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Mage lo.32~49

HOW TO BE A GREAT CHURCH
Ann Arbor - January 24, 1998

“Whoever wishes to become great among

you must be your servant.” Mark 10:32-45

One of the most amazing and successful

missionary endeavors in the history of

Christianity is the story of the Presbyterian

Church in Korgal Presbyterian presence in

Korea today is about the equivalent of the

Roman Catholic Church’s presence in our

culture It is huge.| There are large
Presbyterian churches in every city and village.
byterian ery city and villag.
Some of the biggest churches in Seoul have
30,000, 40,000, 50,000 members\\ There are
wonderful Presbyterian universities, be ill
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secondary schools and welfare agencies\ Every

Presbyterian Church in Korea _has on its steeple
a red neon ross, land at night, approaching a

city or looking out a hotel window, one sees

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many red crosses in the night sky, an

affirmation of the presence of the church and
the gospel.

It began in 1884, when two missionaries, a
Methodist and his wie \and a Presbyterian
doctor | by the name of Alan Underwood, arrived
from Tokyo Korean Methodists and

Presbyterians argue about who arrived first.
The Methodists claim that since Underwood

was a Presbyterian and thus a gentleman, he
must have deferred to the Methodist

missionary’s wife and allowed her to get off the

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boat first. \Presbyterians remind the Methodists

that their man was called back ta Takyo, so
Underwood, who walked all the way to Seoul,

was the first Protestant.

When Presbyterians visit Korea, they always

ask, \“How did it hapy pen? Why i is Christianity so
successful here? \What are you doing that we

aren’t doing?| We asked those questions to
Dong [k Kim, pastor of the oldest Presbyterian
Church, Underwood’s church, Sae-Moon-An,
and he told us that there were four periods of

dramatic growth, each with a particular story.

Soon after Underwood arrived, Severance
Presbyterian Hospital was founded and began
delivering western health care in Seoul.| And

then, i

1890 ere was an enormous cholera

epidemic. Fifty thousand Koreans died, many of
SG FE

them simply abandoned in the streets because

of the absence of health care facilities.

Christians, Presbyterian members of that
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congregation, Sae-Moon-An Chu

the streets and picked up the sick and d dying
and took them to the hospital or ministered to
them.|And the government wondered and
inquired, Who are these people who care for

government, in the midst of the 1890 cholera
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epidemic, began referring to Christians as the

“angels.”

In 491 e Japanese invaded and occupied

Korea and the Presbyterian Church was

involved in a huge public protest, |Later, when _|430
the Japanese ruled that all public meetings,
including Christian worship, must begin with a
Shinto ony, Presbyterian pastors were
imprisoned and executed for refusing; the

church ac{e{200,000 embers

In 1950 when the armies of the north invaded
manana”

and the church provided social services and

Was secatiee J
food and shelter \its membership doubled —? 8 Man Norte -
again. Synqun Bree -

And in 1980 in the midst of a military
dictatorship when the church once again stood

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with the people and Presbyterian leaders were

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oder or |
publicly reprimanded and imprisoned, the

church grew rapidly.

There is, apparently, a connegtion between the
greatness of the Presbyterian Church in Korea

and its willingness to serve its country its

people, with courage and determination, which

is exactly what Jesus told his disciples one day.

It’s an almost embarrassingly human and
contemporary story and an occasion of one of
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the clearest articulations of the essence of

Jesus’ own faith.

They’re on the road to Jerusalem Three times
he has tried to warn them that there will be

A eeeiaineie een |
suffering and persecution and quite possibly

death when they arrive in Jerusalem.\ His

friends are. amazed and afraid, as well they
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should be. \And it’s precisely at this moment
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that James and John, two of his dearest and
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closest friends, come to him and rather than
geerereiie, , aor

standing with him in his hour of.trial, trying
somehow to encourage and support him as he

walks toward his own hour of truth which he

knows will be his hour of death| instead of

compassion and kindness and elemental hwy
decency, they use the moment to ask for a

favor.
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They still think this is going to come gut all

right| They still think his arrival in Jerusalem

will result in something good — like his

becoming the king, the leader, number one in WY? UAO

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Israel|\ And when it happens, whatever itis,

they, James and John, would very much like to

be at his right hand and Jeft hand in positions of

power and prestige and visible greatness.

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it had to have been one of the most devastating

experiences in his life.\Where have they been?
they seen and heard a thing?\pia they
completely miss the point when he put the little

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child in their midst lor told the rich man to sell
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his, possessions?|Were they deaf and blind?

It’s so embarrassing that Matthew softens ita

bit for us by having their mother ask the
question | But Mark writee(first and so it must
have been James and John who ask it.\ Jesus

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does not scold them| In fact, there is a very

ioe,

interesting sense in which he accepts and even

affirms their question and what lies behind it —

their ambition, their desire for greatness.

They simply have the definitions wrong| It’s all
right to want to be reat| But greatness is not
what you think. | It’s not about sitting at the right

and left hand of the king.\ It’s not about having

lots of money or even lots of professional
success.\In God's kingdom, which Jesus
believes is now the operational reality in the

world, greatness is measured by service.

“Whoever wants to be great must be the servant )
of all.”

That’s a bit of ¢ jolt, isn’t tof In an obvious way
it challenges a basic, foundational rubric of the
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culture in which you and | live and work and

earn and spend d\ Greatness is is bigness. a tw"
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Greatness is political power\ corporate o Me

success{a big salary, a big batting average, it
shapes the way we think and live | It results in
our brightest and best no longer going into
teaching, social work, ministry:leven law and

medicine are beginning to notice and feel it.
Our best today are in business, economics,
management. \The text challenges the culture to

find ways to heal itself: (not that_business

schools shouldn’t have bri ight students, but we

must find a a way to celebrate the Yeacher, for

instance;\the young woman or magwho

consciously chooses to limit her or his financial
future in order to teach children\Or the ne social

worker Jor police officer or the nurse or
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physical therapist, Jesus would call them
Great.(Or- and this is the critical point - the
man or woman who has achieyed a measure of
this world’s greatness with its rewards, and
then finds a way to invest it\give it, use it for the

service of one’s fellow human beings.
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nie

And the text is a jolt to the way we think

theologically. \Lamar Williamson puts it
beautifully. [The text challengeX“any simplistic,
self-centered understanding of discipleship.
Discipleship will mean more trouble, not less ...
Jesus is likely to be disruptive."\The text digs
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into our religious notions and suggests, not too
subtly, that if personal salvai

‘jon and its benefits

in a life of assurance and an eternity in heaven

is why we are following Jesus, we, too, have
missed the point} [Interpretation, Mark, p. 195]

it means that at a basic level, religious
institutions are great, not because of their
beautiful architecture\or robust budgets, or

growing membership roles, but because of the
service they provide to their neighbors, the
world, their communities, the needy all around
them. E means that the purpose « of the

endeavor is not merely to assure _us that we are yh ON pre

the objects of God’s unconditional love, but to « yee “ee
teach us to live our lives fully by expressing that the nt ¢
same love to others. \uet Gre fr
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Fee
It means that the purpgse for the whole ?

enterprise: j your being here this morning
instead of f somewhere else; this church being waar. +
here instead of Nordstrom’ s Department Store - COC, -

is to express and advocate for greatn

new greatness based r not on wealth, power,

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success, bottom line, influence, but very simply,
on the people who are served, helped, loved,

affirmed.
—

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tees + Challenger firme (pn
7h dal -

In a time of change, those of us blessed with

great churches need to be smart, aware,

creative, flexible and most of all, faithful.

Len Sweet et al - overwhelming change is
ahead -] Mvsern — post Wadens

We S39F WAL Care b& is clan weed W449 Fe
James Cobb- marks of vital church (Reformed S =f inte.
lw ra| vu ret

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Community —=where n@sare is affirme

open — welcome
e known by who it includes, not who it

excludes

Aw A=

Theological Seminary
Se-ed- Adutt ES] au mkllechnl, delewg ils

4 ow Proximity to campus

11

Agent of Kingdom Cue 3 1 pawn Be
= livesforothers ~ wet bee <a wd |

S
e
tell - Anton Bolag
Croatia Agape ~
resettlement, rebuild our mosque awed . fi a
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) - turning — vs hb lem ove

MA bers -

into a church | don’t recognize
~- needs you — in the current debate and
beyond as

last felt
When Mother Teresa died, I went to my shelves

to find and reread a little book entitled
Something Beautiful for God tt’ about Mother
Teresa and it was written by Maicolm
Muggeridge, British journalist, intellectual

gadflyland long time editor of Punch Magazine.

Muggeridge was sent to Calcutta in 1 971 by the

BBC to doaTV special on an Albanian nun

whose ministry was picking up the wretched
= Seecommrweerions
dying from the streets of the city and taking

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care of them in the hospice she had
established.

Muggeridge, a skeptic theologically who had

very little good to say about religion generally,
was swept off his feet. \He observed the simple

rituals of the Sisters of Charity which Mother

Teresa founded and headed: how, after

morning prayers they went to work on the
streets and in their orphanage and hospice He
listened in awe_as she told about her simple
purpose, td “bring the dying within view of a
loving face.” uggeridge chuckled as she told
him that the Indian government had given her a
free rail pass but what she reaily wanted was a
free airline pass to visit her many convents.

When she was refused, she offered to work as

an airline stewardess in exchange ne~a

prospect Muggeridge called “delectable.”
——— —— TT

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Muggeridge observed how effectively Mother

Teresa communicated the claims of Christians
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without preaching: /that people know and

understand the truth by seeing it lived in the
same way, apparently, that crowds of people
were enchanted by Jesus because what he said
and did was not austere, rigid, judgmental

religion, but love lived out by accepting,

affirming, touching, and loving all who came

within its magnetic pull.

And Muggeridge observed one thing more — her

joyfulness, her happiness, in the midst of what

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for any of us would be unimaginable austerity,

poverty, filth, stench, uninterrupted suffering —

a community of remarkably and profoundly

joyful women who actually enjgyed their work.

When she died the whole world paused and, |

bate ial

believe, took stock for a moment. \And in the

midst of the state military funeral India

=,

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provided, we saw with momentary clarity the

truth that Jesus taught and that Jesus was —

ae ~ ue Sere,

namely that true greatness is in becoming a

servant.

This incident concludes with Jesus reflecting

out loud on his own life. (Th he Son of Man came

not to be served but to serve and to give his life

as aransom for many.”

Jesus forever changed, in that one sentence,

the way we think about God and religion, It is

the nature of God to serve, to give, to empty seif

for others.

That was so radical, his contemporaries could
barely hear it. (They belieyed.Gad was most like
a holy judge whose concerns for the human

race were to make sure the law was obeyed and
oes aed

standards of purity and cleanness were
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maintained.\ Their religion was a system by
eens —_—i

15

which God's holiness and human purity were

celebrated and protected.

And here is this man, this unforgettabie man,
with his radical ideas that God is far more

concerned about compassion and service than
about ritual j ligious power and
al purity and relig p

prestige,\ And then he goes about living it ~

healing, accepting, reaching gut, welcoming the
children, \the old ones\the sick and lame and

blind and diengodjomaching the barriers and

boundaries by touching the unclean, the taboo,

the socially rejected \and keeps on living it on
the road and then dramatically in the heart of
his nation — his pegple, and then incredibly,

keeps pouring himself out, until ona Friday

afternoon he dies, so that a few years later one

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of his followers will write

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“Let the same mind be in you that

was in Christ Jesus.

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Who emptied himself taking the form

of a slave.”

“Let the same mind be in you."|That’s you and

me — loved by the Lord,ransomed, set free from

whatever about us or about our world inhibits

us|restrains us{ chains us to lesser goals and
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aspirations and challenges us to hecome great

men and women. «. « «
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fro) in our better moments, God-given
Pe mame

moments, knowg that it is in service to others,
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to our children, four parents, our spouses, our

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neighbors, to those who need our love, our
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strength, our hetp; that it is in emptying

ourselyes that we become ourselves, that in our
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service is our true and only greatness.
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Maicolm Muggeridge tells an entrancing,

fascinating story of filming Mother Teresa in her

convent.} lt was in the late afternoon. fre

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cameraman insisted that it was too dark to film.

A heated discussion ensued| Muggeridge
convinced him to give it a try even though

everyone knew there simply wasn’t enough
light. When the film was processed, Mother

Teresa and her convent wer ‘bathed ina
particularly beautiful soft light, like the kindly

light in the old hymn.” J This love is luminous,”

he wrote, \like the haloes artists have seen and

made visible around the heads of the saints.”

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[p. 44] |

Weill, maybe. |But what | know is true, with
eee |

everything in me, is that Gad is loveland God’s

will for you and me is that we know that love

and live out the rest of our days rejoicing in that

love and sharing it\passing jt around, among
those whe. need. it — and in the pregess

discovering that we are having a great time,
that we are doing great things{ that we have

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become, because he said, great in our service,
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great in our love great in our generosity.

KkK*

O God, continue to startle us out of our spiritual
lethargy with the truth that you are a God of
mercy and love, and that you empty yourself for
us, and that Jesus poured out his life for us, and
that the greatest thing any of us can do is to be

like him.

Amen.

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