2 Kings 4:8-37
Psalm 142
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39
I always get a little nervous preaching to an unfamiliar congregation, espescially because I have a difficult time standing in the pulpit. My preference is to walk around in the aisle as I preach, and some people look at this as strange. It's as if the personality of a 5 year old child, always running up and down the pews during the service, were in the preacher.
I was thinking about being that kid, and some of my memories from childhood. I thought of a time in sixth grade when my brother bought a new comedy album from George Carlin. It was entitled "The Seven Words You Cannot Say On TV". It was very funny to me, but my mother had some different thoughts on the profanity her children were laughing at. Eventually, my father was called in as judge. I thought he might tell my brother to get rid of it, but within five minutes he was laughing very hard. We got to keep the album.
I also remember another routine from that album, in which George Carlin made up funny news headlines. He had a great voice for a newscaster, booming "IT'S 8 O'CLOCK IN LOS ANGELES, IT'S 9 O'CLOCK IN DENVER, IT'S 10 O'CLOCK IN CHICAGO, in Baltimore it's 8:42, time for the 11 o'clock report". One headline went:
Today a one armed man was arrested for disrupting boat traffic by continuously rowing in a circle.
I loved how perfectly he told that joke. If you started it as "There was a one-armed man in a rowboat", you'd give away the punchline. I ended up thinking of the image of a one-armed man in a rowboat as part of my sermon.
Regrettably, I think the church today is very much like the one-armed man in the rowboat. Across the country, across the diocese, and across our region we see the work of the Church as pulling harder and faster on a single oar, seemingly blind to the fact that we are going in circles. That one oar is our Sunday Morning worship. As a Church, we devote almost all our energy to pulling on the oar of creating a Sunday Morning worship that is "just right".
Let me give you an example from St. John's Church in St. Cloud (but is typical of most places). At. St. John's, we have a Liturgy Committee to plan Sunday Morning worship. We have an Altar Guild to set up Sunday Morning worship. We have lay readers, eucharistic ministers, and acolytes to serve at Sunday Morning worship. We have a choir which practices so it can perform at Sunday Morning worship. We have people who volunteer to usher and act as "coffee hosts' for Sunday Morning worship. We have teachers, for both adults and children, for Sunday school at the Sunday Morning worship. In total, we have nearly 100 people volunteering significant time and energy to "do" Sunday Morning.
We have only two other groups that meet regularly--and one of these is the Vestry. Virtually all of the activity of our church revolves around Sunday Morning. The same is true of our budget, as the overwhelming majority of our funds goes to maintaining Sunday Morning.
Don't get me wrong--I believe our service is a deeply enriching experience. It combines education, through readings and preaching, with communal activities such as prayer and eucharist. It has fed me throughout my years in the Church. The question is whether we are truly following Christ by putting so much time and resources into one activity, or simply pulling on a single oar. I believe it is the latter, and that it is time to get the second oar in the water. So what is the "second oar"?
Today's Gospel contain an interesting reference which, when fully considered, tells us of the second oar. The last line of the Gospel states "And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons". At first blush, it seems perfectly normal for the Gospel to put Jesus in the synagogues. He was an observant Jew, and his relationship with God was always of primary importance. In other words, you'd expect to find Jesus in the synagogue.
However, think about the stories you actually remember about Jesus. Whether you think of the Passion, feeding the 5,000, the Sermon on the Mount, walking on water, or the many healings, the stroies about Jesus don't generally take place at the synagogue on the Sabbath. The stories we tell, and retell, about Jesus did not take place during the weekly worship service. Jesus doesn't tell the hungry to come to the potluck if they want food. He doesn't tell the sick to see him at the altar during worship if they want healing. He doesn't clothe the naked by collecting coats in the parish hall.
Jesus and his disciples do their work OUT IN THE COMMUNITY. They meet the people where they are at, meeting needs as they encounter them. For them, and for us, the balance to sabbath worship is to be in the community during the week to spread compassion and love to all in need. That's the second oar--to be in the community as a community.
You'll note I said AS A COMMUNITY. I'm sure many of us volunteer time to a variety of worthy causes as part of our Christian faith. These are worthy efforts. However, just as there is added meaning to joint worship, there is additional grace in joint ministry to the world. Not only does it makes service more efficient and effective, it increases the opportunty for Grace to abound in everyone.
Many years ago, there was a mid-sized, middle-class congregation. This congregation was uncomfortable with the Pastor, because he constantly was pushing them to stretch the ministry beyond Sunday morning worship. In fact, he regularly left the church at the rear after Sunday worship in order to sell fish to poor people in the neighborhood. Eventually, the congregation got rid of this Pastor, and began the search for a new one.
I'm sure they prayed about the new Pastor, asking for God to send the right person. In their secret hearts, the probably wished for someone who wouldn't ask for "stretches" out of the congregation. They probably wanted to recapture the good feeling they had from Sunday morning.
They found a young man who had never led a congregation. He was kind of bookish, holding a theology degree, along with a PhD from Harvard. He was hired as the Pastor to succeed the person who'd been thrown out.
His name was Martin Luther King, Jr.
Within six months, the Birmingham bus strike had begun, starting the Civil Rights Movement. In my opinion, this was the most important social justice movement in the last century.
The congregation, despite their wishes, had been led into the community as a community. As they worked to change the great injustice of racial segregation, they also worked to free themselves. The Grace which came into the world through their efforts saved those within and without their congregation. Their 'second oar" changed their lives and their entire world.
This is the promise of following Jesus. The work for the "community of faith" goes from Sunday worship into the week. It goes from the church building into the world through the efforts of the congregation, inspired to share the blessing of God's love to a world which yearns to feel it. It is the "second oar" which helps us to move toward God.