January 13, 2009 ~ Revival Day 3
The Beauty To Be…
Luke 14:7-14 & Isaiah 56:1-8

Hear this sermon in MP3 format by clicking HERE!

The philosopher, Kahil Gibran, once said, “We live only to seek beauty. All else is a form of waiting.” I believe the creation of true, covenantal community is the greatest act of beauty possible to humankind, and I live my entire life to seek that beauty. Let me tell you a story to begin to explain what I mean.

There is an old old story of a man who ruled a small kingdom in a faraway land. He had three adult sons, each one stronger and more dogmatic than the others. They were rivals in every way, and over the years tired out their poor father, not to mention the kingdom, with their bantering and their competition. As fate would have it, just as the elderly king grew ill, the kingdom began to experience a series of years with overwhelming monsoons and devastating poverty resulting from it.

As the frail leader lay on his deathbed, he called his three headstrong sons into his presence, asking them to each bring two sturdy wooden sticks with them. Barely able to be present in the room with the others, they grit their teeth and arrived at their father’s bedside.

“I have a riddle that will decide the one to whom my kingdom shall be bestowed,” he announced quietly. “Each of you take one of your sticks and pass it to your brother on to your right.” They did so. “Now try to break the stick in your hand.” Each man, being muscular and extremely self-confident, easily broke the stick their brother had given them.

“Now the one who can show me how your remaining sticks can be passed along without being able to be broken, to him I will pass the reigns of the kingdom.”

At this, the brothers were dumbfounded. They had brought sticks that were roughly equal to the size of the ones already broken, and knew that if they simply passed along the remaining stick, their brother could easily break it, also. Standing there for a long time, unsure of what to do, the old king, fading fast, asked again more urgently, “Who among you can show me how these sticks can be passed so that they can never be broken?”

It was a long while before the middle son slowly reached out his hands to his brothers. At first, uncertain of his intentions, they hesitated. Eventually they realized that he wished them to give him their sticks. Not having an answer of their own, they slowly handed him the sticks. He quietly, but adeptly took the leather lacing from his boots and tightly lashed the three sticks together. He then passed it to the brother on his right, who tried to break the bound sticks, but could not. Passing it on to the next brother, he, too, could not break it. Finally, the middle son tried, and could not do so.

“You shall be the next king, my son,” the dying man whispered to his middle child. “But do not take this metaphor lightly. If you remain separate from your brothers, surely you and the kingdom will be smashed – either from within or without – but if all three of you bind yourselves together, you and the kingdom will be strong forever.” And with those words, the king died and the kingdom thrived.

Throughout this revival we have been exploring the various facets of what it means to be safe in a world that feels so out of control, what true security means for people of faith, and just how to get through to tomorrow when it feels like the bottom has fallen out of our economy and our lives. Sunday morning, we talked about how God can bless and even ordain the doubts and fears of our lives to be avenues of faith and hope. Last night we learned that true security rests not in power, especially power as this world defines it, but in giving oneself to God. Tonight we will see how simply “being” can beautiful, if we are in covenantal community with one another and with God.

“Covenant” is a word not often used in our world, but it is a central concept to the health and wholeness of any vibrant community. We Disciples of Christ throw the word “covenant” around so much, you’d think we actually knew what it meant. I’m not so sure.

The reason covenant isn’t as familiar to us as say “laws,” “contracts,” or “treaties” is because covenant involves processes and values that are not easily defined or explained. Neither does covenant have outcomes that are easily measured. A covenant, in its most general sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. (1) Many covenants are made between human beings and God, or between people of faith. And as we know all too well, promises, vows, and covenants are easier to break because they are harder to understand and because the appear to have no negative consequences. One might say it’s the difference between what the Apostle Paul would say as following the “letter of the law” and, rather, seeking to live out the “spirit of the law.”

But it is essential – no, it is fundamentally critical – that we come to understand AND to more fully live out the concept of covenant in our day to day lives, for I believe it will lead us and our communities to greater strength and a richer and deeper appreciation for all of the members of the community.

The three sons in my story learned several key ideas that are central to covenant: cooperation, humility, intentionality, mutuality, and unity. You can’t legislate those kinds of values! These are the very reason why the best religious traditions see covenant as central to their faith, and why the Judeo-Christian tradition is chief amongst those that understand covenant as key to faithfulness.

Here’s the catch: We like the clarity and inflexibility of the law. We might not do so well following it, but we like having laws around. We don’t do so well living according to the Spirit because it means we have to actually work at it, we have to constantly be attuned to it, we have to keep up with who God is calling us to be and how God is calling us to respond in any given moment. That’s hard work. But anything worthwhile is going to call us to work hard. And community, true covenantal community is hard work.

The upside of all of this is, true covenantal community – when it really happens – is the most beautiful treasure of all. I live to seek that beauty!

One of the odd truths about community is that you can “accidentally” or unintentionally find yourself in community, but you have to choose to be in covenantal community. Let me explain. An accidental or unintentional community is being born into a family, stepping onto a city bus with several other people, being hired at a new place of employment. You may choose the bus or the employer, but you didn’t choose the community. A covenantal community involves taking that community deeper. A simple example is the bus riders that call out when they see someone just barely missing the bus, and getting the driver to stop for her. She smiles and thanks everybody when she gets on. This is why laws, while they are necessary for civil society, can never create a covenantal community.

Now, it is true, an unintentionally community can become a covenantal community. For example, a family after the kids grow up really begin to bond; a neighborhood that organizes into a healthy and effective block club, and so forth. But there has to be that element of choice. The three brothers were accidental community. They were born into a family and had no choice in the matter. But they grew up, and would have struggled forever had not their father forced them to make a choice: to be intentionally in covenantal community.

But why doesn’t true covenantal community happen more often, if it’s such a beautiful and wonderful thing? Well, what we are up against in creating and sustaining covenantal community is staggering. And during tough economic times, spiraling violence, and cultural warfare the odds against such community happening are gargantuan.
> injustice eats away at true community and it’s reactionary effect, entitlement, is understandable, but just as deadly. A deadly dance: discrimination and entitlement.
> apathy and cynicism are cancers to true community, and feed off of hard times and bad news like maggots on rotting flesh.
> isolationism and “rugged individualism,” in a similar way, hack off true covenantal community at its roots, starving it to death.

But there is another way. And Jesus, our master and savior, was an artist in the beautiful creation of covenantal community. For Jesus, the values of cooperation, humility, intentionality, mutuality, and unity were second nature. The parable of the host and the guest at the banquet table in Luke 14:7-14 show another way to be in community:
> cooperation vs. competition
> humility vs. entitlement
> intentionality vs. chance
> mutuality vs. isolation
> unity vs. rivalry

But there is more than just these wonderful qualities that make up the beauty to be in true covenantal community. This was not so obvious in my story of the three brothers. There sets before us in scripture the essential quality of diversity. Unity is not uniformity. Neither is diversity division. We need each other, in all our glorious differences, in order to survive. Paul reminded us rather sternly, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” This diversity thing isn’t just a nice idea that we are supposed to put up with, but, rather, is an essential part of the Community of Humankind and the Body of Christ! Real, honest, healthy diversity is the capstone to true covenantal community!

My favorite passage in all of scripture, Isaiah 56:1-8, reminds us that being a part of the community is NOT about uniformity and sameness, but about “maintaining justice,” “doing what is right,” “keeping the Sabbath,” “choosing things that please God,” and “holding fast the covenant!” It’s about making sure everyone has a place at the table, not in spite of our differences, but in light of our differences. As the Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Senior Minister Emeritus of the Riverside Church in New York City, would say about his father’s question at the evening dinner table, “Are all the children at the table?” We must ask likewise, “are all God’s children at the table?” No one eats until all the children are at the table.

We need each other, in all our wild and wonderful diversity. Seriously. As Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The motto of Franklin Circle Christian Church is “Widening The Circle For All God’s Children.” Quite often, even we become a bit too complacent with its message, assuming that we are gracious and beneficent providers of community, we are the existing circle, and that we, like the Who’s down in Whoville, gently unlock hands and allow the humble children of God, so long shut out, to enter our circle.

No. If we allow ourselves the beauty to be, and take seriously covenantal community, we realize we are not the circle, God is the circle and we are allowed in, as are other children of God. Our task is to sustain the circle. That’s where true covenantal community is required. All of us are beholden to a gracious God who creates all circles and invites all the children to come.

Jesus said the greatest commandment of all is really the most stringent and compelling covenant possible to humankind: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and, not but, not then, not someday, but AND love your neighbor as yourself. When fulfilled, that will be the most beautiful community possible. May the bonds of that circle be unbroken.

Amen.

(1) Wikepedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant

 

Extra Material Not Used In Sermon

“Would You Harbor Me” by Sweet Honey In The Rock
Would You Harbor Me?

(from Safe House: Still Looking by Ysaye M. Barnwell (c)1994)

Would you harbor me?
Would I harbor you?
Would you harbor me?
Would I harbor you?

Would you harbor a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew
a heretic, convict or spy?
Would you harbor a run away woman, or child,
a poet, a prophet, a king?
Would you harbor an exile, or a refugee,
a person living with AIDS?
Would you harbor a Tubman, a Garrett, A Truth
a fugitive or a slave?
Would you harbor a Haitian Korean or Czech,
a lesbian or a gay?

Would you harbor me?
Would I harbor you?
Would you harbor me?
Would I harbor you?
Image: Games at a county fair… picking off the targets that are closest, slowest, most vulnerable. Isn’t that what we do in real life?



In the brochure that the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) puts out to explain who it is, the phrase “True Community” is set alongside “A Deep Christian Spirituality” and “A Passion For Justice.” I really appreciate this balance. In describing “True Community” the brochure proclaims, “As churches grow in true community, members care deeply for one another. But true community also means reaching out to include others – encouraging the growth of a diverse community in which all are welcomed and cared for.” Thus the themes of covenantal community come back to us: cooperation, humility, intentionality, mutuality, and unity.





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


 

Copyright 2009 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096