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Sunday October 1, 2006 - Proper 21, Year B

Yesterday
was Swedesboro-Woolwich Day,
and those of you who were there
will know that it was a great day.
There were a few brief showers, but mostly the rain stayed away,
so there was plenty of opportunity to see all the sights. It began with the Kingsway Marching band, and then there were concerts, a car show, food court, a kids' area, and of course lots and lots of booths, from crafts to health to local businesses to community groups.
It's a great place to find out about all the things going on in our community.

And among all the other things
were a bunch of churches.
Crossbridge Community Church had a booth where you could fill little bottles stamped with a heart with colored sand;
First Baptist were out in matching t-shirts,
handing out literature;
New Destiny Ministries had a youth choir performing great African chants and traditional spirituals;
Bethesda Methodist had a teenager wandering around in a bright yellow chicken costume
minus the head,
accompanied by another teenager carrying a sandwich board that read something like this
"Do you feel like a chicken that's lost it's head? Let us know your prayer requests";
Father Vincent and Father Joe Byerly from St Joseph's were wandering around.
And we were there too, with a bunch of parishioners and information about Trinity, Trinity baseball caps and cookbooks for sale, and free candy and stickers for kids.

And those were just a sample of the churches in our area.
We have St James Church of God in Christ, and First Presbyterian, Mt Zion AME and St Paul's UAME, Hope Lutheran, Temple Fato De Luz, the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and a bunch of others in the area.
Sometimes, when I look at all the other churches around here
I wonder if we don't have too many churches. If we closed a few, then we could have their members,
and surely everyone
would be better off.
Especially those new churches;
what right do they have starting new churches
when there are plenty of churches right here
which could do with some help.
There's just too much competition.

And then I read today's gospel.
"John said to Jesus, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us."

It pulls me up short.
We often tend to think of things
as if they're a competition.
It's the basic assumption of marketing. "Let me show you how much better my product is." Or the service I offer. Or my church.
But if Jesus is right,
then it's not
a competition.
If someone else is doing something in Jesus' name,
great. If they're not against Jesus, they're for him.
And if they're for Jesus
then we're all in it together.

You see, the point of our existence as a church
is not to prove
how much better we are
than everyone else.
The point of our existence
is to worship and serve God,
and to share the good news of God in Christ
with others.

There's nothing, as far as I know, in Scripture,
about us having to be the best in comparison with everyone else.
All we asked to be
is faithful,
people who believe in Jesus Christ
and act on what they believe.
And if that means
that we are a huge church
with people crowding in the doorways,
great.
If it means we're small, with plenty of spare seats,
that's great too.
Following Christ is not about winning;
it's about being faithful.
And rejoicing
when we see others being faithful too — even if that means their churches are bigger and apparently more successful than ours!
We're all in this God thing together.

But it's interesting where Jesus goes from here. Because his conversation with his disciples doesn't just end
with that great statement, "Whoever is not against us is for us!"
He goes on
with what seems like a totally different topic, about drowning and cutting off hands and feet and tearing out eyes, and burning in hell.
"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched."

It's kind of gruesome, especially when you remember
that he's talking to people
who grew up with the idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
They're likely
to take this literally.

But I don't think that's what Jesus is saying. He's using hyperbole, extremes, to catch their attention,
to help them understand
the problem with what they've been saying.

Because they began by saying,
"Look over there. There's someone
who is doing all this stuff that Jesus told us to do,
but they don't do it the way we do. And they're not interested in what we have to say — they don't want to listen to us. Do something, Jesus. Show your authority. You can't just have any old riff-raff
taking your name in vain."

They are so self righteous. Doesn't matter how much Jesus says
if they're not against us, they're for us,
the disciples aren't hearing him. They know
that they are right.
And so it takes talk about drowning and chopping off hands and feet and eyes, and burning in hell
to shock them
into listening.

Guys, he's saying, just listen. Stop fussing what everyone else is doing. Don't get in their way. You have no idea
how God is choosing to work.
And just get on with what you're supposed to be doing.
Clean up your own lives
before you get obsessed with cleaning up others.
It's a little like his other saying,
first get the beam out of your own eye
before you go searching for a splinter in someone else's.

They got hooked in to the idea that it was a competition.
We do too.
It's better for our self esteem
when we can prove how wrong everyone else is.

You may be aware of some of the tensions in the Episcopal Church at the moment. Every so often, there is a news story
about how a church or a priest has decided to leave the Episcopal Church because of differences in theology and ethics.
There are lawsuits and accusations,
fights over buildings and finances.
Most recently, Martyn Minns, the rector of a large conservative church in Virginia
was consecrated a bishop in the church in Nigeria — which doesn't recognize the Episcopal Church — with the job of being a missionary here in the US.
Normally what that would mean
is that he would no longer be able to be the priest at his church, because he's no longer part of the Episcopal Church.
And so they are looking for a new Rector.
But apparently, in an act of graciousness, the bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, Peter Lee,
has said it's okay for him to keep on as the rector
until they find a new one.
I'm not sure I agree with that decision. I tend to think that if you don't want to play by Episcopal Church rules, then it's time to leave.
But Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia has made a different decision.
He may not agree with Martyn Minns,
but he's decided not to play the competition game, he's decided not to get tied up in that thing of "You're wrong and I'm right." Instead he's taken Christ's command seriously
to be at peace.
His job is not to cast blame. It's to be faithful.

And that's the job of all of us.
Sometimes we don't like how other Christians do things. Christians form other denominations, Christians from other churches in our own tradition,
even other Christians here at Trinity. But if Jesus has anything to say about it, our job is not to point the finger. Our job
is to get on
with being faithful.
Sometimes that means swallowing our own pride. Sometimes
if means giving up our own interests. Sometimes
it means looking honestly at our own faults.
Always
it means focusing
on how we can better follow Christ our Savior
and how we can help others
as they grow in Christ.

Sermon ©Raewynne J. Whiteley 2006