Origin of the Church? Christian Befriending

3 Epiphany A      January  26, 2014

Is. 9:1-4         Psalm 27:1, 5-13

1 Cor. 1:10-18    Matt. 4:12-23

Lectionary Link 

  When something is successful, there ensues this curiosity about the causes for that success.  We want to do a forensic analysis of success so that we might understand the ingredients of why things come to happen.  We cannot help but be curious about success.  This past week we had the 30^th anniversary of the Macintosh computer and so now historians and biographers look back at the circumstances which brought about its development.

  I think that sometimes we project back upon the history of the church this sense that the persecuted church was not very strong and was struggling for its very existence.  I have come to think differently; I think the early church leaders were very excited and they realized that the message was very successful in forging community in an unstoppable way.   The Gospel program was becoming a sweeping social force in the cities of the Roman Empire but it was a stealthy force.  The churches built upon this social force of the Gospel began to be built in the private spaces of houses in the cities of the Roman Empire.  It was so successful and it morphed in so many ways that the leaders could disagree passionately about the forms of expression which the Christian message took.  The fact that there is so much early disagreement among Christians is a sign that it had become a social force to contend with in the society-at-large.

  I would contend that it is the success of the message which made all of the institutionalization of Christianity necessary.  When movements are successful they have to be institutionalized for standardization and organization in order to function within different settings and to give some sense of comprehensive unity.  They have to be institutionalized in order for their franchises to become operative in many locations.  In the first century after Jesus of Nazareth one was able to find the great increase in number of many home churches throughout Roman Empire.

  When success happens one needs to account for that success through tracing the origins.  But in trying to trace the story of origin, one uses those stories as the method to further spread the influence of the social movement.  You should embrace the Gospel because look what it has done for so many people in so many place.  And this is why it happen.

  The season of the Epiphany is a season dedicated to mark the historical fact that Christ and the Gospel became known across the Roman world.  How did this happen?  It is as though a great light shown in the world and began to change the world because new things were now being able to be seen.

  A great light has shown.  What is the source of this light?   And how has this light kept shining with a continuous brightness?  And so we have origin stories about the source of this light, Jesus Christ.  And we also have origin stories about the source of the continuing transmission of this light in the calling of Christ to his disciples and in the birth of the church.

  The Gospels provide us with the infancy narratives and the record of the ministry of Jesus to give an explanation account of the source of this great Christian social movement.  The light did not just get limited to Jesus of Nazareth; he was able to transfer this light to his disciples.  They were able to transfer this light to subsequent disciples and the movement grew in an exponentially profound way.

  We are often taught that the birth of the church occurred on Pentecost when the message of Jesus was seen to be universally accessible in all of the languages of humanity.  But one can trace the history and the origin of the church to something very basic, namely, befriending which took place between Jesus and his friends and students.  As their teacher, he was more than a teacher; he was an intimate mentor and friend and in the befriending dynamic which took place between Jesus and his disciple the transmission of the social and spiritual energy of the church occurred.  And it has been occurring forever.

  This befriending dynamic is the origin of the church and it accounts for the success of the church and it will be present in the future success of the church.  Where befriending occurs in our life orientation toward God, there we will find the essence of Christ;  there we will find the essence of the church.

  The church has institutionalized this befriending in the person and office of a bishop.  A bishop stands as a symbolic person of the fellowship and befriending behaviors of Christians with each other in our world today.  But a bishop also stands as a symbol of the fact that Christ-like befriending has been passed from one generation of Christians to another.  A bishop does not exhaust the essence of Christian befriending; a bishop’s symbolic personage reminds us that befriending with Christ is the birth of the church; it is the secret of the transmission of the Gospel from the past to the present; it is the symbol of our befriending fellowship with one another now and in the office of the bishop laying hands on future bishops, we have symbolized our obligation to pass on to future friends the wonderful gift of Christian befriending.

  The Church happened very successfully because of this universally adaptable Christian befriending.  The church happened because the befriending nature of Jesus of Nazareth caught on and spread and it spread like a wildfire because it was adopted to all times and cultures.

  The befriending nature of Christ continues today.  Churches fight about it. Some churches put limitations upon how they think the Christ befriending behaviors should manifest themselves.  But the Christ befriending winsomeness just keeps rolling on; the befriending Christ befriends many people for whom you and I may not have an affinity; it befriends many people who may have completely different life experiences than the experiences which we have.

  But I would ask us this:  Should we be offended and limiting about the scope and nature of the winsomeness of this wonderful befriending that happens because of Christ?  In our acceptance of our own Christian befriending should we deny the validity and sincerity how it has happened to others?

  At some point every bishop and church leader need to have the humility to admit: Wow! I do not control this Christ-befriending dynamic that is present in this world.  I do not control it even as  I and many others have been swept away by its awesome winsomeness, by it awesome good news.  And God forbid that we get in the way of someone's good news with our petty censoring ways of how we think that good news should be received.

  The birth of the church took place in the call of Christ to his disciple students and friends.  This is the heart of the transmission of the light and good news of Christ in the world.  This befriending turned out to be a wildfire in the Roman Empire and ultimately the entire world had to deal with this befriending dynamic.

  Let us be thankful for the befriending behaviors which we have had particularly those which have given us good news about being loved, being forgiven, being perfectible and being given hope for all of the possibilities of the future, enough to inspire actual choices of faithful behaviors in our lives now.

  Christ is the Light of the world.  We have received this light of Christian befriending and cannot help but let this good news go forth into the future to everyone in our lives with the release of our befriending gift of Christ to all for whom it is intended.  Amen.