The Need to Re-Form

 

"The Need to Re-Form" Ps. 85:6; 51:7; 19:7  Sermon by Ben Sloan at EPC

Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Ps 85:6
  [the word "revive" may be translated awaken, renew, re-form]
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.  The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy making wise the simple. 

I don’t know about you, but I have found myself drawn to watch the Olympics whether I wanted to or not as have 41.5 million- almost doubling the Tokyo Olympics’ viewership.   But the Olympics have changed over the 3,000 years of their existence.  Originally the Olympics were held each time In Olympia Greece and was a religious exercise- and it was only one event- the stade- a 192 meter race. Then combat and horse/chariot races were added.  Today there are 70 sports and 17 days of games.  Women were not allowed to compete until 1900.  Can you imagine the Olympics today without Simone Biles or Suni Lee?  No professional athletes were allowed to compete until about 50 years ago.  It is projected the Olympics would mean the hiring of 150,000 jobs and raise about $10 billion. The first athletes were required to train their soul for the event as well as their bodies- taking music and philosophy classes in preparation.  One lesson the Bile’s withdrawal in the Tokyo games should have taught us is that you can be good physically, but if you don’t have it together inside of you- you may fail.  The Olympics are a far cry from the Olympics of 3,000 years ago, but we can still learn from their original call for unity through sports and that the body also needs the mind and soul to be in the best of shape. 
If we were to reform the Olympics, it might look something like- cut down on duplicate events and silly games (for example tug of war was eliminated from the 1920 games and speed walking from this year’s Olympics).  But maybe add not an event but a requirement on stress and soul management that does not exclude religion, but sees religion for what most people on this earth see it as- important.  90% of the people in the world believe in God.  72% in America say faith is important and 51% say it is very important.  Yet we do all these herculean efforts to play down faith.  People are amazed when I say more people will be in church on Sunday than at Clemson, Carolina, or all the college football games combined in South Carolina.  If you add all the stadium capacities up- you will get about 300,000.  The latest Pew poll estimated 57% of South Carolinians and some say that has dropped 3% to 54%= 2.7 million.  Yet every night on the news we hear about football.  Faith is the most meaningful best-kept secret in the world!  We TRY hard to keep it a secret.  We don’t hear about the guy who left alcohol and drugs to stay with his wife and raise his kids because of his faith.  We rarely hear about all the charity work that goes on around us.  Where were the cameras when 17 churches dedicated the Habitat House last week?  Are we really trying to snuff faith out of our lives?  We need a reformation. 
The Soviet Union and eastern Europe tried to kill all religion out between 1917 and 1989.  In the end, the shipworkers at Gdansk Poland held prayer rallies; The Romanians held a Christmas Candlelight service that brought down Cecescue.  The people of Eastern Europe know the value of freedom of religion and treasure it.  When the polish Pope visited Poland, when Billy Graham visited the USSR and eastern Germany they had a huge impact on the fall of communism- that is played down even today.  Why are we hiding such things? 

But the church needs to change too.  Phyllis Tickle, an author famously wrote that it seems the church has a reformation every 500 years.  Abraham was 2,000 BC, Moses was the next, David’s reign was about 1,000 BC; 500 BC was about the time of the exile to Babylon that reformed the people of God.  Then Jesus was born 500 years later.  Then Rome fell 500 years later; then the east and west schism 500 years later; then the Reformation 500 years later, then here we are 500 years later again.  She pointed out that before each major change there was a decay in enthusiasm and I might add in immorality.  She was saying it is similar to a caterpillar turning into a chrysalis turning into a butterfly. But what she downplays is that each reformation does not just move forward- but also goes back to the foundation to the roots- scraping off all the old veneer and trappings that added rule on rule and it gets back to the heart of worship.  The other thing that she missed is that Reformation does not begin from the bureaucracy of the church.  It usually begins with lay people.  The east west schism was indeed a huge change in the church- but it was not a Reformation.  Most of the Great reformations began with a good deal of prayer, a desire for change and repentance among both the people and some of the clergy. 

I.  WE NEED UNITY- Unity is not I will get along with you as long as you agree with me.  Unity is that we will get along with you no matter what.  Today, we get this idea that the only thing that is hurting the church is differences about morality.  The truth is, the church has done something the Bible has continually begged it not to do- and that is divide against each other.  The nation of Israel never divided over morality or lack of spirituality ever.  It divided over tribalism the 10 tribes against the 2.  But the nation had descended into Baal fertility worship until God raised up Gideon.  Perhaps you remember that Elijah said he was the only prophet left who didn’t worship Baal.  Yet even then the nation stayed together.  Corinth was full of immorality.  Today you can go to Corinth and from anywhere in the city see the Mountain with the Temple to the goddess of Love- Aphrodite on top.  But Paul begged the Corinthians not to divide and they did not.  For the first 1,000 years of the Christian church’s existence there was only one denomination.  Then 500 years later there were about five. Today there are 45,000 Christian denominations.  We need to Re-form in the classic sense.  Not just reunite in some structure, but showing respect and love to each other- working together for the glory of Christ.  The three reformers that got it right that were not heard were Bucer, Calvin, and Melanchthon who wanted the unity of the church.  See both Bucer and Calvin were basically Lutheran before they fine tuned into reformed thinking.  Neither Luther, Bucer, or Calvin wanted to form a new denomination.  They were excommunicated by the bureaucracy of the church, and then each was declared an outlaw.  Only when the choice was to rejoin the church without changes, to die, or to form a new denomination did they form a denomination.  Today Lutherans and Presbyterians recognize each other.  Out own Emily Mooneyhan preached in a Lutheran church and a Presbyterian church before coming to Eastminster.  The Reformation we need today is a reformation of love and unity- not divisive schismatic pride.  Jesus is not divided there is one faith, one Lord, one baptism.  When we get to heaven we will see people from every tongue, every nation there. 
Jill Jackson looked at all the sadness, hatred and division in the world and tried to commit suicide but failed.  From that moment she began to feel that God left her here for a purpose.  She said she felt God’s unconditional love.  At an inter-religious retreat she and her husband introduced what is now a world-reknown song, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”   The unity of the church is not up to the clergy.  The peace and reformation in the church begins when people start staying where they are and learning to love- even when we disagree.  If the church cannot love- it will indeed die- only to be reborn in some way because God is alive and will always be at work in the hearts of people. 
Steve Sjogren wrote a book called “Conspiracy of Kindness.”  He started a church in Cincinnati Ohio in 1985 that grew to an average attendance of 6,000.  Their motto is “Small things done with great love are changing the world.”  Things like paying for a stranger’s meal or giving a thank you note to a clerk—makes the world a better place.  Now he has started new churches all over the world.
     Many people are saying “the church is dying.” They say there is a trend of death for the church.   I could say the same about me or anyone of you.  To be alive means a part of you is heading toward death in this life.  Every day the human body 500 million skin cells each day.  330 billion cells are produced each day.  So you basically get a new body every 80-100 days.  Unfortunately most of your brain, heart and eye cells stay the same.  Basically we die and are not the same person we were every three months.  We do not need to abandon hope.  This is the place where you find hope.  Some act when you come into church, “Abandon Hope all you who Enter here.”  But that is not us- that’s the other place.  We are the place where we learn to put our hope, trust, and love in the eternal. 

     The world will not tell you when the church succeeds.  It will not tell you about people getting hope, getting strength.  Part of it is that this stuff is hard to measure. But part of it is that we are more careful not to offend people who may not believe the way we do.  We would rather not offer them hope than offend them.  I find that offensive, and self-destructive.   That is like saying I don’t want to tell my toddler he needs to drink something when it is so hot because he might have a tantrum.  But the world will tell you every time when the church fails.  When a minister resigns because of some moral failure.  The world will remind you we are not in heaven yet when the church is perfected.  So will the church die because of this conspiracy of silence?  Some say yes.  We are quick to point out the rising number of teens who reject the faith- the “nones.”  But let us not forget the power of God.
   Last night the power went out in our neighborhood It would be easy to say after an hour or so, “Will our power ever come on?”  We had to wait on the power.  It came and it relieved us.  It refreshed us with air conditioning and lights and our food survived in the fridge.    
 So Ezekiel was brought to a valley of dry bones and asked, “Son, can these bones live?”  They were dry bones.  It seemed as if there was no hope for life.  The answer is God knows and He can make them live again.    But He does so when we want to repent of our failures and instead turn toward kindness and grace and the hope of Christ.  But that has happened before.  Remember Abraham who was but one.  Remember Gideon and his 300, or Elijah and his 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.  Remember Jesus and his 12.  Remember what one man, Patrick, did in Ireland; what Boniface did in Germany.  Remember the peace, hope, love’s spread does not begin with someone else- it begins with you.   Invite a friend to join you in worship.  Do your best to be a light of kindness.  Reform your heart- and if we all do it- guess what?  The church becomes a new- reformed place where there is hope.