1 Corinthians 1: 10-25
Mark 12: 28-31
Can you remember your birth? What are your best memories of your early years?
Hopefully you were loved, nurtured, played with and all those experiences helped form you into the person you have become today. Our earliest experiences have important consequences for our sense of wellbeing, confidence with other people, developing trust, truthfulness and compassion.
As we have baptised Gabrielle Clare into the universal Christ-community this sacrament is not an end in itself. It’s not a passport to heaven, it’s not a piece of paper to get her into church schools. It’s a sign of GOD’s covenant-love which is embodied in this particular community which is, as we have promised, the place where she may be formed spiritually in her identity as a beloved child of God. It’s the beginning of a journey which will take a lifetime, for better and worse.
The Great Commandment
Jesus spent no time arguing or philosophising about GOD. As a faithful Jew, he was intent in proclaiming the coming Kingdom of God. Everything he taught and did embodied a radical love challenging then, and is challenging now.
He imagined a new world – of divine justice in which the poor are valued, the violent demilitarised, the rich share from their abundance, the oppressed be set free – and greatness measured by the welcome given to children!
In these sad days of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse so many stories have emerged of men (in the main) in trusted positions – priests, childcare workers, teachers and others – who have abused that trust and ruined children for life. These terrible acts have ongoing consequences, which is why the UnitingChurch is really careful about how we develop ministry with children. Yet, one of our core functions is to help children ( who will become teenagers and then adults) develop a healthy, life-giving Jesus-spirituality.
When asked what was the greatest commandment Jesus simply turned to the ancient Hebrew word, shema, which means Hear or Listen! You shall love GOD with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. That’s it – no dogma, doctrine or definitions. It’s an attitude, a choice to embrace life and others – no matter colour, culture or creed.
It is the work of a lifetime, and this is the love and nurturing we are asked to share with Gabrielle Clare as parents, godparents, extended family and church. This is the work of forming disciples, followers of the way of Jesus the Christ.
The call of Christian community
Paul, one of the earliest followers of the Way, wrote to encourage and discipline the church in Corinth. At that time the title Christians was unknown, their self-designation was People of the Way.
The first history of the church, Acts of the Apostles, notes briefly (chap 11:26) that it was in Antioch that the believers were first called Christians. It was a nickname, a confession which has been modified many times since. Paul first criticism is that they were dividing into groups, disputing over various issues. At the beginning of the church people were arguing with one another. Paul states it is party spirit which leads to acrimony – I/we are right, and you are wrong! It’s an attitude that has bedevilled both religious, and spiritual, but not religious people. It’s behaviours that led to the church breaking into denominations. We follow the Pope, we follow Luther, we follow the Methodists, we follow the Baptists, we follow …. put in your preferred whomever.
Paul had no inkling that such diversity would develop over the next two thousand years, but he was very aware that the party-spirit he was hearing about was not healthy in forming Christ- communities. In no uncertain words he stressed that Jesus the Christ is “ the power and wisdom of God” and the bedrock of this emerging community.
Church history is long and complex. It involves sinners and saints, power and service, sacrifice and betrayal, faith and doubt – and most people over 2000 years have been involved in small Christian communities, perhaps not so unlike KoonungHeights, and within their fold they spiritually impress children.
The UnitingChurch is just one small expression of the universal church. It was born through a dream of uniting Christians and others in the aftermath of divisions of doctrine, order and whatever was believed to be truly Christian. In 1977 – less than forty years ago – this Church was born to witness to “that unity which is both Christ’s gift and will for the Church” (Basis of Union Para 1) The birth happened just as Australia – although wasn’t really aware of it – was on the cusp of increasing cultural and religious diversity. In its founding document ,the Basis of Union, it is very clear that our life is built upon the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a code for saying that we are committed to a way of life which is self-giving, sacrificial, there for others and at its heart formed by the love of God made known through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
We don’t exist to maintain ourselves, to promote a religious institution, or to proclaim the UnitingChurch is the truest or best church. We exist to be a Christ community and help all who participate – from youngest to oldest, traditionalists to progressives – grow in faith, hope and love with God and neighbour. That’s it, no more no less.
Nurturing a Christ-community
In this act of baptising Gabrielle we have been visibly reminded of our own baptism – whether it was decades ago, or like some here much more recently. It doesn’t mater whether we were babes-in arms or believing adults. The reminder is that God is for us,God loves us and calls us into the community of Christ.
I don’t really need to tell you that the UnitingChurch ( and other denominations) is doing it pretty tough presently. It’s ageing and the old attractors have little traction. Once upon a time ( about forty years ago) the churches were taken for granted. Today we need to be intentional about forming life together. That was true in the days of the early churches, in the days of forming the Methodist church, the Presbyterian church, the Congregationalist church and so on. Those reforming folk didn’t set out to build religious institutions but build a people gathered as disciples, learners of Christ.
Recall the hymn we quite often sing :
The church is not a building/ the church is not a steeple/
the church is not a resting place/ the church is a people!
We are engaged in nurturing people in Christ’s way. Our experience gathering on a Sunday is a crucial part of that nurture and encouragement. Through prayer and song, Word and sacraments, meeting and sharing together, discussions and differences we are formed as the diverse unity of Christ in this place. If we were to read on in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians we would soon find him returning to the theme of who is the best? He lays it on thick – each church leader, each community of Christ can only build on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus the Christ.
What is called for is the Jesus practices of
love: kindness, encouragement, compassion;
faith: sharing, risking, reaching beyond ourselves;
and hope: serving, believing the best about people, acting for the common good despite many differences.
These are gifts which form us as a Christ-community and which we offer to Gabrielle and all the children who do, or may gather in this place of worship.
I’ll conclude with that hymn again:
I count if I am ninety/ or nine or just a baby
there’s one thing I am sure about/ and I don’t mean may be.
I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together !
All who follow Jesus all around the world, yes we’re the church together.
Rev David Carter