Sermon:  Church: Fad, Fair, or Future?

Prayer:   “May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts and minds here together be acceptable to you, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.”

            Poodle skirts and saddle shoes, bell bottoms, bright red lipstick no matter what the occasion, beehive hairdos, very wide ties…very thin ties, leisure suits, handlebar mustaches.  Do any of these hit close to home for any of you?  I also fell into some of the passing fads of my generation – tight rolled ankles on my jeans, Seattle grunge plaid flannel shirts that were my brothers (and he had 70 lbs on me at the time), and even…dare I admit this…a mullet.  (That was a bad 5th grade haircut decision.)  I don’t know if any of you have had occasion to flip through old church picture directories.  If you haven’t I would highly recommend it.  Inside these directories is not only the history of who was a part of the membership of the church at any given time, but also the history of fads that have come and gone in the world – some that have been resurrected over the years and others that have been relegated to the land of the Halloween costume.  No matter what role fads have played in your life, however, my guess is that because you are sitting here this morning – church has not been one of the “fads” that has come and gone from your life. 

            You see, I would argue that for a while there, especially around the 50s and 60s, church was a fad too.  It was what all the cool kids were doing!  For some, church became the thing that they did because it was the thing to do, made you an upstanding member of society, and it was where you met only “the right” people to spend time with, to raise kids with, and so on.  Now, though, there are so many competing demands for people’s time, for the places to meet the right people and for the right organization or place to belong, that church has unfortunately, for many, become a passing fad.  It is certainly tough balancing all of the demands of this world with God’s call to be a part of the church.  So my first words for all of you this morning really should have been thank you!  Thank you for being a part of the Congregational Church of Brookfield that exists now in the world in 2011.  Thank you to those of you who have been long standing members of our church for sticking through both the wonderful and difficult times.  Thank you to those of you who have arrived because you chose to come back to church, because for it to have been a passing fad was just not enough.  And thank you to those of you who may just be checking us out for the first time today, because it means that there is viability and life – a future in the church – as well.

            I watched a lot of you work and wander around our Yankee Fair and Barn Sale yesterday wearing the brilliant stickers that the Church Growth Committee created that said, “Ask me why I love my church!”  I am hoping that some of you had a chance to answer that question for some of the folks who came to visit and support our ministries yesterday, or to give your answer to one  another.  If so, you may have had a chance to hear or speak about the way God is working in people’s lives right now.  Because it is for all of those reasons – whatever they may be for you – that we are here today, still standing after 254 years while there are mainline churches all over the place that are closing each day. 

So is church a fad?  Not here it isn’t.  Thank God!

            And that is what Paul was writing about in his letter to the church in Thessalonica.  It is now believed that these were the first words ever written in the New Testament – even before the gospels were written down, Paul was writing to the new communities that we have come to know as churches.  And what he is writing about in these first words is thanks and praise to this particular community and to God, for not making the way of Jesus Christ a passing fad – held onto and talked about and lived only while Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy were among them – but rather truly lived out even after the three who had planted the community had moved on.  “We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, for we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…and you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit.”  This following Jesus stuff was not just a passing fancy for this new community.  They had suffered persecution for being a part of it in the midst of the Roman rule that was in the land at the time.  And they had not just heard the words of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy about the good news of Jesus, they had taken it to heart, really made it a part of themselves, and become examples for others around about what it meant to be people of this new way – of what came to be a new faith. 

            Examples of their faith.  I think that is what we have the opportunity to be each and every day, of course, but perhaps in a more focused and concentrated way on the day of our Yankee Fair.  In my prayer yesterday morning with the folks who volunteered their time over in this building I prayed that we would offer extravagant welcome to all of those who entered in, and that everyone might see the faith and spirit that helps us to do God’s work and ministry as a community of Christians.  If you ask me why I love my church, I say that it is because of all of you and because in all of you and through all of you the Spirit is working in some pretty serious ways in this place.  I say serious ways even while I realize that yesterday the ministry of Jesus Christ was being done while wearing clown makeup, cheeseheads, and a beautiful braided Viking hat – that it was being done while playing air guitar and dancing goofily (not sure that’s a word) in the parking lot.  It was being done while deals were made and the fruits of the talents of many – not only those nearby but some from far away whom we may never meet – were being exchanged to help support the work and ministry of this church.  The Spirit was working its way through this place yesterday – and through the nearly 300 volunteers that helped to make yesterday’s fair a success.  And, you know what the best part is?  It goes out into the world from here. 

            Hopefully our visitors yesterday will have caught a little bit of the Spirit bug that was flowing through this place and bring it out into the world – whether in a slightly changed attitude, a bit more care for neighbors, a better sense of what it can be to be church.  It will go out into the world in the form of all of the support offered for ministries beyond our walls – as donations went to organizations like Family Services, Jericho Project, the Nicaragua Project, Big Brothers and Big Sisters.  And as half of the proceeds from the fair will be given to the Association of Religious Communities for their ministries in this area and also to help us make this place home to a new Refugee family through our Refugee Resettlement Ministry next summer.  It will go out into the world in the form of our youth who will have the opportunity to go to Silver Lake summer camp programs with the help of some financial support from our church and in so many more ways.  Yesterday’s fair was a true example of what can be done when a community of faithful people come together and work together for God. 

So, is the church the fair?  At CCB that is certainly a part of what we are, and we thank God for that opportunity and for the hard work that makes that statement true.

            But, although I would love for the spirit and the excitement of the Yankee Fair to fill this place each and every day, if the church were just the Yankee Fair we would be done for the time being – it would be past, so aside from collecting the payments for the Silent Auction items that are yet to be picked up, paying the bills that come in during the next few weeks, Walt Fisher – who will be on the countdown – and Nancy Vodra – who will begin quilting for next year’s fair – today, we would be all set.  No need to be here until next summer when things kick into high gear again.  But don’t go grabbing your hats and coats and purses just yet.  Because we are all here today, the day after the fair, and as much as it may be because we all wanted to hear about what a wonderful success that ministry was, it is also because we have the kind of community of faith that, I believe, can last well into the future.  And because the truth is that I believe we need the church for the future – but only if we are willing to really put ourselves into it.

            And that brings us to Jesus’s words for us this morning in the gospel of Matthew.  This is one of those passages that has often been made to support the distinct separation of church and state.  And yet if we look a bit more closely at it we realize that what Jesus was really talking about was giving our whole lives over to God’s work – our church lives, our home lives, even our political lives – because they are all a part of who we are as God’s children.  The Herodians and the Pharisees coming together in this passage was odd enough to begin with – as the first group was all about supporting the Roman occupancy, while the second was all about staying true to being Israel together.  But they had one thing in mind, and that was to trip Jesus up, to “entrap” him, which is even illegal today.  They were looking for yet another reason to have him blacklisted and even sent to death – and it wasn’t just because he was challenging the other faiths of the time, it was because he was a deeply political guy as well, and he was causing quite the stir with the government and the status quo.  So they come to him and ask him whether or not they, as people of faith, should be paying taxes.  And, what does he do?  It’s quite brilliant really.  He has them hand over a coin.  Now, quick lesson here…according to the rules of the time no Roman coins should have been allowed in the Temple where Jesus happened to be teaching when they came to confront him, and, if you recall the 10 commandments, there were to be no graven images – and the king of the time certainly considered himself and entreated others to consider him a god.  So, two strikes against these challengers.  And, here goes Jesus, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”  Go ahead and give him back the money if you wish.  “Give back to God what is God’s.”  And what did Jesus mean?  If you believe that we are all God’s beloved children created in God’s image, then we are the imprinted fare of God.  And we need to be giving back to God all that we have and all that we are in gratitude and thanksgiving for all that God first gave us.  Jesus wasn’t afraid to answer that question because he trusted that his followers to be whole multi-faceted human beings who could figure out how to serve God with their whole lives.

            That means that Jesus trusts us to be able to do the same.  And if we really want the church to be the future as well then we need to be able to be bold and courageous enough to serve God with our whole lives – to bring our faith to our decisions about who to vote for come November, to share our faithful response to the issues of hunger throughout our world by participating in the UCC’s Mission 1 campaign and sending a letter to our representatives in Washington on behalf of Bread for the World.  (If you don’t know what I am talking about there check out the October Crossways and our website.)  It means being willing to delve into the deep issues of our time no matter what side you come down on – to discuss what is happening with the Occupy Wall Street movement that has now gone global, about the war that continues to rage on in Iraq and Afghanistan, about the reasons that we need to have a booth for SERRV at our fair to support artisans who are just trying to have the basics of food, shelter, and clothing in their lives, while there are others of us who don’t have to worry about those things.  It means, as Richard Stewart, so eloquently put it when our Men’s Fellowship group led worship, making our faith relevant not only for our lives but for the community and the world around us.  Because that is what is going to ensure the future of the church.  And, although Bryn and I joked on Friday night after spending the day baking for the fair with our families, that if all else failed we could open up a bakery aptly named “Cookies for Christ”, we don’t want that to happen. 

            Because we have seen the amazing things that the church, THIS church, can do for each other, for our community, and for the world.  So the challenge is to keep it going and to perhaps dig into some of the deep stuff that we have only skated the surface of.  It means praising God for the ways that God breaks into our lives while using that as motivation for days and weeks and months to come.

            So, is the church the future, my friends?  Serving God with our whole selves as a talented, vibrant, spirit-filled, motivated, and hopefully empowered family of faith…May it be so!  Amen.