In classic spiritual literature, the journey of faith has often been described
as climbing a mountain.
The mountain top is the place of enlightenment, of spiritual bliss.
The view from the top is all encompassing.
Jesus took his closest followers with him up a mountain
and was there transfigured before them.
And when Peter, James and John beheld this radiance
they wanted to build shelters and stay there,
so transcending was this experience.
I want to read to you a short passage from the book, Halfway Up the Mountain,
ed. by Mariana Caplan
“Many people live at the bottom of the mountain.
They make nice little villages there, even cities sometimes.
They have families – and they love their families or they don’t –
they find work and friends, they’re happy or they aren’t,
and they go to church or temple or they don’t.
And they die there.
“Far fewer, though still a sizable population of individuals, live in the foothills.
They still have their families and jobs and communities,
but they strive to live by high moral standards, to treat others well, to learn
and find meaning in their lives.
They have some notion of God or Truth,
and may even attempt to pursue that Truth in some way,
perhaps even to serve it.
“Less common still are those who live on the mountain,
pitching their tents higher and higher up
as they are able to adapt to the change in atmosphere.
They often have families and friends, and consider life with them to be sacred.
They strive to live lives of compassion.
They recognize the value of the mountain, appreciate it,
often devote their lives to ascending it,
and do what they can to adjust
to its ever-changing and ever-demanding circumstances.
“Rare are those who have climbed the mountain…”
and made it to the top.
In today’s gospel reading we hear about Jesus calling the first disciples,
and how they left their livelihood, their careers, and even family
to follow Jesus.
They went with him to the top of the mountain – and beyond.
By the time they got to the Day of Pentecost
they were completely cracked open,
and the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus poured into them,
ignited them, and then gushed out of them
carrying the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.
We today are benefitting and living in the legacy of their apostolic work.
Through them and their persistence in following in discipleship,
the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus, the One who called them,
has inaugurated and sustained this thing we call the Church.
After all these passing years the Church has asserted
that this call of Jesus to follow him in discipleship and witness
is extended to all of us.
But from that initial straight forward “follow me”
we have gotten an increasing elaboration
within the organization and structure of the Church
about how to answer that call of “follow me” –
the development of a process of tradition, authority and ordination,
the emergence of a hierarchy of leadership,
all of this influenced by and integrated with the surrounding culture.
“Follow me” has been elaborated and organized into a complex structure.
Well, we live in a different world than Peter and Andrew, James and John.
I want now to say a word or two about this complex structure of the Church,
especially today, because this is a day in which we will be/have been
focused on this peculiar institution,
as we take/took part in the annual meeting.
There is a difference between community and organization.
Community is the given condition of relationship lived by all beings,
the GIVEN condition, organic, natural and ecologically inclusive.
Organization, on the other hand, is concerned with and focuses on
survival, growth, achievement and success.
Organization defines its membership on the basis of exclusion and separation from the community of all living beings.
It is the means of association chosen by those who want to identify themselves
very specifically in this way.
If you think about this in terms of organizations you know
– businesses, clubs, government –
the self consciousness of the organization is directed inward
to achieve distinctness and durability.
But the self consciousness of community is expansive and ecologically inclusive.
And divine love/agaph is the integrating truth of community.
Those who live in community cooperate with one another spontaneously
and share a common practice or, we might say in the Church, a rule of life.
If we were to look at a rule of life for us here,
we would find it on pages 304 and 5 in the BCP, the Baptismal Covenant.
Today in organization mode we meet and spend some time
focused on what marks and identifies ourselves exclusively.
We hear reports about our specific activities,
we view our financial status, we elect organizational leaders.
But we are also gathered in community mode,
and we break bread
and share in the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood,
Christ’s Body in whom we live and move and have our being,
and Christ’s Blood – the life blood of all living beings.
The Church is a strange and fascinating hybrid of organization and community.
The organizational aspect focuses on a defined membership and leadership,
and self concern about survival, growth, and success – variously defined.
But the Church as faith community is governed by
the given condition of relationship lived by all beings.
So even in our organizational mode today,
please note the community aspect very consciously and intentionally kept in awareness.
The vestry with new members will go off this next weekend
for a time of community building and finding their legs as a team.
And as a member of the staff, I will state right out
that we work in cooperation with each other as a team,
and we have times of sharing in relationship in community,
and I particularly appreciate Hunt’s role of servant leadership in all this.
So where are we now with these words of Jesus to follow him?
Or we might say,
where are we in responding to the implicit call that comes with baptism?
We imply in the baptismal covenant that we also are called,
along with Peter and Andrew, James and John,
called into a new way of living, into a rule of life actually,
a rule of life that includes
- 1. to continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers
- 2. to persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord
- 3. to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ
- 4. to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself
- 5. to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being
all of which has everything to do with community,
and only secondarily with organization/the institutional Church
not for its own sake
but as it is meant to support the agaph community of faith.
The baptismal covenant, our rule of life,
is an elaboration of that basic call to follow Jesus
articulated within the institutional Church
afloat within this specific time and place and culture.
That can be a guidepost, a lamp, a finger pointing in the direction to go,
but it also can present a danger of domesticating and limiting
the implications of the call.
How far does that call go? As far as Peter, Andrew, James and John?
Only you can answer that.
Most people live at the bottom of the mountain.
Some live in the foothills.
Some pitch their tents higher up.
Rare are those who climb to the top.
But we have Jesus, at the top, throwing a rope down, the rope of the Holy Spirit,
and pulling up anyone who grabs hold,
revealing to us the expansive vista of salvation,
to which we then are to bear witness.
Jesus says, “Follow me.”
How far up the mountain will we go?
