Going Home from Church

I wonder if Jesus preferred worshiping with a small family-style congregation or in a majestic and awesome gothic cathedral. Do you think he would have liked our relatively formal Episcopal-style worship? Or might he have enjoyed a more freewheeling Pentecostal worship service better? Or the pulsing melody of black preaching and praise? Here at St. Pat’s would he have been an 8 o’clock-er or a 10 o’clock-er? What style of music would he have felt was most appropriate? If Jesus had been synagogue shopping, how would he have chosen which synagogue to join? What criteria, what priorities would he have used to evaluate a worship service? In a sense I’m joking, but these are not altogether idle questions. Surely as Christians we seek to be true to Christ. And although it may not be possible to directly translate 1^st century Jewish worship to 21^st century Episcopal worship, we may still look to Holy Scripture to provide general guidance. Think about those stories from the gospels that recount Jesus’ experiences at worship in the synagogue… Bring to mind those descriptions of Jesus attending worship services…

If you are having trouble remembering those particular gospel stories, it is because they are not there. The gospels say virtually nothing about Jesus attending worship. We may be quite certain he did. At several points, the gospel writers do tell us that it was Jesus’ custom to attend synagogue on the Sabbath as he traveled about. Just before this morning’s gospel reading from Mark, Jesus is in the synagogue, where, Mark tells us, he "taught as one with authority." Matthew places this same teaching sequence, however, not in the synagogue but within the context of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew, Mark and Luke all recount Jesus’ visit to the synagogue in Nazareth. Only Luke goes on to describe how Jesus stood and read from the scroll of Isaiah, and proclaimed to the people present that Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus himself.

So Jesus attended worship regularly (even when he was traveling!) And the reading of Scripture was evidently a significant element in those worship services. That’s all we know. The full richness of the gospel record… the proclamation of the Good News made known through Jesus Christ… hardly even mentions Jesus attending church.

But listen again to the beginning of this morning’s gospel story. "As soon as he left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon… Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her." The story is about what happened right after Jesus left the synagogue. That’s the story the gospel writer tells.

I came across a marvelous commentary on this passage. It’s by someone named Halford E. Luccock (The Interpreter’s Bible, Abbingdon Press, 1951). He writes: "Here then [is a picture.] Jesus going from the synagogue into the house suggests the fine art of going home from church, of carrying the truth proclaimed in the house of worship out into the life around. That is what Jesus did. In the synagogue his word was with power. Then he went into the house, into a place of need, and brought the power of God into saving contact with the need of people. All too often we go to church, but do not follow that by going from the synagogue to the house, to bring the power of God, proclaimed and felt in worship, to the service of human need. All too often, people, as they go out, leave the truth behind in the sanctuary, like hymnbooks which are stamped ‘Not to be taken from the church.’"

In this passage from Mark Jesus presents an example of the "fine art of going home from church." What a wonderful phrase. The fine art of going home from church. It is a fine art, indeed. And it is the essence of the Christian life. Note that this is a different endeavor, for example, than going home from work. And it’s definitely not the same thing as just being home on Sunday morning, even with a cup of coffee and a good book. The fine art of going home from church.

If we are to practice the fine art of going home from church, first we must attend church. And not just attend. We must participate. Participate in worship. I do not think that God has a preference for one style of worship over another. What matters is that we receive God’s truth and feel God’s power. We do not come to this house of worship to hear stories about God’s truth and power. We come to engage in worship so that we may receive God’s truth and power. Whether or not that happens most has to do with us—our openness, our willingness. God’s truth and God’s power are here in this Bible and at this altar. That’s why the fine art of going home from church must begin here in church.

But it cannot end here in church. Biblical scholars remind us again and again that the gospels are not histories, and they are not biographies. They do not tell the history of life in first century Palestine in any sort of comprehensive or chronological way. Nor do they recount or explore, as a biography might, the milestones that shaped Jesus into the person he was to become. They do not trace his growth and development as a minister. In a way, we might almost say that the gospels aren’t even really about Jesus’ life at all. The gospels are about God. They are about God’s power. The gospels are a catalogue of events in which God’s power, through Jesus, was active in the world.

If you had the chance to write your personal history, your life’s story, what would you include? Mine, I think, would be shaped by geography and by diplomas. What state was I living in when I finished each particular piece of my education? Or what about your spiritual autobiography? People of faith are often encouraged to outline the shape of their spiritual lives. Spiritual autobiographies tend to include stories about experiences that an individual has had in church or in prayer. The focus is on me and how I have felt God’s touch.

But what if you or I were asked to write the gospel of our lives? What if we were to try to catalogue those events when we have been the vessels by which God’s power and truth are made known to others in the world? That is the story we should be writing with our lives. If we are to live Christian lives of any meaning or significance the gospel story is the only one that really matters—the story of how and when we have brought God’s power to others in need. Does your life tell a gospel story?

Think about what you know about the lives of the saints. Any saint will do. St. Francis of Assisi. Or St. Claire. St. Augustine, who brought Christianity to the British Isles. Jonathan Daniels, who died in 1965 from a shotgun blast as he sought to protect a young black girl in Alabama. Mother Theresa, who hasn’t been officially beatified yet by the pope, but is undoubtedly a saint. Or Constance and her companions, Episcopal nuns and priests who ministered to the sick and dying in Memphis, Tennessee, during the yellow fever epidemic of 1878. Or St. Benedict. Or St. Peter. What stories do you know about their lives? The stories we remember and tell are gospel stories, aren’t they—stories of how these Christians brought God’s truth and God’s love and God’s power to others. They are stories of people who knew the fine art of going home from church.

Without a doubt, each and every one of these saints attended church regularly. The Christian life begins in church. Through worship St. Francis came to identify with the poverty of Christ, but we do not remember St. Francis because he faithfully attended mass on Sundays. We remember him for the spirit of Christ that he took from worship to his work with the poor in the world. Jonathan Daniels was an Episcopal seminarian at the time of his death. I am sure that he was "faithful in worship" in his seminary chapel in Cambridge, Mass. But we remember him for the power of God that he took from worship to Selma, Alabama. We tell the gospel story of how God’s truth was made known through him at the entrance to a small neighborhood store a long ways from Cambridge.

The fine art of going from church to home, of carrying the truth proclaimed here in the house of worship out into the life around. That is what Jesus did. And that is what we are to do. Our gospel stories may not be as grand as Jesus’ or the saints whose names we remember. But we are surrounded by human need. That heap of food and supplies in the back of the church is a gospel story. It tells the story of many Christians who have responded with God’s love to the profound human need in the Millinocket area. But do not forget the human need that surrounds us even closer to home—spiritual need, emotional need, physical need… in friends, family, neighbors. It is our Christian calling to bring the power of God into saving contact with the need of people. To bring the power of God, proclaimed and felt in worship, to the service of human need. The fine art of going home from church.

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