Renewing Our Churches

A Sermon for the Remonstrant Church*

"Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love." May we open our hearts to the fiery love of the Holy Spirit. For that is how we will renew our communities of faith. That is how we will pass on our heritage from a far different time to those who share with us this time.

Dutch Remonstrants are, according to their church materials, "a community of faith which is rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ and true to its principle of freedom and tolerance seeks to worship and serve God." This statement not only identifies the past, but also embraces the future. Remonstrants are to be a community of faith that offers compelling alternatives to the social choices of every time, a community of faith that discovers its renewing spirit in the gospel of Jesus Christ, a community of faith that is open to the free exchange of ideas, a community of faith that delights in worship and embraces opportunities for service.

The Remonstrant vision challenges us all to live a parable of faith, hope and love in a world ravaged by greed and riven by ideologies of class, creed, caste, and color. We are to live our faith as the "good news" of our time and every time, as a sign that nothing can separate us from the loving fire of the Spirit of God.

But how are we to meet this challenge? How are we, who have good intentions but limited time, resources and abilities, to renew our communities of faith? The answer is not so surprising: through wondrous worship, contemplative prayer, and bold service.

Our worship should point toward what C. S. Lewis imagined in the Narnia tales as a "deeper magic". In our Reformed tradition we depend on the sermon to reveal the depths of our faith. And not so long ago, when there were few forms of public communication and when religious and state hierarchies controlled all the news including the "good news", the sermon was a revolutionary and exciting moment in the life of the church. For it allowed an individual to draw lessons from the Bible for the life of the community and thus served as a model of what a free community of faith might be.

But today individual assertions of meaning in all sorts of public media are commonplace. We are awash with words. In such a world only brilliant sermons are able to point beyond the mundane and inspire. Therefore, today the heart of worship must be its aesthetics. Today we must communicate the fiery love of the Holy Spirit in the sounds, sights, silence, and sensations of our services. Worship must be a time of intense feeling, a time of opening ourselves to God, a time of sensing that mystery which eludes our words, a time of deep sharing with one another. Our Sunday worship service should sustain us through the week, burning on like a fire in our hearts, radiating heat and light in the dark and cold places of our lives.

For most of us, the music and rhythm of worship says more about the faith of a community than words ever can. Therefore, we need to ask if our music is communicating a sense of wonder, joy and mystery. Of course, there is no one style of music that does this and certainly people are moved by different sorts of sound and song. What we are looking for in our music is integrity and intensity, both in the words and the sounds. We should not think of replacing old hymns with new ones but weak hymns with strong ones. Nor should we reject good music because its imagery seems dated. Our goal is music that will remain "within" us, returning us during our daily and ordinary lives to the sense we had in worship of "something more".

If the happiest moment in your worship service is afterwards when all those present greet one another, if you find that an hour after the service you can't remember the sermon, if you are wondering why young adults are not attending worship, then perhaps it is time for a change. I am sure that all of us have had significant experiences in worship, but I am equally certain that many of us are not moved by the worship services we attend. Yet, the renewal of our community of faith must begin in the sharing of our "good news", in the joy and wonder of worship.

Renewal must also begin with a commitment to prayer. Many of us are uncomfortable with prayer. This may be because we are offended by the self-seeking prayers of others (for victory in football and war or for success in business and romance). It may be that we are unable to imagine God listening to our prayers, because we do not conceive of God as a person who listens or speaks but more as a force or power. It may be that the historic prayers of the church no longer "work" for us, because they are dominated by masculine imagery about God. It may be that we have prayed and not experienced in any way that our prayers have been answered.

Whatever the reason for not praying regularly, we cannot expect our community to grow stronger in faith unless we as its members grow stronger in our faith. By faith I mean what Jesus meant by faith: trusting in God, not holding certain beliefs about God. Prayer is a way of entrusting ourselves to God. Prayer need not be focused on asking God for things, but should orient us with openness and receptivity to God's will. Silent, contemplative prayer is a way of letting go of the words with which we try to control God, a way of waiting on God to heal and fill our hearts.

If the prayers of the church no longer express your deeper longings, if words seem inadequate to express your sense of God, if you are caught up in the hectic pace of modern life, then take time each day for contemplative prayer. Take time to let go of the words and the cares and the tension, time to breathe slowly and to attend to your life-giving breath, time to rest and trust in God. You may not "find" God in prayer, but you will find greater peace. And with that peace, will come gifts of the Spirit - a greater measure of faith, hope and love.

Finally, if we are to renew our community of faith we must undertake bold service. Jesus didn't just "do good". He openly challenged social, ethical and religious conventions of his time in order to renew his community of faith. He recognized the faith and leadership of women, welcomed sinners to his table, and healed on the Sabbath. He models what it means to be free, what it means to have kindled within us the fire of the love of the Holy Spirit.

As a community of faith rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are called to express our faith in God by service to those in need, especially those who are "the least" among us. Refugees come to mind, as they are a burden on society, and often their religious and cultural traditions are not to our liking. Clearly Jesus would reach out to them, welcome them to his community of faith, and invite them to share his table. And so should we.

There are, of course, many other forms of service that express the vision of our community of faith. Those in prison thirst for visitors and encouragement. Those who are dying desire our conversation and concern rather than just our support for their institutional care. Those who have fallen prey to the power of drugs or drink resist but require tough, loving and steadfast friends. Those who are alone wish for companions with whom to eat and walk and talk.

At times our concern for others may lead us to question the justice afforded them. We should not be deterred by accusations that our concern is "political" rather than religious, so long as our advocacy is self-giving rather than self-righteous. If we reach out to persons who are oppressed or denied their human rights, we should expect opposition from those who are fearful of change and from those who benefit from such injustice. But such opposition did not stop our faithful ancestors, nor should it stop us.

We can renew our communities of faith through worship, prayer, and service. But what will motivate us to take up the challenge? What will inspire us to seek change in the face of resistance? What will encourage us when at first we do not succeed? The answer is remarkably simple: friends, bold and joyful friends, loving and creative friends, wise and able friends. If we are fortunate, we will make such friends in our community of faith. But we all may find such "friends" in the Bible, which relates the story of our community of faith from the beginning.

The truth is that most of us will not seek to renew our community of faith, unless we are inspired by the faith of others, and the most inspiring people of faith are in the Bible. Therefore, we must seek to expand our community of faith to include Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Isaiah, Esther, Jeremiah, Mary, Martha, Peter, Paul and many others. By reading the Bible we may come to know these men and women, who were moved by the Spirit of God. Some were called to confront powerful authorities, others to maintain their loyalty in the face of threats and suffering. All felt inadequate, and many failed at times to be true to their faith. But this is why their stories are so important for us, why their faith may inspire and encourage us! They were as we are, and thus we may be faithful as they were.

Biblical scholarship can help us understand the Bible, but we should not be misled by suggestions that we cannot know the real Jesus or the real Paul through the scriptures. Certainly the entire Bible is an account of the faith of our ancestors, and thus events are seen through their eyes. But through their eyes we still can see, if through a glass darkly, men and women of faith who will inspire.

Thus, if we read the Bible for ourselves and "enter into" the story of Jesus, we will discover a remarkably free and courageous person, who is discernible despite the editing of his teachings and ministry to suit the needs of the early church. Furthermore, if we get to know this Jesus, and those whose faith inspired him, and those who followed after him as best they could, then we will be challenged and inspired to try to renew our communities of faith.

If the Remonstrant community of faith is to flourish, it must nourish its biblical roots. It is in the Bible that we will discover the "deeper magic" that brings faith from doubt, hope from despair, and life from death. And without this discovery, our efforts to renew our communities of faith will bear no fruit.

Renewal will come. Renewal will come with wondrous worship. Renewal will come with greater openness in contemplative prayer. Renewal will come with new forms of bold service. Renewal will come because we are and will continue to be inspired by Jesus and by women and men in the Bible and in our own communities of faith. Renewal will come, as the gift of the Spirit of God. "Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love." Amen.

* This address was given in the Netherlands on 23 April 1994 at a national gathering of the Remonstrant Church.

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