Seekers
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
May 18, 2014
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Deuteronomy 6: 1-8
Ephesians 1:
3-14
Let
us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For
your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
3 Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 just as he chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless
before him in love. 5 He destined us for adoption as his children
through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to
the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished
on us. With all wisdom and insight 9 he has made known to us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in
Christ, 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all
things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In Christ we
have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the
purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12
so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for
the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you had heard the
word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were
marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14 this is the
pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise
of his glory. [1]
So on this
Presbyterian Heritage Sunday, and this special day in the life of our church
and of course my family, where we baptize my oldest Daughter Coralee, the
occasion presents a wonderful time to look at what we are as Presbyterians, and
what we offer the world as a part of the Body of Christ, the Church in the
world. Later in Paul's letter to the Ephesians he talks about how there are
many diverse functions within the church and much diversity in general, but yet
we are one, one in person, one in focus, one in everything because we are
united in Jesus Christ and Christ is our all in all. . . and so often we talk
about that oneness, and that oneness is certainly important, but today I want
to talk about what Presbyterians are, what we offer, and the value that we have
as a part of the body, like one may talk about the power of the elbow, or the
foot, the hands, the brains, the eyes, or the nose. . . each has a function in
our person, and talking about how great the eyes are, does in no way negate the
import of the feet. I'm reminded about something I remember Southern comic
writer, Lewis Grizzard saying, "That every time he writes about how much
he loves the south, he gets tons of letters asking, why he hates Yankees. . .
he said in response. . . of course "I don't hate Yankees, but I have a
friend that hates them." Today I want to talk about how very proud I am
about what it means to be Presbyterian, and how important I think what we do is
within the Body of Christ, and not to dwell on it, lest I'd get choked up, why
we, as parents, DeAnna and I are very proud to have Coralee baptized today into
the church.
To begin I
want to share a dream I had this week. It's a weird one because it had to do
with me delivering this sermon today. I was to give the sermon with the topic
of today, but I was showing up without it prepared. . . at least I had my
clothes on. . . but I didn't have anything written, so I ran to my office to
write something quickly, but one crazy disaster after another, I can't recall any
of them, but long story short, church started, the bell rang, and I was going
to have to wing it. . . which was cool, I felt confident that I could do it. .
. I knew this Presbyterian stuff down, I know the history, the Book of Order,
what I value, I've got it down. I'll be good, but this is where it got a little
weird. The church wasn't this one, though Tim was playing his bagpipes. It was
much bigger, and there were all these dignitaries behind me. All Presbyterians,
and a very diverse crowd, familiar faces to me, but no real names to go with
them, all people of some clout, but representing two very different political
wings. . . the very left, and the very right. It just so happened in the dream
that the one from the conservative extreme was a lay reader of sorts, and one
from the other extreme was reading the scripture. The conservative lay reader
was going for it, talking about sin and repentance and righteousness, hell and
judgment. . . packing as much of all that into the call to worship, much more
than I thought ever could be possible. You could feel the tension building on
the other side. Then it came time for the scripture and the left wing reader
took it upon himself to echo in reverse everything that the other guy said. . .
so the next thing you know words and insults are being thrown back and forth. .
. both sides calling each other out for being ignorant, having an agenda,
ripping Christ to shreds, and everything thing else you can think of. . . and
it was in this, that I was called to get up and speak about the Presbyterian
faith, unity. . . and so I did, and I felt like I was exactly in the right
place at the right time, that what I had to say was going to come out, put the
division to rest, bring both sides together, and bring some if not healing, at
least perspective to a ridiculous shouting match example of everything that may
just be wrong with the what church sometimes has become. . . so with full
confidence I rise and head to the lectern, raise my hand and everyone refrains
from shouting, and sits, for they have come for this. . . and I begin, and
then. . . I woke up. What was I going to say? What were the words that were in
the right place at the right time for that moment. . . I'm not sure, or at
least the dream didn't tell me. . . but I think I still know, and I think it
because that is the world we live in, the world of the church, both outside and
in, and we as Presbyterians don't have it figured out in action in the present
yet, but we do in our history, and we do in our philosophy, in our theology, in
our foundational understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ. It is this we need to remember today and all days.
To me the
greatest strength, the greatest distinctive mark, the thing that I am the most
proud of, and have the most hope in, next to Jesus Christ being the head of the
Church, is the following two related statements from our Book of Order, from
our Historic Principles, that this is something that Presbyterians have held
onto and believed in from the beginning. One has to do with private judgment
and the second how to deal with the reality of that private judgment.
F-3.0101
God Is Lord of the Conscience
a.
That “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the
doctrines
and commandments of men2 which are in anything contrary to his Word, or
beside
it, in matters of faith or worship.”3
b.
Therefore we consider the rights of private judgment, in all matters that
respect
religion,
as universal and unalienable: We do not even wish to see any religious
constitution
aided by the civil power, further than may be necessary for protection and
security,
and at the same time, be equal and common to all others.
In
short we own our brains, we own our thoughts, we get to make up our own minds,
at least no one other than Christ has the control over any one else's mind. You
don't have to check your mind at the door, you don't have to check your doubts
at the door, you don't have to check your misgivings, your not quite sure
abouts, your conscience. . . it's yours. And not only do we not force belief of
details, we also celebrate those differences, we understand that we are all on
a journey, and that it is all a process, and that it is God's work, happening
in God's time not our own, and so we help each other on the way. . . finding
people where they are, accepting people where they are, learning together with
people where they are, helping people where they are, and loving people where
they are. We can change, grow, evolve, reform, constantly moving closer and
closer to the totality of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That is what it means to
be Presbyterian. That is what it means
to allow God, not any one of us to be Lord of yours, mine or anybody else's conscience,
God is in control, the God we serve is in control, so why would we need to fight
and seek control ourselves. . . it is central to our faith practice, and it is
in fact the precursor to freedom, and the foundational philosophical influence
on the founding of this nation. Born in Log colleges, Princeton up North,
Hampden-Sydney here in Virginia, freedom of the conscience, is the older
sibling of the first amendment, the basis for Religious Freedom. We should be
proud of it, and be a standard bearer for it in the world, but do we even know that
history, the Presbyterian place in that History, the huge influence of the First
Great Awakening in this fledgling nation? Do we even know that the battle for
Religious Freedom in America found its roots less than an hour's drive from
here, and that the founders of that faith are the ones who set up this church,
here in Gordonsville, so very long go. . .
but freedom is a dream, it is a seed, it is only the beginning, and it
goes no where without the second statement from our book of order I'm going to
read, and it is the point that we need to again seek to lead the world in
learning again. It is what we need to learn again. . .and it is what the
problem, the argument of my dream was about. It is subtitled:
F-3.0105
Mutual Forbearance
That,
while under the conviction of the above principle we think it necessary to make
effectual
provision that all who are admitted as teachers be sound in the faith, we also
believe
that there are truths and forms with respect to which men of good characters
and
principles
may differ. And in all these we think it the duty both of private Christians
and
societies
to exercise mutual forbearance toward each other.
Mutual forbearance. . . people can
believe different things, they may hold to differing principles, and in doing
so may disagree, but they, on both sides, can be of good character. . . and so
it is the "duty of both private Christians and societies to exercise
mutual forbearance." Having a different opinion is okay. . . being at a
different place is ok. . . so although we all have our opinions, and our
principles, and we may stubbornly hold to them, we may believe them to our
hearts core, we may be unwilling to let them go, let them be pried from our
dead fingers (if you could do such a thing), we would need to be respectful
that someone else just may have the same stubborn belief in the opposite, and still
be faithful Christians. . . can such things be in today's polarized world?
Consensus doesn't have to be. . . everyone doesn't have to agree? No one has a
monopoly on the truth. Though we may agree on many things, we don't have to
agree on everything. . . you don't have to have people agree with you to love
them, you only need them to agree if you want to control them. . . and Jesus'
example of love was not about forcibly changing peoples' minds, but instead
loving them to the cross hoping to inspire their hearts to love. . . love
inspires, love gives, love does not seek to control. And it might get messy. .
. it might be the harder way, the longer way. . . but the way would be that way
since it is founded in the cross.
I read in a
book about church, written by Rev. Tommy Nance, the former pastor at New Hanover
Presbyterian Church, that he had once heard that church can be like porcupines in
the cold. . . alone the porcupines perish, freezing to death, if they wish to survive
they must huddle together, though it may be difficult and painful to do so, survival
depends on it. What a picture of mutual forbearance. . . I know that I am pricking
you, and you me, but it is not the pain that divides us, but our need for each other
that makes the pain irrelevant. Can we be bonded despite our differences, embracing that struggle to be together. . . a strong question to ask when we seek so hard to push our own agenda forward. . . am I controlling people, am I setting people free, is it the will of God or my own?
I saw an
article a few months back in Christianity Today, the article was appalled that
only 42% of PCUSA pastors who were surveyed answered affirmatively to the idea
that Jesus Christ was the only means of salvation. . . Now I have to admit that
42% I thought was low, though the question is kinda dumb, in that other
religions don't necessarily claim something called "salvation." To a
buddhist, enlightenment is hardly salvation, neither really is paradise to a
Muslim, but that is beside the point. . . the other problem with the question
to Presbyterians I hope is that faith should not be about a multiple choice
test. . . and what does the Christianity Today publishing (I guess Majority)
folks, have business judging what people believe in the first place. . . the
article was trying to create lines and divide people, where Presbyterians seek
to be and do the opposite. . . because
who is served by those lines of division, really? Surely Not Christ, maybe our egos,
maybe our insecurities, maybe our need for order and control, but certainly not
Christ. Those divisions would leave us porcupines in need to die.
Nancy
Roache and I were talking the other week, and she told me she ran into someone,
I can't remember all the details, but he asked where she went to church, and
when she said, "the Presbyterian Church, here in town" he responded
with, "Presbyterian, huh, you're one of those seekers." That's it right.
. . I'm proud to be a seeker. . . I'm proud to seek with others. . . It's
honest. . . it's welcoming. . . and it is a place of faith. . . seeking God's
will in our lives, in our world, in our relationships, in our church. . .
seeking a path forward. . . seeking, to me is better than knowing, because
knowing is standing still. . . looking back. . . but seeking is looking
forward. . . and God, the God who is, whose name means "is" presence,
now, eternally now, eternally present, doesn't stand still. . . God led the
Israelite out Egypt through the Red Sea, waiting for that sea to part again,
misses the Ten Commandments, waiting at Mt. Sinai, misses Jesus. . . waiting at
the cross misses the empty tomb, and hanging out in the tomb misses the fact
that Jesus is risen, running loose in this world. . . you don't get closer to a
living God by standing still, but by seeking.
So on
today, where we look back to our past, we don't seek to go backward or back to
it. We worship here in a historic building, there is a great cloud of witnesses
that have passed through these doors and have occupied this space in faith
together. We share something with them, but we aren't them, and can't be. We
live in the present, seeking God here, to build the future according to his
will. Presbyterians have an important role to play in the future of this world,
and the future of this nation, and this the greater church. The world and all
of its parts needs to learn, and to remember, how to cherish the freedom of the
conscience. . . that we are all better, when we all get to be. . . that no one
is in the way, nor expendable, all truly held beliefs and principles are valid
as long as they are seeking truth. Hold on to your own, and help build others,
supporting, respecting, learning from, and teaching, the world needs much more
of this. . . and it is what we have always done well, let's not forget it, for
it through Christ is foundational to the freedom of the world.
This week
I wrote a fable, that I hope you all can take a look at, I put copies in the
back (http://revcoachatkinson.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-busy-body-beaver.html). In that fable there is a beaver, whose job was to secure the dam, to plug
the leaks, for it was the foundation of life for the rest, but he forsook his
job, trying to do for the others, to do their jobs for them, he forgot his own,
to the destruction of all. We have a job to do, like the foot, the knee, the
brain, the eye, all and each are valid and important and crucial for God's world.
He made all of us and he needs all of us, and if there is a them, he needs them
too. And we are all Christians. . . despite being so in our unique ways, and to
quote one of the Presbyterian fighters for religious freedom, Samuel Davies
"that is our highest distinction" and as Christians Christ said that
we are to seek first the kingdom of God, and all the rest shall be added unto us. . . if you look at what God made, there is
much beauty, but not much symmetry, it is much more diverse, much more messy, much
more made with a hand and eye for detail and distinction, should the kingdom of
God to which we seek, be any different, one yes, but not one formed of conformity,
one formed community of uniqueness, may we seek that kingdom, may he lead us to
do so. Amen.
[1]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Eph 1:3-14). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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