August 10, 2008
The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)
Genesis 37:1-4,12-28; Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22. 45b; Romans 10:5-15;
Matthew 14:22-33
This morning’s lessons begin with the story of Joseph being captured by his brothers and thrown into a pit, instead of their killing him. And then they gave him over, for money, twenty pieces of silver actually, to the Ishmaelites to be a slave.
I could not help but note how much like human institutions this story is. For often groups of people, institutions, corporations, even churches, think if they can get rid of one irritating person, then all will be well. If they can pin the blame on one person, then all will be well; and if they can get rid of that person and also get money, imagine twenty pieces of silver! then so much the better!
I recognize that Joseph was an imperfect human being. He was flashy in his long sleeved coat, a gift from his father, the father of his brothers too, a gift that showed his favored status. He was not as perfect as his father thought, and his brothers knew his weaknesses and exploited them as only family can. But still I can imagine how Joseph felt when his brothers plotted behind his back and trapped him and sent him off as a slave.
We often believe that getting rid of the “problem person” will solve everything. I can hear the reasoning, “if only uncle Sal would not come to family gatherings, they would be perfect.” But you know when he is not there, it is not perfect, because he is missing, and even in his imperfection he brings something valuable to the table. The brothers certainly believed getting rid of Joseph would solve all their problems. Their father would love them as he loved Joseph. But as we all know, the rest of the story proved that was not true, nor is it usually. Because we live in community, one person cannot be the whole cause of troubles and no one person can be the whole cure of problems. Families, systems, corporations, institutions, even churches, are imbedded with patterns of behavior that will snap into place when a void is created by one person leaving, for whatever reason. And the system will create or find a new person or idea or cause to be the “designated” problem or challenge almost as quickly as you get rid of the last problem child.
For ten years we have been trying to build a parish that was organized around programs instead of personalities, specifically the rector, but other leaders, too, people who took on the responsibility for some part o four common life without much help and in a more or less autocratic, hierarchical fashion. This means, of course, not that we don’t care about people, but that we can care for people better by allowing programs filled with rotating people to become the means of providing care, mission, learning, and spiritual nurture for all who attend church. In many ways we have been successful in organizing around programs and seeing leadership pass from one person to another, the program remaining stable. The El Ocotillo program would be a good example of this. The leadership has changed, but each time it does the program becomes more vital and serves more people. And yet, obviously, in some other ways we have failed miserably.
In the past two years there has been a decline in the numbers of people who attend and in the pledges. In the past two years there has been tension around the sudden resignation of the Children’s and Youth minister and of the volunteer Adult Education Minister. As an aside, I will say that decline in membership and pledges is common in area churches. The economy, the life styles, the busyness of life in the suburbs, the price of gas and heating oil, all this has influenced how we spend our time and money. And the church often gets the short end of the proverbial stick. But the added stress of the resignations has created an aura of conflict here
This morning, however, I want to look beyond the economy and cultural realities in which we dwell and look at Good Shepherd systemically. If we look at the community of Good Shepherd, our community, and examine it systemically, we can see that there have been at least three times in our fifty year history when the church has grown, been built up and thrived. Pledging increased and we were about to push into a true program way of operating when some conflict would arise and the system would force the parish back into the smaller size that focused on a specific person’s leadership or personality to run the church. This way of operating often inhibits growth and/or change.
Immediately prior to my coming here ten years ago, a division had been created by a conflict between the folk mass and the traditional service. That was an opportunity for us, for me, for Jay, for the worship committee and interested others, to create a musical and worship style that was our own. And most of us are quite happy with what was created. It honors our folk mass and traditional past while creating something that brings us into the future. It has been the back bone of who we are and what has attracted others to join us. Many of you here know nothing of what used to be here. You think this style of worship is what we have always had.
I understand that another division here, when a few left, was when the diocese decided to ordain homosexual people. More left because they simply didn’t want to be in a conflicted church, didn’t want to be around the fighting factions. And even years earlier that that, a conflict was created by a few who were outraged at the church’s participation in the Civil Rights movement. The same pattern of conflict causing people to leave seemed to have happened then. Again many who disagreed with “the church being involved in politics” left the church, and many more who didn’t want to be around the conflict left.
That always happens when there is conflict. People don’t come to church to take sides. We come to church to learn reconciliation and wholeness. We come to church to live in community, however imperfect, with other people, however imperfect. We come to praise God, to find a safe place for our children to grow up learning values and ways that Jesus taught and embodied. We come together to be community, to see friends, to be an imperfect family, much like the brothers and Joseph and their father were an imperfect family.
There are some here who believe that if I were to resign, Good Shepherd would be much better off. And the truth is that might have the same result as the brothers had with Joseph. It might mean some fast money in the coffers but, I have to ask, what does it model about Christian community? Is it the best thing for this community for the long term? Would we be denying God the opportunity to bring healing and grace to us in ways we couldn’t if we walked apart? Would we be perpetuating the old Good Shepherd pattern and not growing into a more Christlike pattern?
Jesus, who walked on water in the gospel today, would, I believe, have us try something new, would ask us to take this opportunity, embedded in the current conflict and decline, as a gift, to see it as an opportunity of restructuring, rebuilding, and maybe even doing what we intended to do and have been trying to do, but differently from what we first thought, to take it as a gift in much the same way we were able with the liturgy ten years ago.
It’s possible to throw me in the pit, I suppose, and do that restructuring work as a community without me. But what does that say about how we understand forgiveness, reconciliation, and love.
I believe we have to be as creative with our structure, volunteering, and willingness to take on some real work on behalf of the church – for we do have limited funds – we need to be as creative as we were ten years ago. Our ability to create something new will depend upon everyone giving their heart to some portion of what needs to be done rather than holding out for their own way and pointing fingers at the “one” who caused all the problems. We need to do what we did ten years ago with the liturgy. It means we have to let the Spirit flow through us, helping us to work together synergistically, to be what God would have us be and to do what God would have us do.
Peter walked out of the boat onto the water and he sank. Like a rock! The rock he would become actually as the cornerstone of the church. But he sank that day because he didn’t see the possibility being true for him to walk on water. He only saw the possibility based on what was past, sinking, not on what was right there before him in the person of Jesus Christ. If we keep looking back and wishing things were the way they used to be, we will get our wish, and we will be a small, barely surviving church. We will focus ourselves around people who are the owners of certain programs or ministries instead of being a people of ministry and mission. And if we do, we will not be able to build the kind of programs we would like to see, the kind of programs that we have built over the past ten years and that would give us an energizing and exciting future.
Joseph ended up saving his brothers and doing quite well for himself, and then when the brothers were in dire straits, they had to come to him, begging. I do not anticipate that happening at Good Shepherd. What I hope and pray for is that we will be like Peter, willing to climb out of the boat and try walking on water, and that, when one of us sinks, there will be hands abounding to reach out and lift that person up. For together we can walk on water. Together we can live by faith enough to turn water into a strolling place. Together we can overcome the history of Good Shepherd and grow into the larger people-serving, program-focused, welcoming, place so many of us believe God is calling us to be.
If you are visiting for the first time today, welcome. I can say with some enthusiasm you are in the company of some really wonderful human beings who are working very hard to make this a place where all are welcome. I will also tell you that you have, as you can tell from this homily, walked into a completely human place and that there is a family squabble going on. We will get over it quickly, I really believe that. For it is a squabble that we had last year and we did get beyond it, and we will get beyond it again. We are all human here, and we welcome you among us, not because we expect you to be perfect, but because we love being God’s people in this corner of the woods and hope you will too.
If you have been here a while and are sick of the squabbling, GOOD! I am too. Let’s get on with the work that God has given us to do, together, all together, and create something new, for God’s sake! Let’s take a stroll on the water!
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd