10 September 7, 2008
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Ezekiel 33:7-11, Psalm 119:33-40,Romans 13:8-14, Matthew 18:15-20
The Rev. Ron W. Griffin
“New Math”
Collect of the Day
Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Introduction
Good morning!
For those of you visiting today, I want to welcome you today, to Christ Church Parish.
For those of you who have not been here a while, welcome back, …home. And for those who are the committed saints of Christ Church, it is good to finally meet you. Since June 15th, I have been looking forward to this day. I have had the picture on the website that is taken from my perspective to dream and imagine who you are and how you would look. You sure look nice.
Let me introduce my wife Charlotte. We have been married 34 years. We have two grown children; a son Nathan who is married and lives in Nashville and our daughter Amy is also married and lives in Thornton Colorado. We have two grandchildren, Chance and Hannah.
Your kindness and help have been overwhelming since we arrived, as we have settled into our home and into our new community. As I ride my bike from our house on F street to Church and around town, many people wave and smile, especially if I identify myself by my clerical collar.
Back in the 60’s when I was a little boy in Ohio, the elementary schools all across the US began to introduce what quickly became known as new math. It was introduced primarily out of the fear that the Russians who had launched Sputnik might become more superior as mathematicians if we didn’t do something fast to catch up as we entered the space age. New Math emphasized mathematical structure through abstract concepts like set theory and number bases other than 10. It still makes me cringe when I think of axiomatic set theory, commutative law, I had real difficulty understanding it. I was still trying to get my multiplication tables.
I’d go to my parents only to be told, “Son I can do arithmetic, but your way ahead of me now, I cant help you with this new math.” In the end it was concluded that the experiment was not working, and New Math fell out of favor before the end of the decade, though it continued to be taught for years later in some school districts.
In today’s gospel, we see that Jesus introduces new math for the Christian community. But unlike the confusion new math caused a whole generation of elementary school children. The new math expressed in Jesus words today, his commutative law is much easier to understand, always true, life-giving life supporting and is at the basis of the foundations of our faith.
What caught my attention as I prepared for today was the word church.
The word translated as church appears only four times in all of the gospels, two of them today, once in next weeks gospel and the fourth from chapter 16, when Jesus renames Peter and says he will build his church on the rock. For the most part the Gospels are a collection of the sayings of Jesus, instructive for sure, important definitely, powerful and life changing, absolutely but the writings of Paul and those attributed to Paul offer much more direct commentary on our lives together in community.
The gospel today however tells us of the new equation for powerful, life changing growth, individual and community growth as well as increased and complete joy.
Jesus took a contemporary teaching by the Rabbis of his time, from their commentary on scripture from the first testament, primarily what we know as the first four books of the Bible, which they called the Torah or the Law.
They taught that “if two sit together, and words of the the law pass between them, then the divine presence abides between them (m. ‘Abot. 3:2). When two people come together to study and learn, learning happened because a third party, the divine presence, entered into the process.
Jesus takes this well known, contemporary teaching and adapts and expands that rabbinic saying, giving it new life for the new faith communities. Jesus promises that the church will be the church because when disciples gather together in his name, he’s there among them.
There will never be just TWO when Christians gather. There will always be at least three.
One plus one always equals three.
Both the difficult and the simple day-to-day decisions the faith community must make, are made possible by this new Math.You see the church differs from other communities; in that a faith community is a place where all relationships, all interactions, all prayers, and all decisions are carried out with the power of three.
Earlier this week, John Patton the acolyte director and I met, to plan and talk about our worship today. Part of our conversation was the list of traditions, and specific actions that is part of the worship here; the choreographed and coordination of all the people up here and out there. I asked about the gospel book. Some parishes, have the gospel closed after it is read, others leave it open after it has been read from. When I ask why do this, what is the symbol trying to be expressed, many have told me, it is because the cover is so pretty.
But I believe that opening the scripture, should remind us of this passage. That not only here, but especially here, we shouldn’t just meet to talk about God, we should come expecting to experience God. As we sing, as we pray as we read and listen as we gather in Jesus name, his divine presence is there.
Jesus expands our understanding as his words always do, today, as he illuminates and illustrates the spirit of the scriptures and tells us his promised presence not only happens in the experience of worship or the study of the Scriptures. Jesus declares that simply to “gather in my name”, guarantees his powerful presence.
Of course that’s different from just gathering.
• If Christians gather in the name of fear or hatred-Christ isn’t in their midst.
• If churches gather in a quest for power or prestige-Christ isn’t in their midst.
• If two or three gather strictly to oppose a different group of two or three-Christ isn’t in their midst.
However, when we talk about the words of Jesus, when we live out the words of Jesus in community, we stand inside the Word Jesus taught, the life Jesus lived, the sacrifice Jesus offered. And we expand Christ’s presence beyond these walls into our homes, our schools, our work places, the golf course, the soccer field, our boardrooms, and our bedrooms.
I believe the mark of community, true biblical unity, is not the absence of conflict.
However this scripture tells us it’s always with the presence of a reconciling spirit. I believe this is a new day for Christ Church, this is a new time for Christ Church, and this is a new beginning for us all, if we will gather in Jesus name all over Eureka. One plus one equals three.
Postlude
I wrote this last week in the Chronicle, a scripture that I have been repeating and claiming since accepting the call and cure to serve as your pastor and rector. I hope you will recall it often as well, and claim its truth for our futures together. Jesus said, I have said these things to you, so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11
Children’s sermon
Who knows what the word impossible means?
The word impossible means that something can’t be done.
Let’s try some impossible things.
First, raise your fingers up in the air, but leave your hands in your lap. Can you do it?
I didn’t think so.
It’s impossible.
Now sit perfectly straight with your head facing the congregation.
Without turning your head at all, look over to the wall on your right with one eye. At the same time, with your other eye, look over at the wall on your left.
Can you do it?
It’s impossible.
What else can you think of that’s impossible?
Now I’m going to ask you a question about God.
You tell me if you think it’s possible or impossible.
Is it possible for God to skip church?
I think that’s a pretty tough question. We know that God can do anything, so it seems that if God wanted to skip church God could do it. But we also know that God loves worship, and God always keeps God’s promises.
Show the children Matthew 18 “When we gather in Jesus name, when as few as two us do that , God will be there.
We already found out that every time you lift your fingers, your hands are lifted too. And we found out that if your right eye looks towards something, your left eye looks toward the same thing.
It’s also true that every time we worship God together, God is right there with us. God never skips church. Gods always there with us.
Let’s thank God and pray. “God, we love to worship you because you are wonderful.
Thank you for promising to always be with us when we worship. We know that no matter where we are, you’ve promised to stay with us. Amen.”
To help us remember that God is with us when we worship, I’ll put a piece of tape on the back of your hand to remind you that God sticks with us and is always with us when we worship him.
