Anatomy of a Living Faith
Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church
A warm welcome to each worshipper today. We
celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of
people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His
compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it
really means to be Christians today.
As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of
all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full
participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the
congregation.
943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com
/ www.easternparkwayumc.com
Welcome to Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church
January 23, 2022
10:00 a.m.
*You are invited to stand in body or in spirit
Prelude
Greeting and Announcements
Mission Statement:
We are a faith community
striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.
Call to Worship
Adapted from a post on the United Church of Christ’s
Worship Ways Archive. http://www.ucc.org/ Reposted: https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/01/call-to-worship-we-have-come.html.
We have come to worship God, the living God,
Who calls prophets and teachers to bear witness.
We have come to praise God, the almighty God,
Who answers the forces of hatred and hurt with the power of grace.
We have come to worship God, all-gracious God,
Who chooses even you and me,
to receive and carry the Word of life and hope.
All glory to God!
*Hymn Blessed Be Thy
Name #63
Prayer of Confession:
Waiting God, you know us all too well. We listen to
this episode in the life of Jesus. We hear the astonishment of the people
gathered in worship as Jesus proclaims the mandate and scope of his ministry.
It is what they had hoped for and also what they have feared. Change and
challenge are always difficult. We are more inclined to turn our backs on
opportunities of service than pitch in to affect the needed changes that will
promote healing and wholeness. Forgive us when we give lip service to you and
then slip into inaction. Give us courage to be willing disciples. Help us to be
people of promise and hope. In Jesus' Name, we offer this prayer. AMEN.
Written by Nancy C. Townley
Assurance
Jesus
has opened the doors for service to each one of us. We have been freed from our
fears and doubts. Rejoice, dear fiends! In Jesus' Name, we are forgiven and
healed. AMEN.
Anthem
Scripture Reading
1 Corinthians 12: 12-31
One Body with Many Members
12 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. 13 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.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one
member but of many. 15 If the foot would say,
“Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it
any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear
would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would
not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the
whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were
hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But
as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he
chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would
the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members,
yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I
have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of
you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body
that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and
those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater
honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas
our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the
body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that
there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same
care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all
suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with
it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and
individually members of it. 28 And God has
appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then
deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of
leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all
apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do
all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But
strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
Sermon Anatomy of a Living
Faith
Good morning,
friends.
Since Paul’s
got us talking about religious in-fighting this morning, I wanted to start us
off with: How many Christians does it take to change a lightbulb?
Charismatic: Only 1 –
Hands are already in the air.
Pentecostal: 10 – One
to change the bulb, and nine to pray against the spirit of darkness.
Presbyterians: None –
Lights will go on and off at predestined times.
Baptists: At least
15 – One to change the light bulb, and three committees to approve the change
and decide who brings the potato salad and fried chicken.
Episcopalians: 3 – One
to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks, and one to talk about how much
better the old one was.
Unitarians: We
choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a
light bulb. However, if in your own journey you have found that light bulbs
work for you, you are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about
your light bulb for the next Sunday service, in which we will explore a number
of light bulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, 3-way, long-life
and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence.
Lutherans: Undetermined
– Whether your light is bright, dull, or completely out, you are loved. You can
be a light bulb, turnip bulb, or tulip bulb. Bring a bulb of your choice to the
Sunday lighting service and a covered dish to pass.
Methodists: None – Methodists
don’t believe in change.
Back in 2014,
Christian author Thomas Rainer came out with a book that was very important,
and easily understood and digested by churches…but that also made most of us
very nervous, like a truly prophetic text will. The title was Autopsy of a Deceased
Church.
Rainer penned it in response to serving as an evangelism consultant for a number
of churches, several of which ultimately closed after many years of painful
decline. This book offered much great advice, but made pastors and churches
nervous because it held up a mirror to our congregations, and we didn’t all
like what we saw. The nameless midwestern church that Rainer used as his
example in the book’s introduction was especially difficult to read because
Rainer described a situation that most clergy have seen play out in exactly the
way Rainer did many times. A church in middle America that longed for “the good
old days”. In the early 1970s the averaged 750 people in worship on Sunday
morning. By the time Rainer met them, they were averaging 60. They reluctantly
brought in a consultant because they didn’t actually want to change anything.
They blamed their steep decline on “that one bad pastor” and “not enough
chicken barbecues” and “the kids these days with their rap music”. The current
membership of this church was resentful, stressed to the max, and very
depressed. If they wanted to keep their church they’d have to fight for it, and
no one was up for the fight anymore. They shut their doors a decade later.
I’ve got good
news coming, though, I promise. And so did Rainer in his book. It takes a lot
to have a healthy congregation these days, and to keep that vitality going. But
it can be accomplished by dedicated disciples of Christ. The gift Rainer gave
us is the opportunity to honestly ask, What is a Church? What makes it great? And
most of all, who makes it great? Today, since the lectionary-appointed words of
Paul encourage it, I think we should look at the autopsy of the deceased
church, but we should look at it in light of the anatomy of a living faith, the
thing that keeps the Church alive.
That personal
discipleship is key, though. Churches these days can be as fad-focused as they’ve
ever been, and after 2 years of the coronavirus pandemic wreaking as much havoc
in our houses of worship as it has in the rest of the world, many of our
churches feel stressed. With so many of our churches going virtual in the last
2 years for safety reasons, it’s been tempting to think that the “good churches”,
the ones that are going to make it, are the ones with the best tech equipment,
the most money to put toward it, and the most social media engagement. But those
things while helpful in the short term, won’t save a church any more than
praise bands, flashy presentations, and better coffee did a few decades ago,
when those things came in vogue. What makes our churches thrive is Jesus.
Specifically, what Jesus fuels in all of us.
When Paul
wrote the words of this morning’s scripture reading, he was counseling a church
that wasn’t dying, but that wasn’t exactly living, either. It was his church in
Corinth, on a port in the Mediterranean. They were a great church in a great
town, and had everything they needed to do great things in the name of Jesus.
Still, they were destroying their own congregation with their in-fighting. We
don’t see modern churches do that, do we? Nah. What’s Paul going on about?
Well, 2,000 years later, the names of the towns have changed, and the topics of
the arguments have changed, but church people are still basically the same.
Rainer tells
us that many churches that eventually die suffer a slow erosion first. They
aren’t blind to those losses, it’s just that they tend to focus exclusively on
the obvious metrics: bodies in the pews and dollars in the plate. But those two
numbers naturally fluctuate, and at best, when they dip they’re just a symptom
of a bigger problem. Luckily, Paul’s church in Corinth hadn’t suffered losses
in those two areas, but they were already facing a huge erosion of respect for
one another. When that goes, so does good ministry. In the anatomy of a living
faith, the first thing you need is love and respect for all around you.
Rainer goes on
to tell us that many dying and dead churches idolize the past, and often it’s
not even their actual past that they think so fondly of, it’s their sepia-tinted
selective memories of it. Back in the good old days, when Rev. Beloved was the
pastor, the hymns were both contemporary and traditional, the Sunday schools were
overflowing with perfectly-behaved children, they were running out of pew space
for all the active members, there was a baptism, a perfect celebration of the
Lord’s Supper, and a deep and inspirational sermon every week, and yet the
service never went a second over the 60-minute mark. The pastor was always available
in his office, yet present all over the community. He was 40 years old with 30 years of experience, and
immersed himself in continuing education and very rigorous work yet had good
work-life balance and was a great dad. Did I mention he had to be a man? In Paul’s
church in Corinth, though it had been mere decades since Jesus’ earthly life
ended, people still saw fit to fight about what he was really like, and what he
wanted his church to be like. In the anatomy of a living faith, we don’t dwell
on the past. We have respect for tradition, and love for those who served God
before us, but we live in the now.
Rainer’s next point taps deeply into the problems
of the church in Corinth. A dying church doesn’t connect with the community
around it, doesn’t reflect its makeup and values, and doesn’t want to connect
with the neighbors. Paul, to his deep dismay, discovered that his parishioners
in Corinth weren’t at all interested in celebrating their community’s
diversity. Living right on the Sea, their members came from everywhere, and had
many different strengths, backgrounds, and talents. Instead of utilizing all
those wonderful skills, the church in Corinth made a caste system of who was “the
best”, with “the most to offer” their community. In today’s world, when
congregations stop caring about the diverse experiences and gifts of their
neighbors, they die. In the anatomy of a living faith, our hands are those of
builders, handyfolks, knitters, mathematicians, and musicians. Our voices are
those of preachers, singers, teachers, and liturgists. Our feet are those of
food bank volunteers, and community activists. Our arms hug the grieving, and
welcome new members. Our minds imagine new ministries. We celebrate all gifts,
and embrace this joyous community.
Rainer continues, and takes issue with churches
where the budget is only focused on the people who are already here, members
stop even thinking about going out and making disciples, and Jesus commissioned
us to do, and peoples’ nit-picky preferences drive all church decisions. Dying
churches forget there’s anything outside these walls. They lose their sense of
mission, and repeat over and over that they “just want to keep the doors open”.
They stop praying, they fixate on paying bills, and they forget what a church
really is.
The church in Corinth absolutely experienced these
faults. Every church has at some point. It’s because every church experiences
stress, and when stress feels threatening, churches turn inward. When churches
face conflict, as Corinth did, they can spin into crisis management and self
preservation. We make the critical mistake of thinking it would be better to
loose our mission work than to loose members, money, or stuff within.
The most important feature in the anatomy of a
living faith is that such a faith understands that someday this church might
close or merge, and that’s ok. Someday all our members could get up and go, and
that’s ok. Someday our bank account could be completely drained, and that’s ok.
Because none of those things are our faith, and none of those things are the
church.
The Church is not a building,
The Church is not a steeple,
The Church is not a resting place,
The Church is the people.
I am the Church.
You are the Church.
We are the Church together.
All who follow Jesus all around the world,
Yes we’re the Church together!
Amen.
*Hymn I Have Decided to Follow Jesus #2129
Led by
the Front Porch Rockers
Offertory
*Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
Time of Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Lord of patience and persistence, the scriptures from
Isaiah's scroll were not new to the people gathered on that day for worship.
Many times before they had heard the words and in their hearts hoped that the
mandate could become a reality in their lives. But none moved forward. Then
Jesus proclaimed that God had called him to bring good news to the poor; to
proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to let the
oppressed go free; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. How startled they
were! At last, with confidence, Jesus forced the issues and the mandate. God
has fulfilled God's promise in the person of Jesus. Now something was going to
be done. No more lip service; no more fear; no more waiting. Now the time had
come. It is no different today than it was 2000 years ago. We still want
someone else to pick up the reins; to lead the charge, to do the work. But God,
through the witness of Jesus, is calling each of us to the task. The promise of
hope and justice is given to this world. And we have become bearers of that
promise. Now is the time for work and witness. Now is the time for hope and
peace. Now is the time for each one of us to do our part in establishing God's
kingdom. Lord, get us ready for service. Pick us up; dust us off, and put us on
the pathways of justice. In Jesus' Name, we offer this prayer. AMEN.
Our Father, Mother, Creator God, who art in Heaven,
hallowed by thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy Will be done on Earth as it is in
Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those who have trespassed against us. And lead us not into temptation but
deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory
forever. Amen.
*Hymn
Stand Up and Bless the Lord #662
Benediction
Postlude
_____________________________________________
Staff
Natalie Bowerman Pastor
Betsy Lehmann Music Director
Joe White Custodian
Cassandra Brown
Nursery
Attendant
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