To Agree or Not to Agree

When a church has disagreements or problems, often members of the congregation cut their ties and turn to another location, if possible. Maybe they don’t agree with the words preached each Sunday or they don’t like the flower arrangement or the fact there are smelly homeless people in the pews. It’s often a confusing time in churches and I want to assure you that on a Sunday to Sunday basis, it’s not imperative that all of You agree with what is said or done in its hallowed place. Look, even Jesus stirred up Jewish authorities by healing a woman on the sacred sabbath. To establish His Kingdom for us Jesus had to shake lots of things up.

Why do we come to church? Because the preacher is hot? Or the choir is extraordinary? Or because your best friends come and it’s the only time in the week you see them, or is it because your grandchild loves Children’s chapel? Maybe it’s cooler in here than out in the street? Or we are lonely. I hope we come to forget ourselves in order to humbly worship and honor our Father God through his blessed Son Jesus.

I hope too when you enter here and first see the Cross above the glorious altar flowers and below the stained glass windows, you heart leaps and you yearn for Him - for the history of our faith, for the discipline and cleansing of the Eucharist, for the mercy and compassion of Christ, for the freedom we get through confession and the Lord’s Prayer.

Allow us, the clergy, then to become transparent in our albs and shawls as we recite the prayer book routine of our catholic worship. You should be able to see the cross clearly without our interference. We should not get in your way. We are merely facilitators, not politicians or magicians. We are bound to follow the traditions saints and sinners set up hundreds of years before as a way for us to worship our Lord.

Jesus did not leave a detailed architecture for our worship, then or now. The oft used Greek word “ekklesia” meant “gathering,” not a building, priest, church. Followers in the earliest centuries decided they knew what Jesus presupposed and construction of giant havens began. Some not so holy Men wrote creeds, deeds, and rules on how they thought we might best achieve that holy state that would get us to heaven. They created cathedrals, popes, saints, virgins, monks, priests, confessionals, crucifixes, trip-tics, Bibles, bells. At one point in history the clergy got so involved with their own holiness they completely lost the point. By the time of the reformation, celebrant priests had no contact whatsoever with congregants on their knees in the pews. They turned their backs to them as if they didn’t matter. The Eucharist lost its communion, its inclusiveness until along came Martin Luther.

In the gospels, it seems to me that Jesus set up a simpler way of worship: a cup of wine at a wooden table, a healing touch on a foreign street, a fish barbecue on the shores of a sea, a few words spoken toward the sky, a walk with novices even when they failed to recognize he was the teacher. It was as simple as that. Conversation. Compassion. Prayer. Mercy. Grace. Love. And at times a sacramental sharing of symbols, a communion of unexpected saints in sandals. On a bench or near the feet of Jesus was always a place to question what was happening and to receive guidance in how to deal with issues. Those who could be at his side learned Truth and Trust. I wish He was here now.

Today a few of us have been cast in roles of servants of Christ. We have been trained and ordained into so called Holy orders; we were commissioned to facilitate your journey from the wooden pew of life to the sacred altar. But Clergy are as likely to get it wrong as the taxi driver who takes you to the wrong address. It is a risky job: Preaching. Teaching. Counseling. Praying. Healing. Always needing to be right. Somewhere one forgets that we are you and you are us. I was told long ago that being ordained into holy orders was not a reward. It’s a terrible challenge to keep Christ alive in the hearts and minds of God’s Kingdom on earth, and to forget ourselves in order to be ever useful for Him 24-7. It’s exhausting at times.

We do dare to let you know how we feel about issues and we do that through Sunday homilies or sermons. These are not just for entertainment. Sermons must be honest even when that’s painful, not essays to butter up someone’s spirit with things they want to hear, tiptoeing over the delicate, ignoring the egregious. In eight or more minutes maybe we can share with you our humble, stumbling suggestions about how to better deal with this disturbing world, or to rise from the muck of everyday life into that heavenly, restful, clean peace found in Christ who heals our mistakes.

If you don’t agree with what you hear today, maybe next Sunday you will. It doesn’t mean one is wrong, the other right. No one has to agree with the preacher. We Anglicans have a freedom to speak out, to disagree, to think for ourselves and to weigh challenging opinions. The aim is to build a strong body which adores Christ. This body, this iglesia or church, IS you and me and it takes every kind of you and me to keep faithful such a gathering.

Whatever happens, be assured that God loves all of us no matter what we do, what we say, or of whom we approve or disapprove. Don’t forget: Anyone can enter here. No one can be left out of God’s house today because, honestly we don’t know who will be knocking at Peter’s Gates tomorrow but we try to make sure everyone will because he or she is the child of God.

 ~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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