This past Wednesday evening I met with the search committee for the first meeting. The search committee, as you know, is tasked with finding my replacement. I am trying to set the bar very high, so their task will not be an easy one, but I digress. During that meeting, I painted a picture of the typical person living outside the walls of the church. We talked about age and gender, education and income levels, employment, and their desires and fears. The information comes from a variety of sources and is put together in a nice little report that can be used by search committees in their work.

After looking at who the person is, we turn to reasons why they don’t come to church. It should come as no surprise to you that the vast majority of our society do not attend church on a regular basis, now I am not saying they are not religious or spiritual just that they do not belong to a local community. In fact, belief in God is at an all-time high as well people who say they pay to that same God, but church attendance is low.

I shared with the committee some of the reasons folks give for not attending church. This is not meant as a judgment on them in any way I am merely sharing information, so we have a better idea what is going on outside the walls of the building we worship in. A large number of people do not come to church because they have little or no time. Again, this is not a judgment just stating facts. Sunday, whether we like it or not, has become just another day. That is the reality. The question is, and I do not have the answer, how do we cope with that new reality?

The second reason that scored near the top was that trust in organized religion is no longer there. Through a variety of scandals over the last few years involving church leaders, both clergy and laity, have driven people to a mistrust of church, so we have public relations problem that transparency will certainly help.

The survey results that I am using are from 2017, and this survey is conducted every five years. What the study shows is that there is a slight, but noticeable, change and that these reasons are slowly changing, but they still exist.

Now this one may be shocking to some folks, it was not all that shocking to me, but one of the main reasons people do not come to church is the belief that church, and Christians in general, are too judgmental.  By the statement, we make and individuals, and as the church, both local and national, we Christians have a reputation of being too judgmental. I am just guessing, but when I mentioned that folks said they don’t have enough time to come to church some, if not all of us, rolled our internal eyes or had some other thought about time. That, my friends, is a judgment. However, it goes much deeper than that. Let’s stick a pin in that thought for a moment.

However, the most interesting reason why people do not come to church, and it was around 17% of the population in a 2.5-mile radius of our church, they were never asked to come. Now some of you might be thinking that is a lame excuse for not coming but the reality is, in this day and age, the number one reason people come to church is that they were asked. They stay by the way because of the preaching and the music, which is also the reason they leave, so that puts an enormous amount of pressure of David and me.

Today we heard a reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. This letter was written around the year 63, and although the author is unknown, it is attributed to Paul. Scholars believe this letter was written at a time when Radical Christians, although they were not called Christians at the time, believed that to be a true believer you had to conform to a set of strict rules and that non-Jews had to convert to Judaism to be considered true believers. Scholars also believe that there was another group, on the other end of the spectrum that claims that all the rules were gone. The Letter to the Hebrews attempts to strike a balance between those two thoughts.

As I had mentioned before Jesus gave us a new commandment, love God and love neighbor but he says very little about our communal nature and how we are to support one another in that command. We get that answer is the final verses of today’s scripture lesson:

“And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to  meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching.”

The “Day” is judgment day.

How do we provoke one another to love and good deeds? We meet together. We encourage one another. Notice there is nothing in this passage about guilt, shame, or judgment the three biggest sins of the Christian Church today. The Christian Church today is the largest purveyor of guilt, shame, and judgment and the Day is not coming the Day is already upon us and that, my friends, is why churches are closing, and that is why our pews are empty.

This church that was founded on a supreme act of love and requires only one this in return, love, by and large, has become an institution based on rules and regulations as well as self-preservation. It is no longer about making disciples it’s about making members, increasing the number, and donors. It’s about preaching a gospel that does not offend anyone so as not to upset the base of people that support the church. In many places, we have sacrificed the very soul of the church for political gain and would instead walk the halls of power in Washington then be with the “least of these” right outside our door. We have created a church culture that is more concerned about maintaining what we have than risking it all to save one lost sheep. We have, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we have gone after the cheap grace rather than the costly grace. We base the success or failure of a church on the number of converts and butts in the seats and not on those we help right outside our doors.

I recently saw a rather funny statement that read in part, when asking “What Would Jesus do?” remember that flipping over tables is not out of the question. Plain and simple Jesus was a radical for his time. This idea of everyone being equal in the eyes of God was a new and controversial idea. This idea that we had to care for others was a very radical idea that was offensive to many. Also, the idea that we had to love our enemies, well that was just more than many could deal with. This passage from Hebrews is coming at a time and to a church that has been radicalized and polarized all at the same time and I am not talking about the church of 63 I am talking about the church of today!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whom I have already mentioned, was a 20th-century German theologian that stood up against the Nazis in Germany. However, before his political opposition, he wrote about our spiritual life and the life of what he calls costly grace vs. cheap grace. He has this to say about cheap grace which I like to call the Gospel that does not offend anyone:

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

Cheap grace is what allows some to say what they want and then when called out for it, they offer an apology, and we accept it without any sense of repentance or reconciliation. Cheap grace is how we justify the behavior of some politicians and religious leaders as long as we get what we want. Cheap grace is what allows us to say we are all sinners so what difference does it make. And cheap grace is what enables us, when our behavior is called out, to reply with “judge not lest ye be judged.”

In contrast to cheap grace costly grace is:

“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.”

“Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His Son… and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.”

The church has an amazing gift to offer the world, a transformative redeeming grace that provides love for all people. This is the gift that has been given to us by the costly grace of Jesus Christ on the Cross, but it did not end there it ended with the command to go into the whole world and make disciples, not church members or donors, but disciples.

Our task is not an easy one, but it all begins by asking someone to come and see, come and see what Jesus has done for you and what Jesus can do for them.

Donald Meichenbaum, one of American Psychologist’s ten most influential psychotherapists, tells a story of the time his car was struck by lightning while he was driving home from work one afternoon. When he returned home, safe and sound, he began to tell his teenage son about what had happened; he was expecting a small degree of sympathy for what had happened to him. Instead of sympathy, his son interrupted his story, “Dad, let’s go buy a lottery ticket. They say the chances of being hit by lightning are like the chances of winning the lottery.”

It would seem that James and John, the sons of Zebedee, missed the point as much as Meichenbaum’s sons did when they come forward to Jesus saying, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Jesus politely asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” They respond, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

To get the full picture of the story we need to back up a little and read verses 33-34. Jesus and his disciples are heading up to Jerusalem. Jesus has been teaching them about how things are different with his teachings. He has given them a new definition of marriage and divorce. They witnessed his telling the Rich Young Man to sell all he has and give it to the poor and then come and follow him. The disciples were trying to figure it all out along the road and discussing things among themselves as they walked. They Jesus says to them, in verse 33:

“We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”

Now, we do not know how much time has passed since Jesus said these words and the Sons of Zebedee come up and ask this question but, this was the third time that Jesus has talked with them about his death. He has been somewhat truthful about what is going to happen when they reach Jerusalem; the end of the three-year journey is coming to a close. Jesus has just told them that he is going to be put to death and a rather disgusting way and these two want the best seats in the house. It’s as if they have not been listening at all.

Every time I read this particular passage, and I am struck by the sheer arrogance of these two, coming forward as they do, and asking for Jesus to promote them to the best seats. I can only imagine what the others must have been thinking, “look at these two sucking up to Jesus again.” I also feel a little embarrassed for them but at the same time feel a little kinship with them for I too, at one time or another, have been a son of Zebedee.

We have all been there. We all, at one time or another, jockey for position. We try to get our work noticed by the boss so we might land that promotion. We might know someone who works for this or that sports team or at the theater, and we ask about tickets to a game. There is nothing wrong with putting ourselves out there and trying to get noticed, but we have to consider what our motives are when we do it.

When we push ourselves forward are we doing it at another’s expense? Are we stepping on a co-worker to get ahead? I do not think this is what James and John were doing and I also think they only heard the good parts of the Kingdom of God Jesus was describing, and they glossed over, in their minds, the bad parts, but, Jesus is about to remind them.

Verse 38 and following:

“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

“We can,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

Jesus is speaking about his death, and he was right to tell them that they would also die. James is considered the first Christian martyr, and his death is recorded in the Acts of Apostles. King Herod has James Martyred by the sword around the year 44 so a little over ten years after Jesus’ death.

So the question remains, are we any better than the Sons of Zebedee?  Sure, we might not make outlandish requests as they did but, we want what we want. We may not be as upfront about our self-centered yearnings, but many spend their lives scheming for these kinds of privileged positions, and some believe that as Christians, we deserve them.

Years ago, I would go to a little restaurant not far from where I was living. I would go most days for lunch or maybe some quick take out in the evening. As you would imagine, they go to know me after a while, and they found out I was clergy. One day when I went for lunch, they told me it was no charge since I was a minister they were not going to charge me. Believe it or not, I did not like this, and I told them that if they were not going to charge me I was going to go somewhere else, my position did not grant me a special privilege. I appreciated their gesture, but I wanted them to charge me. So they did double. Only kidding. However, the point is I did not want something that I did not earn, some of my clergy colleagues feel they deserve things like this, I am not one of those. However, a veterans discount is a different story.

Some would argue that our desire for these things comes as a result of the human condition. Some would pass it off in psychological terms as part of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Erikson’s stages of development or Freud’s id impulses. However we chose to describe it, or justify it, we all have, as Jana Childers has said, we have Zebedee DNA in our Genes.

Just like the Rich Yong man from last week’s story, we have to face up to the Sons or daughters of Zebedee inside all of us. We have to come face to face with our tendencies and to come to terms with our humanity and live this new life of discipleship that Jesus is calling us to live. This new life is a life of putting others before ourselves. Caring for others before we care for ourselves. Thinking of others before we think of ourselves, why, because this is the example that Jesus left for us.

The great spiritual writer Henri Nouwen wrote, “Only those who face their wounded condition can be available for healing and so enter a new way of living.” When we are honest with ourselves about our condition, we can then begin the journey towards wholeness and the new life that Jesus is calling us too.

Jesus is our example of wholeness because he told us that he had come to “serve and not to be served.” When we have come to grips with our reality and begin to overcome our insecurities that drive us to greed and coveting, then we will be in a better position to serve, some of the time, rather than being served all of the time.

Transformation happens when we become servants. Last week, the Rich Yong Man asked Jesus about eternal life, and Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Following Jesus in a life of servanthood transforms us unto eternal life. Servanthood is a means of grace, and it needs to become a lifestyle if we are to truly follow as Jesus invites us to.

I typically close with a prayer and today I have chosen the words from St. Francis so let us pray:

O Divine Master, grant that I may not seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.