Laboring

Psalm 15, James 1:17-27, Mark 7:1-23

September 3, 2006

Rochelle A. Stackhouse

When I read the Psalm this week, I thought of the advertisement that the UCC aired this past Lent known as the “ejector ad.” I hope most of you saw it (you can still see it at ucc.org). The ad shows a large stone sanctuary, very beautiful and formal. Into the pews of this sanctuary come some folk that the ad designers thought might not be welcome in some churches: a homeless person, a young woman with a crying baby, a gay couple, a handicapped person. As the camera focused on each of these folk, you saw a hand reach up to press a large button which had the effect of launching those undesired folk out of the pews. Then the voiceover came on to say that in UCC churches, everyone would be welcome.

That ad picks up a tension that has gone through both Judaism and Christianity over the years. In order to form a faithful community, are there people who should not be welcome? Sometimes, as in the Jewish purity code traditions Jesus criticized, those exclusions were based on physical things over which people had little control. Sometimes, as in our own heritage of Calvin’s church in Geneva, the Communion table was “fenced,” meaning that people had to be examined by elders to make sure they were people of good character, as laid out for us today in the reading from the Psalm and in James, before they could receive Holy Communion. Calvin even said that if a minister served Communion to a person guilty of great sin (like the list in James of murderers, thieves, etc.) that the minister was as guilty as the sinner.

Now I am very glad to be UCC, and I fully want to say to you all that this table is spread for you and me and all are welcome to eat and drink together here. But sometimes I think there is a little problem with the extravagant welcome of the Still Speaking campaign of the UCC. Sometimes in the wake of celebrating the wonderful freedom of lifting barriers it can seem as though we have no expectations of those who would be part of our church; it’s just, “y’all come.” As someone once remarked about the UCC, “sometimes we are so open-minded that our brains fall out.” Jesus didn’t say to his disciples, “I am telling you that all foods are now clean and all people are worthy in God’s eyes, and those traditions about purity need to be thrown out, so now anything goes!” What Jesus did, and James picks this up, is go back to the sensibility of the Psalm to remind us that those who come and worship God are expected to live the rest of their lives in an awareness that God has, as James says, “implanted” within us a new way of living. It’s a way that moves the call to faithfulness away from hygiene and onto relationships of integrity in all of life. The Psalmist and James say, “speak truth, don’t slander, don’t do evil to friends or neighbors, stand by your promises, be just with your money, be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, and ultimately, be ‘doers of the Word’: take what you hear in this place and live it.”

Which brings us to Labor Day. I read a great quote this week from a woman who said, “Faith is not making religious-sounding noises in the daytime. It is asking your inmost self questions at night and then getting up and going to work.” (Mary Jean Irion)

If we offer extravagant welcome to everyone, and I hope we do, but then rest happy with what happens in this sanctuary without understanding that the light of God reaches beyond these windows and into whatever classrooms, cubicles, loading docks, retail establishments, hospital rooms or kitchens in which we spend our days, then we fail each other and God. This table is open and this food available to all, but know that if we allow this food to truly do its work in us, that work will happen most when we are not here. The implanted word grows best in how we work at forming relationships of integrity with our families, our co-workers, our students, our teachers, those who serve us in restaurants or at the garage or the city hall. Jesus calls us to ask ourselves every night how the way we conduct our lives each day at work or at home or at leisure reflects the word implanted in us, and the light of God seeking to shine through us. Then get up and go to work or school or wherever and put into practice the words we have heard and sung and prayed and spoken here, to be what we have eaten: Jesus for the world.

I don’t know about you, but that’s a tall order for me everyday, and all too often, I fail. That’s why I am glad this table is open to both saints and sinners, for I need the strength it offers me to try again. That’s why I am glad this church is a place where we can gather and practice in Sunday School and committee meetings and social gatherings and mission projects all these ways of living to which Jesus calls us.

Maggie has programmed for our final hymn this morning, I have a feeling half in jest, this wonderful old hymn, “Come, labor on!” That’s my challenge to me, and to you this morning. Today we have come to eat together here. We are friends and we are strangers, (I don’t know there may even be enemies here), of different ages and races, some wealthy and some not so wealthy, some healthy and some with chronic illness or disabilities, some deeply faithful and some struggling against powerful temptations or addictions or doubts. We are gay and straight, Democrats, Republicans and those who just want to throw all the bums out. We are eating together because Jesus ate with all kinds of people, too, and it wasn’t always easy. So having eaten together this morning, I challenge us this week to try to live out our faith in our work or home or volunteer lives by doing something very specific: sharing table fellowship with someone with whom you would not normally eat. Try being a doer of the word this way. Do you have an enemy? Is there a homeless person on your way to work? Is there a new kid at school you have not welcomed? Is someone sick or shut in? Is there someone where you work that others avoid? An immigrant or foreigner? Someone of a different race or ethnicity or who speaks a different language? I can see the wheels working in your imaginations. A cup of coffee, a bite of lunch, a midday snack, some food shared in your daily life in a new way, practice out there what we have done in here, and see how God works in that table as God works in this one.

So, come, all are welcome at this table. Then come, labor on, create welcome tables wherever you go this week, for the God of light has given you gifts, implanted a word in your soul, and does have high expectations for you. Amen.