MARCH 2, 2003

“THIS CRAZY FAMILY CALLED CHURCH”

PSALM 133

This sermon is based on a chapter from Eugene H. Peterson’s book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. This book is an excellent resource for a sermon series on the psalms of ascent (Psalms 120-134).

Some of you know all too well what General Assembly is. It’s the quadrennial gathering of the Church of the Nazarene. It last happened a couple of summers ago in Indianapolis as forty thousand people from all over the world came together. It’s a time for inspiration, business, and mission strategy, but even more than that it’s a family reunion. The hallways of the convention center are filled with people joyfully renewing acquaintance from the past.

Now I’m an avid observer of people. When I have to wait in airports I love to watch the people go by. It’s amazing how diverse we are and yet at the same time how similar we are. So at General Assembly I love to watch and to be amazed at this crazy family of ours called church. I don’t now if your family does family reunions, but have you ever looked around at your extended family and said to yourself, “I just can’t believe I’m a part of this group.”

And I guess that could be said out of joyful amazement and it could be said out of disappointment. But it’s our family. We don’t have much choice about it. I sometimes have similar thoughts about this crazy family that is our local congregation. Sometimes I just wonder, “How in the world did I get hooked up with a group like this?”

Don’t you ever think that? We have a lot of similarities because we live in the same general area and have a common faith, but other than that there is an awful lot that makes us different. In fact there’s really no reason that we should come together like this, except for our common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is one crazy family, but you are my brothers and you are my sisters. Even those of you who drive me crazy! And I am your brother, even when I drive you crazy! That we are a family is God’s design. You see whether we like it or not, the second we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we become a member of the church. Even if we never officially join and even if we stay away from the community of faith most of the time, it is impossible to be a Christian and not be part of the church. It just doesn’t work that way because we immediately and automatically adopted into God’s family--the church.

The challenge is that just because we are a family of faith doesn’t necessarily mean we are one big happy family. Because the people that show up at the family altar are not always nice people. Some are kind of cranky. Others are kind of dull. Some are just plain weird. But the Lord tells me (I’m not making this up now, the Lord says) that they are my brothers and sisters. If God is your Father, then you are my brother--you are my sister.

A third-grade Sunday school teacher was giving a Bible lesson on the commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” And during the course of the lesson she asked, "Now, does anyone know a commandment for brothers and sisters?" I’m sure she was thinking about some passage on brotherly love, but one sharp little girl raised her hand and said, "Yeah, 'thou shalt not kill.'"

One of my favorite quotes on the nature of this crazy family called church comes from the writing of Carlo Carretto. I have this passage displayed on the wall of my study. I look at it often. It says:

"How baffling you are, oh church, and yet how I love you! How you have made me suffer, and yet how much I owe you! I should like to see you destroyed, and yet I need your presence.

“You have given me so much scandal and yet you have made me understand sanctity. I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity, more compromised, more false, and I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful.

“How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face, and how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms. No, I cannot free myself from you, because I am you, although not completely. And where should I go?"

(Carlo Carretto, The God Who Comes)

That’s what I would call (to borrow a phrase) the “burdensome joy” of being a part of the church. But here’s the deal: in spite of the challenge of being part of this crazy family, the question for us can never be, “Am I going to be a part of a community of faith?” That question has been answered by the Lord--you are a part of it. The only question for a Christian is: “How am I going to live in this community of faith?” And you do have a choice about that.

It’s kind of like children. “Some run away from home and pretend that the family doesn’t exist. Some move out and get an apartment on their own from which they make occasional visits, nearly always showing up for parties and mealtimes. Some would never dream of leaving. They just make the others wish they would.” Some think that quarreling and complaining is their God-ordained manner of being in the family. And some (I hope it’s you) determine to find out what God has in mind for them and what he wants to teach them by placing them in this crazy family called church.

Well our psalm for today, Psalm 133, is a description of what we are trying to accomplish in the church: the joy and blessing of learning what it means to live together in unity. This was sung by a group of people who were making a journey together. They are on their way up to Jerusalem. And on this trip they realize that one of their blessings is the fact that they are going together. It’s good not to have to travel alone. We really do need each other. That’s why God put us together because he knows that we should not attempt to make this journey solo. So the worshipers sing, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” When brothers live together. Like brothers. Wait a minute. I am a brother. And I am the father of brothers. Truth is, brothers fight! And sisters fight. Isn’t that true? The first story of brothers in the Bible is the story of Cain and Abel--a murder story. And to top it off it’s a religious fight, a dispute over worship styles.

Then there’s Joseph and his brothers, and David and his brothers and even Jesus and his brothers. These are not stories of gushy, brotherly love. They are stories of conflict. Why is that? Because children are often so full of their own needs and wants that they look at a sibling as a competitor and not an ally. If there’s one pork chop on the plate and two brothers who want it--watch out! This is not a warm, fuzzy psalm. In reality it’s easier to do almost anything else than what Psalm 133 is calling us to do.

We are being called, not only by this psalm but by the whole of scripture, to live together as brothers and sisters under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are to live in unity. So the critical question is, “How can that happen?” Especially in this family where I spend so much time wanting to hide my crazy relatives in the closet before company comes?

Well I guess there are a lot of ways to answer that question, but this psalm gives us two poetic images that begin to define the unity that he is talking about. One of those images is “precious oil poured on the head, running down on Aaron’s beard.” The word picture is from Exodus 29 where instructions are given for the ordination of Aaron and other priests. After sacrifices were prepared, Aaron was dressed in the priestly vestments. Then this direction is given: “You shall take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head and anoint him …”

Oil is a sign of God’s presence, a symbol of the holy spirit. And when the people saw the oil of anointing flowing over the head of Aaron they knew that Aaron was to be a priest for them. This is one that God had chosen to mediate his grace to them. Now remember that under the new covenant of Christ we are part of the priesthood of all believers. Christ makes us priests for each other. We are all mediators of the grace of God to each other. So that living together in unity means I am willing to see anointing oil of God’s spirit flow through you to me. It means that i am willing to accept you as a priest, one who mediates the mysteries of God to me, one who represents Christ to me. Unity comes when I am willing to learn even from those brothers and sisters who make me crazy sometimes.

Folks, in a church like ours there are some people who are going to drive you crazy. There are some people who are going to irritate you. There are some people that you’d just as soon stay away from. Listen closely now: what you and I do not have, is the luxury of writing anybody off in the body of Christ. That’s how the world does it, but that’s not the way in the body of Christ. You do not have the luxury of avoiding and excluding and protecting and managing folks out of your little sphere of relationship. Think for a moment about the person who bugs you the most in the church. According to God, they are a priest to you. Which means they are God’s chosen instrument to help shape your life in the image of Christ Jesus. To intentionally exclude and write off anyone who is a brother or sister in Christ is in effect to say to God: “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

The second image here is the phrase in verse 3: “It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on mount Zion.” What’s that all about? Hermon is the highest mountain in that part of the world, rising above 9,000 feet. At those kinds of altitudes, the morning dew is very heavy. If you have ever experienced camping out at those kinds of elevations, you know the feeling of that kind of morning dew. “There’s a sense of freshness and a clean anticipation of a new day and of growth. That freshness of the morning dew is an oft-used image of the hope and expectation that new things are ahead for us. Things look better in the morning.”

And in the church we need that ever-renewed sense of expectation that God is at work among us and he is doing new things in the lives of our brothers and sisters in the faith. A community of faith flourishes when we view each other with that kind of expectancy, wondering what God will do today in this one or in that one.

I will confess that some days I wonder if God really knew what he was doing when he created the church. This can be one crazy family. But I do believe that God knew exactly what he was doing. Because somehow in the task of learning how to live together and to love each other, we learn what it means to be children of the father.

And you have to know that this idea of unity is not a side issue. It’s central. When Jesus prayed for us he prayed, “Father, may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me” (John 17). And in one of the greatest descriptions of Christ’s church, Paul writes in Ephesians 4: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.”

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” It is so true. Unity is amazing to the world. It draws them and makes them want to know how it could happen in a family like this. Disunity is ugly and damaging and hurtful to the cause of Christ. One of the scariest verses in all of the Bible comes in Proverbs six--a description of things that God hates. The last one on the list of things God hates is: “those who sow discord among the brothers.” (6:19)

This is one crazy family that God has called you to be a part of. But if you want to belong to Christ, you have no choice--you also belong to us. Simple question: are you helping us to experience unity? Are we a more unified family because of you? Or are we a less unified family because of you?

There’s no question about what God wants. He promises, in the last verse, his eternal blessing to those who will live this way.

So, will you?