January 31, 2010

This is one of the most quoted lines from Wesley’s Sermons, and is often used in a superficial way to imply that disagreements do not really matter, and that we can all get on with each other if we simply agree to disagree. This is not at all what Wesley was saying. Differences of opinion do matter, he declared, often a great deal, but they cannot be discussed openly and charitably unless we first agree on the essentials of our faith. Addressing differences we have in the church by pretending they don’t matter, or with some kind of religious group hug, ultimately gets us nowhere, and makes the church vulnerable to its cultural context. For those of us in contemporary America this means customer satisfaction, in which the first casualty is almost always the gospel itself.

This does not mean that we should not listen to one another. We are blessed to have the Common Table here at West End, whose members are well trained to help us in this. However, heightened  sensitivity cannot be the only measure of how we deal with differences in the church. Listening to one another’s opinions, and even one another’s deep concerns, will be to no avail unless we follow Wesley’s injunction first to be clear about the essentials of why we are here, to have consensus around the bedrock doctrines of the Christian faith, the beliefs that are non-negotiable, and for which we must be willing to give our very lives.

Will you join me in prayer?

Most gracious God, out of all the words that will now be spoken and heard, may it be your living word that stays in our hearts. Give us the grace to receive it, and give us the charity to let all the other words slip away. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

You might be asking why the distinction between essentials and opinions should be the subject of this concluding sermon. The answer is at once the very nature of West End and its great qualities. I have never encountered a congregation so rich, so diverse, so open in the truest sense of Wesley’s Catholic Spirit, and so well versed in the depth and the breadth of Christian tradition. The qualities come readily to mind: the wide range of professions represented here week by week; the breadth of views on contemporary issues; the differing political alignments that are welcomed and accepted no less than the diverse theologies and spiritualities. By the same token, there is strong disapproval of discrimination, whether on grounds of race, age, gender, or orientation, allowing for an openness to membership from all walks of life. The mix is one that I have found stimulating and enriching, personally and professionally.

The irony is that the very richness of this mix presents a  constant pitfall. Without consensus on the established essentials of our faith, there is a vacuum at the center. This is true of any community, but especially the community called church. And when there is a vacuum, then opinions, or in Outler’s words, subsidiary doctrines, are drawn into the center of congregational life as if they were essentials. This is a sure recipe for disaffection, discontent, and ultimately dissociation. The great strength of West End is that the essentials are at the center. We are in fact Christ-centered, in our worship, in our ministries, in our outreach, and in our vision and mission, to Live the Loving Light of Christ.

The point is that none of this can be taken for granted. A Christ-centeredness must be affirmed and re-affirmed, a thousand times if need be, or we will lose our true diversity and, imperceptibly but inexorably, drift into a divisiveness that is the very antithesis of the gospel. We must hold fast to the Christ-centeredness that is the mark of our discipleship, and maintain our consensus around the person and the teachings of Jesus.

The challenge of such a consensus is that the essentials of our beliefs fall into the category of what non-believers regard, quite legitimately from their perspective, as merely the personal opinions of the faithful. The track record of Christianity, to say nothing of other religions, is that opinions have all too often become the essentials over which wars have been fought and persecutions perpetrated, enough for atheists and agnostics to make a very good case that religion is at the root of most of the problems of the world. As if to prove the point, and for reasons that remain deeply mysterious, God seems to condone the emergence of religious leaders, including those of the church, from a pool of what can best be described as spiritual twits, a species very much alive and well today in what has become the church growth industry.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that, when it comes to essentials, not only is consensus required: it is also expected. The essentials of any faith impel those who believe them to state them with confidence and with conviction. Thus, on July 4, 1776 the Congress of the Thirteen United States of America held “these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” And while America is still a work in progress, there has been consensus, confidence, and conviction that this Declaration of Independence was just and right.

The same is true of scientific knowledge. While Stephen Hawking and others are discovering exciting new things about time and space, some of the laws established by Newton still hold true. Thus, when a flight attendant pours a drink at 35,000 feet, there is consensus and confidence that it will go into the glass, even though the attendant, the glass, the drink and the passengers are all moving at 500 miles per hour. The same with the pilot. It would not be reassuring to hear him or her say, “As the flight attendants prepare for take-off, please remember that there are varying opinions about aerodynamics, and none of us is really sure we are going to have lift-off. But we always give it our best shot, and we always keep our fingers crossed. Trust us.”

All the more reason, therefore, for Christians not only to have consensus, but also confidence and conviction on the essentials of their faith. This does not mean immunity from critical examination and reflection. As with anything passed on from one generation to the next, the essentials of religious faith must be received thoughtfully and responsibly, then applied to contemporary contexts of time and place. But the essentials of a faith tradition cannot and must not be reduced to mere opinions. For one thing, opinions are rarely worth dying for, and for another, they seldom evoke consensus, confidence, or conviction.

In his monumental work, The Creeds of Christendom, first published in 1876, Philip Schaff shows how the central beliefs of Christianity have emerged across the centuries, and have been embraced by different branches of the church in accordance with the Scriptures as the definitive witness and authority of the Christian faith. We find some of these Affirmations of Faith in our current United Methodist Hymnal (#880-#889), along with a sampling of contemporary creedal statements. As you will have noted, one of these is always part of our weekly worship here at West End. In response to the proclamation of the Word, we affirm the core of our beliefs, the non-negotiables, the very essence of our identity as a Christian congregation.

What, then, are the essentials of our faith? It may be helpful to identify them in the form of  “Gospel Headlines,” which in turn will give us the freedom to have limitless opinions about how to apply them in our daily walk with Christ in the world.

Headline Number One: God is God

God is God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, Creator of heaven and earth, for ever beginning what never shall end

Headline Number Two: God Revealed

God is revealed to us in the law thundered from Sinai and through the prophets: a God who rages against iniquity, but is rich in mercy and filled with parental compassion.

Headline Number Three: A Planet Gone Wrong

The corner of God’s Creation called Planet Earth has gone deeply and mysteriously wrong. There is the enigma of the natural world, ordered yet fickle, bountiful yet cruel. There is the scandal of human sin and evil, and the profound mystery of suffering and death.

Headline Number Four: The Daring Divine Initiative

God has not left Planet Earth to a self-determined fate. The daring Divine Initiative was to come to live as one of us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who emptied himself and took the form of a slave, the Word made flesh, the image of the invisible God, the supreme revelation of the Divine.

Headline Number Five: God’s Anguished Declaration and Invitation

The God who was in Christ was despised, rejected, and held of no account. The one without sin was made sin for our sake, to declare that the mystery of a planet gone wrong was not a game, but a divine plan on a cosmic scale that will one day be fully revealed. The death of Jesus on the cross was God’s anguished declaration of this mystery, and an invitation to come home to the divine family where we belong.

Headline Number Six: Jesus was Raised from the Dead

On the third day God raised Jesus from the dead, affirming his work of redemption, and exalting him as the Name above every name. In his resurrection Christ opened the door to eternal life for the whole of Planet Earth, and inaugurated a New Creation in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Headline Number Seven: Birth Pangs of the New Creation

We are presently in the Birth Pangs of this New Creation, the travail of the Holy Spirit. Sin, evil, suffering and death remain in the midst of our redemption, but will be no more when God’s Reign is finally established on earth as in heaven. The rest of Creation is on tiptoe to see this come to pass.

Headline Number Eight: Universal Love, Justice and Peace 

The Holy Spirit will bring this to fulfillment, a time of universal love, justice and peace, when all will know the Lord, from the least to the greatest, when every knee shall bend, on earth as in heaven. Meanwhile, those of us called to be heralds of this New Creation must live in the power and presence of the Spirit, seeking and practicing love, justice, and peace, and extending God’s invitation to the whole of Planet Earth to come home to the family of God.

Headline Number Nine: The More Excellent Way

We do this by repenting and accepting our new birth in Christ, then walking as he walked in “the more excellent way,” serving our neighbors, and proclaiming this good news to as many as possible, as often as possible, in as many ways as possible, until the veil is lifted and time and eternity are one.

These are the essentials of our faith. If we hold fast to them, we are free to live them and fulfill them in countless ways, and with countless opinions, united in our commitment to serve the Risen Christ as we wait in active expectancy for the fullness of our redemption.

I know of no other congregation better placed and better able to do so than West End United Methodist Church. May God continue to give you the grace and strength to be witnesses to the coming Reign of God, on earth as in heaven.