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Life Together: No Solos Allowed Mark 6:7-13; Romans 16 Sermon by Rev. Craig N.
Goodrich First Presbyterian
Church of Atlanta July 16, 2000 First things first, I congratulate you. I salute
you for making it to Church this mid-summer’s morning. You could have slept
in, read the newspaper, or gone out for a leisurely breakfast. But you came
here. I wonder why? There are all sorts of reasons, aren’t there? Maybe
you’ve come out of habit, maybe out of hope, maybe duty, or boredom. Maybe
you wanted to see a friend. Maybe to find God or be found by God. Or maybe
you’re not sure. Maybe you cannot even articulate a reason. Life is like that
sometimes isn’t it? Did you know that in coming to church today you are
performing a uniquely American civic duty? Now that’s probably not a reason
you thought of. Robert Putnam is a sociologist at Harvard
University. He has written an intriguing new book entitled Bowling Alone,
the Collapse and Revival of American Community. Putnam studied the
“social connectedness” of Americans and concluded that in the last 30 years
there has been a considerable decrease in community involvement or “social
capital” as he calls it and the trust that goes with it. He writes that “We
have been pulled apart from one another and our communities”. Putnam believes
this decline is attributable in part to increased time and money demands,
urban sprawl, the rise of electronic entertainment and the internet, the
privatization of leisure time, and the aging and passing of the World War II
generation which was so civic-minded. Putnam concludes that we Americans are increasingly
isolated and that our lives individually and collectively are suffering
because of it. This may surprise you. Putnam found that “faith
communities are arguably the single most important repository of social
capital in America. Almost 50% of all associational memberships are church
related, as is half of all personal philanthropy and half of all
volunteering. To Putnam, “religious involvement is a crucial dimension of
civic engagement.” The Atlanta Business Chronicle has recently reported that
a study will be done this summer in 40 cities including Atlanta to study social
connectedness. I wonder is Putnam right about the increasing
isolation of America? Have you noticed it? Maybe you’ve felt it or
experienced it. It seems like I see the Web Van everywhere. As the Church of Jesus Christ we should know better
than to give in to this new isolationism. We know that there is no such thing
as a “solo Christian”, or do we? In the gospel of Mark, Jesus sends his disciples
out to preach, to cast out demons and to heal the sick, any one of which
tasks would scare most of us today. They were not to take anything with them
except each other. The Scripture says they went out “two by two”. Why not
alone? Couldn’t they have reached more people? Well one reason is that the mission to be
accomplished simply could not be done by one person alone. Yesterday we sent
off over 50 missionaries, youth and advisors to Avon, Colorado. Certainly
they will be able to accomplish a lot more working together in their service
projects, than if they worked alone. Last week in his sermon, Ed Albright, our Executive
Presbyter preached on the connectedness of the Church, using Paul’s analogy
of the body of Christ in First Corinthians. He gave many examples of how we
are doing the work of the Church worldwide through our connectional church,
the Presbytery and beyond. But there is another reason for our life together.
We need to be together because to be alone and isolated is to be subject to
discouragement and loneliness, which could threaten the mission itself. We
need the encouragement of each other to dispel the loneliness to which we are
prone. It may even be a matter of our mental and physical health. Putnam made
some interesting findings: “Social connectedness matters to our lives in the
most profound ways. People who are socially disconnected are between two and
five times more likely to die from all causes, compared with matched
individuals who have close ties with family, friends and community…. Studies
have linked lower death rates with membership in voluntary groups and
engagement in cultural activities, church attendance, phone calls and visits
with friends and relatives. As a rule of thumb, if you belong to no groups
but decide to join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year in
half.” Now there’s a reason to join the Church! In case
any of you are on the fence. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic work Life
Together says, “The physical presence of other Christians is a source of
incomparable strength to the believer.” We need each other’s encouragement
for as Bonhoeffer says, “The Christ in [one’s] own heart is weaker than the
Christ in the word of [one’s] brother, [one’s] own heart is uncertain,
[one’s] brother’s is sure.” Some fourteen or fifteen years ago I was working hard
to make “partner” in a Washington D.C. law firm, in love with my wife Andie,
trying to be the best father to young children that I could be. We attended
Georgetown Presbyterian, where I served as a trustee. Despite all this
activity, I found myself one evening sitting at the top of the steps after
the kids were in bed and wondering where all those friends from high school
and college had gone. I had many acquaintances but few friends. I felt very
alone. I ended up calling an old friend, Mark, whom I had known since sixth
grade, who had come to the Christian faith while at Yale Business School, of
all places. We agreed we would meet weekly to study the Bible, to pray
together, and to encourage each other in our Christian discipleship. Over the
years we added others and out of that small group experience came the call to
ministry. I still meet weekly in such groups, and other than Andie and my
family, they are the most important relationships in my life. It is a buddy system. For your information, the Session,
your elders and staff also have a buddy system, prayers partners, selected in
what we affectionately call the “Florida Lottery” after our clerk of Session,
Florida Ellis who devised the system. What about you? Is there someone you should be
praying for or with? Who would you call on in time of need other than family
members? I asked this question at a men’s gathering at a Church where I had
been invited to speak. In the group of six men I was in, there was silence.
Finally, one man said he thought he could call his college roommate though it
had been a long time since they had spoken. Another said, “Funny
you should ask that question.
Recently I was out on the West
Coast at a Conference.
I called home, there was no
answer. This happened several
times and I began to worry. I
could not think of whom I could
call who could check on my wife
and kids. Finally the next morning I
remembered a neighbor
from whom I borrowed a rake
last fall. I called him and he went
over to the house. Thankfully
everyone was fine.” I asked the same question at another church
gathering. This time one man responded immediately, “That’s easy. I’d call
any of the men in my men’s group. They carried me through my wife’s battle
with cancer and when she died they carried her as pallbearers to her grave.” You see, we need each other, not only to accomplish
the mission and ministry of the church, but also to encourage each other and
sometimes, to carry one another. We need each other for the further reason that we
need to tell each other the truth about ourselves. If we are not connected in
such fellowship, we will likely give in to self-deception, despair, and
vanity. We may even start to believe the lie that the purpose of life is
self-fulfillment, or self-sufficiency or attaining some elusive place of
security. In 1983 when Jim Laney was president of Emory
University he gave an extraordinary baccalaureate address to the graduating
class which included his daughter Susan. A friend, one of you, recently gave a
copy to me. Rather than saying the “world is your oyster,” or “go for all the
gusto”, or “you will change the world in your generation,” or “there are
great opportunities before you,” Jim Laney chose to be honest. He encouraged
these young graduates to recognize their human vulnerability, which he said,
is the central theme of the Bible. Listen to what he said. “Our
basic condition is that of being
vulnerable human beings. We are
vulnerable not just in the sense of
being susceptible to hurt or disappointment
or failure, but also
in our fundamental need for each other,
our need to link ourselves
with the aspirations and hopes
of others, to enlarge our
capacity for sympathy and identification
with others and they with
us. This is the basis of all true
community, the opposite of
autonomous, self-sufficient life….
Strangely, it’s this very
vulnerability which we learn so early
to pretend is not there. Through
that pretension we tend to rebuff
and isolate ourselves… Only in
the acknowledgment of that
condition can we possibly be given
the power of life itself. Once
we’ve been able to acknowledge
our own vulnerability,
we are able to identify
with others in their frailty
and in their humanness…. No longer
brassy, self-assured, all
knowing, someone who recognizes
his or her own vulnerability
is able to reach out to another,
and in that transaction
emerges a power, a strength,
which neither had known
before.” Paul said it elsewhere,
God’s power is made perfect in our human weakness. Well what about you? Are you traveling solo? Or
bowling alone today? You know, it is possible to be in a pew, surrounded by
people and still feel isolated and lonely. I don’t know your particular
situation, but I can tell you this: you are not alone. There is nothing wrong
with you. We are simply human. Others have been there, or are there now. I
wish for you the wonderful and liberating discovery that deep down, beneath
all the pretense, we all share the same joys and sorrow, hopes and fear. Finally, although we need to be together for all
these reasons, primarily we need to be here together to worship God and to
give thanks for our Lord Christ Jesus. We are here not just for the sake of
being together. There is more than “social capital” at issue here. This is a Christian community. Bonhoeffer says,
“Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ….
Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years,
Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and
in Jesus Christ.” Did you notice in that wonderful passage in Romans
the great variety of people to whom Paul sends greetings. I love this
passage. There is Phoebe, the deaconess; Priscilla and Aquila, the husband
and wife team, who traveled with Paul and had a Church in their house;
Priscilla and Aquila who Paul says risked their necks for him. There is a
city treasurer, men and women, young and old. You see, Paul was not a loner.
But did you notice how Paul draws them all together with words “in Christ”,
“in the Lord?” And then finally after all the greetings are done, Paul
concluded the letter with a benediction of praise “to Him who is able to
strengthen you… to the only wise God be glory for evermore through Jesus
Christ!” You see in the final analysis, this is all about
God, not you and me. We are but bit players in God’s unfolding drama. In a minute we will say together our purpose
statement drafted and adopted by our Session two years ago. In it there is
language about our connectedness, our being a community and about our
mission. But at its center is the affirmation that we are here to be
disciples who proclaim and serve the Lord Jesus Christ in all we say and do. May God give us strength today to follow Jesus,
even in our weakness. And to Him be the glory now and forever. Amen.
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