“They Hear His Voice”

This is the message that I presented at Tompkins Corners UMC on the 4th Sunday of Easter, 2 May 2004.  The Scriptures for this Sunday are Acts 9: 36 – 43, Revelation 7: 9 – 17 and John 10: 22 – 30.

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This is, as the cliché goes, an interesting time. We are well into the third great industrial revolution of this civilization’s history. (From a speech by Mary L. Good, past president of the American Chemical Society, to the Minnesota Section of the American Chemical Society on 18 September 1991 at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN.)   The first industrial revolution was one in which man-made production was replaced by machine-based production. The second revolution of our society was the manner in which we think. (Look at www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook2.html)  Our view of the world changed from one of gods and myths to one of rational thought and self-enlightenment.

This third great revolution is one of technology and information rather than machines or methods. As our society becomes more technology-oriented, we gain more and more information. Our resources for processing this information become strained and more and more of what we gain becomes nothing but "noise." We simply are not in a position where we can process all the information in front of us.

These changes in how we work and, possibly even think forced changes in how we live. We first lived in small tribes, where our contacts with others were limited to our family and immediate relatives. We then progressed to small towns, places where friendships and relationships went beyond kinship but were still limited by provincial boundaries and family loyalties.

We are now in the period of the great city or technopolis. This is a society in which people come together for functional reasons rather than traditional ones. These type of societies should be open, free of tribal or racial, class or caste boundaries and allow people to associate freely solely on the basis of the functions they perform in society.

The problem with this evolution in society, both in terms of the way we work, the way we think, and the way we live, is that there is a movement away from God. As the emphasis in the Scientific Revolution forced a change in our thinking, forced us to think things through, the presence of God became less and less important. Now, with the machines being developed that can think faster than we can or even independently, there is a thought that mankind is becoming less and less important. More and more of what we call information is perceived as noise to be filtered out and removed as extraneous.

But at the same time, as the importance of God is diminished by increasing reliance on thought and logic and as the importance of man is diminished in a world growing increasingly complex, the rationale for having God in our lives increases.

Some would say that this is a perfect time for the Second Coming, a time for the Messiah. Those who preach His Second Coming see a world devoid of God, a world in which God has disappeared. For those, this is a good time for the end of the world, for Armageddon.

But I would say that God has not disappeared. Rather, mankind has pushed God aside hoping to save Him for when He is truly needed, when the ground shakes and the sky opens wide, when the graphic dreams of John become reality. But God is, was, and will always be. If anything, now is a chance for liberation and greater freedom. It is a time when mankind can increase the range of freedom and responsibility, deepening the maturation of civilization.

This time gives us more opportunities to see God at work, to hear Him calling us to respond to new possibilities, calling for a new open society of persons. But we must also be careful that we do not become prisoners of our own making, imprisoned by the very technology that we developed, limited by the very thought processes that allowed us to developed the technology that threatens to imprison us. We must see where God is at work and we must be open to myriad possibilities that arise from this time. Literally we must be ready to respond to God’s call; we must hear God’s voice calling to us.

There are those today who see the church as a refuge from the noise and trouble that dominates the world around us. That is a role that the church has long played and a role that it should continue to play. But these people want to shut out the world; they want to leave the noise, the distraction, the troubles behind and escape inside the walls of the church. But if that is all a church does, then nothing will happen. There will be no response, we will become prisoners of our own technology, of our own thought processes.

Yes, there must be places where people can hear God’s call; there must be places where people can hear the voice of the shepherd bringing them home. But such places must also be places from which people can go out into the world, working to remove the noise and the distraction.

The Gospel passage from John that we read this morning is pleasant enough. It is Hanukkah and Jesus is enjoying the feast. But his opponents challenge him to declare whether He is or is not the Messiah. This is not an innocent question for his challengers will shortly attempt to kill him. But his answer shows that those who follow him and believe in Him know that the work that He is doing is the manifestation of God, not an usurping of God. The followers know that there is protection in being the sheep of the fold where Christ is the Shepherd.

The image of sheep is also written in the passage from Revelations for today. But in both cases, the sheep are not the meek and timid creatures that we imagine. Rather, they are images juxtaposed with darker realities. They are images intended to show the trust one finds in God when confronted with terror, enmity and death. (From "Sheepish?" by Mary Schertz – "Living the Word", Christian Century, April 20, 2004)

The sheep of these passages are not mindless or timid. Rather, they are protected, able to go out into the world and minister to the people of the world. I have said before and I believe that the one thing missing in many churches today, especially in those churches who emphasize the caring only for their own members, is the fulfillment of the Gospel, of taking the Gospel message out into the world. It is right and necessary to take care of the members of the flock. But you cannot enclose them in one pasture. It will soon be overgrazed and die; and then the flock will die. The flock must go out to other pastures and then come back to a place where they can hear God’s voice.

Peter is ministering in the area north of Jerusalem that we now call Jaffa. While in the area, one of the early disciples Tabitha (or Dorcas as it can be translated) becomes ill and apparently dies. Her friends, knowing that Peter is in the area, send a messenger to him and ask that he come to their aid. It does not say in any of my resources but I would suppose that Peter’s response was quick and decisive, for that was his nature. As we read, through his prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, he is able to literally raise Tabitha from the dead. His actions, along with the faith of those who called him, brought others to know Christ.

In the midst of gloom and sadness, those who believed in Christ were able to show others the power of Christ. But it does not have to be at such times that the miracle of Christ be shown. In part that is why we are here today. We are celebrating the baptism of an infant. In the midst of all that may be gloom and death and destruction, there is a hope and joy in the birth of a young child.

The baptism of the child is not a solitary event. It is a community event as well. It is not an event in which the parents and immediate family take place with the community only watching. The community also has a stake in the raising of this child. We, as a congregation, will make a vow to raise this child, to see that amidst all the noise and distractions of this world this child will see and know who Christ is.

Despite all that we have tried to, we have allowed the noise and distractions of the world to dominate the church. Instead of doing the work of God, instead of taking the Gospel message into the world, we have allowed the noise and distractions to come into the church. We could find ways to shut out the noise and take away the distractions. But then we would be like the monasteries of old, shut off from the world, protecting what was but not knowing what will be. And if we were to do that, then the vows that we take to shepherd this child and other children like her, to welcome new members into this community of believers will be a false vow. For we have said that we would take the Gospel out into the world, to let people hear God’s call through us.

The church of today must be a place where the noise and distraction of the world is shut out so that people can hear the word of God, so that people can hear God calling to them. But it must be a place where they also hear God telling them to go into the world, acting in accordance with the scripture and message of the Gospel. The people will hear the word because they see the Gospel in our lives.

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A Rock and Roll Revival

I am at Hankins UMC this Sunday.  (Location of Hankins – the church is just past the intersection of NY 97 and NY Co 94 (on church road))  The service starts at 10:30 and you are welcome to attend.  The Scriptures for this Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Easter, are Acts 9: 1 – 6 (7 – 20), Revelation 5: 11 – 14, and John 21: 1 – 19.

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A couple of years ago I wrote a piece for my blog entitled “A Rock and Roll Revival”. In it, I set down an order of worship based almost entirely on 60s rock and roll music. It was done partially because of a piece that I had written that earlier week (“Are You Ready?”), partially in fun, and partially because of how I felt about the music being passed off today as modern worship music.

Now, let me say that there is some very nice modern worship music in the world today and when it is played properly, it adds to the service as it should. But most of what I hear does little for me and I truly believe it only exists because someone thinks that the only way to get the young people to come to church is with guitars and drums and rock and roll sounding hymns. It doesn’t work for me and I am not certain for how many people it does work.

There is much to be said about the place and role of music in the worship service. Throughout my life I have had an appreciation for music of all ages and kinds. I appreciate the beauty and workmanship of a Bach cantata or a Mozart oratorio as much as I appreciate the guitar work of Eric Clapton. I can hear the power of God as much in a modern jazz piece or rock and roll as I can in a traditional choral piece or an organ composition.

I wrote two other pieces about the use of rock and roll music in worship services and one of the things that I discovered was that the Irish rock band, U2, allowed certain pieces of their music to be used in a music liturgy (see “Rock and Roll Revival Revisited” for further information about that liturgy and when it can be used.) As Sarah Breuer pointed out, if you are going to use modern music in a worship service, it helps to see what resonates with the congregation.

And that is part of the reason for my choosing the particular title for today’s message and the change implied in the Scriptures for today.

One of the pieces that I suggested in the original worship piece was “Good Shepherd” by Jefferson Airplane. I did it because there are clear references in the song to the Gospel reading today, especially the part where Jesus challenges Peter to “feed my sheep”.

Out of curiosity, I checked out the history of this song. Jorma Kaukonen, the guitarist for Jefferson Airplane, who wrote the arrangement that I am familiar with was introduced to one variant of the song in the late 1960s. It had evolved from a 19^th century Gospel hymn into a mid-20^th century blues-based folk song. But what was interesting, at least for me, was that the roots of this song come from an early 1800s hymn written by John Adam Grande, a Methodist preacher from Tennessee.

 

Now, I cannot speak to what others hear when the song is played or if they even see the connection to the Gospel passage that we read today. But as recently as 2004 Kaukonen and others continue to find a meaning in the song and other such songs where religion is celebrated in one context or another without preaching. Kaukonen has said this material has given him a doorway into the scripture: “I guess you could say I loved the Bible without even knowing it. The spiritual message is always uplifting.” (Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Shepherd_(song); see http://mtdalton2.blogspot.com/2008/02/good-shepherd-jefferson-airplane.html for additional thoughts on this song.)

It is interesting to note that some can hear the call from God through rock and roll music. Such a thought is almost contradictory to the ways of the church, or at least the way that many people see the church.

The problem is that too many in the church have a legalistic, formalized view of the church. There is a fixed way to do things and the call that one receives is the same for all, no matter who they are. But the Old Testament reminds us that we were created in the very image and likeness of God. And God will not call us to do something that has nothing to do with what brings you alive in the world today? It may not fit within the category others may have but that is their problem, not yours.

Can we not respond to God’s call through rock and roll music? Are there other ways in which people can even begin to hear God’s call?

Far too many people sit in the church pews across this country every Sunday, the very place where the perception of God’s call and response to it should be of the utmost concern, and have no idea what to do with the experiences they’ve had that bring them alive in this world. They have no idea because, for the most part, the church couldn’t care less what they are feeling.

I think part of the reason is that the church itself doesn’t know how to respond. It is locked into a mind-

set, if you will, that says there is only one way to read the Gospel and there is only one way to sing the music of the church. And battle lines are drawn when it comes to doing things in new and different ways, so much so that when a new way is created for doing something, it has a way of quickly becoming the old way and not to be touched.

Christianity in this country is a part-time thing, a hobby to occupy our time on Sunday morning. It is something to be stored away during the week and brought out on Sunday for a few short hours.

And in all of this, the message of the church has gotten lost. I came of age during a time when the church was a powerful voice for civil rights and against the war in Viet Nam. But the meaning of this message has, sadly, been lost over time.

The message of the church has become a message of the church that existed before Jesus, a legalistic and controlling entity that told the people what they could and could not do, that created myriad mazes of laws that made it impossible to find hope in the world. That is the church of today as well.

It has been replaced by a Gospel message that requires little but promises a lot. It speaks of exclusion rather than inclusion, of hatred instead of peace, of violence and retribution as the answer instead of peace and justice. It demands an acceptance of knowledge without question; it provides no answer for the myriad questions that many people ask today.

It fosters a belief in the Bible that says the Book of Revelation presents a message of destruction instead of the celebration of a loving God who sent His Son, Jesus Christ. It is lost on many today, Christian and non-Christian, that the total destruction of the world, so often portrayed as the product of John the Seer’s vision is actually the result of several 19^th century ministers who interpreted Revelation according to their own world views. If this is the true ending for humanity, then Jesus suffering and death on the cross was for naught. But because the message of the Gospel has been lost, many believe in this final vision of the world.

We expect our music to be traditional music and the reading of the Scriptures to be in the traditional language that we heard growing up. There are many today who say that the only true Word of God is the King James Bible.

Now, I have never understood that reasoning. I am sure that Jesus, the disciples, and members of the early church did not speak in 17^th century English nor did they see the “divine right of kings” as an outcome of the Gospel message. If anything, the message of the Gospel spoke against any divine right of any individual to govern the people. What Jesus, the disciples and members of the early church did speak was Aramaic and I doubt that there are many among us today who speak that ancient language. Once again we have someone, notably the monarchy, using a translation of the Bible to validate their own worldview and justify their existence.

What should matter is that we hear the Word of God is such a way that it has meaning for us, not worry about the translation. I have come to enjoy reading the “Cotton Patch Gospels”, a translation of the Scriptures by Dr. Clarence Jordan from Greek into the language of the south. To be honest, if you spoke to me of Corinth, Shiloh, Athens, or Mount Moriah, I am more likely to think of towns and places in the South rather than places in the Middle East and the Holy Land. In Dr. Jordan’s translation, I hear the message in a way that adds a little more meaning. I would have used his translation this morning but he died before completing the translation of the Gospel of John.

And though today’s churches may have lost the Gospel message it has not been lost to the people. God is still calling them and there are people who are striving to hear that call. To hear God means that you need to be open to the moment. It means hearing the scriptures read in a different translation or hearing an old hymn sung in a new way; it means singing with a new voice and seeing with a new vision.

When Saul left Jerusalem for Damascus that day some two thousand years ago, it was with the intent of destroying a movement that threatened the established church. But, on that journey, he encountered Jesus in a way that was truly unexpected. It was an encounter that would change his life so much so that he took a new name.

Our encounters with Jesus, our responses to God’s call may never be so dramatic. We may hear the call in a new song or in a new version of the Scriptures. But it is certain that as we see this unexpected light of Christ, we will find the freedom from the smallness of vision and the limited obedience that strangles us and confines us in this world today. In this revival we find the freedom that we need — the freedom to accept Christ as he comes to us from the world of which He is the Lord; freedom to be with Christ as we answer the call.