Continuity and Change
First Congregational Church of Evanston
September 30, 2007
(Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost)
I Peter 2: 1-5, 9-10 (non-lectionary)
Rev. Dr James E. Roghair, Interim Minister
I Peter 2 4, 9
4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . 9 . . . you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Continuity and Change
Do you feel like the spiritual house, the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation that Peter envisions? What does it feel like? If you don’t feel it, how do you feel about being a part of God’s family? Chosen? Special? Unsure?
Many of us have been reading Diana Butler Bass’s 2006 book, Christianity for the Rest of Us. I know it is a long book, for your hectic life schedules. Maybe you opted for the Paul Nixon’s shorter book. Many didn’t get to any of the reading. Today is not a quiz to see what you have read, but an opportunity to mutually share any wisdom that you have gathered.
Diana Butler Bass’s purpose is to recapture for Mainline Protestantism a sense of our call to be the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation. Bass is not trying to turn back the time to an era in which Mainline Protestants ruled in Western Civilization. That era is gone. In our nation Majority is becoming Minority. Ms. Bass observes this phenomenon.
When I heard her speak last Spring, she explained how this book came to be. A few years ago she had written a book, which hardly anyone read, in which she proposed that there are a number of vibrant Mainline Protestant churches. So someone from the Lilly foundation called her one day and asked if she still believed that. “Yes,” she did. The caller asked how many churches like that she could find, and she said, “One hundred and fifty.” “That many?” the caller asked. “Maybe 60,” she countered. And thus her journey began. No churches nominated themselves to be a part of her study, they were all nominated by others. But there were a vast number. Initially, she sent a variety of people to the churches to observe – and some of the callers were exotic in appearance and manner.
And so easily 60 vibrant and hospitable churches were found. The study concentrated on 10. They are mostly churches in a cycle you might recognize: going from being a neighborhood church – a church that people walked to – where children knew adults who would look after them along the route from home to church – a mid-20th century neighborhood reality, to the more mobile and potentially hostile environment we know now. But Bass found in these churches an new sense of neighborhood. It is that sense which commends itself to First Congregational.
If you look at the green insert in your bulletin, on the inside you will find encapsulated a list of ten characteristics (‘signposts of renewal,’ she calls them) which the churches display. The list begins with hospitality. As some of the members of council and then rest of you speak, you will surely highlight some of these characteristics in our discussion today.
Let me say a word about the over-all nature of new neighborhood churches. Common American wisdom, our public media, and, ‘successful’ evangelical church growth specialists have all proclaimed the importance of ‘niche marketing’ in the church. Mirror your community and you will be successful , they say, your church will grow. But all of the churches Bass studied reject the church growth and marketing models and rely on another standard: Don’t try to mirror your community, try to mirror the Gospel.
Practice
There is an emphasis on practicing our spirituality, not seeking for purity. For example, seeking what the practice of hospitality means – as this church is considering, in a world where homophobia is still a standard and where racial segregation and discrimination is still common – especially in the church. You will work hard to practice your faith, and that will make you different from some of our ‘successful’ neighboring churches which expect a sense of purity and uniformity.
Wisdom
A church which seeks to practice its faith will need to gather wisdom. And as we seek wisdom, the more we learn the more we know that we do not know. Searching for wisdom is not the same as proclaiming a certainty of truth. Don’t look for certainty from your new pastor – even if she comes with the most prestigious PhD in the world. But look for leadership in a search for wisdom. That wisdom will be found in grappling with the scriptures, with applying the faith of the tradition, and by using our own brains.
Tradition
The tradition of a group – such as Congregationalism – is a source for wisdom, but not a source of certainty. The tradition points a way at finding wisdom, it is not a font of delivered wisdom from the past. The tradition is a source of practice, but not a pure form delivered. Honoring and drawing on the tradition is not being stuck in an unchanging traditionalism, but involvement in a dynamic process. Congregationalism is a way to wrestle with the future.
Shalom
Thus Bass maps out an interactive and circular movement of Tradition (which comes from the past), of Practice (which we do in the present), and of Wisdom (which leads into the future). For individuals and for congregations, it is this interaction of remembering, doing and knowing that leads to Shalom – the wholeness and peace of God (p. 41-53). That’s what the book is about. That is our task.
Nixon’s view
My time is too short to make many comments on Nixon’s book. From its title on, it is a clear challenge to making choices – choices for new ways of viewing the tradition, new ways of practicing the faith, and new ways of gaining wisdom. If Bass has helped us feel the continuity with the neighborhood church of the past, Nixon reminds us that renewal doesn’t just happen via continuity– there is discontinuity, too!
If you simply continue to live out the traditions, the practices and the wisdom handed down – and if there is no bold stepping out into the future – you are going to be a dying church – the kind that Nixon refuses to lead!
As we move into discussion, I encourage you to share the hopeful things, the things that give you courage and confidence to be one of the new neighborhood churches – not a dying church, but one that thrives in Evanston because this is where God has planted you, God’s chosen race, royal priesthood, a holy nation.
Amen.
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 6, 2008