Wellspring UMC; World Communion Sunday; October 7, 2007: “Bigger Than Us”:

-Psalm 19

One of the core courses in seminary is Christian Ethics. Though ethics was a part of the discussion in many classes as an undergraduate and certainly part of what I heard weekly as a worshiper in Duke Chapel, I’d never taken an ethics course before, and I didn’t really know what to expect. I figured we’d get into situational ethics, where we’d be given ethical dilemmas to discuss and grapple with, but that was a wrong assumption. I thought maybe we’d deal with questions of professional ethics, where we’d learn key concepts of church leadership. Again I was wrong. Once that class began, however, I discovered that the purpose of the class was found in the title – “Christian Ethics.”

Christian Ethics...the ethics of being a Christian. The core aspects of this faith which guides our lives and directs our living. The application of central beliefs that have been passed down from generation to generation but also adapted to address the needs of a constantly changing world and Church. Christian Ethics.

I’d been told that seminary would require me to learn a whole new language for living. In no other class was that more true, for the professor made it clear that in following Christ, we often find ourselves resident aliens. That is, our beliefs and values often stand in opposition to those of the culture. Christian Ethics reveal the ethics of the Christ, who taught a way of life which turned the world upside down. Christian Ethics demand that the radical, self-giving, sacrificial, in your face way of life modeled by Christ, is the way of salvation, which quite honestly, is not the norm in American Christianity. Christian Ethics made me completely re-evaluate who I was and what I had learned it meant to be a Christian. I’m not sure why I didn’t believe it before then, but through this class I accepted that Jesus really does want us to be like him, do what He said, and trust God for everything, as hard as that can be.

There were many memorable insights and quotes which came from this course, but one day Dr. Hauerwas was answering a question, and as part of his answer he made reference to “our mundane lives.” The phrase came out of his mouth and I felt a wall of resistance go up inside. I thought,“Did he really say that?” I wasn’t the only one, because hands shot up around the room, and when called upon one person said, “How can you call our lives mundane?”

Now the person who asked the question did not know Stanley Hauerwas very well, because whenever he is asked a question which alludes to the created being more important than the Creator, one gets an ear-full.

“So you mean to say that you’re important?,” Hauerwas said. “The things you do in a day make a difference that last a lifetime? You are changing history? Sorry, but you’re not. Instead you’re time is spent living for yourselves, doing your own thing, while God’s work remains.” Dr. Hauerwas is not one to mince words nor win friends. Instead, he teaches Christian Ethics, a language of Christ-infused living.

His response irritated me. “Rather arrogant,” I thought. But what bugged me the most

was that there was way too much Truth in what he said. I began thinking about how little difference I was making, really. How important I thought I was. How we are focused on ourselves, rather than God’s work. That phrase continues to haunt me today, “Mundane lives.” It sticks with me, because in the grand scheme of things...it’s true.

Today is World Communion Sunday. Every year on the first Sunday of October, we’re invited to join the Church around the world and remember that we are a part of a much larger movement, which speaks a language that is different than the rest of the world. Today God calls us to recognize that we are a part of a diverse, eclectic Body of people, united in Christ but whose expression of what that looks like takes on a different face and different meaning depending on who we are and where we are invited to live out the faith.

To acknowledge this makes for some interesting dialogue and misunderstanding, because that which we receive and reveal as Christian is sometimes different than that which other Christian communities might receive and reveal. This is true with communities across town and across the globe, but the problem is that we act as if we have it right, and other churches should be like us. And, like it or not, they think the same about us.

Just like in our individual, dare I say “mundane” lives, deep down we think that the Body of Christ over there, should be a clone of the Body over here, because if it would be, then we’d be much happier. Our innate desire for homogeneity and comfort, our desire to keep the status quo and push forth with our version of Christianity, bubbles to the surface and can easily blind us to the fullness of God’s work in the world.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not intending to imply that every community should be following their own interpretation of the Truth of the Gospel. By all means, living out the core beliefs of the Church is foundational to who we are, but what happens far too often is that we live out our faith with blinders on, and miss the richness of God’s work across the globe, the fullness of God’s work through the Church. When that happens our faithful living can turn into the mundane living of the mundane faithful.

A few moments ago you heard Al/Fred share with us the words of the Psalmist. Psalm 19 is a glorious and powerful hymn of praise, revealing the fullness of God’s witness to the world. “The heavens are telling the glory of God.” God’s presence and power are written across the sky. “In the heavens God has set a tent for the sun,” and every time the sun comes up, God invites the created to join with Him. “The law of the Lord, the ways of the Lord, the ethics of the Lord are perfect, restoring the soul,” and upon which we can place our trust, live out our faith, and have our lives redeemed. “Because of your great power and wisdom, in response to the glory of your creation and love,” the psalmist says, “let the words I speak and the desires of my heart, be that which is acceptable and pleasing to You, O God, for I want You to be the One whom I follow and have my life reveal.”

Across the ages, phrases from this psalm have stood out and are now woven into the fabric of our language, and for good reason, because they remind us of the power and mystery of God, while revealing the glory of Creation. The words, ideas, and ideals are bigger than us, and they invite us into the mystery of God. They invite us to look with awe upon the Holy Creator, who created for pleasure – God’s and ours. They remind us that in the grand scheme of things, God, Creation, the Church is much bigger than we are, and that when we place ourselves and our lives in proper perspective, we find revealed to us a whole new world. We learn a new language for living, if you will, and we have reveled to us how often we approach life gazing toward ourselves and our reality, defending our thoughts and seeking our desires, dismissing the other and pushing forward solely from our perspective. Such a perspective can be, well...rather mundane compared to what it could be.

Instead, the call of the Psalmist and desire of God is for us to open ourselves up and seek the fullness of God’s Kingdom. The celebration of this World Communion Sunday reminds us that we are not an island, nor do we have all the answers when it comes to faithful living. Today we are prompted to remember and take to heart that God and the Church are bigger than us, and that this church is a part of a larger global movement of the Spirit.

As many of you know, my father is a retired pastor, and a key ministry in one of the churches he served was a baby blanket ministry through Church World Service. Women and men from the church would knit baby blankets, then send them to Church World Service for distribution across the globe. By the time my father served there, this ministry had been in place for awhile, and there was one woman who had knit more than 100 baby blankets over the years. She had found a simple, unique pattern which helped to increase her efficiency. She also bought her yarn wholesale which cut down on the cost and it meant that her blankets were always the same color.

One year this church sent a team of missionaries to South America to help build a church. The Spirit caught hold of this woman and she felt moved to join the team and serve Christ abroad. They went through their orientation, shared lots of prayers and excitement, and finally the day came when they took off from Dulles Airport as a team.

The flight was uneventful, and the ride to the site, though a bit bumpy, went well, and they arrived ready to do God’s work and build relationships. A crowd of villagers were there to greet them, welcoming them with the love of Christ, and as this woman stepped out of the van, standing before her was a young mother, holding a child, wrapped in a blanket...a blanket she had made. It was her color, her pattern, and in that moment her world changed.

She found herself connected with this place. Her church had connected her to this sister in Christ. Church World Service, the Church Universal had connected this child with Christ’s servant, and this woman realized in a powerful, tangible way, that God and the Church were bigger than she was. What had become a simple way to serve, became the vehicle by which her vision was changed. Blinders were removed, and she was taught a language that invited her to think and see her life and faith on a global level.

That trip was life changing for her, for the team, and for their church, for God showed them the big picture. That trip was life changing for a young mother and child, a village church, and the village itself, for God revealed a love poured out across the globe. That trip became, just one example shared by many, a reminder that the Communion of God is a worldwide communion, and that we are all connected in Christ. It’s bigger than us.

As we come forward to receive Holy Communion today, I invite us to reflect upon the magnitude of God’s love for this world. I invite us to recognize and name that we are just a small part of the whole. As we come forward, we are invited to leave behind our mundane lives, allow Christ to remove the blinders that keep us self-focused, then go into this world living for Christ, sharing Christ’s love, remembering and revealing that God and God’s Church is bigger than us. Amen.