The time has come for me to measure the cultural sophistication of my new congregation. I think I can do it with a simple question. Here it is: “How many of you know Michael Scott?” Raise your hand.
For those of you who sit in the land of cultural darkness and do not know Michael Scott, Michael Scott is the inept Regional Manager of Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company on the documentary sitcom The Office. Best. Sitcom. Ever! (Sorry Seinfeld. Sorry Friends.)
Michael Scott truly believes himself to be respected by those under his charge, but he is in actuality a laughingstock in their eyes. He is always spouting off nuggets of foolish wisdom, misquoting and misappropriating cliches, asking himself profound questions, and providing his own bone-headed feeble-minded answers.
One such question he puts to himself is this: “Would I rather be feared or would I rather be loved?” “Both,” he says. “I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.”
I pray I never resemble his leadership. I do not want to be feared. Like most people, I want to be loved. If, however, you ever become afraid of how much you love me, well, I guess that’s alright.
In his letter to the Ephesians Paul compares the relationship of husband and wife to that of Christ and the church. And I have often thought of the relationship between pastor and congregation as something like a marriage. Both are covenant relationships. As pastor and people we share life together in a covenant relationship.
“Covenant” is a big deal in the Bible. We’re going to spend the next couple of Wednesday gatherings – at 11:00 and 6:15 – exploring the meaning and role of covenant in the Bible. God’s covenant with Israel established at Sinai then the renewal and expansion of that covenant with the church through Jesus Christ is the common thread running throughout the Biblical Story.
To be a part of the people of God is to accept the invitation to live in covenant community with God’s people, a people who are continually being shaped by the transforming power of God’s presence in their midst. A personal commitment to God through Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is essential. But our life of faith is significantly incomplete (biblically speaking) without a commitment to the community of faith, a community that gathers around the common Biblical Story, offers our lives in common worship, shares in common prayer, eats from a common table, and serves together in a common mission.
German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed under Hitler’s evil reign, said, “It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brothers and sisters.”
It may not always feel like grace. In our life together we often realize how much we are in need of grace. But it is a gift of God’s grace that we are allowed to share life together as Christian brothers and sisters – leaning on one another, forgiving one another, praying for one another, serving one another – each member of the family doing their part, sharing their gifts in the Body of Christ.
The Bible calls this life together a Covenant, where God and God’s people are united by promises to God and each other, to the community, and to the larger church. It is the biblical model for relationship among God’s people.
Bonhoeffer reminds us that the basis of our covenant unity with God and each other is Christ and Christ alone. Christ calls us together. Christ holds us together. And together we walk in the way of Christ.
In the wilderness the children of Israel entered into covenant with God. God called those who entered into covenant: “God’s treasured possessions.” Or as one translation puts it: “God’s peculiar treasure.” That sounds about right for the church. Don’t you think? Especially the “peculiar” part. Sometimes we have to work to remember that we are also God’s “treasure.”
In his first letter to the early church, Peter reflects on this Exodus moment by saying that we have been chosen, called out to be a royal priesthood, God’s treasured people, precious stones built into a spiritual house for the purpose of joining God’s mission to heal and reconcile the world.
Next Sunday morning we will join together in a Covenant Ceremony as pastor and people. It is traditionally called an Installation Service where the pastor is installed into the office of pastor. It is primarily a service where we make promises to each other. As with most marriages, though the commitment to each other will remain we may from time to time need to renegotiate our agreement, but we remain in covenant with each other.
Following next Sunday’s Covenant Ceremony I will take the following five weeks to talk about Five Covenant Practices of a Vibrant Church. It is my prayer that these five practices will guide the covenant life of our congregation into the future. These five practices are:
Spiritual Formation (January 26)
Intentional Worship (February 2)
Radical Welcome (February 9)
Risk-Taking Mission (February 16) and
Faithful Generosity (February 23).
On the Wednesdays following each sermon we will begin to discuss how we might embody these practices in ways particular to our congregation as we live in covenant together.
As for my part of this covenant there are a number of promises I will make to you:
- As I shared with you in my first Pastoral Letter before I arrived I promise to pray for each of you by name every week, moving my way through the church roll praying for your family, your spiritual growth, your health and well-being.
- Second, I promise to put Jesus first in my life, taking his teachings seriously and striving to become like Jesus.
- Third, I promise, with God’s help, to lead you to do the same.
- Fourth, I promise, with your help and the help of God, to create a spirit of prayerful discernment among us, like we find in the early church throughout the Book of Acts, always keeping before us the questions: What does God want from us at this moment? Where do we believe the Spirit is leading us? What does our faithfulness to the way of Jesus require of us? Because it’s not that important what you and I think and want. We are called to prayerfully and humbly seek the will of God, walk in the way of Jesus, and discern the leading of the Holy Spirit for our life together as we serve the world around us. I want to lead you in creating together a community of prayerful discernment.
- Toward that aim, I make a fifth promise to preach and teach the whole counsel of Scripture (even the hard uncomfortable parts!) I promise to do so led by God’s Spirit, interpreting the Bible through the lens of Jesus – the Word Made Flesh. I will not do so infallibly. I am not above correction. Like you and like Paul, I hold the treasure of the gospel in a very earthen vessel.I think sermons and pastoral leadership best serve not as the final word but as holy conversation partners, engaging the whole Body of Christ as we seek God’s will for our life together.
In her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Gilead, Marilynne Robinson has the Reverend John Ames say, “A good sermon is one side of a passionate conversation.” Because God can speak through you too.
I will seek to do my part to uphold my end of the conversation as we listen together for a word from God through the living pages of Holy Scripture as the Spirit inspires and leads. But your voice is needed too.
- Sixth, I promise to be your pastoral shepherd as Jesus is the Good Shepherd of us all. I want to be available to you for prayer, holy conversation, and spiritual guidance, visiting you at home, at work, and in the hospital. I want to be a reminder of the faithful presence of Christ in your time of need.
- Seventh, I promise to tend to the needs of my family, spending quality time with them, nurturing those important relationships. I have a wife of 32 years, a 19-year-old son living at home, and two married daughters, 31 and 27, one grandchild, and one on the way. I have a responsibility as a husband, father, and grandfather to be faithful to those relationships. I ask that you help me do so, and I will help you faithfully tend to your families.
- Eight, I promise to practice self-care, working faithfully but not excessively. It is the only way I can effectively serve God and the church with wisdom and strength. As Jesus often took time away for prayer, rest and renewal, you and I must do the same.
These are promises I make to you.
As for your part of this covenant, I ask of you three things:
- The first request is for your faithful participation in the gathered worship of God’s people.
Sunday morning at 10:45 is the one hour each week we gather not to see what is here for us as individuals but as a faith community to center our lives in God’s presence, to sing praise and thanksgiving to God, to listen for a word from God, to confess our sins to God, to pray for God’s world, to offer our lives to God, to make an offering of our possessions to God, and to remember that we cannot be Christian alone, for we have been baptized into the Body of Christ. Your presence and participation in worship is an encouragement to others, a witness of your desire to offer your life to God, and an expression of your commitment to God’s family.
- A second request I ask of you is your regular participation in one form of small group – a Sunday School class or another Bible Study class – some consistent gathering of friends for the purpose of spiritual formation through prayer, scripture, accountability, and the sharing of life together. We all need personal relationships within the Body of Christ that cannot adequately be developed in Sunday morning worship. So I ask that you commit yourself to one small group of some kind.
- My third request is two-pronged: to prayerfully give yourself to: (a) one ministry within the church and (b) one ministry in the community. The two may very well coincide.
As our scripture reading from First Corinthians makes clear: Every Christian has been given a gift by God’s Spirit to be used for the building up of the Body of Christ and for the common good in the world. If you don’t know what your gift is, ask the people around you what they think you are good at doing, and pray that God would reveal to you your gift, or come talk with me and we’ll discern together where God can use you. It’s important that you discover and use your gift because the church and God’s mission in the world is not complete without you and your gift.
Did you know that most congregations fall into what is called “the 20/80 rule”? That is: 20 percent of the congregation does 80 percent of the ministry. It helps explain why many congregations are declining. But imagine if every person in this congregation would give themselves to just one ministry within the church. Imagine what amazing things God could do through us? Each ministry within the church is only made possible when each member of the Body does their part. And when that happens people are less likely to burn out by doing multiple things and more likely to actually enjoy time at church and live in healthy family relationships.
And then if every person would engage the community in just one way of service, imagine what a healthy and vibrant community Macon could be and how many needs would be met!
These three promises I ask of you (I’m making eight!) – but three promises I ask of you:
(1) Regular participation in worship with the gathered congregation, which includes your giving as an act of worship.
(2) Faithful participation in a spiritual formation small group and
(3) The sharing of your gifts through serving in one ministry within the church and one ministry in the community. It takes the integration of all three to make for healthy Christians in a vibrant church. And each is vital to our spiritual growth.
Sunday morning worship alone leaves us void of deep relationships within the Body of Christ and limits our discipleship to these four walls.
Multiple Bible studies a week can be an overload of information with a likely inability to reflect deeply into any one of the studies, as well as leaving little time for serving Christ in the community.
And serving in multiple places without centering your life in God through worship or nurturing your relationship with God through a small group of Christian friends will wear you out.
These three things – community worship, small group discipleship, service in the church and community – these are all ways in which we fulfill our calling as followers of Jesus and become Christlike people of love and compassion, grace and truth, justice and peace, kindness and joy. If we are not becoming that kind of person it doesn’t really matter what else we do.
And let’s not be afraid of how much we might love each other. Let us grow in the love we share for God, for each other, and for our community. And let us each prayerfully consider the role God’s Spirit has for us in our life together as a covenant community. We are all depending on each other. And believe it or not, so is God. Amen.