When I was in 8th
grade, I was invited by this church to begin a confirmation class.
As part of this class I was
assigned a mentor, John Luther, who I would meet with on a regular basis and
talk with about life and the gospel of Mark, which everyone in the class was
required to read and reflect on.
I don’t remember much of the
what of our conversations.
But I do remember the where
and the how.
Meaning – I don’t remember
exactly what we talked about – though I imagine there was some part that had to
do with the gospel of Mark – some part that had to do with oldies on the radio
no doubt
But I do remember that we had
conversations about the spiritual life while milking cows.
And I’ll never forget
learning how to milk a cow during the first meeting.
I’m not sure if this is a
standard practice for teaching someone how to milk,
But as I was leaning in to
see just what John was doing with his hand so I could imitate it
John turned the spray in my
direction and laughed as I jumped back with surprise.
As I said I don’t remember
all of the specific content of what we talked about – this was 14 years
ago.
But I do remember learning
that the barn is as good a place as any – and possibly better!
To talk about faith.
I remember learning to
respect someone who I had seen in church and in the community and now saw at
work and heard talk about his own thoughts about God.
It was the beginning of a
relationship which has continued to the present day –
I was reminded of that
confirmation experience this week when I visited the barn and had a good long
chat with John while he was milking.
I think this is how I’ve
grown in my spiritual life, in my faith.
It has not been mostly in my
personal research or study or attempts at a disciplined regimen of individual
spiritual exercises –
It has by far been through
relationships with people in my community who have shared their experiences
along the road.
Some of these have been
really healthy and enriching relationships – and I count the dairy farmer among
those.
And some of these have been
not as healthy, sometimes downright unhealthy.
This is the one of the
uncertainties of becoming a part of a spiritual community –
I learn through interacting
with and observing and imitating those people I come to respect.
And I thank God for putting
people in my life who have shown me grace and wisdom and unconditional love –
because there have been others who have taught me the way of perfectionism or
performance-acceptance.
At other times in my younger
life and into college I found myself under the influence of people who, though
they would never claim this themselves, practically functioned as though God
were a perfectionist overlord whom I could never please and it was only through
continually acknowledging my incompetence and miserable failures that I could
experience God’s mercy.
God was less of a loving
parent and more of an exacting sovereign who simply could not accept me for who
I am, and had to look away as he allowed me to come into God’s family.
The problem is that you can
read the scriptures to justify such a view and once you’ve bought into certain
key premises, the scriptures become a poisoned well at which we drink and become
sick with anxiety or fear, motivating us to anxious spiritual practice in order
to maintain favor of God and community.
Especially when you begin to
realize that you cannot believe the things that they said God wants you to
believe. Then you realize that you are
not only out of God’s favor, but also outside of their favor too.
Legalism, perfectionism – it
has left a huge scar that I carry with me.
And it wasn’t some isolated
sense of the rightness of the beliefs that carried me into the legalistic
community. It was my relationship with
peers and teachers in that community that made me love them and consequently
love the certainty with which they understood the world and the conviction and
purpose with which they lived. I still
love these people, but I can no longer live or believe as they live or believe –
I “have not so learned Christ.”
It is through relationships
in community that we grow and learn – and sometimes that is a very positive
experience, but sometimes for me that has been a harmful experience.
But I also know that it’s not
just been my own experience.
I was listening to a radio
broadcast by Krista Tippett interviewing Scott Atran, a social scientist who
has done extensive work on the subject of the creation of terrorist
communities.
What he said was surprising
but after I thought about it made complete sense to me.
He was talking about what the
greatest predictor is for someone becoming a terrorist, willing to do extreme
acts of violence for a cause. We often
think it has something to do with religious belief.
But he said in his research
and field observation he has found that it’s “not religious inculcation, …it's
not religious training, …it's not even religious tradition, what could it
possibly be? And again, it's first of all who your friends are. That's the
greatest predictor of everything.”
I encourage you to listen to
or read the transcript of the interview on the internet – I can give you the
address after the service.
What is it that inspires us
to do the greatest acts of love or the greatest acts of hatred?
It can’t be the whole answer,
but a really big part of it is who our friends are – what community we take
part in.
And this is because we grow
and become who we are by admiration of and imitation of those people we love,
inspired by those things we love about them.
This is the way that the
faith of Christ grew in the time of the early church.
In Paul’s letter to the
Thessalonian church he writes about who thankful he is for their example to him
and to other communities around them, their “work of faith,” their “labor of
love,” and their “steadfastness of hope” (1:3)
With appreciation he recalls what he remembers of
their journey of faith as a community:
“you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution
you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you
became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the
word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but in every place your faith in God has become known.” (1:6-8a)
It was to such an extent that the early Christian
writer Tertullian wrote that Romans who may have otherwise dismissed this weird
religious group, would still remark, “Behold how they love one another!”
God’s grace transforms communities through the
relationships of respect and mutual care that are created and sustained over
time. In worship, in fellowship, in
dairy barns, at one another’s homes, at the Transfer station, over coffee at a
café.
As we talk with one another, as we walk with one
another – we provide opportunity for each other to grow in our understanding
and practice of the way of Christ.
As the proverb puts it, “Iron sharpens iron, and
one person sharpens the wits of another.”
I encourage you to look around this room and behold
the relationships there are which can provide wisdom and insight, and most of
all example of living well and loving God and neighbor.
And consider others in your life who have been this
for you – and value them, appreciate them and remember what you have learned
from them.
Because we’re not in this alone.
As we read in Ephesians 2:19 and 20:
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as
the cornerstone.”
In the way of Christ we are set free from the fear
of judgment and are given the opportunity to learn the way of grace, realizing
despite all of the messages we hear through the media, that we are no longer
strangers and aliens, but sisters and brothers, members of the household of
God.
Let us live into this beloved community and may the
relationships which gives us greater awareness of God’s grace and wisdom –
create a place which manifests God’s welcome to weary and beat-down legalists
like I once was.
Because when I returned to this church after years
of being away,
I felt like I had rediscovered my spiritual home.
And for that welcome and that care I am forever
grateful.
Amen.
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