Sermon Title: “The Church on Monday Morning”

Sermon Text: Matthew 3:15, Ephesians 3:20-21

Sermon Date: July 2, 2006 – Worship in the Streets

Each year the congregations of First Baptist, First Christian and Trinity United Methodist Churches literally gather in the intersection where our churches are located. At the corner of Sixth and North Streets, every July 4^th weekend, folding chairs are in the streets. One of the Praise bands from First Christian or Trinity haul out the sound system and put it on a wagon bed. We pastors take turn preaching and we involve lay people. The loose offering is given to Lafayette Urban Ministry, a ministry that houses a homeless shelter, advocacy problem with folks with problems, afterschool care and summer camp.

This year it was my turn to preach.

“The Church on Monday Morning”

First I’ll admit it. I haven’t done any scientific research to draw this conclusion but I have a suspicion that the world hasn’t exactly turned out the way the founding fathers thought it would. Anyone agree with me?

· Think they thought of reality shows like “Wife Swap?”

· or that anyone would make a gazillion dollars a year playing sports, acting in movies or singing songs?

· Think they thought that women or African Americans would one day have the right to vote, head major corporations, or be elected the head of a church?

· That 25% of Americans would say they have no one in whom to confide?

· Or envision that that the entire world would be linked by computers, able to “chat” with someone sitting in a café in Paris? Or that we could find a church called “Scum of the Earth?”

Maybe I’m wrong but I just don’t think our founding fathers could have imagined any of this. In yesterday’s “Parade” magazine, the nation’s greatest historian David McCullough, says the founding fathers didn’t even believe that democracy would last; they thought a monarchy would eventually evolve.

I also suspect that the church of Jesus Christ is quite different than John the Baptist and the disciples ever envisioned, don’t you think?

Our scripture today is also in the first three gospels but only in Matthew do we read about the conversation between Jesus and John. John was feeling unworthy to baptize Jesus and Jesus says “but it is right.” The RSV says “proper,” the KJV says “becometh.”

Jesus says it is right, proper, fitting, that in his baptism he unites himself with humankind. It is right that in this baptism Jesus has solidarity with humankind. (“The Lectionary Commentary: The Gospels” p. 16)

That was one of the easy ways for Jesus to do what was right. He discovered that most of the other things he would do were certainly not easy. He came up against people who asked questions deliberately trying to trick him, not just to make him appear foolish but to end his ministry and his life.

Doing the right thing isn’t easy for us either. In fact, standing up and doing the right thing is very hard. Not only in the doing but even agreeing what it is.

We don’t have to go any farther than our own denominational meetings to discover that. Put three Baptists in a room and you will have five opinions, particularly if the Baptists are American Baptists, Southern Baptists and General Association of Regular Baptists. We don’t agree on a lot of things either. Not even how to deal with the culture shifts in our world today.

In my humble opinion, one of the things we mainline churches are fighting today is the shift of culture. We are often fighting against changes, pretending it isn’t happening, longing for the good old days when the church was packed and people wore their best clothes to church. But times have changed. There are more churches than ever before. More people are working on Sunday than ever before. More Sunday activities are available than ever. And you know, not everyone even owns dress clothes. When your resources are limited you buy what you absolutely need.

Being the church of Jesus Christ isn’t about constantly arguing who is right in these cultural battles nor is it about just going with the flow but instead it is about uniting with humankind ourselves, understanding the needs of today’s people and helping them to find ways to transform their lives through Jesus as well as relationships with us, other believers. It is about helping others reclaim the hope they have lost. It is about helping others to trust that we really do care.

I recently ran across a book by Paul Wilkes, “Excellent Protestant Congregations.” He is Project Director for the Parish/Congregation Study at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. In the book he tells us about nine churches that are doing great things. Churches like:

· Seekers Church in Washington D.C., an outgrowth of the well-known Church of the Savior. Deliberately choosing to worship in a tough neighborhood the power of the church comes of the small number of committed, covenanted members whose small churches are focused on a specific mission.

· All Saints Episcopal Church in Worchester, Massachusetts. An old-line church in a changing neighborhood. Other mainline churches in the neighborhood had closed its doors but All Saints committed to the neighborhood. When a murder happens on these mean streets, parishioners gather to reconsecrate the ground with an on-site service.

· Warehouse 242 in Charlotte, North Carolina is a thriving, dynamic ministry that reaches out to the Gen-Xers. They are reaching out to the non-Christians and unchurched. Their mission is to transform to the entire city.

These churches are not just excellent in the way they worship and serve, but they are also extremely imaginative. These churches, large and small, have decided to think outside the box, to reach out in new ways, to risk all in order to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. Some of these are new church plants but others are older, established churches like we are.

In the book Wilkes tells the stories of these nine churches, but in the index there are the names of many others churches he studied. 27 of them are United Methodist; 12 are American Baptist; and as best I can figure 2 are Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. (Remember the Methodists are a lot bigger than we are.) We are well-represented among the “excellent” churches in America today.

What can we learn from them? Here are a few common traits:

1. First and foremost they have a vibrancy, an excitement about living a Christian life. Not a “have a good day” school of life, but deeper than that. They have accepted to challenge to help people find excitement in serving and worship Jesus Christ.

2. They are risk takers and constantly looking for better ways to reach and serve people.

3. They reach beyond their comfort zone. They are willing to ask themselves tough questions like “what would Jesus do in this situation?”

4. They are willing to put aside old structures and recreate themselves to meet the needs and mission of the ministry.

5. They know that the church that doesn’t make mistakes, sometimes major ones, will never become an excellent church.

There are numerous other traits but one thing is clear about these churches. They are doing church on Monday morning and all the rest of the week. Doors are open to meet the physical needs of people, like day cares, credit unions and free clothing for people trying to get a job. Doors are open to meet the spiritual needs of people, like small groups for folks at 7:30 a.m. for folks who just got off the night shift. Doors are open to allow the artists in their community to have places to paint, practice and perform. Gathering at the site of a murder to pray and reconsecrate the space. The possibilities of being an excellent and imaginative church are endless.

The bottom line is churches that don’t open their doors on Monday probably aren’t doing a very good job on Sunday either. These “excellent” churches are alive and well because they are risk-takers and willing to do what they believe is right for them and their community. Just like the Founding Fathers, who risk everything to create the democracy we celebrate this weekend, men who, according to McCullough, weren’t worried about the long haul, only about the time in which they lived probably because they didn’t think democracy would last all that long. Still they gave it their all.

Culture has changed. It has become something new and different. Sometimes exceedingly wonderful and other times hateful and even wicked. The need for the church of Jesus Christ is huge. The need for us to be the church Sunday through Sunday is critical. We downtown churches have stood the test of time for a reason. And everyday we are given opportunities to be imaginative, creative and excellent. And being imaginative and creative people let’s be ready to use our gifts in new ways for others and more importantly for Jesus. (I wish I’d said this but didn’t: we are here because there is more work yet to do.)

Greg, Jacob and I have been talking about ways to work together even more closely to reach out and serve the neighborhood. We’d love to hear your ideas and passions too.

Do you remember that I mentioned in the beginning about a church named “Scum of the Earth?” Well, it is a real church. They chose the name specifically to reach to folks who have no interest in church at all. In fact, if you go to scumoftheearth.com you will find a very different kind of website. They want to reach out to those who have been treated like the scum of the earth, who have no hope. Whether outcast by choice or by society and even the church itself, they want to reach these particular people. People that many of our churches would just as soon go somewhere else. But lest you write them off as unimportant, here is their mission statement.

Mission statement

We strive to be a church who:

Seeks intimacy with God and honest relationships with others

Cultivates creativity and uses everyone’s gifts

Asks questions while seeking Truth,

Recognizes our need for a Savior

Passionately yet respectfully shares the saving love of Christ

Demonstrates God’s love in our community. (scumoftheearth.net)

Who wouldn’t want to join a church like that!!! Jesus wanted to unite himself with humankind, the kind of people who need churches like the Scum of the Earth, First Christian, Trinity and First Baptist, and all the other churches around us each and every Sunday. The question we are left with today is this: in what new ways will we also be the church on Monday morning?

Litany Prayer

One: Long ago, Jesus went into the baptismal waters to freely give himself to you so that he would be all you asked of him. In rising up from the water, he heard the words, “This is my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased.” We too are your beloved children, loved by you.

All: God, you call us to do great things.

One: We are called to imagine the unimaginable. You instill in us wild, crazy dreams of ways to reach out to the neighborhoods in which we live and worship. You challenge us to allow our imaginations take us to places where we are not comfortable, yet places we must go.

All: God, you call us to do great things.

One: We are called to share our stories of your love and grace with those we meet and know. You call us to share these stories because people are starving for a word of encouragement and comfort. People are lonely for a real friend. People are waiting for us to find the courage to tell how you have worked in our lives.

All: God, you call us to do great things.

One: We are here today, a portion of the larger universal church, to be the voice of God, the arms and hands of Jesus our Christ.

There are those among us in need of resources, in need of a hand up, in need of a kind word or a warm meal. There are those among us with plenty of resources but living in depression, starved for relationships that are meaningful. God, we thank you that you will show us the ways to reach outward, the ways to reach inward, and more ways to show our love for you.

“And the people said, “Amen.”

Song of Response “Sanctuary”

Benediction

Ephesians 3.20-21

20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Go and serve the Lord!