If We Only Knew
Luke 2: 25-40 Acts 28:31
Rev. Dr. Thomas Richard
Executive Secretary, NACCC
First Congregational Church of Wauwatosa
August 21, 2011
Well, first and foremost, I offer you greetings on behalf of your sister Churches in the National Association. What a privilege it is for me to be with you. I say to you know what I said to this congregation before – your life, your health, and your future is so important to us because this was one of the places where our movement began.
These are interesting times, aren’t they? Churches are a bit nervous, some uncomfortable, some weary, some wondering how to live and thrive in this shifting religious culture of ours.
This is a good time to ask you. What’s next? And, in addition to several ways to answer the question there are at least a couple ways to ask it.
Sometimes it is a question expressing something less than amazement or a sense of expectancy. Perhaps you read or heard some disastrous or disappointing news on the television or in the newspaper before you came to worship this morning, and shook your head saying, “What’s next?” Helpless frustration. These past two months in Washington caused us, I’m sure, to shake our heads and wonder, “what’s next?” The Stock Market fluctuations have caused a bit of angst, haven’t they? Makes one wonder, “What’s next?”
I have vivid memories of my minister-father’s frustration after hearing of the latest escapade of one of his 23 children, shaking his head in a bewildered and exasperated way and saying “What next!?” I can assure you, it was not a phrase that was used much in our house for pleasantries or happy amazement.
On the other hand, I have used that expression or question differently in recent years. Our two sons are musicians and they compose music on laptops with new software that amazes me! We bought our oldest a new laptop with all of these bells and whistles on it and when we finally got a chance to see what he could do on this thing – all I could say is Wow! What next?” I was as surprised by what could be done with the computer software as I was in his use of it. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what’s next in that field of technology. I can only imagine.
It’s a good question to ask, though – What’s next? What’s next for your Church? What’s next for you in your own life? You can only imagine, and sometimes those imaginations go wild and are, perhaps, frightening.
Most of us would like to know what’s ahead in the future. At least there are days when we would like to know. Others maybe not. But faith offers us no controlling knowledge of the future. Faith offers us no answers amidst the natural disasters of life, of which there seem to be more and more. Tsunamis, hurricanes, floods and now, famine in Africa. (This morning while driving here from Oak Creek I heard on the radio that a little boy, 10 years old, was stopped from using himself as a human bomb, convinced by terrorists that he would be reunited with is parents. What has the human race come to? Children!
There is a kind of quasi-religious reasoning that could point to the overriding and general reliability of nature or perhaps to the outpouring of compassion and uniting of the human family in light of these disasters. But to those who suffer real loss, such reasoning is inadequate. No answer is given.
The deepest faith in Jesus Christ will not supply full and final answers to such questions.
On a conference call some time ago Olivet College Professor Michael Fales told me that even after all these years from the catastrophe itself he is still taking college students and adults to that area of the South devastated by Hurricane Katrina, to help rebuild homes, and churches. The people are still afraid to ask, “What’s next?”
When it comes to personal disasters that beg the question of what’s next can often be traced to some root cause – bad choices, greed, unkind words, unloving behavior… Even these kind of disasters have left sincere souls burdened and guilty.
And yet, our obsession with controlling the future fuels the fortunes of those who make a business of selling counterfeit answers to “What’s next?”
-Self help books are still the single category that takes up the most space on any book stores shelves – from doom and gloom to prescriptive plans for wealth, health and happiness.
-Religiously, just watch religious television and you will see the preponderance of attractive answers to successful Christian living, with guarantees that we are right in the world, even if everyone else is obviously wrong.
-Intricate maps and charts, reveal that it was all in the bible and it is merely being played out. Armed with a timetable we are told where the course of the entire world is headed, as we smugly watch the cosmic events unfold, enjoying our superiority over others who don’t know what we know.
What religious faith is there in simply knowing what the future holds? Chastising those who would call back the dead to know the shape of the future, George MacDonald asked, “Is that engaging in the worship of God?” He answers his own question, “Of course not! Religion is not the business of obtaining knowledge about the future. To have such knowledge would relieve us from having to live by faith.” Idolatrous greed may hunger for such certainty, genuine faith never will.
What’s next? To ask it is to ask the wrong question, a question the Bible certainly does not answer. Biblical faith, which is a word some Christians love to carry as weapons to beat people into submission against other Christians and the world, Biblical faith never tells us WHAT is next; it tells us WHO is next. From the silent stars above the cradle of the baby Jesus, to the cross comes the answer – God.
It’s a point that is easy to miss while reading the Bible. The Bible does not talk much about the future, but when it does, it speaks not to our curiosity, but to our commitment.
The Bible talks about the future only to say that God is and will be with us. God will meet us at every moment in our lives and that on every tomorrow, God will be calling us into a renewed relationship.
To offer any answer for the future, other than a personal relationship with Christ, is to abandon the life of faith and betray the life of Christ. Christ is next. What’s next? We can only imagine. Who’s next? Christ.
How then how does a church, this church, move into the future with Christ?
Well, I’d first say imaginatively. Since we have no certainty about what the future holds then imagination should play a larger part in your life together While this may sound like a mind game, it is not intended for such. If you cannot imagine what it would be like and who you might want to be for Christ next year or the year after, how it would play out in this church’s life, then you won’t. (Let me say that again). If you can’t imagine moving into the future with a renewed commitment to the who rather than the what of your life together then you won’t.
Secondly, find new ways to express yourselves. What we can be fairly certain of is that you don’t have to prove that you have staying power! 300 hundred years. Anyone looking at this church would have to conclude you are a Church! You don’t have to prove yourselves but you must find ways to express yourselves so that you have an answer for all those people who want to know “What’s next?” You know what I mean? There’s a world of difference between proving ourselves and expressing ourselves. Express yourselves for Christ.
Thirdly, move into the future with a sense of your value. Your future is about the value you bring to it, not about success. It’s about making a difference particularly in the lives society counts least and puts last.
Fourthly, move into the future with a sense of adventure. It is terribly important to realize that the future of this Church is a leap of faith. And it is an action not so much a leap of thought. For while in many matters it is “first we see then we will act” in matters of faith is “first we must do and then we will know, first we will be and then we will see. ”You get it? While many Churches (and too many Protestant Churches today) are too organized around the question of what’s next; they want certainty about their futures, don’t be seduced. In short, dare to act wholeheartedly without absolute certainty.
Luke’s two-part Gospel sets the infant Jesus on is way with the blessing of Simeon and Anna (both forward looking people) and then comes to its conclusion in Acts 28:31, with a picture of St. Paul, who though imprisoned, is “preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and unhindered.
Such open and unhindered living is the quality of life in every moment for those who know that Jesus Christ stands in every next moment. They never ask, what’s next? Because they know who waits to meet them in every tomorrow. There are all kinds of things that we do not need to know when we live in the presence of the eternal now with Jesus Christ.
Four Christmases ago I pulled off one of the truly great surprises of LeeAnne’s Christmas (I say this because in some way or fashion she always knows what I am getting her for Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries – so this was BIG). It is a Christmas she and the family will never forget. I gifted her a dog. And the name LeeAnne gave her dog is Mollie. She is a chocolate labradoodle. At the time still weaning from her mother and so I did what any person wanting to surprise his wife would do – I wrapped pictures up in a large box, and put a pink collar in it, and a picture of the litter of eight puppies and one of the soon-to-be-named Mollie. She is our newest child and after six one would think we would be over the need to nurture, late nights, early mornings, worrying about whether she is eating enough, a cough here or there, a certain look like she might be sick. You know the routine.
You know you have scored big time when your wife cries over a gift you give her. But when your mother-in-law cries and children cry – well then, all I could do is look to the heavens and say, “Thank you Jesus!”
Mollie is now four years old and is the princess of the park that we take her to almost daily. With her whooly look she is adorable! People have gone so far as to stop their cars when they see us out walking and ask, “What kind of dog is that? He is so sweet looking!” And we say , yes, and she knows it!
Mollie is at our side constantly. While I am having my first cup of coffee she bounds into the bedroom and jumps on the bed to wake LeeAnne up. She exists to be in our presence. This does not mean she understands what is going on in our minds, or why we leave her to go to work. She does not understand why we feed her certain things, or take her for a walk at one time and not another.
As with God and humanity, so it is with dog and humanity; our ways are higher than her ways, our thoughts are beyond the reach of her thoughts (although there have been days when this is questionable with Mollie). She probably thinks that we exist for the sole purpose of caring for her and spending time with her, just as I often think that God’s principal business is that of listening to me and taking care of me.
Mollie has no answers about why we let certain things happen to her. I am sure she cannot understand why we let a veterinarian stick needles in her. Still, she jumps in the car with enthusiasm when we invite her to make that trip to the vet.
She does not understand why another dog barked at her angrily, or what she did to deserve such treatment, and yet when we say “Do you want to go to the park?” she is at the door.
She lives in anticipation. She lives without some answers. But, this she knows above all else – who loves her, whose dog she is, and who she loves, and that is what is really important to her. Hers is the bliss of the eternal now, and on that last day, she will driver to the vet knowing what she has always known. God’s creatures know that they can live without answers – without asking, “What’s next?”
Now until days ago I was going to end this sermon with this illustration and then I thought – These astute Wauwatosians are going to go home after this day of celebration and they might be asked, “Well, how did it go? What did he have to offer? And they are going to say, “Well, Dr. Richard said we should live like dogs!”
Here’s the point. Dear Friends, I believe God loves you. I believe God will be with you now and tomorrow. I know there are challenges before you. I know you wonder, and you worry. You plan and you fret. In every Church, and certainly in this one, there have been some tough times. But be assured that these ARE tough times for the Church in general. It’s nothing new. There are always wounds and gaps and fissures in communities of faithful Christians. But this tarnished but still glittering wonder of God’s creation whose namesake is Christ, is still worth our prayers and faithfulness.
But you know whose you are. You know what you are. You know what you are called to be to this world. The knowledge for salvation for a confused, inert, anxious, frightened people has been put in your mouths to proclaim. So it’s never been what’s next but whose message are you carrying?
That is what I wish for you to carry with you this morning – a renewed sense of whose message you are carrying. If you do, any questions of what is next will be of far less concern to you, and I believe God will help you recapture hope.