“THE
SIX GREAT ENDS OF THE CHURCH.”
5.
The promotion of social righteousness
We continue our series that takes a
look at 6 historic statements of the purpose of the church that were
first proposed at the beginning of the last century and have been a
part of the Presbyterian Book of order ever since.
The Six Great Ends of the Church (From
the Book of Order F-1.0304)
- The proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind
- The shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God
- The maintenance of divine worship
- The preservation of the truth
- The promotion of social righteousness
- The exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world
Today we are taking a look at number
five. As with our previous session I'll be referencing a book edited
by Rev. Joseph D. Small “Proclaiming the Great Ends of the Church”
that contains a number of essays on each of the statements.
The promotion of social
righteousness
- Our first session, about the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of all humankind, focused on the preaching and teaching ministry of the church.
- Our second session focused on ways we nurture each other through fellowship and service.
- The third great end drew our attention to the maintenance of divine worship, worship being the place where our lives connect with God.
- The fourth session looked at the preservation of the truth, in particular the truth of the gospel.
The Fifth Great End represents "The
promotion of social righteousness."
The banner represents Amos 5:24
"But
let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever
flowing stream."
One of the
defining tenets of Presbyterian faith is that we are saved by grace
through faith in Jesus Christ. That our salvation is linked to what
Jesus has already done for us. If folk ask when were we saved, our
answer is “Just over 2000 years ago when Christ died upon the Cross
for our sins.”
We tend to focus
less on the world to come and far more on what it means for the
gospel to be birthed in our current, everyday, now world, of today.
That, briefly stated, is what the promotion of social righteousness
is about. We are called to apply ourselves to fulfilling the prayer
we make each Sunday; “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on
earth... as it is in heaven.” We recognize not only is this our
call, but a call that we cannot fulfill without God's strength power
and guidance. Hence at the top of our banner is the Dove, indicating
the initiative and empowering of the Holy Spirit.
A good starting place for our deliberations is the Sermon on the
Mount: Luke 6:20-26
20
Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are
poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed
are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
22
Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and
insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
23
"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your
reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the
prophets.
24
"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your
comfort.
25
Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you
who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
26
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their
ancestors treated the false prophets.
(Luk
6:20-26 NIV)
The teaching Jesus offers
is hard to grasp. Being poor, hungry, sad and hated is not what any
sane person would described as being blessed! This idea that the rich
are going to be punished, the well fed go hungry, those who laugh be
moved to tears and folk we regard as honored are equated with false
prophets... well, this needs some unpacking.
One way of looking
at this passage is that it is about the difference the coming of the
Kingdom is meant
to make to the world in which we live. That God has heard, and is on
the side of those who are in need, and that God's plan is that those
who have plenty, get with God's program and do something to help
those less fortunate than themselves.
This is the approach
Timothy Hart-Andersen takes in his essay “Plain Talk From Jesus on
Poverty and Wealth” P118-9
“He (Jesus)
knows that the poor suffer and die from lack of food;
Blessed
are you
who are hungry now.
He
knows that the poor are often filled with despair;
Blessed
are you
who weep now.
He
knows that the poor are forced to live on the margins;
Blessed
are you
when people hate you, and when they exclude you.
For
to you,
Jesus says, belongs the reign of God, where you
will no longer be hungry, where you
will no longer weep, where you
will no longer be excluded.
Not
everybody standing there on the plain listening to Jesus is poor.
Neither are all of his disciples. But the rich who want to follow
Jesus will be expected to view their wealth in new ways. Levi, for
example, is a tax collector and man of means. He throws a banquet
After Jesus calls him as a disciple, to celebrate his change of life.
Jesus
is not against the rich; He is is simply saying God has a a
particular interest in the poor.”
If those at the bottom of the pile are
going to see there lot improved it is only through those at the top
of the pile, permitting some of their blessings to overflow. Again we
are with Amos 5:24 "But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Our banner
pictures the Holy Spirit's work as overseeing the overflow.
Again to quote Hart Andersen: “If
we hoped our religion could remain fundamentally a private matter we
were mistaken. If it makes us squirm to be bought face to face with
our material abundance, then so be it. The gospel is not meant to
justify our standard of living. It was and is meant to be heard by
the poor as good news... Jesus makes the elimination of poverty –
the promotion of social righteousness – a fundamental aim of those
who choose to follow Him” (P119)
As a fund raiser many moons ago I wrote
a song for a Christian Aid appeal. While the song had a particular
focus on the plight of street children in Brazil, one of the lines
applied to all those occasions we are inspired to help others; “Let
us listen for the voice of Jesus calling, speaking to us through
their need, Whatever you do for the least of my brothers, You do it
for Me.”
We love because Christ first loved us,
we serve because Christ first served us, we reach out to the poor,
because He reached out to the poor. It can be a thankless task. Even
Jesus said that we will always have the poor with us. And we may feel
like our contribution is such an insignificant drop in the ocean. The
fact that after over 2000 years of the Christian message being
proclaimed, the world still seems as harsh and cruel and impoverished
as it ever was, can be disappointing.
Our next passage reminds us, that even
those who were closest to Jesus, like his cousin John the Baptist,
sometimes asked if the Kingdom of God was really coming, or were to
they to expect something else? John, as you know, fell foul of the
authorities when he questioned the ruling elites morality, and he was
imprisoned.
Matthew
11:1
After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on
from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.
2
When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah,
he sent his disciples
3
to ask him, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect
someone else?"
4
Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and
see:
5
The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is
proclaimed to the poor.
6
Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me."
(Mat
11:1-6 NIV)
John had every reason to
question. He had given his life to declare the coming of the Kingdom.
He was about to lose his life and was in a jail cell. Had it all been
worthwhile? Or had he given his life for an illusion. He knew the
promises of the Messiah and it didn't look like, from his
perspective, that change was coming any time soon. The reply Jesus
sends him directly focuses on promises of the coming kingdom that
were given through Old Testament prophecy.
Isaiah 35:3-6
3
Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way;
4
say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your
God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution
he will come to save you."
5
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf
unstopped.
6
Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for
joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the
desert. (Isa
35:3-6 NIV)
These were words
John was incredibly familiar with. They would have resonated with
John in a deeper way than we can ever understand. This was a way for
Jesus to reassure John that his work had not been in vain, but that
God's plan, for “justice to roll down
like waters” was going forward,
albeit in a way that was not as spectacular as some envisioned. It is
as though Jesus is inviting John to modify his vision, while at the
same time affirming it was the right vision to hold.
In her essay “Deepening
Disappointment” Elizabeth McGregor Simmons talks of how she
observed “sight being restored to the blind” in the life of one
of her congregation called Murray. Murray was losing his sight and
there was no cure on the horizon. He had partnered up with a
visually handicapped trainer, Ernie. They were sharing their journey
with the congregation at a special event that a introduced them to
Ernie's seeing-eye guide dog Mikey.
She muses sometime after
the event how she was struck by Jesus reply to John... “Go and tell
John what you hear and see... the blind receive their sight.”
“As
I read those words I thought, “You know, Murray is still blind.
Ernie is still blind. And what that means is that in a certain sense,
the fulfillment of Isaiah's vision of restoration and wholeness for
the whole creation still lies out there in the offing. And in this
realization, there is disappointment. But at the same time, there is
Mikey. And there is the Guide Dogs of Texas organization. And there
are Ernie and Mikey showing us how they work together to “See”. …
And all of us who were there last Sunday afternoon went away less
blind than we had been before. And in all of this, in the deepening
of our disappointment, if you will, there is, by the grace of God,
great joy as well.”
The disappointment seems
to come when we start trying to measure the results. When we start
trying to quantify what we have achieved. But the thing about a
rolling stream is that it never stops. For sure, it can dry up, but
as long as it is rolling, you don't try and drain it and count the
droplets. If you do, that's when the perspective changes and the
disappointment takes over!
Our upcoming service this
Sunday gives us the account of a man who is born blind. There are
many disappointing things in the passage. His healing results in
trouble from the authorities and ends up with him being thrown out of
his church! The disciples are revealed to have taken on board some
pretty bad theology that related sickness to people sinning. The
religious authorities are revealed to be clueless.
This peace and justice
stuff! Messy. Not always clear. Often tricky. One step forward one
step back kind of affair. But the stream keeps rolling. And we are
called to keep it flowing! And if that sounds crazy, then the essay
by Joseph Small, titled “He's Crazy” (meaning Jesus) may offer us
some insight. He begins it by referencing Mark 3:20-35.
20
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he
and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21
When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him,
for they said, "He is out of his mind."
22
And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He
is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out
demons."
23
So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in
parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan?
24
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
25
If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
26
And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end
has come.
27
In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house without first tying
him up. Then he can plunder the strong man's house.
28
Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every
slander they utter,
29
but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be
forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin."
30
He said this because they were saying, "He has an impure
spirit."
31
Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent
someone in to call him.
32
A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother
and brothers are outside looking for you."
33
"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.
34
Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here
are my mother and my brothers!
35
Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."
(Mar
3:20-35 NIV)
As the mission of Jesus gained
momentum, His family looked on with great concern. They could see it
was heading for trouble. He kept saying the kinds of things that
everybody thought, but nobody dared to say. He kept calling people to
account for themselves. And when He was challenged He responded in a
ridiculous way, by healing, by offering hope, by love! Who did He
think He was? Forgiving people?Healing people? Welcoming sinners and
tax collectors? Talking to Samaritan women by wells in the heart of
the noonday sun? God or something? His family tried to put a stop to
it.
So did the authorities. But they were
not as kindly disposed as His family. They just declared Him to be
outright evil. In league with the devil. Doing the right things but
for the most evil of reasons... the most significant evil being that
it showed them up for the shallow, despicable tricksters and
hustlers they actually were.
Yet some of them knew better. But they
wouldn't admit it. This was their 'unforgivable sin'. That they knew
Jesus was right, but called Him wrong. They knowingly
participated in ascribing the works of God's Spirit as being evil.
The unforgivable sin isn't suicide, or sexuality or a bunch of other
stuff the religious right may tell us... it is deliberately ascribing
to evil... what you know is the genuine work of God. The passage
explains this... gives us the reason why Jesus talks about an
unforgivable sin. Verse 30 “He said
this because they were saying, "He has an impure spirit."
Jesus
is even crazy enough to suggest that the hallowed institution of the
family was not the all important relationship to have in life. That
there was actually one relationship... our relationship with God...
that mattered more. This is tough teaching! This is hard. “Honor
thy father and mother!” But not if they are preventing you from
being the child of God that you are intended to be. Ouch!
“He
rambled through a world that prized order, a world that gave
authority only to people with the right qualifications and expected
little or nothing from common people. Jesus expected great things of
ordinary people, even gathering poor, uneducated folks as disciples
and then giving them authority to heal diseases, forgive sins, and
break down societal barriers of race, class and gender. Entrusting
His mission to ordinary people was not rational.
It
was all crazy. None of it made sense. Who Jesus was, what He said and
what He did, were incongruous in a world that looked on departures
from 'the way things were' as loony at best and dangerous at worst.
The reaction of Jesus' family and of the religious and political
authorities was understandable. It was all crazy.” (P130)
One of the phrases you often hear in
peace and justice circles is that the church is called to “Speak
the truth to power. ”As we saw in the last session, not just any
random truth, but the particular truth that we find in scripture and
which was exemplified and lived out by Jesus through the words and
actions of His ministry. It is a truth at variance with the ways of
the world. It can be an uncomfortable truth. But unless we act upon
it, through the promotion of social righteousness, then the Kingdom
on earth can never come “As it is in heaven.”
Joseph Small concludes: “Jesus
proclaimed the kingdom of God – God's new way in the world – in
which social righteousness – reordered relationships among all
people – would be the order of things. No more of the tired old
“Way things are”, but new, God-given, Christ inaugurated,
Spirit-powered possibilities for human living. In short,Christ calls
us now to embrace the crazy possibility that life in this world can
be free and full for all of God's people, Christ calls those of us
who want to be followers to go where He goes, even when efforts for a
more just social order seem foolish, or quixotic, or even a bit mad”
At the start of Luke's gospel, Jesus
makes a bold statement, not only about His mission, but about who He
was. Luke 4:16-21.
16
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath
day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to
read, 17
and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it,
he found the place where it is written: 18
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to
proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom
for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the
oppressed free, 19
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat
down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21
He began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled
in your hearing." (Luk
4:16-21 NIV)
Here is the Jesus manifesto:
- Proclaim good news to the poor.
- Proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
- Set the oppressed free,
- Proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
There He stands... in His hometown in
His home church...of all places,... declaring...“The
Spirit of the Lord is on me” and
“Today this scripture is fulfilled in
your hearing.” By the time the
sermon was over they tried to throw Him off a cliff. Yes, it went
THAT well! Crazy or not, faithful churches take the words of Jesus
seriously. They recognize that the promotion of social righteousness
is not an optional extra, but an essential part of the gospel
message.
In his essay “A Vision for the city”
Scott Weimer writes about moving to lead a church in Atlanta and
seeking how that Kingdom manifesto of Jesus can be put into practice.
He speaks of how the word “Poor”
had many different meanings. The poor … “spiritually”, and the
poor, “economically.” One of the things his church has now
established is a Men's Bible Study that brings together business
professionals and homeless people in the neighborhood. The program
has offered to both groups unique perspectives and been
transformative in impact. Some of the homeless are no longer
homeless. Some of the professionals now have a completely different
perspective about causes of homelessness and how they can help.,
As the congregation became made aware
of human trafficking... in particular the sexual exploitation of
children... they have involved themselves with a program called GRACE
(Galvanizing Resources Against Child Exploitation)... a city wide
program. Some older widows have offered rooms in their homes as safe
havens. Others in the congregation have shared their gifts in
counseling and law.
To fulfill the injunction to “Proclaim
the Year of the Lord's Favor” the church has begun to offer
services of wholeness and witnessed God's healing in unexpected ways.
They are embracing spiritual gifts that they had previously ignored.
He writes (P137) “Daily,
Jesus is opening the spiritual eyes of our congregation… we are
praying that God will continue to enable us to support the ministries
that proclaim good news to the poor and oppressed in our city and
around the world. We now see the world with eyes that focus on needs
far beyond our own immediate personal concerns.”
For our own church there remains the
challenge as to how invest in ministries of compassion to fulfill the
gospel mandate first delivered by Jesus in His hometown. These are
challenging times for us as a church. Last Sunday saw just about the
lowest attendance I've seen since I arrived here as your minister.
People have left us. We have cut back, not expanded our mission
giving. Some of our most faithful mission workers have grown old and
can no longer do what they once did. Others have not jumped up and
taken their place. These are not the New Beginnings that I had
expected when I came here.
So I am very glad to have this
opportunity to think about the Great Ends of the Church. Am I
sometimes discouraged? Of course. But so far nobody has attempted to
throw me off a cliff because of something I said in a sermon. And we
are still pursuing the goal of “Promoting Social Righteousness.”
This session reminds us to keep
reminding ourselves that we are the privileged ones of this world and
God's expectation is that we share what we have and lift up those
less fortunate than ourselves. We read in Matthew 25:42-45 about
judgment.
“For I
was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave
me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I
needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison
and you did not look after me.' "They also will answer, 'Lord,
when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing
clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will
reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the
least of these, you did not do for me.'
Judgment is framed in terms that ask, “Did you care?”
We may at times become overwhelmed by
the size of the task. It is a slow, frustrating, process. Kingdom
work always is. That's what John experienced in the darkness of his
prison cell. We may sometimes question if what we are doing really
counts.
There is a story about a man walking
along a beach. Every now and again, he comes across a starfish and
throws it back in the sea. Somebody challenges him, “You fool. You
can't pick up every starfish on the beach. Do you think you can
really make a difference?” The man picked up another starfish,
threw it in the sea and said “Makes a difference to this one!”
Yes. People will think we are crazy.
They thought Jesus was crazy. Or bad. Or just plain wrong. But He
just kept on saying “The Kingdom is near! Join me in the work. Be
my sisters and brothers and Mothers as we work together to make it
real”
The prophet Amos declared... "But
let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever
flowing stream." There is no shortage of ways we can be
involved in the work of peace and justice. Be it racial issues,
gender issues, homelessness, human trafficking, immigration rights,
the rights of prisoners, be it through the legal process, the
political process, be it through community meeting or prayer meeting,
be it fighting cancer or raising awareness of world poverty, be it
the environment or the dismantling of nuclear arsenals... one of the
six Great ends of the Church remains... "The promotion of social
righteousness."
Next Time... The exhibition of the
Kingdom of Heaven to the world .