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"Treated Like a Tax Collector"
or
("The Pope, The Bible, and a Bunch of Episcopalians")
The Rev. George D. Smith
September 7, 2008
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Exodus 12:1-14
Romans 13: 8-14
Matthew 18: 15-20
Today marks the beginning of a new program year at St. Mark’s
– it’s our 111th anniversary in case you’re
counting. Welcome! Some of you have been a part of this congregation
for decades, others may be experiencing it for barely thirty
minutes. Whether veteran or novice, a new program year is for
everyone and means new paint, polished floors, washed carpet,
classrooms prepared, an interesting and exciting line-up of
adult forum offerings, concerts, children’s music, youth
programs and mission and outreach plans that are challenging
and so very much needed. Like the first day of school, there
is no homework, more food and a chance to get poised for the
work ahead.
It seems that everywhere it is a time of new beginnings and
change – the remnants and rain of hurricane Gustov put
an end to 90-degree temperatures and ushered in more fall-like
weather. The Democratic and Republican National Conventions
mark the inflection point in the nation’s political life
– now the campaigning gets serious and mean, or should
I say meaner. School has started or is starting. Our Parents
Day Out program begins tomorrow. For some ninety pre-schoolers,
this coming week may be their first time away from home. They
will arrive with their lunch boxes and with a mixture of smiles
and tears, say good-bye for a few hours to their moms and dads.
Then there is change on a national and global level; it’s
the economy – from growth to Recession, with prices and
unemployment up, house values and stock markets down.
With so much change, church can seem like an island in the
storm – a bedrock and place of certainty and comfort.
And you can define church in any number of ways – as the
Episcopal Church, or this church or the church in general –
meaning the one universal church where Jesus is the head and
laughs and sometime cries at artificial divisions, especially
ones that are acrimonious and bitter. I don’t want to
upset you, but don’t be fooled - the church is changing
too, and in a dramatic way. It is not news that the so-called
mainline churches have been stagnant for years, with especially
big drops in membership for Methodists and Presbyterians. The
Episcopal Church has nothing to brag about during a time when
it is struggling over theology and leadership and its membership
is stagnant while the nation’s population has steadily
increased. But it’s not just the mainline that’s
in trouble. A new book is out called “Quitting Church”
by Julia Duin, a religion reporter for the Washington Times.
According to her, evangelical Christians are fleeing their churches
too. In fact, church-quitting is an epidemic. Among many evangelicals,
there is a lack of feeling of community, loneliness and boredom,
teaching that fails to address suffering and unanswered prayer,
marginalized roles for women and an emphasis on traditional
families that neglects single people and non-traditional family
configurations.
Meanwhile, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion
& Public Life, there is surprising tolerance and acceptance
of other religions, doctrines and mix-match approach to religious
life. Indeed, 92% of U.S. adults believe in God and 58% say
they pray at least once a day. At the same time, a majority
(70%), say there’s more than one true way to interpret
the teachings of their religion and that many religions can
lead to eternal life – defined as a heaven above where
people who have led good lives are rewarded. To quote Michael
Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University, “Americans
believe in everything. It’s a spiritual salad bar.”
Twenty or twenty-five years ago, there were already signs
of a change of epic proportions. One hot Sunday, when the stained
glass windows were flipped open, coaches and teams eager for
practice and game time looked out and saw beautiful grassy fields
sitting empty. What an opportunity! With girls playing more
sports and more teams for younger and younger children, sports
activity exploded and Sunday church attendance began to fall.
Ministers grumbled and complained but no one could stop the
hockey-mom juggernaut. No one wants to mess with a pit bull.
Around this same time, the Book of Common Prayer received
a facelift, catching up to the language that people use in their
daily life. Queen Elizabeth’s thees and thous became Oprah’s
“you” and well, “you.” Also, many mainline
churches experimented with alternatives to organ-led hymns and
music, including guitars, drums and tambourines.
It was also around this time that a couple of Harvard MBAs
with concentrations in marketing began to go door to door in
suburban Chicago to ask people about their ideas of church and
religion. Willow Creek Community Church was launched and grew
like wildfire. Today, the picture on their web site looks like
a scene from a U-2 concert. In order to compete with expanded
leisure and entertainment options, some churches began to offer
rock-band like music, with easy-to-read lyrics and catchy tunes.
Comfortable seating, gourmet coffee and slick presentations
created a theatre-church experience. You might think that you
were at the movies. No crosses, stained glass, vestments, chasubles
or processions. This was not your great-grandfather’s
Episcopal Church. The premise is and was that if you dust off
church enough, it will become entertainment and attract more
people.
Despite their publicity, the fact is that “mega”
churches are few and far-between. Most churches in the United
States have attendance of fewer than 80 people. And every day,
church closings across the U.S. are announced. With attendance
at ten or fewer people, it should be no surprise that Christ
Church on Park Boulevard had no choice but to close its doors.
It’s sad in some ways, but a reality in every community.
In Massachusetts, one lawmaker is seeking a moratorium on closing
churches after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield announced
the shuttering of several historic churches in Berkshire County.
Phyllis Tickle – an editor for Publishers Weekly and well-regarded
authority on religion in the United States has a new book out
called “The Great Emergence.” What she observes
is that every 500 years, Christianity undergoes a dramatic upheaval
and realignment. Five hundred year ago, in the early 1500s,
Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the doors of
the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, seen by many as the
launching point of The Great Reformation. Five hundred years
before that, in 1054, the Patriarch of Constantinople and the
Pope, Leo IX excommunicated each other, leaving to this day
a great divide between eastern and western Christianity. And
five hundred years before that, Gregory the Great laid the foundations
for a thriving system of monasteries and convents that provided
centers of intellectual and moral stability while the Roman
Empire collapsed and rampant illiteracy, disease and political
chaos.
Now if you track these inflection points in history, according
to Tickle, we may be in the epi-center of a once-in 500 years
seismic shift in Christianity, one that began a hundred years
ago and will continue for another hundred.
One of the key drivers in each of these hinge times is the
question of authority. Where does authority reside? Is there
really authority at all? Track the progression – for the
early church it was the closeness of Jesus’ life and power
of his Resurrection in and among those early communities. Later,
church authority was consolidated in one person – the
pope, who fostered support networks in the monasteries and convents.
Next, authority was partitioned between Rome and Constantinople,
each denying the authority of the other, and by doing so, intensifying
their claims as centers of authority. The Reformation was also
about authority, which Protestants claimed belonged not to a
man in Rome or Constantinople but with God as manifested in
the plain and inspired Holy Scriptures – Sola Scriptura!
was their rallying cry. And now, today we are seeing the claim
of “Sola Scriptura” being challenged not just by
Episcopalians but by evangelicals as well. Clear and immutable
texts on slavery have been questioned and overturned. Plain
and obvious restrictions on women (see 1st Timothy, chapter
2) were held up to other texts (see Romans 16:7) weren’t
so plain and obvious. And now the battlefield is the issue of
sexuality – and for some, this is the final battle, because
the trust in Sola Scriptura hangs in the balance. When the generals
and troops have had enough and go home, there will still be
the need for a new authority – one that doesn’t
demand manipulations and ignoring of some Scriptures –
an authority that is accountable, relational and unafraid of
difficult questions. Can such an authority be found?
Today’s Gospel selection from Matthew is about authority
and conflict in the church. It is somewhat odd that the word
“church” appears here, long before there was a church.
But Matthew is providing guidance and a lesson to his church
- putting words into the mouth of Jesus that he probably never
actually said but implied in his ministry.
There is guidance on what to do if there is a conflict, specifically
a sinning of one person against another. What is a sin in this
case? It does not say – but could be anything from an
insult, a theft, a theological dispute. It reminds me of the
saying that if the church were perfect, none of us could belong
to it. Whatever the sin, there is a detailed instruction about
how to deal with it – a systematic escalation and eventual
full-court press on the offending person. Isolated and misused,
the church has used this passage to develop what is known as
“excommunication.” Treat the unrepentant offender
as if they are a “gentile or tax collector” –
a complete outsider. But is that how we are to read the text
and apply it to our church conflicts and disputes?
Listen to what comes next in Matthew’s Gospel: “Then
Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member
of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As
many as seven times? Jesus said to him, “Not seven times,
but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” The full court
press is disbanded, melts away in a sea of radical forgiveness.
What is systematic, logical and effective is turned upside down.
The offender is forgiven and forgiven and forgiven.
As the church struggles to re-center itself and redefine authority,
St. Mark’s is a place to be community – intergenerational
and welcoming , a place to safely ask questions that will be
respected and listened to, to explore the Gospel’s message
and the presence of the risen Christ. We will continue to find
our center and authority through the well-established pattern
of the Episcopal Church – through Scripture, in community,
guided by the Holy Spirit buttressed by tradition and empowered
by our God-given reason. It is this potent and vibrant mix that
leads us – not into black and white but full and living
color. We can be a place of dialogue in a world of debate, a
place where forgiveness is rampant and shockingly excessive,
77 times excessive, where we indeed treat those who sin against
us as tax collectors – like the author of today’s
Gospel, Matthew.
Amen.
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