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Sermon – June 13, 2010 June 22, 2010

Posted by Teresa Charlton in News.
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Choose the Children

Based on Galatians 2:15-21

 

Everyone these days, seems to have an idea of how to fix what ails the church…not St. Andrew’s here in Richmond, specifically, but the church overall.  Everyone seems to think that they have the solution to getting large crowds of people out of their cozy bed on a Sunday morning, foregoing brunch, and singing their way through worship, leaving large amounts of money in the collection plate as they go, solving all the woes of the financial burdens churches now carry.

 

Some say the solution is programs…we need to have more programs…and if those programs don’t work then we need better programs. But no one yet has found the secret program that works for every church in every community in every denomination; so we are all still looking for the perfect program!  Some say we need a book club, a prayer club, a quilting club, baby-sitting club and an after school club.  Some say we need tutoring, and some say we need mentoring.  Some say we need Moms-and-Tots clubs, shopping clubs, men’s breakfast clubs, and day trip clubs.

 

Some say we need a gymnasium to solve all our problems, and make up house league teams like used to happen a generation or two ago.  Some say we need sports camps in the summer; some say we need to sponsor a local sports team, and get our name on the back of every player.  Some say we need lunch every week after worship; some say we shouldn’t have anything after worship, since after all we are not here to eat but to worship! Others say we should have coffee urns in the back of the sanctuary, and others say that Christ never stopped for a coffee while he was preaching so neither should we!  But as an aside, I know of a church that just spent $10,000 on a cappuccino machine for their hall…yes, you heard me right, $10,000…so members of the Board, I’ll see you in my office after I’m finished preaching today!

 

Some say we need contemporary worship, traditional worship, youth groups, mid-week groups, diverse Sunday school groups, with lots of splashy, colourful booklets, magazines, take home pamphlets and amazing crafts with all the latest gear, beads, sparkly glue and googly eyes.  Some say we need to hook up the internet, and get the kids interactive with games and chat groups with other Sunday school classes.  Some say the technology should overhaul the entire worship service; others say technology should never be allowed into the worship space.  Some say worship has to loosen up and others say we need to batten down the hatches against the evils of society.  Some say we need to be more welcoming and transparent about how we live day to day with Christ; others act like it is a big secret, and unless you follow all the rules, you are going to Hell, literally!

 

And speaking about rules, some say the solution to the church is to get back to all those great rules from the past, while others suggest we should get rid of all the rules and regulations, since Christ never spoke so much about rules, as He did about loving one another.  Some people say we should have more committees; some people say there should be no committees at all. Some people say we should get rid of the pews.  Some people say we should get rid of the church building altogether.  Some people say we should have old hymns; others say new hymns; some say praise bands; others say there is no place in the Sanctuary for a set of drums and an electric guitar.  Some say we should pray with our hands in our laps and our eyes closed.  Others say that if we only lifted our hands up in praise more often that we might get a little life back into things.

 

The reality is folks, that you don’t have to read to terribly much, or attend too many meetings of Presbytery, or chat with too many friends from different churches in the neighbourhood to realize that there are just about as many ideas of what is the best thing for a church to do to succeed as there are people in this Sanctuary.  The possibilities are endless, and the possible success rate is infinite, theoretically.  It’s just finding the right combination of things for a particular group of people at a particular time in history that is the tricky part.  Everybody has an opinion.  And everybody thinks they have the right opinion.  The truth of the matter is, there is a hint of success and a hint of truth in many of the suggestions.  But how do you stay focused on the truth, and not get bogged down in the delivery, and the diplomacy, and I’ll probably get in trouble for this…the occasional ‘dingbat’ whose ideas are way out in left field <grin>. Oh come on, you were thinking it; I was just brave enough to say it!

 

This is the mess that Paul walked into in Galatia.  The church had been established some time earlier.  And things got off to a great start.  But Paul left town, to start another church down the road, and after a while, different leaders started having different opinions about what the correct decisions were for the church in Galatia.  And since they couldn’t really agree on things, they started to squabble, and since they didn’t know who to blame: they blamed Paul when he came back into town. Paul set the record straight, quickly! “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”. “Hey guys”, said Paul, “It’s not about rules and regulations.  It’s not about being labeled a Jew or a Gentile.  It’s about Christ.  It’s supposed to be about your faith in the risen Son of God”.  “It’s not about the perfect program or the model worship service, or the nicest building, or the splashiest Sunday School curriculum or the best laid table of goodies in the Hall.  It’s about Christ.  It’s about your journey through life with Christ by your side.  It’s about praising Him, thanking Him, holding on tight to Him, praying with Him, and crying with Him, asking forgiveness by Him, and receiving that wonderful feeling of release when you know He has taken your burden away from your shoulders. That’s what church is about”.

 

Which brings me to the children.  What can children teach us about church? Probably more than you think.  You see, the most wonderful and annoying and embarrassing thing about children is that they say it like it is.  If your breath is bad, they’ll tell you so.  If your socks don’t match, they’ll point it out to you.  But just in case you were wondering, if a child’s socks don’t match, it’s because they intended it to be that way! If I child sees something beautiful, they will remark on it.  And if something is not fair, they will stand against it.  Children have not yet learned that wonderful adult ability to paste on the smile, be polite when we don’t want to, or skirt around issues we don’t want to tackle with politically correct statements.  Children will tell you that the social niceties that we adults get so hung up on, are simply silly most of the time, and we pull down many of our greatest achievements in life ourselves, because we get caught up in the politics of the matter.  If you see children, you will see truth.  And I see children here at St. Andrew’s; children of all sizes and shapes and ages and needs.  And these children are happy to be here, for the most part; anxious to make church part of their weekly routine.  Which tells you something very important: Christ is here too, and something at this church is going right; because these children wouldn’t be here if that were not true. 

 

So I challenge you in the coming months, as the summer will alter our schedules and routines; as we will come and go from cottages and vacations and day trips and trips to Grandma’s house, to think carefully about what these children are experiencing in their Christian walk; here and away from here.  If the children are our barometer, then we must be doing something right.  Maybe we do have the ‘perfect program’ and just don’t know what to call it yet!  Keep the children close to Christ these coming months, however you can touch their lives, however you may encourage their participation in the work and worship of St. Andrew’s.  Keep Christ alive for them.  Amen.



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