October 24, 2004

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 18:9-14

“We’re Taller When We’re on Our Knees”

      I still have some paint on my hands this morning from the boat project I’m supervising at Second Church.  It’s bottom paint and that’s a good sign.  It means the boat is almost finished and this year’s Confirmation class project is about ready to launch.  We plan to do just that on November 7 after church and you are all invited to the ramp under the Goldstar Bridge for the happy occasion…well…it’ll be a happy occasion if the thing actually floats!

     I’ve taught a lot of Confirmation classes over the years, including the boat building class that included kids from this church and Fishers Island last year.  But when I was the pastor of land-locked churches years ago, we didn’t have neat building projects.  We did, however, go on some pretty interesting field trips.

     I took one of my first Confirmation classes to Washington D.C.  There are a number of interesting religious sites in the city, believe it or not.  One of them is the National Cathedral, a breathtaking example of classic European cathedral architecture.  I’ll never forget the first class I took there, as a rowdy a bunch as any and about as irreligious as one would expect a rag-tag group of 13 and 14-year-olds to be.  We stepped into that huge sanctuary with it’s sweeping arches and jewel-like stained glass windows and the kids just gasped, “Ahhh!”  They got strangely quiet.  They knew they were in sacred space.  When we got to the eastern apse, a concave wall beyond the altar, ornately carved in marble and depicting the twelve apostles, my Confirmation class, that band of misfits, fell to their knees at the rail in prayer.  They would never have done such a thing if I had asked them.  But in that place and in that moment, it was what they needed to do.

“O holy night, the stars are brightly shining, it is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.  Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.  A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!  Fall on your knees!  O hear the angel voices!  O night divine!  O night when Christ was born! O night divine!  O night, O night divine!”

     Was this Christmas carol playing in their ears?  Did my class hear angel voices?  Certainly they knew they were in the presence of the Divine, the One who shines bright stars in the dark night of the soul.  And when they felt their worth, catching at least a brief glimpse of that hope, it brought them to their knees.

     The problem with the Pharisee in this morning’s Gospel lesson is that he hadn’t felt his true worth in a long, long time.  Oh, he certainly thought he was worthy because he was an important person around town (a lot of people think this way).  As a Jewish religious leader, he believed he was at the top of the food chain and in most everyone’s eyes, he was.  Of course he could look down on others and feel justified in doing so.  After all, he was a child of Abraham, one of god’s chosen ones and a priest at that!  Blinded by pride, he couldn’t see that the soul only knows its true worth when it is laid bare before the Savior.

     You may have heard this quote from C. S. Lewis before, but it’s worth remembering:

“A proud person is always looking down on people and things, and of course, as long as you are looking down you cannot see that which is above you.”

     Pride works that way.  It leads us to believe there is no one above us.  A woman I know recently said she wouldn’t “lower” herself to do a job she expects one of her employees to do every day.  Apparently, she is losing sight of that person’s worth and as a consequence, her own.

     We all need to spend less time thinking on our feet and more time praying on our knees.  Like the man who beat his breast and cried out, “God have mercy on me, a sinner!” we will not know our true worth until our souls are laid bare before the Savior.  The person of true Christian stature is the one who kneels before Christ.  The measure of one’s true greatness is directly related to the measure of one’s true humility.  The first shall be last and the last shall be first.  Christ cannot reign in our lives until we fall at his feet.

     “Come to me, all who are heavy laden,” he said, “and I will give you rest.”  “Entrust me with your soul and you will feel the thrill of hope as my light fills the dark places of your heart.  This is your true worth.  You are worth saving.  You are worth dying for.”

     Our church has been in a prominent position in New London’s downtown for a very long time.  Many of the people who attended here over the years probably enjoyed the status such position brings.  Standing proudly at the top of this hill, our building with its huge wooden doors, massive stones and soaring steeple certainly has a commanding presence.  But it’s all too easy for us to make the mistake of liking it this way, of using this position as justification for looking down on our neighbors.

     But I know none of us would do that!  Right? 

     So…how do we convince our neighbors we aren’t looking down our noises at them?  How do we welcome them fully into our lives and our family of faith?  I think that first of all, we must show them we are not above them, but just like them, sinners in need of God’s mercy, real people with real problems but who find the thrill of hope in Jesus Christ.  Christ’s light is cast into our darkness and we can make a difference in the lives of other people by simply showing them that this is what’s going on here.

     Our merger negotiations with Second Church have us thinking a lot about property and position and yes, pride.  It’s hard to let go and let God.  But now is the time for us to be faithful to Christ’s call to be the true Church.  The things we decide now will affect the future of this congregation and impact the lives of faithful people for generations to come.  Let’s pray that one day they will look back on this time, this time of uncertainty, even this time of darkness in our world and have deep appreciation for our faithfulness, because when the time came to stand and be counted, we fell on our knees.

O hear the angel voices!  O night divine!  O night when Christ was born!  O night divine!  O night, O night divine!”