June 16, 2013
As you know, we are once again standing at a turning point in the life of the Church of the Saviour. Gordon has died. The Potter’s House Church is setting down its call, and the Eighth Day Community has agreed to own this building in order to support the call of the Banyan Tree Mission Group. For some, it feels like a death. For others, it is an exciting time of new birth.
When Peter and I arrived at the Church of the Saviour in 1976, we had read all of Elizabeth O’Connor’s books, and we eagerly anticipated a small, close-knit worshipping body that we could join. Instead, we found a rolling boil of change. Church of the Saviour was giving birth to an unknown number of smaller churches. It seemed like we had come just in time to bury Church of the Saviour and we were HORRIFIED.
At that time, worship and classes at 2025 sustained the inward journey for most people at Church of the Saviour while the Potter’s House was known for spawning missions, from countless conversations around these very tables. Nobody knew whether the new churches would become new centers for spiritual formation or mission outposts. For some, it felt like a death. For others, it was a time of new birth.
Of the six new churches being born in 1976, three were responsible for property. The others, Eighth Day, Dunamis, and Seekers, did not own a building, From the beginning, both Seekers and Eighth Day put energy into worship and preparation for membership so their inward journey as a community could sustain outward missions that were developing. Not having responsibility for a building was probably an advantage then.
In 1996, when our churches incorporated separately, the collective core members voted to dismantle Church of the Saviour over time. Because Seekers still gathered at 2025, we offered to become stewards of that building. When the collective body of core members turned us down, we knew that we needed to move.
It took us ten long years to find, buy and renovate the run-down storefront at 276 Carroll Street, Northwest. I will confess to you that I opposed purchase of a building, because I thought it would take too much of our time, energy and money. As we looked for a new home, I actively considered leaving Seekers. But then I got involved in borrowing the money from ourselves for renovation … and agreed with Peter that we could make a substantial loan to Seekers for renovation of the building, By then, we had such an investment in Seekers that we stayed.
With that in mind, I want to turn to our scripture for today. [Luke 7:36-8:3]
Jesus was invited to eat with one of the Pharisees, a group known for rigorously keeping the Law, and yet the host didn’t offer the simplest marks of Middle-Eastern hospitality. In Jesus’ words, “you gave me no water for my feet … no kiss of welcome … no oil to anoint my head.” We might say the Pharisee was stingy, but not stupid. He was, after all, willing to host Jesus when most other Pharisees considered Jesus a heretic.
The men were probably reclining around the table, eating and talking, when a woman enters, carrying an alabaster jar. It contained expensive ointment, usually reserved for anointing a body for burial, but she slathers it on Jesus’ feet, washes them with her tears, and wipes his feet with her gorgeous long hair. Weeping with grief over his impending death, she is being both generous and completely inappropriate!.
Shocked, the Pharisee thinks to himself: “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of a woman she is.” I’ve heard preachers say she was a prostitute. Luke simply tells us that she is “a sinner.”
While the Pharisee watched with a judgmental frown, Jesus tells a brief story: There were two debtors. One owed $50. The other owed $500. Neither one could pay, so the creditor forgave them both. “Which one,” Jesus asked, “would be more grateful?”
And the Pharisee answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.”
Then Jesus makes the obvious point. Because the woman had much to be forgiven, she was unbelievably grateful, and the Pharisee was a stingy host because he hadn’t experienced much forgiveness. Maybe he thought that by keeping the law to the letter, he didn’t have much to confess. Legalism sometimes leads to that smallness of heart.
Gratitude, Jesus suggests, is the key to generosity, inclusiveness, largeness of heart. I wonder if this woman could face Jesus’ impending death BECAUSE she felt accepted, no matter what the Pharisee thought of her.
Now, some connections with our story as members of Eighth Day and the wider Church of the Saviour community.
The womanwith her alabaster jar reminds me of the reckless abandon that we ask of all members here. I know that 8th Day does Recommitment on Pentecost, so your commitment statement will be pretty fresh in your minds. Like Seekers, I see that you have changed the language of your commitment statement, but surely the intent is the same: to respond to God’s incredible grace.
The original C of S commitment statement did NOT contain a list of pre-requisites, rules and regulations. In fact, all that is required is that we feel the same kind of gratitude that the woman had. Listen to some of these phrases:
I unreservedly and with abandon commit my life and destiny to Christ, promising to give him a practical priority in all the affairs of life…. I commit myself, regardless of the expenditures of time, energy and money, to becoming an informed, mature Christian….Because God is a lavish giver I too shall be lavish and cheerful in my regular gifts….I will seek to be loving in all relations with other individuals, groups, classes, races and nations and will seek to be a reconciler, living in a manner which will end all war, personal and public.
Like the woman with an alabaster jar, maybe it takes being forgiven much to make this kind of a lavish promise. I know that every year, when I come back to it during recommitment season, I am shocked at the wholehearted commitment it requires to say “yes” once again – yes to Jesus’ life and teachings – yes to Jesus’ death and what is dying at Seekers – yes to resurrection and new forms of being church in this time and place.
Wouldn’t it be better to keep the lid on that jar, and save your lavish gratitude for a beloved partner? When Peter and I first married, more than 50 years ago, I certainly thought that. Our culture makes an idol of finding a life partner, but doesn’t give us much help in developing a larger capacity for love and commitment. That’s what mission groups are for – to develop our capacity for love and self-examination, for confession, forgiveness and commitment.
Let me share a little piece of my own story with you. Back in 1968, after Peter had completed his first year in Vietnam and time in the hospital with a liver fluke, we moved to Hanover, New Hampshire. It was the year ROTC was being thrown off campus and we were truly seen as “the enemy.” We joined a UCC Church, and soon became involved in a coffeehouse patterned after the Potter’s House. Each night, the Ram’s Horn was kept open by a different mission group, just like it was being done here. We had to sign a commitment statement that was more limited than the C of S membership statement, but we did promise to do daily disciplines, come an hour early for prayer and sharing, serve Christ in caring for customers, and stay till the work was done. We were learning to take the lid off of our alabaster jars and let love flow, even if we were scared and stretched in doing that.
Some of the coffeehouse patrons were interested in joining our mission group, but they didn’t want to sign a commitment statement because it was “too Christian” and they weren’t sure about the other disciplines either. During our two years there, the manager held firm that the commitment was necessary. A year after we moved, a new manager decided not to enforce the commitment statement and within a couple of years, the Ram’s Horn closed. Casual helpers were not enough to keep it going.
Something similar happened here at the Potter’s House Church. As new missions were spun off, committed leaders left the Potter’s House Church and finally there was not a strong enough core of commitment to keep the church alive. But the good news is this: God’s renewal plan seems to involve death … and the promise of resurrection in a new form. The biblical story suggests that endings do not trouble God. Death is part of the story. The woman who anointed Jesus’ body prior to his crucifixion tells us that death can be embraced. But let’s stop here – and recognize the courage that it takes for the Potter’s House Church to lay down a fifty-year-old call. It is a real experience of death and ending!
In contrast, the Pharisee reminds me a little of people who get hung up about the disciplines that we encourage here for spiritual formation. People who want to join this church are often turned off by the specter of taking classes, keeping a daily quiet time, writing a spiritual report or giving a specified amount to the church. We turn the disciplines, which are meant to be spiritual practices that will help us become mature Christians, into legalistic barriers. I’ve heard people say those are elitist expectations, or worse, a product of white domination. But when I consider the tough training that Jesus gave his disciples, I wonder. Like the Pharisee, too much focus on those disciplines can keep us from an intimate encounter with Christ.
At Seekers, we have made some adjustments to traditional C of S disciplines. We now encourage people to join a mission group after taking two 6-week classes in the School to experiment with an intentional community. We trust the mission groups to be a place where people can grow in faith and learn to love one another in the midst of a common purpose. For many, it’s the first experience of intentional community. That’s one of the gifts which Church of the Saviour has tried to embrace without becoming like the judgmental Pharisee – because we all discover the sinner in ourselves when we live and work together. There is much to forgive.
Seekers benefitted greatly from the many years that we spent at 2025, without the burden of owning a building. We had time to mature as a church. Like you, we have a diverse congregation, creative worship, a strong School of Christian Living and a new generation of leaders. Our building at 276 Carroll Street is paid off, we give away more than 50% of our yearly income and last year there were more than 600 non-Seeker events in our building – because we see it as a Ministry of Place. We pay our building coordinator a stipend to keep it used and maintained, and she is part of the Time and Space Mission Group which oversees the building.
As your community steps forward to take responsibility for this building, I want to assure you that we stand with you in whatever ways would be helpful. Of course, your situation and location are different, but our understanding of call and commitment are the same. We look forward to finding ways to support your transition process.
In closing, I want to draw your attention back to our scripture. After Jesus said to the woman who interrupted his meal with the grumpy Pharisee, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace,” the author of Luke tells us that there were wealthy women who traveled with Jesus and supported the disciples “out of their resources.” The story of the woman with an alabaster jar is a description of what might have brought Mary Magdalene and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward, and others, to that deep level of commitment. They too had been healed to the point of generous giving.
So I leave you with these questions:
- What’s in your jar?
- When do you take the lid off and let love flow so freely that you can embrace the drastic changes ahead?
- What would it take for you to do that?
Let us pray. Come Holy Spirit. Quicken our hearts to you and to one another, that we may BE your body in this time and place. AMEN.