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It is my hope that each month we will have the pleasure of "hearing" from a variety of our members of the presbytery. I will be inviting many of you to contribute to the "Monthly Message". This month I have chosen to share the sermon that the Rev. Jill Minnich preached at the Winter Stated Meeting of the Presbytery of Utah in St. George. Pastor Minnich's sermon is titled "Doing Church" and it's powerful. Thank you Jill for sharing with us. Blessings, Carolyn Scripture: John 15:11-17 and Acts 2:42-47 I have a love affair with words - new words, old words, new words with new meaning, old words with new meanings-I love them all. My mother would tell you that right after I finished reading allthe Winnie the Pooh books, I picked up the Webster's Dictionary and read it from A to Z. And who am I to argue with my mother? One of the things that fascinates me about language is the way it changes and grown with the times. back in the 19th and 20th centures, we invented the words capitalism and communism, socialism and fascism to describe new economic and political realities brought about by the Industrial Revolution. And there's another new word! How about lunar expeditionary module or LEM as NASA likes to call it? And NASA is a relatively new word, itself. The new words we invent reflect changes in our social, political, and technological lives. And there is a group of people who keep track of the growth and change in our bocabulary-the American Dialect Society. Each year the American Dialect Society lists the new words for that calendar year and they pick one word to be 'The Word of the Year'. Do you know what the word of the year for 2007 was? Googleganger. That's right-and don't forget to spell it with an umlaut. A googleganer is a person with your name who shows up when you are googling yourself. We have words that come and go in the church as well. Lately, one of the hot phrases has been "doing church". As in, lets "do church together". Or, we "do church on Sundays and Thursdays". And, we "do church at 23rd and Jefferson. Where do you do church?" Most of the times, it seems to be taking the place of the phrase "go to church". The question is, does it mean the same thing as "go to church" or does it mean something a little different? Or, does it mean something very different? As, I think about it, "doing church" has some obvious advantages to "going to church". Going to church seems to imply that church is a place. For many people, I suspect, going to church is much like going to the Jazz game or to the movies. Church is a place to go and watch what is happening in front of you. You may clap politely or cheer happily if you like what is happening. But you all sit in your assigned seat and you expect to enjoy the program and then go home again. Until the next time, you go to church. Doing church, on the other hand, seems to mean that church is something I do, not a performance that I attend. there is activity and involvement in doing church. When I do church, I become part of the performance of church. We, Americans, like doing things. We make to do lists and love to check things off our lists as we do them. We know we've accomplished something when the job is done. "Doing church" fits nicely with our American task-oriented predilection for action. Yes, there seem to be some advantages to doing church over going to church. Of course, there's still the question of wht is it we're doing when we do church. It seems to me that what we do when we do church is the truly essential thing. Is it something i would want to invite my friends to do with me? I mean, most of the people I know already have plenty to do. They have one or two jobs, housecleaning, laundry, yard work, car repairs, snow removal, and children and then they volunteer-very few of them need another thing to do. Doing church would have to be something pretty special to make it onto their already pretty full 'to do' list! So what is it we're supposed to be dling when we do church? First of all, I certainly hope that doing church means more than an hour of worship one day a week. If that's all doing church means, we might as well be going to church for all the difference that makes. Singing some contemporary Christian music and throwing lyrics, pictures, and Scripture up on a big screen in a multimeadia show doesn't really differ from going to church except in style and technology to my ming. I've gotta hope that doing church means something a lot more than that! Secondly, doing church can't be all about doing our duty. Jesus relieved us of that notion once and for all when he said, "I no longer call you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinging and planning. No, I call you my friends..." Servants do their duty. they do what they're told to do the way they've been told to do ti. they don't get fancy. they don't get creative. They follow orders because that's their job. Friends are different-friends form relationships. Friends for partnerships. Friends work together not oly because they share a common goal, but because they share a common bond. Working together, growing and changing, discussing and debating, friends find the best way to get the job done using their different talents and abilities. And friends find joy in the going because working together strengthens and deepens the relationship. Friends will give you the shirt off their back or put their lives on the line. Most of us don't need any more duties, but we sure could use another Friend. Or two or three. So, if we're not simply doing worship or doing our duty when we do church, what exactly is it that we are doing? At the risk of sounding like a radical, we could look to Acts to see what doing church means. In the verse just preceding this morning's passage (Acts 2:42-47), we find what could be considered a concise summary of what doing church meant to those who had followed Jesus during his life: "They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, taking part in fellowship and sharing the common meal, and the prayers. Luke begins with teaching, as one of the marks of doing church. While this teaching undoubtedly relied heavily on the continued proclamation of the gospel, it also entails something more. The apostles' task is to take a community that had witnessed the power of Pentecost and help it understand what that experience demands of the church. The apostles seek to answer the question of where the church must go next. Instead of fueling a continual wildfire experience, the apostles' teaching and their listeners' devotion allows faith to remain ablaze, but controlled, so that others may see it, approach it, and be warmed-possibly even ignited-byit. There is an od adage: The place for the fire is in the fireplace. The apostles' teaching was the church's fireplace. There's another old adage that comes to mind as well, "Those who can, do, those who can't, teach." That has never been less true than in the church. The first teachers Luke identifies are the apostles themselves. Their teachers, of course, were none other than Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Few woudl accuse Jesus, or the Spirit, or any of th apostles, for that matter, of not being "do-ers". Read through the stories found in Acts and you will discover how often the teaching of the apostles was accompanied by acts of charity, by healing and other signs and miracles. As the friends of Jesus, the apostles were judged by what they did for those in their world who were obviously in need. One of the marks of the church is that those who teach, DO! The second mark Acts notes is fellowship, or koinonia. This is the church's ability to embody the command to "love one another'> As Acts implies this kind of love is unique within the Christian community. It is "the love which the father showed in sending the Son, the love which the Son showed in laying down his life". This incarnational love flows out of the life of Christ and serves and sacrifices for the lost world. Teachin is a forward-looking, even a next-generation, activity. But the seeds sowed by the apostles'teaching need fertile soil in which to germinate. Thus, it is that Luke next highlights-what is arguably the most special gift the Holy Spirit bestowed on these new believers-the ability to become a true fellowship (koinonia) community. earlier in chapter 2, Luke clearly describes just how diverse this group actually was (2:5). Yet theynow find themselves able to form an enduring, cohesive community. It is the ongoing acceptance and celebration of this koinonia fellowship that makes it possible for them to continue to experience "wonders and signs" (v.43) instead of dissolving into a bickering band of complainers and critics. The unique nature of this fellowship is evident in verses 44-45. This fellowship bonds the people together so tightly that they willingly give up their individual economic goals and personal budgets in order to support the whoe group ("they sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all as any had need"). The believers are so on fire with their faith and fellowship that they joyfully burn all those labels marked "mine". Indeed, this first example of faith and fellowship gives a special depth of meaning to the term koinonia, a meaning that will challenge all later generations of Christian communities. Gut koinonia, love lived out, can easily turn into waht C. Peter Wagner has aptly diagnosed as "koinonitis". Wagner describes this illness as when "interpersonal relationship becomes so deep and mutually absorbing all church activity becomes introverted". When the church suffers from "koinonitis", it turns in on itself and loses sight of the very prupose for which the fellowshipping community exists. The third mark of doing church, according to Acts, is the common meal. Boy howdy, do we have that one down. Or do we? This common meal wasn't just any old Presbyterian potluck. This meal was something much more-it was a form of charity and of witness. One of the primary ways these new believers continue to practice community-mindedness is at table-breaking bread together. Since humanity's earliest tribal days, eating together has functioned as far more than simply a collective effort to get rid of hunger pangs. Throughout history, the pangs of solitude, insecurity and loneliness haave also found their ease at the common table. A person was never more vulnerable that when at table. Before gathering around a table, weapons had to be taken off and laid aside. Jesus himself provided a clear model of witnessing through eating and drinking. Many of Jesus' most poignant messages and his sharpest denouncements came while he was at table with one group or another. Jesus not only broke bread with any and all types of people. He usually broke through the protective shells of his table companions at the same time. Meal times with Jesus meant soul food as well as body food. Jesus was heavily criticized for having the wrong kinds of friends at table with him-either they were too rich or too poor, too holy or not holy enough. But Jesus' eaxample perfectly reflected the kind of community that now found itself gathered together for everyday sustenance, solace and support. Drawn from diverse lands, with different foods and languages, different dining traditions and customs, meal times could have been one of the most difficult and divisive events in this new community's life. Instead, we find in verse 46 that they celebrated their meals "with glad and generous hearts'. This meal was truly something more. Finally, doing church means prayer. The new Christ-body community prays together. All those from the Jewish tradition already have been steeped in a daily ritual of dveotions. Verso 46 reveals that these new Christians still attend the temple for daily study and prayer. Thus, while so much about their lives and faith is new, these early Christians still continue to abide by some longstanding, traditional modes of coming into the presence of God. This kind of prayer becomes both the giving and the receiving of the Word. Pershps the most basic exercise of faith that helped to keep the early church fit for its witnessing mission was its communal commitment to prayer. In prayer the church could confess the faith vital to its identity, "Jesus is Lord". This confession was one of the earliest rallying points of the church as well as its defining creed. The prayers of the post-Pentecost church declared Jesus to be Lord of all people, of all the earth. Prayer was not a spiritual retreat from the world, but instead the church's way of coming together, of believing and doing, of claiming the whole world for Christ. The question for us has to be-are we up to the challenge? Can we do church in ways that teaches and preaches, that welcomes and nourishes, that proclaims that Jesus is Lord and claims everyone and everything for Christ? Many people would say unequivocally,'No!' I'm sure you've read the same studies I have. They say quite clearly that while most folks like Jesus, they do not like the church. As far as they are concerned, we're doing it all wrong. With apologies to my buddy Larry Boy and his priate friends, most people hear us singing, We're the Christians who don't do anything. We just sit in our pews and frown. And if you ask us to do anything, we'll tell you we're the Christians who don't do anything But that's not the song that they expect us to be singing and it's not the song they want us to be singing. What they expect is, Come on in, boys, sit right down and make yourself at home..... Frineds, when we sing a song of welcome to thehip-hop rapper's with their drooping shorts and tattoos, when we sit down to learn with the single moms and are so exhausted from a week of work and non-stop parenting athatjust getting their kids to church is an extreme sport, when we listen to and learn from the folks who don't speak English and the folks who got their GED at night...when we sit at table with folks who prefer rice and beans, or udon and dried fish, or lentils and green beans or eat with their fingers..when we prya with people who self-medicate, who cut themselves, whose children are in jail, or who cheat on their taxes...maybe then we will have started to do church right. Andy what happened while these apoltles and disciples, slaves and merchants, zealots and tax-collectors, fishermen and woemn, were doing church? Everyone around was in awe-all those wonders and signs done through the apostles. People in general liked what they was. Every day their number grew as God added to those who where being saved. Okay, fine. Let's do church. But, firneds, let's do it right.
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