SOME OUTFIT TELEPHONED ME RECENTLY.

          They were doing an opinion survey on something.

          I shared my firm opinion

          That I preferred not to be bothered at suppertime.

          They understood completely.

          Next day they phoned during lunch.

I DON’T UNDERSTAND

          What makes my individual opinion so important

          To the movers and shakers of the day.

          It is one small, insignificant opinion among millions.

          I guess all those insignificant opinions begin to add up.

ON WHAT DO WE BASE OUR OPINIONS?

          Upon our own original, creative brilliance,

          Our acute, insightful observations,

          Our wide, scholarly study of the questions involved?

WELL, MAYBE.

          I’m not convinced there are many original thinkers.

          I suspect the majority of us conform our opinions

          To those of whatever experts we trust—

          The columnists, bloggers, pundits. pontificators,

          To whom our gut feelings most strongly respond.

          We don’t stray too far from the Party Line.

IF YOU WERE TO PIN ME DOWN

          As to where my religious convictions come from,

          My answer would include the twin sources

          Of “tradition” and “authority.”

BY “TRADITION” I MEAN

          That I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t a Christian.

          I have grown up within the walls of the church,

          I’m comfortable with its vocabulary, its music,

          Its apostolic testimony, its witness, its mission.

          All this feels like home to me.

          I speak and behave with a Christian “accent.”

BY “AUTHORITY” I MEAN

          That I believe certain things out of deep respect,

          Admiration, and gratitude,

          For those fathers and mothers in the faith

          Who believed them before I did,

          And who nurtured me with “love, support, and care.”

YOU DON’T KNOW THEM,

          But you had your own mentors in faith,

          Your own equivalents of those about whom I say,

          “If it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for me”—

          Mel Ludwig, Betty Stone, Allen Tinkham, Deane Hodges,

          Nathaniel Guptill.

THEY IN TURN

          Stood on the faithful shoulders of Bonhoeffer,

          Niebuhr, Bishop Romero, Mother Teresa, and Horace Bushnell—

          Saints of the church who were no fools.

          And, behind them: Martha, Simon Peter, Mary, Apostle Paul,

          Whose lives were changed by the gospel,

          And whose stories still resonate with us.

SO I INHERITED MY FAITH,

          Which is a comfortable, orderly, and acceptable way

          To acquire the beliefs by which one lives.

          I still listen to the voices of the saints,

          As they tell me who Jesus is.

BUT THE GOSPEL

          Has its unsettling way of refusing to remain second-hand.

          Because he died and rose again, because he lives,

          Jesus will confront you and me the way he confronted Peter,

          And challenge each of us:

“WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?

          Not who does Jerry Falwell say that I am,

          Or the latest issue of Newsweek.

          Who do you say?

“WHEN DEAR FRIENDS ARE CALLED AWAY FOREVER,

          And family depart this life,

          And illness and tragedy overwhelm you,

          Who do you say that I am?

“WHEN THE WORLD

          Seems overrun with evil and warfare,

          The innocent suffer and the children die,

          Who do you say that I am?

“WHEN PEOPLE GROW CYNICAL,

          And selfishly pursue their little pleasures,

          While the earth turns toxic and whole species go extinct,

          Who do you say that I am?”

HOW WE STRUGGLE TO ANSWER!

          Our minds fill with old Sunday School lessons,

          Hymn verses, Christmas pageants, bedtime prayers.

          Forget them!

WHAT DOES HE MEAN TO US?

          In what way has he entered our fleeting, feverish lives,

          And showed us the meaning of our baptisms?

          How are we different because he lives?

          What corner did we turn when he said, follow me?

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT FROM OUR NEIGHBORS,

          Who lives in houses just like ours,

          Drive similar cars, have comparable jobs,

          Drive to the same dump, Saturday mornings,

          And don’t think much about Jesus?

WHAT MAKES JESUS REAL TO US?

          When we take communion in church, is he nearby?

          When we bring canned goods for the food pantry,

          Is there some understanding between us and him?

          When we see his cross, on a church

          Or around someone’s neck, does life make more sense?

LIKE ALL CANDIDATES

          For ordination in the United Church of Christ,

          In 1972 I had to produce a paper outlining my theology—

          Such theology as one has at age 25.

I STILL HAVE THAT STATEMENT,

          And as I turn the yellowed, typewritten pages,

          I see that they were written by a person I no longer know,

          Or even remember.

BUT I STILL LIKE ONE THING I SAID—

          That we can know God only as God chooses to be known,

          And that God chooses to be known through Christ.

TODAY, WHO DO I SAY HE IS,

          This travel-worn rabbi, this former carpenter?

          Can I blurt out, as Peter did ages ago:

          “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”?

          Does the same Savior remain as real to me?

IT IS EQUALLY SURPRISING

          To discover what our answer tells us about ourselves.

          As long as I stick with tradition and authority,

          My role is clear and my responsibilities obvious.

          I am Pastor Russ, or to be more formal,

          The Rev. Dr. Russell Rowland.

          In effect, I in turn become tradition and authority.

          Little children sometimes mistake me for God.

BUT JESUS’ QUESTION

          Requires me to start from scratch,

          To return to basics—the fundamentals.

A NOTED ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR,

          Referring to his own field of endeavor,

          Once commented, “Tradition is the last bad performance.”

          Indeed, the Christian church once had a tradition

          That women could not be ordained ministers.

          Some clergy have used their authority

          To perpetrate all kinds of abuses.

FOR OUR OWN HEALTH AS AN INSTITUTION,

          And our own good as individual believers,

          We need to dig deeper,

          Back to the “bedrock” of what we believe:

          Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”     

          This is the confession by which every tradition,

          And every authority, must be judged.

FOR THOSE OF YOU

          Not fortunate enough to be members of the Church Council,

          Let me tell you one of many things you’re missing.

          We have been having some healthy discussion lately

          About the purpose of the signboard out on the lawn.

IT’S AN ATTRACTIVE WHITE SIGNBOARD.

          The problem is that it says nothing,

          Until we arrange plastic letters on it

          In such a way as to spell out a message.

          The question is, of course, What message?

IS THE SIGNBOARD OUT THERE

          To remind you friends and members

          Of your meetings and special events?

          Is it out there to invite the wider community inside?

          Is it there to display inspirational messages?

          Has it some other, yet undiscovered, purpose?

FOR SURE, IT IS MORE IMPORTANT

          To talk about world peace and global warming—

          But we have taken a little time to discuss the sign,

          To be sure that we are using, effectively and appropriately,

          One of our means of communication.

THE GOSPEL HAS

          Of answering whatever questions we ask;

          Even of calling our answers into question.

          So it is of interest to have Jesus ask us,

          Who do YOU say that I am,

          At the very moment we are reconsidering the signboard.

DO WE HAVE ANYTHING MORE CRUCIAL,

          More timely, more necessary, to tell the world,

          Or at least the wider community in which we serve,

          Than Peter’s reply that Jesus is Lord?

          Is that not the good news we preach and live?

SHOULD NOT THAT,

          Or some variation of it, be the message

          That shines forth from our preaching, our teaching,

          Our newsletter, our website, our church bulletin,

          And—yes—from the sign out on the lawn?

UNLESS JESUS IS LORD,

          There is really little point

          In your coming back here next week.

          You might better spend your Sundays

          Elsewhere and otherwise.

NEXT SATURDAY EVENING,

          August 30, 2008,

          Let Jesus ask you, Who do you say that I am?

          Once you’ve answered his question,

          You’ll know how to spend Sunday morning.

AMEN.