Plymouth Congregational Church of Fort Wayne, UCC
October 4, 2009
Eighteen Sunday after Pentecost

Scripture Lesson:  Luke 10: 25-29

 Immersed in Church Life and Understanding

"... Jesus said to (the) lawyer, ‘You have given the right
answer; do this, and you will live.'"
(James 3:13)

Prelude

As has already been noted, this morning marks

the beginning of the fall stewardship season

in the life of Plymouth Church. 

I want to express my public thanks

to Karen Fraser and Eric Black. 

These two are to be credited with

enlivening and energizing the effort

that is ours during this season. 

It is a pillar of Christian teaching that

our vocation includes conscious awareness of

serving, in part, as stewards. 

In coinage theology,

 in pocket change spirituality,

          in the ante for doughnuts

          during fellowship hour,

the affirmation is sounded:

"In God we Trust." 

In a theology of stewardship,

the reverse is true.

God trusts us. 

We need to pause - ponder this.

There is low level trust seemingly wherever you look

these days.  Ollie Kaiser, whose life we recently celebrated,

used to say:  "The whole world is going crazy, John, except

me and you.  And sometimes I'm not so sure about you."

We often aren't sure who we can trust,

sometimes wondering even if we trust ourselves.

And yet, we dare assert:  God trusts us.

We are empowered,

emboldened,

employed,

entrusted

to manage the life (with time, talent, treasure)

and gospel ministry that God has given us.

Paul writes to the Corinthians:

"Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ

and stewards of God's mysteries." 

He continues, "it is required of stewards that

they be found trustworthy" (I Corinthians 4:1-2).

In 1 Peter, it is recorded that we are

"good stewards of the

manifold grace of God"

(I Peter 4:10).

Acting in this role of "good stewards,"

we are bidden to "serve one another

with whatever gift each ... has received." 

These are key, critical teachings that underscore

the whole enterprise we call church, which is indeed

the body of Christ working as leaven and love in the world. 

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Our theme for 2009:  Immerse Yourself.

For the next few weeks we will develop this theme.

It speaks to us of being deeply involved;

absorbed; buried; baptized into a life of faith.

The Greek term, "baptizo" means "to dip,"

and we would add, to dip deeply.

To be deeply dipped in faith is to be immersed;

it is to be fully focused and engaged.

When we dip ourselves deeply

in a particular subject or spirit,

we  become centered and defined. 

God trusts us to be engaged in work that

fosters not so much definition, but re-definition.

We are always dipping ourselves deeply in life,

and often enough to our detriment.  We get

defined by our dippings.  Yet Howard Thurman reminds:

however one be defined by the world,

what label someone else has sown

(male, female,

gay, straight,

rich, poor,

tall, short,

thin, ample, a little odd, quite common,

black, brown, bleached),

the church redefines as child of God. 

So, in song, sermon, letter, skit,

we will attempt to inspire and instruct,

and prompt members, possibly even friends,

to take a plunge, to dive in more fully,

to dip more deeply, to immerse ourselves

with time, talent, and treasure in the Plymouth ministry.

Fountains are set up in and around the church.

Water is flowing.  You shouldn't be able to walk

far: in narthex, Folsom Room, on chancel steps,

to encounter reminders of "manifold grace,"

the grace that flows, the love that grows

when we immerse ourselves by faith and holy vow

to live in the mercies of God. 

We thank Neuhauser's Nursery for donating the fountains!

And come November 8, Commitment Sunday,

we will even have a Chocolate Fountain flowing,

a symbol of divine sweetness and favor!

Let me be clear:  the church needs your response.

The church needs stewards who are

generous, sustained, and committed to the

Christian movement we seek to advance.

We are facing a challenging time.

We have experienced a contraction in staff.

We are working to contain and control expenses.

We are looking at every expenditure within our budget.

Freezing the budget is not an option, nor a solution

(although some of the budget will be frozen!).

Making do with what we did last year

is not an option, nor a solution.

Hoping somebody else is going to come along

and dive in while we pace on a plank of uncertainty,

is not an option, nor a solution.

We have resources (endowment/foundation support)-

but we need a strong sacrificial pledge base. 

And that pledge base can only come from members

who are immersed in the life we hold most dear,

a life connected with God, grounded in Christ.

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The morning lesson is from Luke's gospel.

A lawyer, one well versed, taught and trained in the

law, arose to interrogate Jesus.  It was a testing time.

"What must I do to inherit eternal life?"

A curious thing, here.  We don't know what

side of the aisle this lawyer was seated within.

We don't know if he was for it (Pharisaic leanings)

or against it (Sadducees).  And in the time of

Jesus, there would have been disputation,

argumentation, over the question.

Jesus engaged in a little repartee.

He volleyed back, but not without giving a clue of sorts.

We have resources to consult, teachings

from the past that illuminate the present.

In the law - what do you read there?

The lawyer cites Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

Love God with nothing less

than an immersion of yourself. 

 

And love neighbor -

as you love yourself.  

This is most unique in our gospels.

We find the same teaching In Matthew and Mark,

but there Jesus is the source for

citing chapter and verse; Jesus is the authority

condensing law under the umbrella of love and devotion. 

Not so in Luke, where it is suggested such

a reading and teaching was neither confined

nor to be uniquely credited to Jesus. 

The summary of law was in the tradition:

it was re-citable and teachable and transferable.

But Luke then proceeds to dip more deeply into this

subject; we move in a direction where

neither Matthew nor Mark ventured. 

It is the issue of neighbor.

"Who is my neighbor?" the lawyer asked.

Take note: 

we have the right answer,

but the answer is empty of understanding.

This is a common occurrence and a big problem for us,

isn't it?  What was it Oscar Wilde once said:

"Those of you who think you know everything

are annoying to those of us who do."

So Jesus proceeded, through parable, to fill the void,

to move beyond right answer, into a broader and deeper

understanding of neighbor.

And so we do not miss it, it is this teaching,

it is this understanding of neighbor, that connects

us to the original question:  What must

I do to inherit eternal life?  The clue to attaining life

lies not within the possession of a right answer,

but with immersion in a right understanding.

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Today is World Communion Sunday.

I assert that it is a small world.

I invite:  in this small world, let us ponder our immersion

in what the church provides, an instructive past

(both biblical and historical), a relevance for this

present day and hour, and promise of an inheritance,

which is eternal life in God's love. 

So I challenge:

Immerse yourself.

Immerse yourself in the teachings of the past.

Sometimes we are so intrigued by questions,

we forget some of our central affirmations.

Revel in "Living the Questions," but we should do

so with some caution.  A faith filled with questions

and no convictions is just as counter-productive as

as faith filled with certainty and no doubt.

Both hinder the advancement of gospel. 

I'm mindful of a writing of Perry Miller,

an esteemed historian of our American

past, who once wrote: "...for the student of

New England and of America, (the sermon)

is a fact demanding incessant brooding ..."

(Errand into the Wilderness, p. 4-5)

Incessant brooding.  There's a phrase. 

The sermon in question was delivered by John Winthrop,

on board a flagship, the Arabella, making way to the new world.

A famous, often quoted, line is extracted from that sermon,

that through the advance into the wilderness, there might

emerge a people "as a city upon a hill," with the eyes of all people

upon it.  Peggy Noonan, speech writer for Ronald Reagan, took

that line and inserted it into one of the most memorable

of Reagan's speeches.  Reagan's use focused upon the nation-state,

grounded in freedom; the Winthrop sermon was delivered to a people

bound by God through covenant.  It was not about freedom.

Sermon title: "A Model of Christian Charity." Winthrop therein

wrestled with the question we can never leave alone: 

what responsibility do the righteous of God have to society?

Light shines for the world to see through self-effacing charity,

not self-fulfilling freedom!

Our book-based life, our history, requires incessant brooding,

else we take turns that turn us away from God. 

We need immersion in our tradition and teachings that we

might be blessed as much by their answers as their questions.

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I invite us also to be immersed upon

the peace candle in the life of our church.

The peace candle is a reminder of our small world.

It is a reminder that prayer is a fundamental expression

to our faith life.  When we are immersed in this

prayer life, strange surprises often occurred.

Immersion in this prayer life for peace is what

keeps us relevant, it is what keeps us hopeful,

it is what keeps us in daily conversation with the Christ

whose grace and mercy is our peace.

• the small world - Friederike Pohl, daughter of the

Rev. Ulrich Pohl, the EKU, Westphalia District.

• Bright Stars of Bethlehem Representatives Gathering in Chicago;

the surprise of spending time with, among others,

Missouri Synod Lutherans; hopeful that it is possible to be drawn into

mission, into a unity that is something greater than our differences. 

Immersion into the prayer life for peace

works to foster change in our hearts

and to sustain our engagement in the world,

fostering peace and justice.

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A final thought about immersion this morning.

The symbol that comes to mind today is the

Table, set with the provisions of bread and cup. 

It is a constant reminder, isn't it, of our need for

daily bread.  It is a reminder of God's promise

to meet us when we gather here.

The end of our immersion gospel

in life as entrusted to us by God,

is a prayer of thanksgiving

and a song of praise.

So - take the plunge.  Immerse yourself in church;

in faith, life, and understanding;

in book, tradition, and teaching;

in candle and prayer;

in sacrament that proclaims grace and portends glory.

Through such immersion, may Plymouth Church be ever

so strong to proclaim the glory of God.

Amen.