If I Were Joining The Church Today...

October 25, 1992

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Scripture: Psalms 122; Romans 12

I remember very well the day I joined the Church. In fact, I remember it quite vividly.

It’s forever etched in my memory. I was 12 years old, and for several weeks prior to the big day, I had been a member of the preacher’s Membership Training Class, as it was called then. We met in his office, large and booklined. There was an enormous desk, on which was situated a green blotter, a fountain pen, and a King James Bible. On the corner of the desk rested an alabaster bust of John Wesley.

The whole thing was just rigorously Methodist, as I look back on it now. Even the odor

of the office, which I can still recall, was unmistakably the essence of ecclesiastical

sanctity. I have every expectation that that’s how heaven will smell. If it doesn’t, I’ll

be extraordinarily surprised.

We attended the class on Saturday mornings...and learned about the Discipline,

and about Circuit Riders, and about the inscrutable doctrine of the Trinity.... I thought I was the only one who didn’t understand it, but I have since learned that our numbers are legion.

Bronnie was in the class—we would play ball together after the sessions--- and best of all there was Norma, she of the pigtails, and deep-cratered dimples. She laughed a lot and was wonderfully creative in finding mischievous things to do.

We all went through the class, under the formal, dignified, but kind tutelage of Dr. Blackburn, whom some of you may even remember. We heard much, and absorbed some, much more by osmosis than by reasoned effort, but gaining all the time a sense that it was important, and that somehow it was a thing God wanted us to do.

We joined on Palm Sunday...green fronds bedecked the alter, I remember.... I can still

see them in my imagination, and Dr. Blackburn talked about children having a special place in the Kingdom, and how everybody who really wanted to know God had to become like a little child.

Then we came and stood at the chancel rail, Bronnie, and Norma, and some others and me, and repeated some vows that have been hallowed by years of usage. We pledged our allegiance to God, and God’s minister put his hand on our heads and received us into the Church. What a day!

I didn’t comprehend it all, but I remember it.... I know I was proud and happy that day. My father and mother were proud. Even my little sister somehow seemed more tolerable than was usually the case. I have never forgotten the day I joined the Church.

I WONDER IF YOU REMEMBER THE DAY YOU JOINED THE CHURCH? If there weren’t so many here and we had more time, I’d suggest we stop and talk about it.

Where was it, for you, do you remember? Maybe for some of you it was a little country

church somewhere, out in a rural area...that’s where country churches are, for the most

part, out in rural areas.

Or maybe for some of you, it was in a large, urban sanctuary. For some of you, it was right here, wasn’t it, at this very altar, where maybe later on you stood and were married, and where you’ve come through the years to receive Communion, and where maybe you’ve come from time to time and knelt and prayed in the quietness about something that was on your heart.

DON’T KID YOURSELF. A lot of significant things have happened here, and at the altars that have preceded this one...for over 107 years. Many of you have your own personal

remembrances.

I frankly didn’t understand when I joined the Church some of the deeper implications of what it was all about.... I knew it was important. I knew it was good.... I knew I wanted to be a part of it, but the meaning of it, for me, has increased as I’ve grown, and come to see myself and the Church with greater clarity.

I wish sometimes I could go back and go through the process again...and not just to see whatever became of Norma, either.... I believe if I could do it over, knowing what I do now, I could improve. I believe I could do a better job than I had done the first time.

Will you let me speculate about it with you, not only for the benefit of those we receive into our membership this morning, but for all of us as we consider what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ.

1) IF I WERE JOINING THE CHURCH TODAY, I hope, first of all, that I would be conscious

of the sacrifice of those who made it possible for me to have a Church. I mean by that I hope I would be mindful that the cost of church membership through the years has not been paid for cheaply. For a good “chunk” of the time that has elapsed since the founding of the Church it was no light thing to decide to belong.... NOR WAS IT NEARLY AS SIMPLE AS IT IS NOW.

Did you know that candidates for membership in the early decades of the Christian era were required to be on probation for two full years before they could join? TWO FULL YEARS. We ask people to be in a class here for four weeks, but they required two years of intense training...and it WAS intense.

During that period they were called “catechumen”, which means “learners”. Our word

catechism comes from the Greek root.

Some scholars think the Gospel of Matthew was probably the first Membership Training Manual....That’s intriguing, isn’t it? The way it’s organized,  in three’s, and five’s and seven’s makes it easier to memorize. It talks a lot about  sacrifice, and discipline, and taking up your cross...training in the art of being a Christian. You didn’t just show up one morning at a worship service and decide to join, you see. It took time.

It took intentionality. It was SERIOUS. Why? Because being a member of the Church---aligning yourself with the Christian cause---quite likely could mean losing your job, losing your reputation.... and maybe losing your life. IT WAS A SERIOUS BUSINESS. One didn’t jump into it without a lot of careful consideration. If I had been living in those days, I wonder if I would have had the “guts” to be a catechumen?

Do you know why the doors of some churches are painted red? You’ve seen them, mostly on Episcopalian and Lutheran Churches...some others, too. Do you know why the front doors are painted red? Sure, it’s a symbol of blood, a stark, vivid reminder that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, and that through the centuries there have been those undaunted members who loved freedom, and principle, and Christ more than they loved their own skins.

You can make a list of them. Their stories send chills up your spine---Ignatius, Polycarp...86 years old when he died for the Faith... the young Veronica, Latimer and Ridley...Thomas Cranmer, thrusting his hand into the fire to atone for his earlier weakness in recanting under duress.... And come on down the line, even into this century.... Dietrich Bonhoffer, going to death in the concentration camp at Flossenburg... and that teenage girl in Guatemala we learned about when we lived in Central America--- who, in the custody of right-wing goons of the militia, refused to spit on a picture of Jesus, even when told it was all she had to do in order to walk out free.... It made them so angry they upped the ante in ways too gross even to talk about, and she still refused. ONE OF THE LARGEST PROTESTANT CHURCHES IN GUATEMALA IS NAMED FOR THAT GIRL. The blood of the martyrs IS the seed of the Church.

Nobody in this congregation has been asked to pay that kind of price, thank God, but don’t think sacrifice, and self-denial, and sweat haven’t been present in the 107-year history of this Church’s pilgrimage.... We are here today, we can worship today; we have a Church today because a lot of people before us have given of themselves even at great personal expense, to make it possible. GOD HELP US NOT TO THINK OF IT AS A CLUB, or just as a “nice” thing to belong to, because others do.

The Church of Jesus Christ is a blood-formed organization. I hope we never forget that. The death and resurrection of Christ established it, and the rent has been high ever since. IF I WERE JOINING THE CHURCH TODAY, I would remember those payments, and take my personal vows with humility and seriousness.

2) Again, IF I WERE JOINING THE CHURCH TODAY, I hope I would remember the positive things the Church has accomplished. I guess I’m just a little tired of being defensive all the time about the Church. OF COURSE it’s not a perfect institution. We know that. OF COURSE it makes mistakes---it has PEOPLE in it, and any organization with people in it is bound to have flaws.

But when you look at the record, over the long haul, the Church has done a rather remarkable job of bearing witness to the love of God in Jesus Christ, and of standing up for human dignity and decency for Jesus’ sake.

We haven’t done as well as we’d like to have done.... We haven’t done as well as we ought to have done.... BUT WHAT WE HAVE DONE is not to be sneezed at. As E. Stanley Jones once expressed it, “The Church has plenty of critics. But it doesn’t have any RIVALS in its attempt to carry out the will of God on earth.”

Even those who don’t believe in it have to admit, if they’re honest at all, that life is better because of the Church’s ministries. It was the Church, historically, that formed the first colleges and universities in this era. It was the Church that WAS the educational institution, for centuries, the ONLY group for a while working to keep alive the flickering torch of knowledge and learning.

It was the Church that sponsored the first hospitals, and the first clinics, and the first orphanages.... It was the Church, or Church people, who first spoke out against the evils of slavery, and the obscenities of child labor.

The Methodist Church especially---and I don’t mean to be chauvinistic about it...we  don’t have a monopoly on Christian Social Concern---but the Methodist Church really got started with John Wesley going out at 5:00 in the morning to the coal miners around Bristol, England, to preach to those grimy colliers, who almost never saw the sun, and had almost nothing to live for, to tell them that they DID have something to live for, that they were children of God, and THEREFORE---that was a big word for Wesley...THEREFORE...they ought and could be different.

The mine owners didn’t always like what Wesley said...can you imagine? That message

has implications that bear the seeds of radical change.

Some of the top ecclesiastical brass didn’t like it, either. They told Mr. Wesley to stop...BUT HE WENT ANYWAY. He went because he believed it was right. And maybe the Church has rarely shone with greater resplendence.

AND THE LUSTER CONTINUES. In our day I see it shining through the response some of our people are making to needs around them. Right now ten of our members...ten persons from this congregation are down at Homestead in South Florida serving as a work team to help rebuild one of the homes devastated by Hurricane Andrew. They left here at 5:00 yesterday morning, and they’ll return sometime this evening, tired and probably hungry, but I’ll bet you a dollar to a doughnut they’ll be exhilarated. You ask them and see if they regret going.

Some of you attended the Habitat for Humanity dedication last Sunday afternoon over on the west side of town. It was a joy to see the faces of the families who are now benefitting from the efforts of that project. A lot of people worked hard, and gave generously to make it happen. For a while it didn’t look like it could be done, but now they tell us that the success of that undertaking has lit a spark. There are now SEVEN MORE Habitat for Humanity houses scheduled for construction over there.

These are examples of how it works. Through the Church people get fired up and want

to do something to make a difference.

And some go down to the Coalition for the Homeless and serve a meal.... and some help tutor remedial students at the McKnight Center for Excellence.... and some more go to Costa Rica to build a home for expectant mothers.... and some labor to make a Family Emergency Services Center a reality right here in Winter Park.... Go over to the Fellowship Hall after the  service and look at the pictures of some of our people engaged in these ministries...and put your name on the dotted line to help with one or more of them....

Is the Church perfect? No, but IF I WERE JOINING THE CHURCH TODAY, I hope I would be

able to look beyond the obvious flaws, and problems, and irrelevancies that are admittedly there in the ecclesiastical picture and be able to focus on the positive things that are even more prominent.

There is much to criticize, but there is even more to glory in, and out of simple gratitude,

I think, I’d have to cast my lot with those who want to work to make her even greater.

3) Now there’s more. I apologize if I’m coming on with what Bishop Moore used to call “unbecoming earnestness”, but I can get worked up about this. IF I WERE JOINING THE CHURCH TODAY, in addition to remembering some things, and being grateful for some things, I THINK THERE ARE SOME THINGS I WOULD BE ENTITLED TO EXPECT.

I would expect my Church not to play games with me. I would be disappointed if it should focus its attention, and its resources, and its energy on concerns that in the long run don’t make any real difference. I would expect it to deal with big issues, issues of meaning, and purpose, and significance. I would be disappointed and saddened if I felt I were coming to worship primarily to be entertained. I would expect my church to speak to me of death, and grief, and identity, and anxiety, and how I can cope effectively with what has been laid on me, and I can come to know more personally the Lord Jesus Christ.

THOSE ARE BIG ISSUES, AREN’T THEY? The Church is the only institution that majors in

those kinds of questions. They’re things I’m concerned about. I would expect my Church to help me wrestle with them. I would expect my church to be honest with me. I would not expect it to know all the answers, but I would expect it not to try to “snow” me. I would not want it, as Jeremiah once wrote, to cry, “Peace, peace, when there was no peace...” or “Brotherhood”, when there was discrimination, or “Harmony”, when there was injustice.

Though it might make me squirm, I really would want my Church to prod me when I was negligent, to warn me when I erred, to unsettle me when I became too comfortable.

I would want it to challenge me with the best in Christian thinking and scholarship, even if it meant being asked to question some cherished presuppositions.... and I would want it not to soft pedal the rigorous inclusiveness of the call to Christian discipleship.

I would expect my Church to take care of how it spent its money...the money contributed by its people. I would expect it to remember that it, too, is a STEWARD, a TRUSTEE for God, not an owner in any fundamental sense....  The resources at our disposal don’t belong to us...they’re on LOAN to us, to be used properly and for God’s glory, and then turned over to somebody else’s charge. Implications? You bet--- I would expect my Church to be prodigal in its giving for others, and frugal in its spending on itself. I would expect it to think of itself as a servant community, a giving community, not simply as a receiving house.

I would expect it to think responsibly about its priorities, its mandate, its mission, and not worry too much about who gets credit for what. I would expect my Church to be a CARING outfit...maybe that as much as anything. I’d hope it would also be friendly, that’s a part of caring, but what I mean goes even deeper.

I think we have a right to expect the institution that represents the embodiment of the Christ Spirit to be deeply concerned about what happens to its constituents. Nothing hurts me more personally than when there’s a breakdown here. It happens sometimes, but it ought not to happen on a regular basis.

A Church that makes mistakes is understandable. It’s probably even inevitable. A Church that blunders can be lived with. BUT WHAT IS NOT TOLERABLE IN A CHURCH is for human need to be ignored, for human hurt to be shrugged off as if it didn’t exist. Whatever a Church does or doesn’t do, it must as least reflect the mind of Christ enough to bleed in identification with those for whom its Founder died.

I would not expect my Church to be perfect, BUT I WOULD EXPECT IT TO CARE.

And I would expect it to proclaim, triumphantly, and as winsomely as it can, the greatness and grandeur of the Living God. For you see, despite all the problems that are out there, it’s a POSITIVE thing, finally, that is ours to share.

As Corrie Ten Boom put it, “No pit is so deep, but what God’s love is deeper still.” Think of the magnificence of that?! Or as Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” That’s even better.

And that’s our message. THAT’S OUR GOSPEL.... It doesn’t blink at tragedy; it doesn’t ignore it, or deny it.... It announces that the love of God transcends it...has in Christ overcome it...and that when we let that love get inside of us, nothing can ever separate us from it, in this world or in whatever worlds there are to come.

The Church is the institution set apart to say that to people. It’s a glorious thing to be able to say it, and IF I WERE JOINING THE CHURCH TODAY, I would expect my Church to be about the business of proclaiming the Good News in a way that those who have never heard it before may let it come alive in their innards... and those who have heard it all their lives may let it be confirmed all over again.

4) Now just one more thing. One final area and I’m done. IF I WERE JOINING THE CHURCH TODAY, there are not only some things I would expect FROM my Church, there are also somethings I hope I could bring TO my Church.

In the ritual of reception into the Church, the question is asked of all prospective

members, “Will you be loyal to the United Methodist Church, and support it by your prayers, your presence, your gifts and your service?” We all made that promise when we joined the Church.

If I were to paraphrase it slightly, I would say, I WANT TO BRING TO THIS NEW RELATIONSHIP THE BEST THAT I HAVE IN GRATITUDE FOR WHAT GOD AND HIS PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY DONE TO MAKE MY LIFE RICHER AND MORE MEANINGFUL....

I want to identify with His work, and with other pilgrims who are on the journey toward increased maturity.... I want to learn with them and grow with them.... I want to pledge that my concern, my talents, my abilities, my energies, my insights, my strengths, my substance, and my spiritual vitality will be devoted to making His Church more nearly a reflection of His way of life. I will criticize lovingly what I see as weakness. I will seek to build up what I see as sagging. I will support those who carry especially heavy loads. I will lift up, both by effort and prayer, those causes and persons who need it.

I will look for the best in people and try to understand when things get out of sorts.... I will try in every way to be a help, not a hindrance. I will be slow to accuse, and quick to affirm; slow to judge, and quick to volunteer, slow to point the finger, and quick to roll up the sleeve.

I will try to exercise faith, even as my predecessors through the centuries kept the light of faith glowing brightly. I will hope, even when conditions may not always seem promising... and I will love, even as now I know myself to be loved, through the grace and magnificent love of Jesus Christ.

I remember the day I joined the Church. Do you? What did it mean to you? What does

it mean to you now? What has happened to you since?

IF I WERE JOINING THE CHURCH TODAY, I hope I would remember some things.... I hope I would be grateful for somethings..... I would expect some things; and I would try my best to bring some things....

And then, I would be quiet within my soul, and as I stood before the congregation to be

received, I would pray that God would use me, in His Church, for His glory...through Jesus Christ our Lord.