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Politics A sermon preached on Sunday, November 8, 2009 By Rev. Mark P. Schowalter Based on the Gospel Reading found in Mark 12:38-44 “He continued teaching.”Watch out for the religion scholars. They love to walk around in academic gowns, preening in the radiance of public flattery, basking in prominent positions, sitting at the head table at every church function. And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless. The longer their prayers, the worse they get. But they'll pay for it in the end." Sitting across from the offering box, he was observing how the crowd tossed money in for the collection. Many of the rich were making large contributions. One poor widow came up and put in two small coins—a measly two cents. Jesus called his disciples over and said, "The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford—she gave her all." [The Message translation] Politics! A word that today can create a wide array of emotional responses, from very good, to very bad. When we hear the word “politics” most immediately think of the U.S. government and either their law-making capabilities or their inability to decide. Often times today the word politics evokes a sense of a career in serving constituents, a position that was once considered community service. Today it effects how that representative will vote; whether or not my decision will get me re-elected and/or how much will my region benefit by my choice. Politics means to both govern and leverage for power and/or control. Yet, it also has other meanings. Let us look for a moment at the root word, “polity”. Polity means to structure an organization into a practical functional group. It might be a country, a state, a county, a community, or even a church. Yes, we have a polity within our community of faith that we attempt to follow. Actually, we have two polities that we believe in; our church’s Constitution, and our Statement of Faith. Please turn to our Statement of Faith as found inside the back cover of your pew hymnal as I will be making references to it along the way. In the gospel lesson this morning we read that Jesus was speaking to his followers and inviting them to “not” be like the scribes. He instructs his followers not to “think moor highly of them than they ought.” (Romans 8) Jesus points out that often times the scribes get caught up in what they “think” they should be doing and forget that they are teachers of the law and should be examples. What happens is that they end up serving themselves rather than God, rather than the temple, rather than the poor. Jesus brings home his message by observing those who are making their offerings in the temple and singles out a poor woman who gives pretty much everything she has to fulfill the law of the temple. Jesus tells his followers that “she has given her all.” (Mark 12:44) First, I believe we can see the parallel of then with now. The scribes were suppose to take care of the poor, the widow, etc. but instead they exploited their position, they used their politics, placement in society for leverage, power, and control over these helpless folks. Take a minute to consider your life and way of doing things. Do you give your all? Or do you attempt to give in relationship to the power and control that it gives you? Second, let’s look closer at the polity of these scribes. I think it becomes fairly clear that the scribes forget to worship God in the temple but instead, worship the law that gives them power, authority, and control. In other words, they worship the polity, the politics of their ways and attempt to call themselves good, perhaps even righteous. So Jesus humbles them by showing them the poor widow and her mite. Many times we fall victim to our polity and politics. We tend to worship the words of a Constitution, the structure of an organization rather than to follow Jesus and do what Jesus would do. We tend to make Constitutions and structure our gods, (small g) rather than following and/or responding to the purposes God (capital G) wants for and from us. So where do we go to find these purposes? Let’s look at the mission statement of our Constitution as printed in your bulletin this morning. Article III: Section 2: We covenant, one with another, to seek and respond to the Word and the will of God, and to walk together in the ways of the Lord, made known to us. We hold it to be the mission of the Church to witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the entire world, while worshipping God, and striving for truth, justice, and peace. We depend on the Holy Spirit to lead and empower us. We pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God, and we look with faith toward the triumph of righteousness and eternal life. What do these words mean to you? Are they rules by which to live? Or a calling to serve one another faithfully as to the best of one’s ability? A second place that we go to find our sense of polity is the Statement of Faith. Please look with me at the following paragraphs; “He bestows upon us God’s Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the Church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races. God call us into god’s church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship; to be God’s servants to others; to preach the gospel to the entire world and resist the powers of evil; to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at God’s table; to join god in the passion and victory. Again, the polity by which we need to live by is not found in the words of the Constitution nor these guidelines of the Statement of Faith, but in words that call us to action, to respond, to be on the cutting edge of pushing the Church of Jesus Christ out into the world. And that’s hard! Let me propose a change to our thinking. Please do not interpret me as one who does not like tradition. I hold fast to many traditions myself of which I feel uncomfortable when they are challenged and/or lost. Yet, perhaps I have made my own traditions my “gods” (small g) and thus miss the larger picture of my calling? I take pride in wearing my robe for special occasions. It is a robe of honor, blessing, and calling to me. Yet, the moment that I begin to place that robe in front of my purpose and calling into the ministry I am losing my focus on what God has intended for me. (Removes robe and is wearing bib-overalls) Instead, I would much rather that you see me as a “farmer” who is planting seeds; seeds of spiritual growth and opportunity for God to provide that growth that are needed. Now let’s look at some traditions; remember that “mission statement”? What if we simply reduced it to something we could all easily live with, not argue about what it means something that we could faithfully share with others? What if our mission statement for our congregation read, “To learn and understand Jesus more fully… and take Jesus out into the world?” How each one of us does that is entirely up to you and the Lord. God will put you in the right situations at the right time to preach the gospel… and when necessary give you the right words to say. By simply advancing Jesus to each other and the world we become poor widows like the one in our gospel story who gives of herself, not of her abundance. Consider that for a moment? Next, let’s consider our annual church budget? Why do we prepare a budget? Of what purpose does it really serve? Let’s see; it drives the Financial Secretary, the Treasurer, and the Church Council nuts because we are always behind what we “think” we should be at and we are afraid of what will happen if we don’t comply with its numbers, figures, and line items. It becomes difficult to gaze into the financial crystal ball of tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and exactly state what and how things will be. And then the budget becomes the “gospel” of our ministry. It in a sense becomes our ‘god” (small g). Now we can no longer “learn and understand Jesus more fully… and take Jesus out into the world” because we are concerned too greatly about finances. So let me proposed a different stewardship principle. Let us give are all, forget about the budget, forget about worshipping a printed page of numbers, and concern ourselves with helping the poor and needy of our community? Yes, I am casting to the wind my own concerns for a paycheck. That scares me! Scares me silly! Yet if we give totally of ourselves, give our all, then we need to trust in God to provide and God will! I trust that! I know that! I know and trust that! We need to drop the politics within a community of believers. We are all one; one in baptism into one faith by one Holy Spirit. There is none here greater than any other. There is none here who possesses any more privileges, anymore gifts or talents, anymore money or not than anyone else. If one of us is spiritually poor, then we are all spiritually poor because we are not helping that person. If we are rich in the spirit, then we all rejoice because of that fullness of grace… together. There is no place in the Church (capital C) for leverage, power, or control. There is no place in the church for personality conflicts, character assassinations, or power struggles. There is a fertile bed of poor who want to hear, to know, and to understand more fully Jesus. Let us plant seeds of faith and let God do the rest! Amen. |