“The Liberal Church:

Where We Are Followers of Christ”

Mark 8:27-36

Second Sunday in Lent + March 8, 2009

Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ

400 Glenwood Drive

Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404

Rev. David Brown

Barbara and I are delighted that our oldest granddaughter, Amber, is able to be with us this weekend. She is now a sophomore at the University of Maine. In her honor, I think it is appropriate to tell the story of a young lady beginning college and about to go on her (first-ever) blind date. Her room-mate, a sophomore, older and wise in such things was making all the arrangements and asked her friend: “Do you prefer northern boys or southern boys?” Unaware that such a distinction existed, the room-mate asked for an explanation. “Well,” said the sophomore,” southern boys are more romantic. They will take you walking in the moonlight and whisper sweet nothings in your ear. Northern boys are more imaginative and are likely to take you to interesting places and do exciting things.”

After pondering the possibilities for a few moments, the girl asked (rather wistfully): “Is there any way you could find me a southern boy from as far north as possible?”

We want it all, don’t we? From our dates and from our mates. From the firms that employ us and the friends that enjoy us. And certainly from our church. Be all things to us. Do all things for us. Scratch us in places that we haven’t even thought to itch. But in providing all this, don’t ask too much of us or push us too far . . . especially when it is the church doing the asking or pushing. For while we live in a culture that believes churches are a valuable and occasionally useful part of the community, we also live in a culture that is less and less certain what to do with the religious claims and commitments and even conflicts that go along with having churches around.

Stephen Dunn’s poem, “At the Smithville Methodist Church,” tells the story of two such people of our culture. They are a mother and father who simply want a good summer program for their little girl so she will enjoy some structured activities and make some new friends. “It was supposed to be arts and crafts for a week,” the father says. “But it soon became apparent that this was Bible School, and that Jesus was going to come along with the finger paints and the bird feeders made from Popsicle sticks.”

I have met these fictional parents in real life more than once. They are good people. They want the best for their little girls and boys. They will spare no time or energy or money in providing it. But they are not all that sure about “this Jesus business.” And the streets of our cities and the lanes of our suburbs are filled with such people. Nice people. Good people. Fair minded people. Kind-hearted people. People who would like to be part of something like this church if it didn’t talk too much about Jesus.

A pastor friend of mine tells the story of a father in his congregation who was having a battle with his teen-aged daughter. She didn’t want to go to church with the family anymore. After all, she said, she was old enough to make up her own mind. She had a busy life. She had better things to do with her Sunday mornings. And, besides, she was tired of hearing all that “Jesus stuff.”

In relating this to my pastor friend, the father said he told his daughter that she should feel free to disregard the “Jesus stuff” if she wanted to. Maybe she would come back to it later. Maybe not. But he suggested to his daughter if she kept attending church and listening to my friend, she would hear a lot of other good stuff . . . stuff about relationships . . . about values . . . about making good choices . . . about the world we live in and life in general . . . things that might give her a better slant on living her own life. The father concluded his case for church attendance by saying: “If you listen to Bill (my pastor friend), even if you have to filter out some of the religious stuff, you’ll find he has a lot to say.”

When he heard that, my friend reports he wasn’t sure how to respond. On balance, he felt more flattered than offended. And as a father of teen-aged children himself, he could understand what the father was up against. He had his back against the wall. He was grasping at straws. He wanted her to keep coming to church. (She didn’t, by the way). He probably would have said (almost) anything if he had thought it would work. My friend assured me that both father and daughter are good people. But today, several years later, neither of them is to be seen around his church anymore. And in these intervening years life has not been overly kind to father and daughter. Would things have gone better for them if they had stuck it out with the “Jesus stuff”? My friend doesn’t know the answer to that hard question, and neither do I. But both of us are convinced that things could not have gone worse for them if they had.

In three of the churches I have served, I was privileged to follow three great ministers – at East Williston, at San Mateo, and at Sun City Center. Dr. Richard Norberg was my predecessor at San Mateo. In the last sermon he preached before retirement, Dick reminded the congregation of the central truth of the Christian faith: “Not What but Whom!” When everything else is stripped away, following Jesus is the basic, fundamental, and primary reason why the Church exists. The whole point of Christianity can be summed up in the two-word invitation that Jesus gave over and over again. “Follow me!” “Follow me! Follow me to the very edge of life and then follow me beyond! Follow me!”

The invitation Jesus spoke to people in his own day is just as much addressed to us in our day: “If any person would come after me, let that person deny himself, deny herself, take up their own cross and follow me.”

“Follow me!”

Those words are at the very heart of Christianity, are they not? They are plain. They are personal. They are direct and hard to dodge. They cut through the maze of theological difference and the tangle of denominational confusion. Those who first heard them didn’t have the benefit of 2000 years of debate about Jesus . . .  who was He in His own time? . . . was He really born at Bethlehem? . . . what did He say Himself and what words did the later church put in His mouth? . . . Why and how did He die? . . . And just how was He related to God? No, in His own time, people simply had to hear Him out, size Him up, and then make a decision about what He asked them to do: “Follow me!”

Believe me; it is just the same today. I don’t discount for a moment the continuing scholarly effort we call the “Quest for the Historical Jesus,” trying to figure out who Jesus was and what He said. But the primary decision required of us as Christians is not one that we make with our heads but with our feet. Years ago, Oliver Wendell Holmes commented: “The great thing in life is not where we stand but where we are going.” That strikes to the very essence of Christianity. To go or not to go, that is the question. But like Hamlet we often dither and delay when confronted with the direct decision and concrete actions we are called to make. And there are good reasons to dither and delay.

The first reason is that following Jesus might require us to give up some of our baggage. And we have lots of baggage, don’t we? Some of which we carry on our backs. Much of which we carry in our hearts. Almost all of which weighs us down. If we decide to follow Jesus we will have to give some of it up. Our mistake, of course, was in thinking that we needed it in the first place.

Bob Morley in his recent book, “Aerobics for the Spirit,” says he has his own peculiar vision of Judgment Day, assuming, that is, that there is going to be one (!) Bob has a recurring dream where he is standing in a long line. Picture the longest line you can think of, like the one on a Saturday at Wal-Mart. Well, we’ve all heard the old saying that we can’t take it with us. In Bob’s dream, we have to take it with us . . . all of it. And there he is, inching his way forward in the line, trying to keep track of all the many little carts he has for hauling his stuff. But that’s not the worst part. He not only has to take it all with him, he also has to explain and justify every last item, first on a 3X5 card and then, verbally, to the angel at the gate.

So if you and I are going to decide to follow Jesus, a question may be in order:”What do you think you’ll have to give up?”

The second reason (we dither and delay) is that following Jesus might also require us to surrender some control, for the one who would be our leader would also be our navigator. If you are like me, I would be perfectly willing to go with Jesus if He goes where I want to go. But what if Jesus should choose to lead me where He wants me to go?

Most of us these days have come to believe that we have the best chance for personal happiness and fulfillment when we take charge of our own lives. We are taught to resist strongly when someone tries to dominate or direct us. What do we do then with the message we hear in church about finding and following the will of God? How can we sing with a straight face or a clear conscience: “Just a closer walk with thee . . ?”

Strangely enough, I believe these two (seemingly) different visions of life can be harmonized. The key is realizing that what God wants for our lives – for yours and mine – is what is truly best for our realization, actualization, and fulfillment. God is not a bully. The hand of God on your life and mine is amazingly gentle. It is so light a touch that it would be easy to miss it. But my life has taught me that I ignore that touch to my regret, if not to my peril.

The third (and final) reason we dither and delay is that following Jesus may seem to threaten losing a portion of our own uniqueness and identity. The dictionary says that to “follow” someone means to copy or imitate them. If we follow Jesus, does that mean we can’t be ourselves anymore?

When I was a small boy, I remember walking through a snowy field in Michigan on a day when I had forgotten to wear my boots. My father solved the problem by walking ahead of me and making footprints large enough in which to step. That worked . . . for a day. But I did not want to walk in my father’s footsteps forever.

My son, David, is now 28 years old, nearly 29. It is hard to realize that this fine young man was ever a little boy. Like most parents, I treasure memories of the time when he was small. I recall how he used to like to walk on my feet. He would stand facing me, holding my hands, and the soles of his feet on top of mine. Then, at his command, “Walk, Daddy,” we would walk around the room together.

I can’t remember the last time David stood on my feet and said, “Walk, Daddy.” He walks on his own feet now and in his own way. That’s what it means to grow up. And I would not have it otherwise. Yet, surprisingly, this is also what it means to “grow up in Christ.” Following Jesus does not commit us to a lockstep mentality where the only room for our footprints is squarely in the outline of His . . . or what some minister says are His! That is not what it means for Christ to lead us.

I think the clue to leading and to following is to be found in the graceful art of ballroom dancing. The nature of such dancing requires that a decision be made about who is going to lead. That decision is not necessarily made on the basis of who is better or worse, stronger or weaker, or even who is dominant and who is subservient. It is merely the means by which a certain structure is given to the dance itself, thus enabling the partners to function collaboratively, creatively, and without chaos. The person who is not leading (namely the following partner) can still be expressive and artistic. The following partner may even dance, on occasion, apart from the touch and sight of the leader. The fact there is a leader and a follower does not deny freedom. Neither does it suppress expression. Rather, it is the decision about the leader (once made) that makes freedom and expression possible. Apart from that decision, there is no dance at all.

In a similar manner, is not Christ the Lord of the Dance, who occasionally spins us free and turns us loose, the better that we might express ourselves in ways that would not have been possible had we continued to dance our way through life alone?

“Follow me,” says Jesus. And though there may be good reasons to dither and delay, there are even better reasons for swallowing our resistance, lacing up our dancing shoes, and doing just that. The first being that anyone who says “Follow me” is going someplace, and we need direction. The second being that anyone who says “Follow me” is clearly more interested in the future than in the past and a lot of us are facing in the wrong direction these days. Finally, whoever says “Follow me” (and is, himself, walking the way of God), gives us a benchmark for measuring our own journey and how far we have come along the way.

Well, that’s my sermon and that’s my argument. But when all is said and done, I am increasingly willing to echo the innate good sense of the one who wrote the old Gospel hymn:

“I am weak, but thou are strong;

Jesus, keep me from all wrong:

I’ll be satisfied as long

As I walk, let me walk close to thee.”

If you agree with me, why don’t we stand together and sing it? After all, even though we are Liberal Christians, we are still followers of Christ!