September 21, 2003

Mark 9:30-37

 “Can Togetherness Be Greatness?”

     This is an important day for us - after worship and after fellowship time we’re going to have a roundtable discussion.  In case you’ve missed the ones we’ve had in the past, these discussions are where we talk about where we’ve been, where we are and where we’d like to be as a church.  Previous roundtables have helped set our current agenda. 

     Roundtables are essentially pure Congregationalism, our church organized in such a way as to encourage and value the input of every person.  The idea is simple enough: Since all believers are inspired by the same Holy Spirit, all have something to contribute for the good of the whole.  And that’s the key - we meet for the good of the whole, knowing that in this way all will be blessed in some way. 

     Of course, the big discussion for today is our relationship with the folks up the street.  As many of you know, there was a time (about 150 years ago) when there was only one Congregational church in town - First Church.  For reasons that still remain a little unclear, this church divided into two and Second Congregational Church was born, settling just a few blocks away.  Several times since then attempts have been made to get our churches to work together again (including a few merger proposals), but for the most part, we’ve managed to coexist as two very close and yet very separate churches.

     Now here we are talking again and starting to work together again.  We had a wonderful service together at Harkness this summer (150 people came).  Leaders from our churches have now met on two occasions to talk about possibilities for cooperation.  We invited the people of Second Church to participate in our Vacation Bible School in August and the King Richard’s Faire event yesterday and even though they weren’t ready to join in yet, seeds were planted for the future.  Some of our members went to Second Church for a book study led by Rev. Lee.  We’ve also been working together successfully with our youth program.  This past Friday evening, thirteen kids from our two churches (plus four adults) had a blast playing laser tag at the sub base.  It was loud and crazy and we ate a lot of pizza and a good time was had by all.  Gee, how many years has it been since we last had an active youth group like this?  You know, the people of Second Church are asking themselves the exact same question.  

     And maybe the other question for us to ask is this: Where do we go from here?  Well…we are going to go to a roundtable discussion, of course!  First, we’ll talk, share our ideas, listen to one another and seek God’s guidance.  Where do we go from here?…today we will try to discern where God would have us go…and we’ll do it Congregational style.

     I know this is a bit of a stretch, but was there a hint of Congregationalism in the Gospel story today?  I know they didn’t call it that then, but look at how Jesus called his disciples together, away from self-centered individualism to an attitude of cooperation, away from pride to an attitude of humility and servanthood.  There, the disciples could better listen for God’s call upon their lives and better listen to one another.

     This wasn‘t easy for the disciples.  In fact, Jesus had just caught them arguing with each other over who was the greatest.  They where jockeying for position.  This was not their best moment.  When Jesus confronted their shallowness they were ashamed.  They were, of course, being very human. 

     We all, in sometimes obvious ways and more often subtle ways, jockey for position.  Our economy is based on this, on getting ahead, showing the neighbors we are one step above them - better house, better job, better barbeque grill.  Our relationships, unfortunately, are also frequently based on this - the most powerful person often wins the day.  We live in a society that in many ways depends on there being winners and losers.

     People being people, it probably isn’t possible to completely escape the endless argument over who is the greatest, but Jesus says it is possible to not let the argument be the standard by which we live our lives.  He offers forgiveness to us just as he did the first disciples, but then also just like them, he calls us to a better way of living. 

     Jesus used the example of a child to make his point with the disciples.  Children in those days were at the bottom of the social pecking order.  They were supposed to be the quiet and obedient servants of the adults (O…the good old days!).  But more than that, and like the children of today, they had great capacity for learning and growth.  Like today’s children, they were open to change and able to believe without the knee-jerk skepticism of adults.  With this example, Jesus wasn’t asking his disciples to be childish (they were already doing that), but to be child-like in their willingness to follow and serve.

     Do you remember the country song from several years ago by Tom T. Hall called, “Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine”?  One of the lines of the song goes like this: “God bless little children while they’re still too young to hate.”  We learn prejudice, learn to look down on our neighbors, learn to jockey for position, learn to argue with one another over who‘s the greatest.  Maybe it’s because our  insecurities allow some primal survival instinct to kick in, but Jesus assures us we are secure, always completely secure in God’s eternal love.  If we will allow ourselves to trust God, we will find the confidence to reach out to each other.  We won’t be afraid to take a chance, to touch a heart, to serve together.

     The people of First and Second Congregational churches are wondering where all this will lead.  Perhaps we will simply make some new friends and that‘ll be the extent of it.  This alone would be a good thing.  Or maybe we’ll do more cooperative programming like we’re doing now with the youth group.  Perhaps we’ll eventually merge into one congregation again.  At this juncture, we really don’t know exactly where this will lead, but we do know that Jesus calls the faithful to let go of arguing over who’s the greatest, to simply serve together for the greater good.