Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message
August 20, 2014
Thermostat
not Thermometer
In his earth-shaking “Letter from
Birmingham Jail,” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote:
“There was a time
when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians
rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days
the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles
of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became
disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being
"disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the
Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of
heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were
big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically
intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such
ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.”
Bishop Hanley and the Diocese are
talking now a lot now about “vital congregations.”
What does it mean to be a living, breathing, active church community,
and what does it mean to be a congregration that is slowly, gradually, dying?
I think part of the answer lies in Dr.
King’s comments above. Church, if it is
to be alive and vital, must see itself as a “colony of heaven,” an agent of
change in the larger society. It must be
“God-intoxicated.” Churches that focus
only on themselves, and see their primary responsibility as serving and forming
the members of the Church, are doomed to wither and decline. An outward focus, a desire to serve and attract
others, does not necessarily mean a sectarian proselytizing orientation, a
desire to make all others over in our own image. It means a desire to model our values and
faith so that others want what we have, however they might feel comfortable in pursuing
it. It means being able to show through
our lives and explain in welcoming, enticing terms our own faith experience and
hope. This is what being a “missional church” is all
about.
It is only thus that we can be a thermostat
rather than a thermometer in society.
Grace and Peace, Fr.
Tony+
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