June 17, 2007
Galatians 2:15-21
“Will Work For Faith”

     [Note: As with many of my sermons these days, this is not the exact one I preached.  The Holy Spirit has been doing a lot with me lately, and I can only offer to you what I had in print before me that day.  If you want to know exactly what I preach, you'll have to join us on Sundays! ;-)]

I frequently will see a man or woman holding a sign, “will work for food.” Recently, I thought I saw a different sign, “will work for faith.” It confused me as to how I had such an hallucination, but it is perfectly understandable why I thought I saw such a sign.

Faith is not a doing, and it is not a knowing... but isn’t that what we focus on in our world and in our lives: knowing and doing?

If there is one fundamental theme to Paul’s theology and writings it is this: “And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.”

The way we act in church sometimes gives the impression that we believe faith is justified by works: some of us work ourselves to exhaustion and others throw up our hands and do nothing because we know we couldn’t do enough. Both indicate we believe we are justified by our works, and that works is the substance of faith.

Some younger people avoid going to church because it has a reputation of burning people out. Or, they are doing exactly the same thing – only in their work life. They have replaced seeking salvation by works in the church by works in the workplace. And bosses, struggling with bottom-lines and extremely competitive markets and jobs going overseas, demand more doing, more hours, better thinking, more expertise. Who has time to work at church when they are worked enough at work?

We can never second guess someone else’s reasons for doing or thinking, and I don’t intend to here. I can only express my own frustrations with my own condition. I act as if I will be able to bring about some transformation in the world by doing more, or doing it more efficiently. I behave as if a little more knowledge will change everything for the better. And I am tired from both the doing and the thinking: bone tired.

But if this faith thing isn’t a doing and it isn’t a knowing, what is it then? It is a being.

Gordon Cosby, 88-year old founder of Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. understood this well when he spoke to our conference, “The City of God for American Cities” two weeks ago. He urged us to get beyond the levels that normally hang us up: knowing and doing. We must find a level of faith that is deeper than either knowing or doing, and that is being. He told us that he had a great deal of difficulty with people who seem to know what we should do. “Avoid them studiously!” he warned.

Cosby asked, who am I beneath the knowing, beneath the doing? He acknowledged that we don’t really have a language for this, it is such an unexplored area of our lives. Then he asked, what is the church beneath the knowing and the doing? What is the being of the church? What is the essence of the church? “Not what form it takes, although it must take some form. Not what it does, although it will do some thing. Rather, what is its essence?”

He answered his question by talking about being with people. “Being with Jesus forms the essence of our being!”

Whatever this essence is, for us as individuals and for the church, it is extremely hard to live out in the culture around us. We plant organizations, found institutions, design bureaucracies, without even knowing who we are, who we are to be, our essence. And it is certainly hard to maintain the original essence of a church after the first generation of people who had the vision and were passionate about it.

Church is something breaking into this realm from some place beyond. We are a people who are in this realm, but who are always trying to penetrate this realm to another, ineffable realm. Christ was God who broke into this realm to be incarnated with us. “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”

“I don’t have time for good works, unless those ministries and people are being connected to that essence of Jesus” They to let the essence get hold of you. “Let the Holy Spirit take hold of you. Let the Holy Spirit descend upon you.” We use charity in order to free us from guilt and responsibility for justice. “Charity is the enemy of justice.” Acts of charity and benevolence are laden with doing and thinking; acts of justice are interwoven with being, with presence, with essence. Charity is filled to overflowing with doing good and thinking right. Justice, however, has much less to do with doing and thinking than with being. Every great movement for justice involved being present, literally and spiritually, with those who are oppressed, those who are suffering, those whose lives are less than God intended them to be. Justice requires walking humbly with God and those in need.

I have as an example, of both the doing and the being, in my mother. Throughout my childhood I recognized that my mother, a single mother for much of her life, worked herself almost to death at times. She was up well before the sun rose and at work at the hospital or the nursing home before I had brushed my teeth. She was there for many hours, and came home exhausted. Then she had to do her work as a mother! I worried about my mother’s health, although throughout most of her career as a nurse she had a vigor to her that was astounding.

In part, I think she had this vibrancy because she did her work grounded upon the principle of being. She understood every patient that she helped, every nursing home resident she had responsibility for, was a beloved child of God, and she got to know them as such. My mother rarely talked about statistics, how many were admitted on this day or how many she cared for on that day. But she always talked about individuals, people for whom she cared deeply: Sadie, Mrs. Norton, Peter, Mary, Mr. Ramirez, and so forth.

This is why I am committing myself to a deeper and clearer ministry of presence. And I want to encourage the congregation and its leadership to do so, also. How can we be present with each other more fully, so as together we can see Jesus, know Jesus, follow Jesus more fully? How can we more fully be present with those who come into our building to be served so as together we can see Jesus, know Jesus, follow Jesus more fully? How can we be present with our neighborhood and our city more fully so as together we can see Jesus, know Jesus, follow Jesus more fully?

Let me tell you how I am beginning to envision recovering the essence of God in my ministry. I am going to plan fewer programs and be present at the programs we have more fully. I am going to be at the After School Program to talk with our young people, learn their needs, hear their perspectives, value their lives more wholly. I am going to be at the Thursday Meal Program and sit and talk with the folks who eat there, who come their for community and friendship, and hear what they really want, and not simply what I think they want. I am going to our block clubs meetings more regularly, to really know what the neighborhood thinks, instead of hearing it filtered through others.

Does this mean I will be even more exhausted. Perhaps, although I intend to ground it in prayer, and to balance my time carefully. Does this mean I hope you might join me. Absolutely, although I don’t want you to do it if it means adding something more to an already overburdened list. If you involve yourself as part of a spiritual journey, hoping to see Jesus in new ways, hoping to live the abiding presence of God in real and tangible ways, then yes, I’d love to have you join me. Does this mean we are going to have lots more programs and studies and so forth next year. Not initially, since I hope more than anything we can take what we are already doing, take what we already know, and do things more faithfully, more honestly, and more effectively.

Let me be straightforward with you: being present with people in need is not easy. It is far easier to do acts of charity than to be present with the essence of Jesus in the lives of each other and those we serve. It may feel like we might even risk death to be that open and truthful with people who are hurting so very much. But let me tell you, it would be worse to die a death of exhaustion and never ever live the essence of Jesus.

Why? Why would we want to focus less on the doing and the knowing and more on the being even to the point of risking death? Because that is what our Christ did, and calls us to do. Paul says it well, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Next time we see the sign, “will work for food,” let us recommit ourselves to that person and the conditions that put him or her in that place. Let us toss away our church signs, “Will work for faith,” and instead slow down a bit, sit down at the table with one another, and simply look for Jesus in them. They may see Jesus in us, if we’re lucky.


Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


 

Copyright 2007 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096