As promised last Sunday, today is the second part of a three part sermon series: We talked last week about why we/people need Jesus Christ. Today we will talk (briefly) about why people need the church, and then finish up next Sunday with asking specifically why people need the United Methodist Church of Red Bank. Also as promised I'll tell you why Annual Conference sparked me to do something that I've been meaning to do for a while … and that is to build a compost pile.
My grandfather lived in the city of Trenton. He had a long narrow house that once actually two homes, one upstairs, the other down. The back yard was as long and as narrow as the house. At the very back of the house was something that we knew as the worm hole. All kinds of things went into the worm hole … grass clippings, leaves, twigs and branches and kitchen scraps. In return we got the benefits of the worm hole … worms for fishing and turtle hunting; and the best fertilized soil on the block … there was nothing like the vegetables from my grandfather's small backyard garden. In later years we children came to realize that the worm hole wasn't originally built for this purpose … it was of course the outhouse for the two family home. And we never realized how much in vogue my grandfather's worm hole would become in this era of renewed interest in composting!
We learned from the worm hole … about re-using what seemed to be waste and turning it into something life giving and renewing; and the worms we dug out – not so good for the fish and turtles, but part of the food cycle for our family and extending the budget a bit. Today dealing with waste is big business at many levels. And as our Annual Conference speaker reminded us – manure happens … and you have to figure out how to deal with it … Adam Hamilton talked of the manure generated by his family's two horses – in tonnage … thousands of pounds … describing some options one has in dealing with this tonnage: You can simply let it pile up and never deal with it, you can douse it with chemicals and burn it, you can bury it, which seems like a good idea for a while, but sooner or later that solution gets out of hand, you can let other people deal with it … or you can compost it.
Now to our question of the day … why the church and what does composting have to do with that question? I've often heard, and am sure you have heard arguments about why people don't or won't go to church. Some say, "I believe in God, but my religion is private, I don't need to be with a bunch of people to worship." Then there are the following two arguments – I don't go to church because I'm not good enough, and the flip side of that: I don't go to church because they are just a bunch of hypocrites there. There is some truth to all those arguments. We can find God in our private devotions … we can experience God in the solitariness of our souls. But sooner or later our solitary devotion to God isn't enough and our discipline wears thing. 99.99% of us need to have others on the journey of faith with us. As to the other two arguments … truth is we're never going to be "good enough," that is have all of our stuff together. If everyone waited till that moment, our pews would be empty. And if hypocrites are people that come to church and resolve to go out into the world to be the example of Jesus Christ … and fall short during the week … well, that's probably true of all of us.
We need the church because we have found our faith story in the life and saving power of Jesus Christ … and the church is how Jesus called us together to be his presence in the world. We're not perfect, but here we are – called together in the name of Christ. The church becomes a place where we bring the "stuff" of our lives, the good, the bad and the ugly. The good stuff we can celebrate here. The bad and the ugly … well that's where the composting comes in. It's just like dealing with waste … we can let our stuff pile up, we can try to burn it, bury it or inflict it on other … none of which is effective in the long run. Or we can "compost" it. Those who compost know that one of the keys to turning the weeds and scraps of our living into life giving soil is that the pile has to be turned every so often.
We human beings are like that. I'd say about once every seven days is a good rule of thumb … and here it is. We come here and God lovingly turns our stuff over, exposing our pain and brokenness to God's loving and healing touch. We come here and find that we are journeying with others who need the same thing. We are stirred together that we might heal one another. The church is the place where we celebrate and grieve. We marry here, we baptize our children, we mark important milestones in our life journey. We grieve our deaths here. In doing so, we recognize that we are part of something that is bigger than we are on our own. After major events in the world, where do we gather? We gather in the safety of this sanctuary. Where did we most want to be after 9/11? Where do communities gather after experiencing a disaster? We see them waiting, grieving, sharing … in a church. No, we're not good enough, we can be hypocritical at times, but Christ has called us together as his presence, and that is reason enough to answer the question of why we need the church.
It doesn't stop there. The compost piles of our gardens have a job to do. When the waste has been changed into a dark, rich and earthy mixture it is time to use the pile to nurture the garden. Yup … it is the same with us. God lovingly shapes us, is present for the major moments of our lives, helps us deal with our stuff and then sends us out into the world where we are called to nurture others, to bring good news, to be the body of Christ sent in his example.
It is here in this gathered body of Christ … the church that we live out the words found in our first hymn:
"In unity we lift our song of grateful adoration, for brothers brave and sisters strong. What cause for celebration! For those whose faithfulness has kept us through distress, who've shared our plight, who've held us in the night, the blessed congregation."
It is from here that we go to the world to be that gathered presence … to pass on the love of Jesus Christ that we have found here.
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