Today is 8 weeks since the vote to dissolve, 19 weeks since the conversation started back in September and it is 19 weeks until the last worship date. We are pretty much smack in the middle of "the closing process".
I had a pretty rough week. As I prepared for Sunday morning service I had no idea what I was going to do. Every time I started typing out a sermon it got really unhealthy really fast. Some times it was just bad theology, almost works righteousness. Other times it kind of just got to a point where I was saying, "and gossip is bad, really bad". I got to a point where I did not trust myself to write the sermon and I started to search the internet on sermons about reconciliation that I could some how adapt. I wanted a pre-written sermon to keep me on tasks and focused. But, all the sermons I found all fell into similar traps that I fell into, or the stories were so off the wall there was no way I could honestly adapt them into my own.
Yesterday afternoon (Saturday) the service bulletin was printed, the readings for the day were picked out, and I had no clue what I was going to preach. I was convincing myself that I should just allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me after I got in the pulpit and not have anything planned to say.
Then, I sat down and I read the book of James, which was the text in the place of the Gospel text for the day, (a few weeks ago we started to go off lectionary and read favorite texts). I also read through a two of the books that I have on closing congregations and then it hit me - I knew what I needed to do for my sermon.
The text: James 2:14-18
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,
and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’,
and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?
So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me
your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.
Sermon:
Martin Luther always had a hard
time with the book of James. He described the book as rubbish. Luther had
issues with the book because of the verse that ________ chose for us this
morning. See, Luther had a firm theology and this passage didn’t quite fit in
with his understanding of scripture. Luther understood God’s love for us to be,
“Faith alone apart from works”. This quote is something that we Lutherans still
learn. In fact in seminary we have to have it so engrained in our core theology
that I think if a person missed saying it in any of the interviews leading up
to approval for ordination the person would be kicked out of the process. The phrase,
“Faith alone apart from works,” is about as Lutheran as it gets. But, if we
truly believe this, if Luther created an entire theology around this phrase,
then what was he to do with these verses in James? This verse that says, “so
faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”
Luther had to reconcile what he
held true to the core of his faith, that we are saved by faith alone apart from
works, with another part of scripture that faith without works is dead faith.
Instead of letting it be, or figuring out a way to reconcile he in turn just
wanted to be rid of the entire book of the Bible.
However, there are often times we
are challenged by our faith. There are often times we rather just do away with,
or just make an enemy out of what does not fit into our understanding. I shared
in the weekly newsletter that I am feeling abused by the words of some people
in this congregation. I shared that I do understand that feelings are hurt and
people are mad. However, to just throw something or someone aside because it
doesn’t fit with what your dreams and hopes for the church were doesn’t make it
any easier. Sure, there is someone to get mad at, or to lay blame on – but that
still doesn’t change the future. Much like as much as Luther wanted to ignore this
book in the cannon, the book was still there. He had to wrestle with it and he
had to find a way to reconcile his theology of faith apart from works with the
quote in James that said faith with no works is a dead faith.
I am so glad that Luther did not
end up taking James out of the cannon. It really is a wonderful book. I sat
down and read the entire thing yesterday in about 20 minutes. I highly suggest
you do this sometime this week. James is about being in a communal
relationship. The theme song for James can be, “They Will Know We are Christians
by our Love.” James is often seen as wisdom literature, much like Proverbs
because it is a guide for how to live a Christ centered life. Many times in the
book James reminds his audience to remember Jesus’ teaching of Love your
neighbor As Yourself. Even in the end, Luther did find a way to reconcile with
the book when he said: “Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works” and “Faith
is a living, restless thing. It cannot be inoperative. We are not saved by
works; but if there be no works, there must be something amiss with faith”, in
short – we are saved by faith alone apart from works, but it is our faith that
produces good works.
It is
in the spirit of reconciliation and in the spirit of the book of James that I
ask us as a congregation to do a brief order of cooperate forgiveness this
morning. My sincere prayer is that as we move closer to the closing date of Our Congregation we can do so with a sense of hope and openness. We can find a
way to walk through this difficult, but I must also say truly life giving
process hand in hand – together. We can put aside our differences, our anger,
our hurt, our resentment about the past and we can look torward the future and
we ask, what is our legacy going to be? My prayer is that next week, at our
anniversary celebration we can give God thanks for all we have been given. And,
the weeks that follow, when we enter into lent we can together as a congregation
lay all our fears and doubts at the foot of the cross. That we can recognize that
we can let go of our grief and our hurt and we can give it all to Jesus. I hope
that with this service of reconciliation and forgiveness we can come together
and support one another, focus on our legacy, give praise for our ministry and
become a congregation that will unite and go through this process together.
Because, death is not the end. Sure, we are soon to enter Lent and our walk to
the cross – but after Good Friday comes Easter. After darkens comes light. After
death comes new birth!
Please,
stand with me and let us together ask for reconciliation and forgiveness.
We then went into a service of reconciliation and forgiveness. I had two people pass out copies of the service while I was preaching. I cannot share the service since it is from the book Finishing With Grace: A Guide to Selling, Merging or Closing Your Church and is copyrighted. However, I will share the outline:
- Call to Worship
- Communal Prayer
- Reminder of Jesus commandment of Love your Neighbor As Yourself
- Prayer petitions
- I wrote these out, but I also gave space for people to say any that were on their heart
- Pardon
- Forgiveness by me to the congregation
- Forgiveness by the congregation to me
- Confessing the Apostles Creed
- Hymn: How Great Thou Art (this hymn as already picked as the Hymn of the day - but it actually worked very well).
That ended the Service of Reconciliation and Forgiveness but then we went into sharing of the peace and communion and followed the regular service.
This worked really, really well. After the service I had people come up and say they were sorry. I had others say they wanted to focus on the legacy of the congregation and move forward. During the service quite a few people were crying, and people actually did the prayer petitions, even some not printed. This is not typical for my congregation.
Before the service my heart was racing and I was avoiding people. I got to the sanctuary and I was really nervous to start the service. I only allowed the council to read their statement as an announcement. It was very firm against gossip and also calling for a redirection of energy. It was almost a prefect lead into my sermon and service.
I even spent time down during Coffee Hour, something that I have avoided for a few weeks now. I always try to have a meeting that keeps me away from the fellowship hour.
I pray this is renewed start. Some of the people that really needed to be in worship today, of course weren't. But, there were a good number that were. I feel renewed and ready to move on.
I just realized that we are exactly half way through this process. Maybe we needed to center ourselves and focus on whose we are and the point of us being together in order to finish the second half of this process with Grace and Hope.
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