Where are we?

Revelation 2:1-7

Ezekiel 20:33-38

Pope Benedict stated recently: "like those who doubt [the divinity of Christ] in today’s Gospel – His being the Living Bread from Heaven that gives eternal life - we too must ask ourselves if we really feel this hunger; hunger for the word of God, hunger to know the real meaning of life. Only those who are attracted by God the Father, who listen and allow themselves to be instructed by Him can believe in Christ, encounter Christ, and nourish themselves of Christ and thus find true life, the path of life; justice, truth and love”.

Last night we took a little trip down a hard road, a road on which at one time we were pretty sure we were doing ok and actually going somewhere; but we may have also found that for all the forward motion, all we got was a little older and not much wiser.  We may have lost our way because we lost our sense of who we really are.  And because we got so busy "going" and "doing" for ourselves and our families, we may have found ourselves in strange, unfamiliar territory, having strayed off the Lord's path.  When we finally stopped to catch our breath, we looked up, looked around, and were forced to say, "Where are we?"

It happens that way when we declare ourselves to be our own best authority, our own best guides to what is real and right.  It happened to Israel during the time of the Judges.  It happens that way when we choose to go off on our own and do our own thing; doing "what seems right in our own eyes", bucking the system of "organized religion" to do not what we are called to do but what we would rather do.  Worst of all, we have probably created for ourselves a 'church' that not only allows such individuality - but actually encourages it by such self-gratifying language as "personal" Lord and "personal" Savior absent a genuine biblical context; reducing our doctrine to a cheesy "bumper sticker" slogan that best describes our theology and sense of duty to the Church, to one another, and to our Lord to this: "EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF."

Of the letters to the seven churches in The Revelation, I have lately found the letter to the church at Ephesus to be the most troubling.  This letter touches a nerve because it describes almost to the last detail every church we know or have known that we would call "good" churches.  Churches that "do" all the right things.  Churches that "believe" all the right things.  Churches with preachers who "say" all the right things.  Churches that seem able to tell the difference between "good" and "evil", and churches that "persevere" in the faith.  Yet with all these positive attributes, we are still confronted with that "I have this against you" proclamation from our Lord: "You have forgotten your first love." 

By this statement alone, it is clear the Church at Ephesus was completely lost.  Israel was lost in the Exile.  I think we are, too, and probably for the same reason. 

It is hard to know exactly where we are because our sense of direction and sense of time and place within our human capacity are satisfied by a physical point of reference.  Where we "are", at least in our minds, is easy to pin down because clearly we "are" in church most Sundays and ideally also in Bible study groups as well.  We are clearly "doing" the right things (mostly, anyway!) - as Ephesus was also "doing" the right things.  So how can we be "lost" if we are right where we think we are supposed to be?

As the saying goes, 'the only constant in life is change'; so the only thing that is truly certain is that we are a Church in transition.  The Church has always been in transition and will always be in transition, the Lord willing - if the Church is doing "right things" - because the Church as the Body of Christ is by its divine nature dynamic rather than static.  That is to say, we are - or should be - constantly on the move just as Israel was during the time of the Exodus. 

On the way to "being" where the Lord intended for them to "be", they were in the process of "becoming" all the Lord intended for them to "become".  So, too, is the Church "going on to perfection", striving for the best of all our Holy Father has in store for us, "becoming" all we are called to "become" - for the sake of His Holy Name and for the sake of His Holy Church.

If we have really "forgotten our first love", if there is any parallel between the Church at Ephesus and the United Methodist Church - and I think there must be - then it is little wonder that we have lost our way; because it seems that from top to bottom we talk a good game about being a people of God and we grasp for the mantle of 'staying in love with God', but all hard evidence is to the contrary.  We clearly love ourselves more. 

We "do" what we do all too often out of sheer force of habit.  We reason among ourselves that we must not try to fix what isn't broken, but we fail to realize the only thing holding us together is duct tape!  It works well for us in the moment, of course, but such efforts fail to acknowledge - and depend on - the restorative nature of our Lord.  But we must surely see that duct tape is only an external fix, a temporary and man-made solution to what can become a permanent problem; hiding what is really wrong and fixing nothing.

In Ezekiel 20 "certain" elders of Israel had gathered with the prophet.  In the context of the writing, it appears that for all the prophet had been preaching to Israel in calling them back to the Lord's way, the Lord's statutes and ordinances, it seems the elders had every intention of trying to silence the prophet and maybe even advise him to "get with the program". 

Israel had determined for itself what was best for themselves - and in their stubbornness they had lost their way.  Rather than recheck and reorient themselves voluntarily according to WHO they were supposed to be and WHERE they were supposed to be, they seemed to be demanding of the prophet - and consequently the Almighty Lord! - that they were perfectly fine with the way things were.  So, too, do we seem to be telling the Lord we are perfectly ok with where we are.  And we'll stay right here, thank you very much!

The Lord had other ideas for Israel, however, just as the Lord clearly has other ideas for the Holy Church!  "As I live", says the Lord, "surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you.  I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered ... and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples; and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.  As I entered into judgment with your ancestors in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you.  I will make you pass under the staff, and I will bring you within the bond of the Covenant.  I will purge out the rebels among you and those who transgress against Me ...  Then you shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezekiel 20:33-38).

For their own good and for the sake of the Lord's Holy Name, it had become necessary for the Lord to "purge" and redirect Israel because Israel would not do it for itself.  They had learned nothing from their own past, their own history; and because of their stubbornness, they had lost all sense of who they were - subsequently they had lost their way.

There are remarkable and unsettling parallels between a stubborn Israel and an equally stubborn Church.  Because we have forgotten we are the "whole" Body of Christ rather than a bunch of disconnected arms and legs, we will also be gathered "in the wilderness".  We will also be "purged" and cleansed because our Holy God WILL NOT allow His Holy Name to be dragged through the mud of our stubbornness.  And because our Holy Father is also bound by the terms of His own Covenant - AND - His unfailing love for His people, He will PUT His Church back on the right path!  And you and I are invited to be a part of this Holy Restoration!!

This sense of redirection, this sense of community, this sense of purpose is all intimately connected to our "first love".  And whether we consider this "first love" in terms of the excitement and infatuation with all things new - OR - whether we consider "first love" in terms of the "Greatest Commandment" to "love the Lord our God first", we must in all cases find ourselves 'in love' with the Holy God who gave us Life, who gave us Truth, who showed us the Way; the Holy and Almighty God who gave us Christ Jesus to show us these things and so much more.

Whether we are standing "here" or sitting "there", we must in all cases and under all circumstances find ourselves 'in love' ... for such is not a "place"; it is a state of being, and it is a state of doing.  It is where Christ is, thus it is where we must also be.  Together.  The Church ... until the Kingdom comes.  AMEN.