Reclaim Your Love

John 9:1-41

Back when I was in seminary my professor of Systematic Theology told me about the highly esteemed pastor and Theologian Karl Barth who said to his students, “We ought to preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.”  Down through my 18 years of ministry I have found these words to be both instructive and inspirational as I have sought to keep my preaching both Biblically grounded, but also relevant to what is going on in the world around us.  However, in recent days, there is a new word that has joined instruction and inspiration in my experience of preaching with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.  And that word is fear.

Let me show you what I’m talking about.  This past Sunday, in the Boston Globe, I read a report based on research done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life which indicated that almost half of American adults have switched the religious allegiance of their upbringing or abandoned religious affiliation altogether.  Adding that 1 in 4 adults ages 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with a religious institution at all.

My hometown newspaper, the Huntington, WV Herald Dispatch reported earlier this month, that “a marriage is about to take place, but that of a different kind.”  It seems that my home church, the Beverly Hills Baptist Church is merging with the 20th Street Baptist Church.Trent Eastman, pastor of Beverly Hills, and Donald Walker, pastor of Twentieth Street, feel that combining the congregations will provide a more effective ministry.  This is a marriage of necessity for the continued ministry of these two bodies of Christ in my hometown.

And finally, a week ago this past Monday, I found in my mailbox the latest edition of Rev. magazine which displays on it’s cover the headline, “Is the American Church in Crisis?” In the article authored by David T. Olson and Bob Smietana, it is reported that according to information gathered by the American Church Research Project, approximately only 17.3% of our population is attending a service of Christian worship on any given Sunday in our country today.  They go on to indicate that if current trends continue, by 2020 that figure will drop to 14.7% meaning that within the next 12 years, 85% of Americans will be staying home from worshipping God at church.  85%.

And so you see why I’m afraid.  I’m not afraid for God, or for God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Because both God and God’s will are far larger than the buildings and traditions that we have built.  Nothing can stop the will of God.  Not even us, no matter how hard we might try to get in the way.  You see, I don’t fear for God, but I do fear for God’s Church.  I fear for the future of the traditional mainline Christian Church.  I fear for you and me and our place in the outworking of God’s Kingdom on earth.  I fear for our denomination and our continued ability to make the world a better place through the love and Grace of Jesus Christ.  I fear because I’m absolutely certain that if we aren’t willing to change our ways and refocus our energy and desire, we might all too soon find ourselves living out those dark and frightening statistics that I read a few moments ago.

These stark realities beg us to ask and answer at least a couple of pertinent questions.  The first, and most obvious question is “how did we get here?”  The answer is painful and almost as obvious as the question.  We got here through years of self-absorption and neglect.

Our Gospel passage this morning tells the story of a blind man who had his sight restored by Jesus.  On the surface this sounds to us like a good thing.  After all, isn’t a man regaining his sight good news?  But as the story makes clear, while this might have been good news for the man and perhaps his parents, it wasn’t good news for everyone.  As happens so often in these Gospel tales, the powers that be took exception to Jesus methods as well as his timing.  In their tradition, this man was blind because either he, or his parents had done something to deserve it.  And not only that, Jesus did this work of healing on the Sabbath, a holy day of rest from all labor.  And therefore this work of healing broke the Sabbath law and was therefore a real big problem.  For the religious community of Jesus’ day, the needs of the blindman were superseded by the demands of their religious tradition.  And I’m afraid that we find ourselves in a similar predicament today.

In the Gospel story the blind man is overlooked and neglected by the powers that be in their fixation on ways and means and traditions and “how things should be done.”For us as the Body of Christ on earth during the latter half of the 20th and early moments of the 21st centuries we too have somewhat overlooked and neglected the needs and desires of the broken and hurting world around us in our preoccupation with preserving our tradition and maintaining our institutions.  You see, we’ve confused tradition with purpose, we’ve confused the bathwater for the baby and we’ve lost sight of the forest in our preoccupation with the trees of tradition, institution and facility. The sad truth is that in so many instances, the Christian Church in the 21st century has traded her call to ministry for a big mortgage, potluck dinners, and a fatal obsession with keeping open the doors of our individual church buildings. 

As I said to a group of pastors on this past Monday afternoon, we sing songs like “I Am the Church” which include lyrics like “The church is not a building the church is not a steeple, the church is not a meeting place the church is a people.” But even as we’re singing those words, we know that they are a lie.  The truth is that the modern church’s obsession with bricks and mortar and the traditions that they representis causing it to die a slow, painful death.  Every single day, dozens of Christian church buildings close their doors.  More than 3,700 churches a year have to shut down their business of ministry because their preoccupation with the business of maintaining tradition and paying utilities and preserving their heritage has drained their physical and financial resources until their gauge of ministry reads empty.   That my friends, is how we got here.

And that realization leads us to the 2nd of our necessary questions.  And that question is “What can we do about it?”  Once we recognize the dilemma created by years of neglect and self-absorption, what can we do to reclaim our calling, our purpose, and the vitality that the Christian Church once enjoyed?  The answer is simple.  We have to reclaim our love.

In the Gospel story, the religious leaders love for tradition and institution would have prevented the blind man from being healed.  However, at the same time it was Jesus unbounded love for the blind man that enabled his healing to take place.  You see, there were no limits on the love that Jesus had for the poor and misfortunate that he encountered in his life and ministry.  Law, tradition, personal suffering, self sacrifice, the loss of esteem in the eyes of his peers; nothing stood in the way of Jesus passion for compassion.  Nothing else mattered to Christ but his limitless love for, and desire to bring health and healing to the broken and hurting people of his world.

And that’s why I say that we need to reclaim our love.  As I’ve said before, here at the start of the 21st century, the Christian church finds herself in the fight of her life.  It is a fight to reclaim a sense of relevancy and purpose that has been lost in the desire to maintain and uphold the traditions of a bygone era.  It might be hard, but love can win that fight.

As the newspaper and magazine articles that I read earlier indicate, things don’t look so good for the home team at this point in the game.  But as always, when Jesus and Jesus’ love are brought into the game, things look a whole lot brighter.  And so in spite of startling statistics and pollsters’ prognostications, if we are willing to commit ourselves to living out the love of Christ in our life and ministry, love will win the game.

But that’s not to say that it will be easy.  As I said, Jesus’ love knew no boundaries or limitations.  He was willing to sacrifice all that he had, and all that he was in his desire to carry out his mission and ministry to the world.  And God’s success in us will require no less.  As Jesus himself said, “Anyone who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.”  And so, we can understand that well measured commitment and halfhearted effort will not get the job done.   If we desire to see God’s will done through the work of our congregation into the 21st century and beyond, it is going to require us to be willing to work harder, sacrifice deeper, think more creatively, and regain a single minded focus on healing the world no matter the cost of time, energy, finance, or tradition. 

If we want our church to be bold, vital, and effective in our ministry to the world, we are going to have to reclaim our love.
Amen.