Growing Pains

Here's a sermon I preached on Sunday, September 29, 2013. We had a little dust-up in a congregational meeting the week before, and it was a hard week for a lot of us, to be honest. I thought at first I wouldn't address it directly, but as the week went on I felt compelled. This is the result, most of which came to me in chunks and pieces. Some of the chunks are just phrases, so let the reader understand.

The scriptures for the day were 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 and Mark 11:15-19.

If you find it edifying, give glory to God.

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We’ve been talking about Noah and the ark. Many modern scholars think of this story as mythological, that is carrying truth but not necessarily factually accurate. We’ve been talking about it as an historical event, but it could go the other way. Either way, whether the story is accurate or just truthful, we can use our imagination to fill in some of the gaps, like what it must have been like for the family in the ark. 

We know the Noah was a righteous man, but it doesn’t say anything explicitly about his family. They may not have held his faith, and that would make the devastation that much more terrifying. Regardless of their faith, any humans in the midst of such a disaster would be shaken to the core and compromised emotionally. All those humans in a floating zoo as everything they ever knew was literally washed away would surely have been overcome with fear, grief, and despair. They may have taken turns at it, but you can bet they all broke down at some point or many points, and they almost certainly took out their desperation on each other from time to time. The story does tell us that even Noah, the one righteous man on the planet, had some issues after the experience. When it was all over and they walked out on dry land, safe and sound, Noah started a vineyard, made wine, got drunk, and passed out.

Even faithful people are prone to negative and unhealthy responses to radical change like economic upheaval, war, violence, social shifts, or more personally, loss of a job or loved one, change in marital status or health. Even members of a faith community can deal with painful situations with painful methods and painful results. (besides the above, CHANGES at CPC in attendance, membership, finances, cultural support, ministry direction and style  - REACTIONS - fear, anger, pain, despair, sin  - RESPONSES - withdrawal of personal investment, resorting to gossip, avoidance, manipulation, self-medicating, judging and/or blaming, lashing out, speaking the truth without love, and emotional dumping, and that was just me on Monday this week!)

*about Jesus clearing the temple*

Having a good day until he got to the temple

money changers and merchants - taking advantage of worshipers

misunderstanding what was most important in that space

underestimating the claim of God on their lives and practice

Jesus was filled with “righteous indignation” 

and let loose with an angry outburst right there in front of God and everybody,

like a flood, he cleared that place and started teaching how they were supposed to serve God

Fear, hopelessness, anger, pain, sin, brokenness - these things are part of the human experience. They come to all of us. But they do not get to have the last word.

This place, this ministry, and this church family -- all of us! -- belong to the Lord Jesus Christ! And that makes all the difference.

It’s not that we can’t bring these things to church. Some people seem to think Christians aren’t supposed to get mad, especially at each other, or aren’t supposed to get sad, or afraid. And if you do you shouldn’t bring it to church. All that does is keeps us from having meaningful ways to be engaged with each other when we have those strong feelings and reactions. On the contrary, this is EXACTLY the place to bring them! And to name them, out loud. Engage one another and the Lord with them. But they are not the last words here.

Where there is fear, Christ is our fortress.
Where there is hopelessness, Christ is risen in victory.
Where there is anger, Christ brings justice and reconciliation.
Where there is pain, Christ brings healing.
Where there is sin, Christ calls us to repent and offers forgiveness.
Where there is brokenness, Christ makes all things new.

And because Christ gets the final word, and because we are Christ’s Body, bound to one another by His blood and grace, we bear one another’s burdens, and share one another’s pain, and we listen deeply to each other, and we lift each other up with the promises of God. No one of us can say to another, “I have no need of you!”  

That’s what was happening in Corinth, a church with a very diverse congregation

When things starting going wrong, they started to disagree about things

When they started to disagree, they started to mistreat each other

When they started mistreating each other, they stopped loving each other

When they stopped loving each other, they lost focus on Christ

When they lost focus on Christ, things starting going wrong!

Paul calls them out of that downward spiral, 

reminding them they had to work it out, together, as Christ’s body with love (ch 13)

Life, even the life of faith, is filled with disappointment and brokenness. Even when we honestly pour out our fears and our hopes, the things we want to change often don’t, and the things we don’t want to change often do. It’s like the old saying, a man marries a woman hoping she will never change, and a woman marries a man hoping he will, and both are usually wrong. But that doesn’t make it any less a marriage, any less a promise to stay with it for life, for better or for worse.

There are times when we get it wrong, and say the wrong things, or say things in the wrong way, or the wrong place, or try the wrong things. We just will! That is when we must remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who emptied himself of his heavenly glory and was obedient to God even to death on the cross in order to win our salvation. We ask God and one another for forgiveness. We seek reconciliation and healing for broken relationships. We extend love and grace to one another. Because in Christ, 
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

We believe that nothing happens outside the time and providence of God. The Lord is working His purposes out among us, and He works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. At such times, when nothing seems to be going right, we must listen for the quiet leading of the Holy Spirit, that still, small voice of peace and wisdom, and we must cling to and demonstrate our love for one another, just as God in Christ loved us and gave his life as the sacrifice for our brokenness.