Community Church of Wilmette

Apr 19, 2009

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Sermon: The Second Sunday of Easter
The Community Church of Wilmette
April 19, 2009

What is it about preaching on the Sunday after Easter that is so difficult? Is it the blissful exhaustion? Last year at this time Trish and I were in Galena trying not to buy pottery.

Aren’t we done? What went wrong? Weren’t we all together here just last week?

Alleluia! The Lord is Risen!
The Lord is Risen, indeed! Alleluia!
(Just checking.)

I mean, didn’t we do this already? I know that Easter is a fifty-day season, but aren’t we done? Jesus is resurrected. Isn’t that the end of the story?

Apparently not.

Now we need to talk about belief. We have this story about Thomas and his conditions for belief and Jesus’ statements about what it means to believe without seeing. So, now that we have proclaimed the resurrection the world begs the question: “Really?”

When I was going through the ordination process for the ABC I had to answer several essay questions. There were fifteen or so total, I think. I’m not sure. These things begin to blur together after a while. But I do remember the first question:

Please share with us a concise statement of your faith.

Or, in other words: What do you believe? It’s a good question. So, I did what any good baptist would do given such an opportunity; I picked a fight. Here is my answer.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

I offered up the Apostle’s Creed. And, yes, there were many challenges to my answer. Why a creed? Why this particular creed (there are others)? Can you preach it?

Can you live it?

Ah…There you go. There’s the issue. Can you live your statement of faith? This is something that all of us likely struggle with on some level. It’s not so much that you have a statement of faith, though that’s important, but the real question is this: Can you live it?

Do you live it?

Back in the day, you know, when the Apostles were still living and Peter had his little church start in Jerusalem, they did not have the Apostle’s Creed. They were all like Thomas. “My Lord and My God.” They had their experience of Jesus and his resurrection. That’s all. No theological proof, no systematic theology with footnotes. They had Jesus…and they had one another. And they felt that in some way, the Good News of the Resurrection should guide them in the way that they lived together. Scripture reminds us that they “held all things in common.”

We can try to turn this into a coherent economic theory. It’s tempting, but I think that’s a distraction from the point. The point is this: They changed the way they lived in order to live into the resurrection of Jesus. They wanted the way that they live to reflect the encounter with resurrection that they all shared. They wanted to live what they believed. No more. No less. And it led to a radical transformation of their community and, history suggests, of the communities around them.

And, no, it did not last. Some scholars speak of the Acts community as a failed model. They are correct to do so if our goal is to keep the specifics of the shared life of Peter’s church. But if we step back we can begin to see that the point is not about the specifics but about living in a way that proclaims Resurrection. “My Lord and My God”

The Acts community did not go away, though the church in Jerusalem would not last. Other communities adopted the model in their own ways.

Later, Christian monasticism would pick up the model for itself. Communities that held all things in common would arise and many still exist today: Taize in France, Reba Place in Evanston, Iona in Scotland, and let’s not forget the various forms of ancient monasticism that our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters still maintain…These communities are not intended to make the rest of us feel like part-time Christians. Or to give us an excuse to slack off in living a resurrection life. Not at all. Their existence is to remind us that we are all, in our own way, communities proclaiming the Resurrection. They are meant to inspire us.

Richmond Hill, an ecumenical monastic community of sorts is still a place of inspiration for me. I return again and again to the rule of life there, the values and virtues of that community attempting to live out a Resurrection faith.

The Rule of Richmond Hill
Conversion of Life "Conversatio": Living one's life as if it were a conversation with God, in a commitment to personal spiritual disciplines.
Obedience: Living one's life in response to God's will, in a commitment to the mission of the community.
Community: Living one's life as life together, in a commitment to shared mission and a common life.
Simplicity: Living one's life without excess, in a commitment to a modest use of resources that resists greed and consumerism.
Humility: Living one's life in perspective, in a commitment to assess and honor one's own gifts and those of others.
Hospitality: Living one's life in service of others, in a commitment to welcome guests in love and a spirit of prayer.
Prayer: Practicing a spiritual discipline that includes daily prayer for metropolitan Richmond in concert with the Richmond Hill Community.
Racial reconciliation: Examining oneself, paying attention to the particular wounds of race in metropolitan Richmond, and to the setting right of racial wrongs.
Healing: Committing one's own life to inner healing and to the healing of the larger community of metropolitan Richmond
Ecumenism: Honoring all expressions of Christian faith, respecting in Jesus' name all persons of other religions and faiths
Christian social transformation: Praying and working for the coming of the Kingdom of God in metropolitan Richmond.
Stability "Stabilitas": Pledging to pray and work for the permanent transformation of the metropolitan city.

How are we here at Community Church living out our Resurrection faith? How are we living into the answer to that time old question: What do you believe? If a guest came through our doors, would they encounter a community living into “a concise statement of faith?” Would it be obvious? Would it be transformative? Does it challenge us still to live differently, to be transformed by God?

Resurrection changes things. It moves people. It transforms communities. It proclaims life and not death. It proclaims justice and mercy. It seeks the redemption of all people, their reconciliation and healing. It does not shy away from the difficult questions of life. It is invitational. It is challenging.

The North Shore is in need of transformation. It is no different than any other community in the world. The economics of this world are crushing people. The pressures that we have invented all on our own do not sustain. They simply demand more and more. Lives are being destroyed. Here. And elsewhere. No one is immune.

This community is in need of resurrection, in need of resurrection communities proclaiming something beyond themselves, something life giving, sustaining, transforming, loving, gentle, and willing to sit in the darkness with people.

God.
Jesus.
Resurrection.

People need an invitation to this life.

We have to believe that what we believe is worth sharing, that people need what God is offering.

Resurrection life can take us in many directions. There’s no one template for how it works. Taize is not Richmond Hill is not Church of the Holy Whatsit or Community Church of Wilmette. But each of us is called to live out the resurrection, to live out what we believe.

You will continue to see signs of resurrection in the life of this church.

A rainbow flag on the church sign outside
welcoming all to be part of God’s beloved community
A synagoge worshiping here on Friday nights
Opportunities to serve all over Chicago-land
Students learning how to ply their trade
Children will learn to sing and dance
A vegetable garden that will, one day, be tended by us and our neighbors
as a sign of shared hospitality and sustainability
Opportunities to learn how to articulate and share our own spiritual journeys
in our families, with our friends and neighbors

You will see new things…and familiar things. And if we are intentional they will proclaim resurrection and invite people into a life where we “hold all things in common.”

Lives will be transformed.

Last week Jesus was raised. The God that was dead is Alive again. Can’t we rest now? Aren’t we done?

No. Easter is a fifty-day season. And the Spirit is soon to come. The work of the church has only just begun.

Alleluia! The Lord is Risen!
The Lord is Risen, indeed! Alleluia.

Thanks be to God.