? Preached on October 29th, 2017 Focus scripture: Deuteronomy 34:1-12 Over the past few months my husband, Simon, and I have cleaning out our attic as we anticipate moving to a smaller home. We’ve been sorting through our stuff, deciding what to keep and what to give or throw away. Many items have served us in an earlier stage of life: toys, games, children’s furniture and sports equipment. We sent some of these to the yard sale run by the youth group at the local church. We’re keeping things that are still useful to us like dinnerware and pots and pans; books that used for reference or we’ll read again; furniture that is suitable for a smaller home. In the book “The Great Emergence”, author Phyllis Tickle talks about rummage sales and what happens when the Church cleans out its attic. Tickle’s theory is that the Church - along with all of society – engages in a huge rummage sale approximately every 500 years. [1] As we learned today, the Reformers, such has Luther, disrupted the church and culture during the 16th century. Their intent was to bring the focus back from hierarchical control and domination to scripture, Christ, faith and grace. The Great Reformation dispensed with some practices of what we now know as the Roman Catholic Church. The number of sacraments was reduced to two: baptism and communion; the Bible was put back into the hands of the people, translated into the commonly used languages of the time. Hymnody was developed to make the concepts of the faith more accessible to ordinary people. For adopters of Protestantism, these were huge changes. 500 years before the Reformation was the Great Schism, during which the Eastern and Western churches separated. The Eastern Orthodox church we know today took certain doctrines and practices, while what is now the Roman Catholic Church,maintained ecclesial and theological authority in the West. And 500 years before the schism was the demise of the Roman Empire, and a great disruption in the church over the nature of Jesus and of Mary as the “Mother of God.” The Church lost the support of the empire but was upheld by the monastics, who maintained communal life during some very disruptive times. Tickle also reaches back to cyclical disruptions at the time of Jesus, and back into Jewish the history. Similar cycles may be tracked in other faith traditions and cultures. Each time one of these climactic events took place, the people propelled the church into the next era had to decide what were the essentials to be kept, and what could be left behind. As Phyllis Tickle says, as it is now 500 years since the Reformation we are in another “hinge period.” Another rummage sale is upon us which has been going on for a century or so. Tickle calls this “The Great Emergence.” This particular hinge period has manifested itself in great developments in science and technology: the theory of evolution, the invention of the automobile, the hydrogen bomb, computers, the internet, and cell phones. Societal changes have brought us to a time where the family has changed radically. In the new generation, many parents work alone raise a family. In two-parent families, both usually work outside the home. The tradition of family dinner together each day has largely gone by the way. Sunday morning might be the only opportunity for families to find some quality time, unless of course sports and activities have taken that spot too. This is a very scanty overview of the changes of the 20th-21st century. But you get the picture. These changes impact the Church as a whole, with a knock on effect in local churches. Circumstances force our church to get into the latest rummage sale. They require us to grapple with our own faith stories, our most personal attachments, even our own family histories. This is not easy stuff! But then again, a life of faith is not for the faint of heart. Ask Luther, ask Moses. Our Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, reading today comes from the very last verses of the Five Books of Moses, or the Pentateuch. This story provides a transition from one era to another. The Israelites go from being wandering nomads, to conquering heroes. In the wilderness they have been dependent on God or their miraculous daily bread. Now they will be expected to work the land for a living. Moses and the Israelites have wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, led by God. There were murmurings and rebellions among the people. They were not always faithful to God or loyal to Moses. Meanwhile Moses had his own struggles of faith. But they have come through, and now Moses stands on the top of Mount Nebo, surveying land from Dan in the north to Zoar in the south, from the ocean in the west to the River Jordan just beyond the mountain. All he has to do is come down from the mountain and lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. But God tells Moses: "This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants'; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there." Moses will not cross over there. He will stand at the brink, but he will die before the Israelites move on into the land. This is the kind of humility needed for a servant of God. They serve their time in the ways that God sees fit, they do not necessarily see the results. Moses will be replaced as leader by Joshua. This past August I went home to visit my parents. I was alone and so I didn’t need to accommodate my husband and our kids in my plans. I could spend time visiting relatives and some of my old haunts. I grew up in a village which is nothing like the country villages described by James Herriot. My village exists on the route between city and town. During the industrial revolution, wool was sent from the hills of the Yorkshire dales, down into the city of Leeds. The mills, in my town, Morley, would process the wool, spinning and weaving it into fabric. The town of Morley is an uphill journey from the city. The road to be traveled by horses and carts, and then later trolleys, had a toll at the bottom and at the top, with several “watering holes” or public houses along the way. These days drivers speed up the hill in a matter of minutes, barely noticing the village of Churwell. As a child, I attended the Back Green Methodist Church where my grandparents were pillars of the church. My great grandfather, as an active Methodist, had invited the men who waited for the pub to open on Sundays into the church, as a positive alternative for them and their families. In its heyday the church had two buildings: a Wesleyan style chapel with a center pulpit and a balcony; and a separate Sunday School with kitchen, hall and stage, and classrooms. As a kindergartener, my Sunday School class was packed with children. I remember
But the societal changes of the 1960’s were already impacting the village. By the time I was in the junior classes, just a handful of kids attended Sunday School. After I left home for college the congregation sold the church building to a developer and moved into the Sunday School for worship and activities. This situation worked well for about a ¼ century. But the dwindling and aging congregation struggled for too many years to maintain this property. Eventually, just over one year ago, they had to make a decision. They wanted to continue as the one remaining gathered Christian community in the village. And so they gave the building back to the trust from which it came many years before and made arrangements to rent space in the modern community center just across the main road. When I went home to church with my mom, this is where I went. The congregation has been joined by the remnants of another church. They have become the Churwell Community Church. The space they use feels both intimate and comfortable. The room is bright and airy, they have a piano for accompaniment and they use handmade banners for decoration. The day I was there we celebrated communion gathering in a half circle around the table. I am proud of my home church for participating in the 21st century rummage sale. The structures built by my grandparents and great grandparents no longer exist. Nor does the place I remember from my childhood or young adulthood. Those places have served their day and time. Church members do not know how long they will be in the center. But they continue their witness for Christ in a rapidly changing culture, providing a place of safety for those on the margins. As I look back on the end of the story of Moses, I realize that in a period of 40 years, many of the older people of Israel would have died and been buried in the wilderness. There would be few remaining who could remember life in Egypt. For some their only experience would have been wandering in the wilderness. Young adults would have married and had babies during those wandering years. And as they entered the “Promised Land” new children would come along who would know the times of slavery and wandering only through the stories of their elders. But through all this they did not cease to understand themselves as belonging to God’s in a particular way that identifies the Jewish people to this day. Sometimes I worry about this church. (“Really”, I hear you say, “only sometimes?”) Especially when I think about what will be required of us in this huge 21st century rummage sale – this transitional time. Each Monday morning I reflect back on our time together, as I read from a book of contemplative reflections called “The Art of Pastoring.” These reflections encourage me to let go of anxiety and embrace the thing that God has for us to do in this time and place. Last Monday this is what I read: God is the birther of the universe. Before the universe was born, the solitary, infinite, changeless, formless eternal God was! And this creator of all flows inside your church, outside your church, through your church, and binds your church to the beginning of all things. So your pastorate, your congregation, and your life are bound to the beginning and to the end. Why then would you ever think that your position, or your congregation, or your life needed protection? For God flows through the universe, into your church, into you, and back out to God No beginning, no end. [2] Amen [1] Phyllis Tickle, The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why, (BakerBooks, Grand Rapids MI, 2012) [2] William C. Martin, The Art of Pastoring: Contemplative Reflections, (Vital Faith Resources, Pittsburgh PA, 1994)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
If you enjoy a sermon or have a question, please leave a comment. If you would like to quote any of my material in your own sermons or writings, please use appropriate attribution. I look forward to hearing from you!Archives
April 2022
Categories |