“Being a Church Animal”
Rev. Dr. David E. Gray
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
January 29, 2012
John 21: 3-17
We heard about the Souper Bowl of Caring. This morning’s Washington Post’s Parade insert tells us how to plan the perfect Super Bowl party. That’s right. It’s Super Bowl week. One of the things I’m most looking forward to next week in watching the Super Bowl is the commercials. Can I get an Amen? Early reports say there is a commercial coming with a bulldog in running shoes named Mr. Quiggly that is supposed to steal the spotlight this year. It harkens back to 1987 when during Super Bowl XXI there was a commercial featuring a bull terrier named Spuds Mackenzie who was famously called the “original party animal.” Anyone remember that? The dog and that phrase ended up on all kinds of t-shirts and posters.
It begs the question, why does our culture attach animal suffixes to words and activities to express participation in them? Work with me here. The phrase “party animal” means someone who participates in parties a lot, right? We say that people who exercise all the time are “gym rats.” Or people who devour reading materials are “book worms.”
So as we think about the church, how would we describe our participation as a congregation? Are we Bible worms? Would you say we are a sanctuary rats? How about church animals? Some of us participate at church in all sorts of ways, but when we think about Bradley Hills as a congregation, if we had to pick an animal, what group of animals best describes us?
I find it interesting to read about how groups of animals are named. Like a herd of cattle or a pack of wolves. A group of sloths or oysters is called a bed. Makes sense. They just lie there. A group of caterpillars is called an army. Sounds pretty intimidating for caterpillars. A group of termites or cockroaches is called an intrusion. That’s for sure. Chinese New Year’s begins this week and focuses our attention on clans of dragons in the year of the dragon.
If we as a religious congregation picked an animal name to describe us, what would it be? Something Biblical perhaps? A group of locusts is called a plague. We know about them from the Book of Exodus. A group of crows is often called a murder. We can’t be crows then, murder violates the 6th commandment. A group of ravens is called an unkindness. That violates all sorts of Jesus’ teachings.
What about lions? They are noble and everyone likes them. They are called a pride. We want to be proud of our church. However, there are few sins the Bible takes more seriously than pride. From Adam and Eve through the Book of Proverbs and beyond, “pride cometh before the fall.”
Swans are sometimes called a lamentation. That sounds Biblical. Wombats are called many things, but a wisdom of wombats is one of them. Wisdom is important in the Bible. A group of alligators is called a congregation. That sounds good, right? Except they are alligators.
As we think about our culture at Bradley Hills as a community, what animals best describe us? We have had flamingos here in the past. A group of flamingos is called a lot of things but one of them is a flamboyance. Are we flamboyant enough? A group of parrots is often called a pandemonium. Do we just talk all the time and repeat what everyone else is saying so we don’t get anywhere? A group of porcupines is called a prickle. Are we prickly? I hope not. We talk a lot about being welcoming. I hope we are a welcoming congregation.
What about a herd of ostrich? Ostriches too often have their head in the sand. We can’t afford to do that, we have issues we must face. We can’t ignore the capital costs of our great building over the next few years. We shouldn’t ignore the critical needs of housing, employment and poverty in our area. The economy continues to be rough. How do we help?
How about the rhinoceros? They seem powerful and on the go. However, did you know a group of rhinoceroses is called a crash? Rhinos can see only up to 4 feet in front of them, but can run up to 40 miles per hour. Sounds like a dangerous combination. No wonder a group of rhinos is called a crash. Do we run in lots of directions quickly without foresight? I hope not.
In our second lesson this morning there are two groups of animals suggested. A group of fish, or a school. And sheep, called a flock of course. John 21 contains the third post-resurrection appearance of Jesus. In it, Peter and some other disciples prepared to go fishing. They did not recognize Jesus on the sea shore, however. That is a common occurrence for Jesus. Jesus gave them some fishing advice - to cast their net on the right side of the boat. They did so and brought in such a large haul of fish that they could not haul the net into the boat. They must have captured a whole school of fish. 153 to be exact as John tells us. Some commentators argue that the number 153 is significant. That there were 153 known types of fish at the time. We know that the fish is a common symbol for the Christian community. We often see the fish symbol on people’s cars today. When he first called them to service, Jesus called his disciples to be “fishers of people.” The word used for haul, helko, in the Greek in John 21, is the word used elsewhere in the New Testament for people being drawn to Jesus. So catching the total sum of the diversity of fish would mean theologically that the disciples were called to be fishers of all people, bringing all members of the community to participate in Jesus’ ministry. Not leaving anyone behind.
One of the challenges for us or any congregation is helping everyone be involved fully in the life of the church. We are reaching out and people are coming here. We are very strong in caring for one another when we are ill or hospitalized or in need. But we must do better at including many lesser involved, sometimes long term members, in our congregational life.
On the day of our annual meeting when we are thinking about the church as a whole, let me share some statistics about our congregation.
Our congregation has 622 active, confirmed adult members. We have many more children and participants in the wider community as well. We had 224 families pledge financially for 2012, plus many who will give while not pledging. This all continues a trend of rising participation the past three years, even while overall pledge dollars are flat. Given the economy, it is great to have such support.
Much of our ministry as a congregation is done in small groups, called lay ministries. Yet more and more of our work is being done by fewer and fewer people. Some lay ministries are having trouble finding and keeping chairs and participants. We have scores of members who are not involved in a small group.
Now this situation is not unique to Bradley Hills. Most congregations of our size that I know of have similar situations or more severe ones. At least we are growing. While 2/3 of the Presbyterian churches in our area are shrinking, we had 8 members die in 2011, 3 transferred out of town, and 48 new members joined. Plus a lot of baptisms.
And yet we have a great opportunity for the gifts God has given all our members to be used in our church in exciting ways. Every member of the church should be involved in giving, serving, fellowship, inviting others, worship or growing spiritually. We have to find ways to include our new members fully in the life of our congregation. That requires us all to make room and look at what we must change to include the gifts, ideas and leadership of all our members.
Church leadership writers Scott Thumma and Warren Bird argue that church leaders need to listen to what their most involved, less-involved, and uninvolved people say about why they are and aren’t engaged. They suggest that “The most involved members are the most spiritually fulfilled, engaged, and satisfied members of a church.” We have all sorts of conflicts and draws on our time. But we are a church must find ways to understand and meet that spiritual needs of our newer and less involved members. And to structure our programs to meet their needs.
Beyond our worship, education and music programs on Sunday, we have a number of spiritual small groups during the week. From centering prayer and daybreak devotions to yoga and evening social and spiritual growth groups to Bible study and men’s fellowship to the upcoming Women’s retreat and Lenten vespers services. How can we open and connect those activities to new members and to long time members who do not feel engaged. Can you who are here invite one person, one church member you have not seen in a while to participate with you in some of them? If you are new or not as engaged I’d greatly value your input as to what we should offer to meet your spiritual needs.
Thumma and Bird suggest that many lesser involved former members would like to be involved in the church, if only the church would reach out. If you would be willing to help me call members to check up on them or to connect, let me know.
And the way and times we have structured our work might be a barrier to participation. Over the next few months we will be taking a look at the structure of our lay ministries and how we do our work. It may be that some of that must change in order to involve our congregation more fully.
Thumma and Bird conclude some of their writings by suggesting that a church’s own membership can be a primary mission field. We might think of places across the globe for mission, and we should, but we have a responsibility to think about the 1/3 of our congregation who might not be thriving spiritually, economically or socially and to reach out.
In the second part of our lesson, once Peter and the disciples saw all the fish, they realized it was Jesus who had given them such advice and went to him. Peter excitedly jumped in the water and swam, the other disciples came in a boat, and they went to the beach and ate fish and bread with Jesus. Jesus asked Peter if he loved him and three times Peter said yes. And then Jesus said if you love me “Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.”
Peter was given a call. A call to take care of Jesus’ people. We are and have a flock of sheep. And we must look to reach out to, listen to, spiritually feed and tend to the needs of the flock of sheep here so that the work of our church can be distributed more broadly, so that each member feels connected and so that each gift is included for the good of the whole. We heard last week in Matthew’s Gospel that when one sheep that has been gone returns to the flock there is great rejoicing. I know that is the way it is with this flock because I have seen it. This past week, three members who have not recently been involved called me to say they would like to be more involved. It started with members here reaching out to them. And I rejoiced in our conversations and in their calls.
There is a great haul of disciples for those who would be fishers of people right within the broader congregation. There is a whole flock of sheep at Bradley Hills and we all have a chance to show our love for Jesus as we tend to and feed our sheep here in our body of Christ.
The Bible is full of animals and no place more so than Genesis 6 and Noah’s ark. You know the story - God was displeased with the world, sent a flood to wipe it out but God liked Noah and had him build an ark to save two of every kind of animal that would accompany Noah and his family.
Julie Coy has a book called Noah’s Ark: the Animals Tell the Tale, about what the experience around and on the ark must have been like for the animals. Its central character is an ostrich named Obie. The young bird’s role in the book is to share God’s message with the animals to make sure that all the animals get on the ark on time. Obie helped ensure that everyone is included on the ark. Much like Jesus showed the disciples where to fish in order to ensure that every kind of fish was in the haul; we must follow our Lord and tend to all the sheep of our flock for us to make it in the long haul.
What kind of animal group do I think we should be? I like the zeal of zebras pretty well.
What kind of church do I think we should be? I think one of patience with each other, one of participation, one of passionate zeal. All flowing from Christ’s passion for us.
For we are not one kind of animal. We are more like an ark. Listening to each idea and including everyone and every gift might make it a zoo around here at times. But we need to make sure that all the church animals here are involved in our trip. Our trip to God’s destination for Bradley Hills. May it be so. Amen.
