First watch:
[Youtube Clip from Antwerp Station – Sound of Music – 4min]
Church
It's better together
Church
To me, the video that we watched just now illustrates what Church is meant to be, perhaps I could say that:
"Church is a group of people working out together how to dance to God's music."
* * *
The dance begins with sound – a song, or a beat, then: one or two people moving to it, learning the steps… more people join, more and more, and eventually the whole world is transformed by the dance.
Hearing the Music
Over the past two weeks we've been running a 'confirmation course for everyone' here at Paarl Methodist, in week 1 we spoke about the way that we are saved: 'By grace, through faith, the gift of God.'
And in week two: 'What we're saved from, and what we're saved for.'
Audio of the sermons is available on the church website – or you can take a CD from the welcome table.
* * *
As church, perhaps the gifts of God's grace – by which we are saved – could be understood as the music to which we dance.
Creation
The story of God's plan for creation revealed in scripture.
From the beginning, 'created good'.
"And God saw everything he had made, and indeed, it was very good."
– Genesis 1:31
In the end – redeemed by Jesus, ultimately heaven comes down to earth in Revelation and the world joins in the song of praise.
"And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride and adorned for her husband."
– Revelation 21:2
Law
The example of the law that teaches us some of the practicalities of godly love.
The words of the prophets calling us to justice, holiness, right living.
Jesus
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of which show us God's way of love.
The Holy Spirit, living in us, guiding us, reminding us what Jesus has said and done.
All of these combine to form a soundtrack that guides us in our dance. As we learn to be the people, and the community that God wants us to be.
Listening to Music
To dance, I guess the first thing we need – is some familiarity with the music to which we are dancing.
We live in a world where different tunes compete for our attention.
We want to learn to listen to the right tune – but the music is so loud and confusing, that every now and again – while we're dancing to one – we slip into the other.
I would say the loudest – and most obvious tune is the self pleasing, consumerist tune.
The consumerist tune…
Characterised in Paul's words, Ephesians 2:
"You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else."
- Ephesians 2:1-3
If it feels good, buy it, do it, own it.
The dance that goes with that is quite lonely – it involves dancing in exclusive places, with specific people.
It wants to make money out of everything. It's about profit, fundraising… selfish gain.
It turns us in on ourselves and results in what a friend of mine describes as:
"Instead of using things and loving people. We love things, and use people."
When we as a church lose our focus on the tune which we are supposed to be dancing to, even for a few seconds, we begin to dance to the other tune – and simply blend in with everything else that's going on.
Jesus' Tune
The alternative tune is Jesus' tune – again from Ephesians:
"…God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved…"
- Ephesians 2:4-5
Paul goes on to explain what this means – in terms of setting us free to be the people God created us to be.
* * *
Jesus' tune is a little different to the louder, easier to hear consuming, selfish tune.
It results in a different dance, a different society, one where:
"Instead of loving things and using people, we love people and use things"
A society where the one who loves the most eventually has the victory. Where people are set free to do the good and be the good that we were created to be.
Learning to Dance
The thing is, in order to dance to this tune – our ears need to become accustomed to the melody – picking it out from the other noises around us.
To hear it – takes practice.
* * *
And so we gather on a Sunday, as a community – the church, to listen for a moment, to literally sing and dance together as we drown out one set of songs, with another.
Songs of selfishness and pride are overwhelmed for a moment by songs of grace, love and sacrifice.
We act out the theme of these songs as we break bread and drink wine in memory of one who's love took him to the cross – but was vindicated by his resurrection.
We sing them to ourselves and we sing them to each other – and hope that as we go out into our community the tune will play in our head – and somehow we will be a different group of people – dancing to a different beat.
The Steps
I'm not much of a dancer.
I never went to lessons.
Just like anything in life – to dance takes practice.
The video that we saw was obviously not just a bunch of people who arrived at Antwerp station and happened to make up the same dance at the same time – as amazing as that would be.
They were all disciplined dancers – over 200 of them from two dance schools – they met together to rehearse – and then they took their dance to the station.
* * *
I wish that living like a Christian was something I just did automatically – without any discipline, without any practice, without teachers and mentors, and fellow disciples.
I wish I could do it without studying and restudying the scriptures for inspiration and motivation. Using them to help me pick out the rhythms to which I should live out my life.
Without people who point out my mistakes (I hate that) and help me to correct them.
Without fellow dancers who I will let down if I don't meet them for practice.
But I can't.
* * *
To learn the steps – we need each other.
To hear the music – we need each other.
To remember why the music and the steps are so important – we need each other.
Or we quickly slip into a self serving, selfish kind of dance – that suits only ourselves.
* * *
That is why we need Christian community. To help us live out our calling in the world more and more faithfully.
The first Church
Whenever we read scripture we must remember that what we hold in our hands – the Bible – was compiled and preserved, with the help of the Holy Spirit, by an organised Community of Christians and for them – the Church.
In Mark 2:1-12 we get one of our first pictures of Church:
* * *
At Jesus home in Capernaum, crowds gather to hear Jesus preach the word… The word that:
"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
– Mark 1:15
The crowd is so dense and people are so desperate to be near Jesus that some people remove the roof of the building so they can let their paralysed friend down to Jesus.
When Jesus sees their faith, faith that assumes Jesus' gracious love, that simply accepts Jesus' gracious gift – he says to the paralytic:
"Son, your sins are forgiven."
- Mark 2:5
Words we remember every Sunday as we make our confession – in faith that accepts God's grace.
Words that remind us what God is like – as Jesus shows us his face. And we learn what kind of people we can and should be.
* * *
In Acts we see some flashes from the life of the church:
Acts 1: They gather in love and humble prayer, sharing what they have so that no one is in need.
Acts 2: By the Spirit they are released to speak boldly to all the nations of the world – ministry moves from inside the room to the streets.
Acts 3: The church sees the suffering of the world, Peter and John, motivated by God's love heal outside the temple gates.
Acts 4: The church faces persecution for conforming to God's rule alone – refusing to conform to Caesar and those in power.
Acts 5: They tell the truth, when Ananias and Sapphira lied, they died. Untruth causes death.
Acts 6: They celebrate their diverse giftedness, people are set aside to do tasks according to their ability.
Acts 7: Stephen testifies to Jesus Lordship and suffers death for it; loving his enemies even as he dies. The music to which the church dances is very different to the tunes of revenge with which we are familiar; the church loves its enemies – becoming a contrasting and world transforming community.
Conclusion
I believe that the Church is meant to be God's gift to the world. A group of people who help each other to live very differently, to offer grace and mercy in a world that seeks revenge. To teach love and sharing in a world that promotes neglect and selfishness.
I don't think the way of Christ, that we are called to follow is an easy way.
But I am sure it is the only hope we have.
And I pray – that we will take the time and the discipline to listen to God's music and begin to transform the world with a different kind of dance.
Then – I believe we will begin to see the Kingdom of God in this place.
Amen.
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