(Rough notes for a sermon to be preached this Sunday -  26th August 2012 -  at St Martin’s Community Church, Collingwood, Melbourne – an amazingly inclusive congregation, founded a couple of decades ago by John Smith/ God’s Squad).

First: my preaching/handout notes:

St Martin’s Collingwood, Melbourne : WHEN CHURCH IS EASY / HARD.

1.Psalm 84 is a  ¢â‚¬Å“Psalm of Pilgrimage ¢â‚¬    – a celebration of the temple as the dwelling-place of God. Our unnamed pilgrim-worshipper muses longingly about traveling to the temple in the Holy City, Jerusalem, and of his awesome experiences in that holy place.

The psalm is set in the  ¢â‚¬Å“glory days ¢â‚¬  of Israel, when they were a united kingdom with their own land. King David was most likely on the throne when it was written. Every year crowds would flock to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. Our pilgrim is longing to get to God ¢â‚¬â„¢s house – an intense desire to be with the company of God ¢â‚¬â„¢s people, worshipping.  He’s even jealous of the birds nesting there! Psalm 84:10: A day in your courts  is  better than a thousand. Eugene Peterson ¢â‚¬â„¢s  The Message:   ‘One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats a thousand spent on Greek island beaches.’ We all need holy places, where we truly meet God; we all long to go home.  There are many fond remembrances about these experiences – especially the sense of belonging, the friends on the journey (Psalms of Ascent). Plus, for this psalmist, the music…  and   strength for life’s journey, the integrity to ‘walk uprightly’.

2. John 6:56-69  describes many leaving Jesus. His teaching about carrying a cross – preparing to die with him – was just too hard. The term  backsliding  was popularized in the 1600’s by John Bunyan ¢â‚¬â„¢s allegory  Pilgrim’s Progress. Christian and Hopeful are on their religious pilgrimage. While on the journey they begin to discuss someone with the name of Temporary. He had started the pilgrimage, but along the way he fell by the wayside,  ¢â‚¬Ëœbackslid ¢â‚¬â„¢. Vs. those who stayed: ‘Will you also go away’? No: Jesus: was ‘The Holy One of God’   and he taught  ¢â‚¬Ëœthe words of eternal life’.

The Psalmist: ‘I can’t wait to get to church again…’ The Gospel ‘backsliders’: ‘I can’t wait to get away from here…’ Today the backsliders are winning: ‘Jesus yes, the Church no’.  

*  Two prescriptions for a healthy church: [1] Pedagogical (let them ask questions), and [2] Training – the pastoral leaders aim to work themselves out of a job.

*  Two Stories: [1] Pedro and Isabella (Fortaleza, Brazil), and [2] Modern Pharisees: make ‘church’ easy and the Bible ‘constitutional’, a rule-book,   answering every question we’re likely to ask – and in the process ‘missing the point’ (justice, mercy, faith/trust).   See Brian McLaren’s   A New Kind of Christianity.  

*  Two parables:   [1]The Bodies in the River   [2] The Final Exam  

More:         jmm.org.au/articles/13113.htm   + 8109.htm + 19701.htm + 25048.htm + 21803.htm

Rowland Croucher             (jmm.aaa.net.au)

~~

First draft:  

Psalm 84 is a  ¢â‚¬Å“Psalm of Pilgrimage ¢â‚¬      – a celebration of the temple as the dwelling-place of God. Our unnamed pilgrim-worshipper muses longingly about traveling to the temple in the Holy City, Jerusalem, and of the awesome experience of entering into that holy place.

The psalm is set in the  ¢â‚¬Å“glory days ¢â‚¬  of Israel, when they were a united kingdom with their own land. King David was most likely on the throne when it was written. Every year crowds would flock to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. They would make the journey from every part of the territories occupied by Israel.

Our pilgrim is longing to get to God ¢â‚¬â„¢s house – he has this intense desire for to be with the company of God ¢â‚¬â„¢s people, worshipping.  He’s even jealous of the birds nesting there! The Temple courtyards were open to the sky, and the great eaves provided a place for good nesting, so there were always these birds in and around the Temple. The writer exclaims:  ¢â‚¬Å“Oh, to be one of those birds who can make their homes right there in the House of God. ¢â‚¬  He ¢â‚¬â„¢s left his working life behind him…   longing to experience again God ¢â‚¬â„¢s presence among God’s people.

Psalm 84:10: For a day in your courts  is  better than a thousand. ‘I’d love to be a temple guard in the house of my God, than to live easy anywhere else…’   Eugene Peterson in The Message:   ‘One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats a thousand spent on Greek island beaches.’

We all need holy places, where we truly meet God; we all long to go home.  There are many fond remembrances about these experiences – especially the sense of belonging. Plus, for this psalmist, the music… (For brilliant music based on this psalm, you can’t do better than Brahms’  Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen.)

These experiences give the pilgrim strength for life’s journey, the integrity to ‘walk uprightly’.

~~

The Gospel (John 6:56-69) describes many leaving Jesus. His teaching about carrying a cross – preparing to die with him – was just too hard.

The term backsliding was popularized in the 1600’s by John Bunyan in his famous allegory Pilgrim’s Progress. Christian and Hopeful are on their religious pilgrimage. While on the journey they begin to discuss someone with the name of Temporary. He had started the pilgrimage, but along the way he fell by the wayside, or, as Bunyan worded it, backslid. I remember in my boyhood days in our Brethren church hearing Bible ‘messages’ on the dangers of ‘backsliding’. Its easy for once-faithful people to lose interest in their Christian pilgrimage…

Vs. those who stayed: ‘Will you also go away’? They gave two reasons for hanging in with Jesus: who he was (‘The Holy One of God’) and what he taught (‘You have the words of eternal life’).

~~

The Psalmist: ‘I can’t wait to get to church again…’

The Gospel ‘backsliders’: ‘I can’t wait to get away from here…’

Recent statistics – in the Western world the backsliders are winning. Books about ‘Jesus yes, the Church no’.

Why? why? (Talk about that with your neighbour for a minute or two. Brief responses you’d like to share with the rest of us?).

~~

I remember the ‘glory days’ at Blackburn Baptist Church in the 1970s: one of Australia’s first three megachurches. I remember the hundreds of people at the evening services singing along spontaneously with the band (and for a year or two, the symphony orchestra) before the service officially started; the baptisms – on average at least one or two every week; the wonderful team of nine pastors (7 of them preaching pastors); people handing the printed sermons to their unchurched neighbours, many of whom came along to find out what was going on; dozens taking up the challenge of reading a book or listening to a cassette-tape every week about their faith; the 60 small groups (Sunday was the Celebration-time for these mini-churches); the training-days for ministry…

When this sort of thing happens one gets invited to join the church speaking circuit: in 700+ churches over the next 40 years I’ve been asked to explain “How to grow a church of 1000 in three easy lessons…” (Write to me at 7 Bangor Court, Heathmont, Victoria, Australia 3135, with $20 and your Australian or NZ postal address, for an MP3 of dozens of these seminars).

It was all too easy, but the next chapter was too hard. At First Baptist Church Vancouver a few key leaders didn’t want anything to do with those ideas (they sounded ‘too American’. Read about that brief episode here  … )

Sometimes church is easy; sometimes it’s hard. (In 1991 we started John Mark Ministries, and when counseling disillusioned pastors/leaders I hear myself saying regularly ‘God’s people are not yet fully redeemed eh?’).

Here’s a story about modern Pharisees: their calling is to make ‘church’ easy and the Bible ‘constitutional’, a rule-book,   – answering every question we’re likely to ask – and in the process ‘missing the point’. See Brian McLaren’s recent book A New Kind of Christianity  for a brilliant expose of this ecclesiological problem. And see here  for something about what ‘the point’ – social justice – is all about).

(More to come: watch this space)

Rowland Croucher

23/08/2012