Father John McGinn, Rector

Saint John’s Episcopal Church

Sandwich, Massachusetts 02563

May 6, 2007 Easter 5

The sermon for today is taken from the Gospel of John, chapter 13, verses 31-35:

Two men from the United States were riding on a train in Britain. English trains have compartments where six or seven people can be seated. In a compartment with these two men was a very distinguished looking gentlemen. The two Americans were quietly discussing this gentleman between themselves. In a very low tone one of them said, “I would wager money that he is the Archbishop of Canterbury.” The other man said, “I don’t think so. I’ll take the bet.” So the first man approached the gentleman and said, “Sir, would you mind telling us: Are you the Archbishop of Canterbury?” The man turned and said, “You mind your own blankety-blank business. What the blankety-blank difference does is make to you, you blankety-blank yank.” And the first American turned to the other and said, “He won’t say whether he is Archbishop or not.” Well, I would hope that they would know that Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the spiritual head of the Anglican church, would not address them with a string of curse words. But it started me thinking…how does one identify a Christian?

A friend of mine traveled throughout Israel on a bus one summer. On one part of the journey, the bus driver placed a big white sign by the passenger side windshield. Since it was in Arabic, my friend asked their guide to translate. The sign said, “This is an Arab bus owned and operated by Arabs. Please do not throw stones.” And when it got close to Tel Aviv the driver pulled another sign from behind his seat and replaced the first sign in the windshield. Since it was in Hebrew, my friend asked their guide to translate again. The new sign said, “This is a Jewish bus, owned and operated by Israelis. Please do not throw stones.”

Now, how do you tell the difference between an Arab bus and a Jewish bus? A big plastic sign in the windshield. But back to my primary question this morning. How do you identify a Christian?

I guess we could wear plastic signs, but would that really do the trick? This, I think, is an important question.

A few years ago, the Barner Research Group released the findings of a nationwide survey of people who do not consider themselves to be Christian. They were asked to provide their impressions of eleven groups of people ranging from military officers to prostitutes. One of the statistics that struck me was that only forty-four percent of those surveyed had a favorable impression of clergy: ministers, priests, rabbis. Even more disturbing, only twenty-two percent had a favorable impression of evangelical Christians. The last category, evangelical Christians, was beaten by democrats, television performers, real estate agents, lawyers, republicans and lesbians. The only group that scored lower in favorable ratings than evangelical Christians was prostitutes.

Now whether you identify yourself as an evangelical Christian or not, this attitude ought to be a matter of concern to you. Somebody is missing the target and their witness for Jesus. It is like the woman who read that dogs were healthier if they were fed a tablespoon of cod liver oil each day. So each day, she followed the same routine. She chased her dog until she caught it. She wrestled it down and managed to force the cod liver oil down the dog’s throat; until one day, when in the middle of this grueling medicinal effort, the bottle was kicked over. And with a sigh, she loosened her grip on the dog so she could wipe up the mess that had occurred, only to watch the dog trot to the puddle and begin lapping it up. The dog loved cod liver oil. It was just the owner’s method of application that the dog objected to.

And this is not true of the church’s commission to make disciples of all people. People desperately want to know that God is alive and that God loves them. And why aren’t churches full? There must be a problem with how we are communicating our message. Who we are speaks so loud that people cannot hear what we are saying. We’ve seen what has happened to the church in Europe: large, empty cathedrals; congregations consisting of a few older hangers-on. Is that where we are headed in America?

I read recently that it costs ten-million dollars per day to maintain all the cathedrals in Great Britain. Ten million dollars a day! I wonder when the government will tire of this enormous expense. Is the church kept around for a curiosity; a quaint remainder of another day. And how did it happen that the church became so irrelevant to people’s lives. Maybe it is because of who we are speaks so loud that people cannot hear what we say.

Also, people can be petty, can’t they? We’ve all seen it in a multitude of organizations. When it happens in the Chamber of Commerce or the Lions Club or the Kiwanis, maybe it’s not such a big deal; but when it happens in the church of Jesus, it’s a big deal! We are those called to turn the world upside down. We can’t afford to be petty. What has happened to us is that we turn about as many people off and we turn on. Do people have difficulty identifying us and being attracted to us?

Even when we are in mission we sometimes convey the wrong message:

A teenage boy informed his father of a wonderful activity that they were going to do at the church’s youth group. The were going to hand out blankets to the homeless. This was in Cleveland, Ohio, where warmth is a necessity during the ruthless northeast winter. The young man explained with fervor, “We are passing out blankets so that we can tell them about Jesus.” And his father, simply and with certainty, corrected him. He explained, “We don’t give blankets to the homeless to tell them about Jesus. We give blankets to the homeless because they are cold.” And do you understand the difference? If we are motivated by the idea that we are going to make our church a bigger church, then our witness will ring false. If, on the other hand, we are motivated simply by the desire to transmit the love we have received from Jesus, then the world will gladly receive us.

Jesus said that his followers can be identified by their love; not by their clothes, not by their bumper stickers, not by what part of town they live in, but by their love. In the gospel lessen this morning I read, “A new commandment I give you: love one another, as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

It is amazing that so many Christians miss what is absolutely essential to our faith. We are those called to love the world for which Jesus died.

A street minister in Chicago tells the story of a young mother who came to his homeless shelter. She was sick and frightened and racked by guilt and despair; and with tears streaming down her face she told her story of drug addiction and prostitution and how she had abused and endangered her two-year-old child. Revolted by her degrading story, the street minister was silent; and finally he asked if she had ever thought of going to church for help. “I will never forget the look of pure astonishment that crossed her face,” he writes. “Church!” she cried, “Why would I ever go there? They just make me feel worse than I already do.”

Obviously, the people she had identified as Christians would not pass the love test. And it is troubling, isn’t it? Sometimes it seems that the majority of people who fill church pews each Sunday have missed the whole meaning of what Jesus was about. I hope that is not true, but it seems to be that way sometimes; and let me say something to you that is very critical: When we go out to minister to the least and the lowest in Jesus’ name, we don’t do it to save their souls, but to save our own.

Yesterday we buried a member of our church family here at St. Johns. At eleven o’clock yesterday, we had the funeral for Joan Newman. Joan Newman has been a member of this church for many years, and in particular she spent a lot of her time working the thrift shop. I got to know Joan because she would be there every Thursday when Ted Yardley would celebrate the Eucharist here at the alter. Then following the service, Ted would sit down to have lunch, and all of the folks at the thrift shop would be with him. Ted was sort of “holding court.” And I got to know Joan; particularly her sense of humor, and her real good sense of life and also her love of God, as she saw it. A few weeks ago, I went to visit Joan in the Bourne Manor. She has been at the nursing home there for about four or five years; she’s had difficulty breathing and she has had other things that have been wrong with her; but the amazing thing is that whenever you’d go to visit her, she would pick up your spirits. I always felt that my ministry was revitalized after I would visit her. And this one day, I went to visit her, and I went to her room and I went in and looked around, and she wasn’t there. The neat thing about her room was that she could look out the window, and just outside the window her family had placed a bird feeder, so there were all kinds of birds flying around; but there was no Joan. So I went to the front desk, and I asked the nurses where Joan was, and they thought she was down in the recreation hall. So I walked down the hall, and I came across a woman who was there. The woman looked a little grumpy, but I said to her, “Do you know where Joan Newman is?” She looked at me and she must have seen my collar and she said, “You must be from Joan’s church.” And I said, “Well, I am.” And she said, “You know, she gives me so much strength because of her belief in God and her friendly way, and her acceptance of everyone.” I found Joan.

But, you know, that’s the way it is. There are so many people who bear the name Christian who have never met Jesus because they have never seen him in their neighbor. How can you identify a Christian? There is only one way: By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

Amen