Rule of Life

Church of the Pilgrims

2201 P Street NW

Washington, DC 20037

(202) 387-6612

www.ChurchOfThePilgrims.org

Rule of Life

A Sermon by Jeffrey K. Krehbiel
Stewardship Commitment Sunday
November 11, 2007

��This is what it means to be a person of faith:
To swim against the tide.
As Christians we do that as part of a community of faith that swims against the tide alongside us.��

Take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts,
according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt.
My spirit abides among you;
do not fear. (vs. 4-5)

M uch has been made lately of Mother Theresa's recently published memoirs disclosing that she frequently suffered from what you might call a ��dark night of the soul�� in which she struggled to understand God's absence and despaired that in her own personal life she was making no progress in the life of holiness. Some skeptics have argued that this just proves Mother Theresa was some kind of fraud who did not really believe in her own teachings. Even many supporters have reacted with shocked disbelief that such a saintly person could harbor such doubts and despair. For myself, I think it just makes Mother Theresa all the more human, and therefore all the more worthy of our praise and affection. We sometimes imagine that people who do such extraordinary things with their lives must in some way have a faith that is qualitatively different from our own. Since we so clearly lack such extraordinary faith ourselves, we are therefore exempt from responding to God's call in similar ways with our own lives. What her memoirs make clear is that Mother Theresa lived the life she did not because of some super-human faith that the rest of us lack, but in spite of the same doubts and struggles that we all share.

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�David Steinmetz, who teaches at Duke Divinity School, writes in this week's Christian Century that we should not be surprised by Mother Theresa's doubts about her own holiness. Many well known Christians, from Martin Luther to Martin Luther King Jr. have harbored similar doubts. They despair because they are so fiercely engaged in the struggle. It's not the people who walk by the homeless without looking down who despair about the state of homelessness, it's those who work with the homeless every day. It's not those who turn the channel when news of the war comes on who fret about the state of the world, it's those who are holding vigils at the Capitol. It's not the drunk who drinks every day who says, ��I am powerless over my own life,�� but the recovering alcoholic who is trying to stay sober. In the same way, I have often observed in my own ministry that it is those members of the congregation who strike me as models of the life of faith who are the most deeply aware of their own imperfections and how far they fall short of the demands of the gospel. Steinmets writes:

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�The reason for this is very simple. To understand what sin is, one has to oppose it. The more strenuously one opposes it, the more powerful and pervasive it seems. One barely notices a current with which one is swimming. But one cannot fail to notice what is happening when one struggles to swim against an opposing tide. Which means that the more one progresses in the spiritual life, the more one may develop a sense of making no progress at all. In fact the would-be saint is often making considerable progress. But ��making progress�� and ��feeling that one is making progress�� are two quite separate things.

T hat is something of what the Israelites were wrestling with when they returned from exile in Babylon. The exiles had been hoping and dreaming for this day for some time. With the words of prophet Isaiah still ringing in their ears, they expected to return and find Jerusalem as in the days of old. Instead they found ruins and devastation that dashed their spirits. They struggled to rebuild the ruined temple, but now that it was done, it was not what they had come to expect. It was especially hard on those who had been in exile and had remembered the previous temple. The Old Testament book of Ezra chronicles their reaction:

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�But many of the... old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping.

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�Can we not relate to the former exiles' frustration? I know I have such moments myself. In so many ways, we have made progress over the past seven years that ought to lift our spirits. A new sanctuary. A successful capital campaign. Dozens of new faces. New areas of outreach. Friends and former members who come to visit are always encouraging about what they see here. But sometimes I find myself focused only on all the things we still have yet to do. And I can only imagine that for those of you who have been here longer than I have that no matter what we do, it will never quite be like it was fifty years ago when several hundred people swelled our pews every Sunday. And it's not just things internal to the life of the church that can be discouraging. For twenty-five years we have fed the homeless, but every week they keep on coming. This congregation spoke out against the war forty years ago, yet our world seems even more ensconced in violence now than it did then. We have claimed many victories through our work with WIN, but the gap between rich and poor in our city just keep growing. In many ways, we are making progress, but when we are so closely engaged in the struggle, it is sometimes hard to see it.

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�It is to just such feelings that the prophet responds:

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel,

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬ�says the LORD;

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak,

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬ�the high priest;

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�take courage, all you people of the land,

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬ�says the LORD;

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�work, for I am with you,

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬ�says the LORD of hosts,

according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt.

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�My spirit abides among you; do not fear.

Why? Because the day is coming, says the prophet, when God will set the world aright:

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�For thus says the LORD of hosts:

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�Once again, in a little while,

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬ�I will shake the heavens and the earth

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬ�and the sea and the dry land;

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�and I will shake all the nations,

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�so that the treasure of all nations shall come,

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�and I will fill this house with splendor,

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬ�says the LORD of hosts.

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�This is what it means to be a person of faith: To swim against the tide. To struggle against the status quo. To persevere against the odds. And as Christians we do that as part of a community of faith that swims against the tide alongside us.

T hat's what makes our stewardship commitment today so important to the life of faith. Please do not make the mistake of thinking that what we are doing today is raising money. Yes, there are bills to pay. There are always bills to be paid. Yes, there is a budget to be met. There is always a budget to be met. What we are doing today is discerning how God is calling each of us as a part of this community of faith that swims against the tide. One of the things I always say in our new members classes is that being a Christian these days is hard. We need a community to support us in that effort.

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�Over the past several weeks we've been talking about the way in which Jesus welcomes us at the table and then challenges us to live in God's way. It is both the welcome and the challenge that turns our lives upside down. We are welcomed when we don't expect it, and aren't sure we deserve it, and then challenged in ways we had not anticipated, and discover gifts we did not even know we had been given. To live out of those gifts takes a community of support to hold us accountable.

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�I've shared earlier my experience visiting the Iona community last summer. In addition to being an island off the coast of Scotland, Iona is a community of Christians from many different denominations who support one another in living out the Christian life. For sixty years, Iona has been a community that knows what it means to swim against the tide. The members of Iona don't all live in the same place, but are spread across the British Isles. Most are members of a home church in their own community. What binds them together is a commitment to live by a common ��Rule of Life,�� adapted from ancient monastic practices. Each year, each member of the community must discern if they feel called and committed to remain a member for the coming year by subscribing to their Rule of Life. Iona's ��Rule�� has five points:

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�Daily prayer and Bible reading.

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�Sharing and accounting for the use of money.

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�Planning and accounting for the use of time.

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�Action for Justice and Peace in society.

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�Meeting with and accounting to one other.

The idea of the Rule is not make people feel guilty or to place some sort of burden on people, but to deepen members' relationship with God and their relationships with each other. Or, to put it another way, the Rule of Life is intended to help them in their struggle to swim against the tide.

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�We don't have a formal ��Rule�� at Church of the Pilgrims, but our Presbyterian Book of Order does list nine attributes of responsible membership. They are:

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�proclaiming the good news,

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�taking part in the common life and worship of a particular church,

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�praying and studying Scripture and the faith of the Christian Church,

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�supporting the work of the church through the giving of money, time, and talents,

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�participating in the governing responsibilities of the church,

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�demonstrating a new quality of life within and through the church,

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�responding to God's activity in the world through service to others,

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�living responsibly in the personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life,

�Ģ�ݬݬݬݬ�working in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment.

�ݬݬݬݬݬݬ�[Following the sermon, as a way of modeling what it means to be a part of a community in which we hold one another accountable, members were invited to share with their neighbor how they work to fulfill these expectations in their daily lives. Then, with their dialogue partners�� because we act on these commitments together�� they were invited to come forward and place their Stewardship Commitment Cards in a basket in the communion table, and then go to the font, place a drop of water on their partner's forehead, and say, ��Remember your baptism�� to remind one another that we are able to live out these commitments because of the grace we received in baptism.]�ݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݬݒ��