Susan Warrener Smith

October 1, 2006

Ezekiel 22:23-31

A few weeks ago a clergy friend of mine told me that she had serious questions about the role of the institutional church and that for the time being she is resigning from her position as an ordained minister. While there are understandable personal reasons for her decision, I suspect that her despair over the institutional church has played a significant role in her making this drastic change in her life. I am confident, too, that there are many who have had serious questions about the role of the institutional church, and in reflecting upon them have not found compelling reasons to stay and so have left the church in discouragement.

Almost ten years ago now, Alison Boden, Dean of the Chapel at the University of Chicago, said that student after student will say, “You know, I’m not religious, but I’m very spiritual.” She said that these students equate “religion” with something that is structured, rule-bound, dogmatic, and inhibiting to their creativity. This fits with the philosophy of a young woman named Sheila who said she doesn’t belong to any church or religious institution. Instead she looks around at all religions, takes what she likes, rejects what she doesn’t like, and then forms her own religion which one might call “Sheila-ism.” Given this trend it did not surprise me to read in the Faith and Values section of the Dispatch a few weeks ago an article about atheism. In this article people gave a variety of different reasons for rejecting their faith. One person said, “The more I studied and thought about it, the more I disbelieved it.” Another said, “I left the church not because I didn’t like it. I left it because I thought it wasn’t true.” What particularly caught my eye, however, was a quote from Martin Marty, a well-known writer, Lutheran minister, and professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Marty says that he “thinks the big, big trend is not toward atheism but toward individualized spirituality. It’s do-it-yourself. You have a repertory of all the religions of the area, take the things you like from them, reject the things you don’t.” Sounds like more Sheila-ism to me - a comfortable religion without demands or accountability.

As I wondered about the disillusionment of so many, I kept thinking back to what I mentioned in a sermon I preached at the end of July where I mentioned Martin Buber’s explanation for why the Jews do not accept Jesus as the Messiah. While Buber himself had great respect for Jesus and even for Christianity, he said, “We [meaning the Jews] know more deeply, more truly, that world history has not been turned upside down to its very foundations - that the world is not yet redeemed . . . The redemption of the world,” he explains, “is for [the Jew] indivisibly one with the perfecting of creation, with the establishment of the unity which nothing more prevents, the unity which is no longer controverted, and which is realized in all the protean variety of the world.” (Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, 28-29) For the Jew Jesus cannot be the Messiah because what has been defined as the Messianic age of peace and justice, unity and reconciliation has not yet happened. In this sermon I also remarked that beloved Columbus theologian Walter Bouman’s take on this is that the Jewish rejection of Jesus as the Messiah “is not a judgment on Jesus, but it is a judgment on the church!” I have to wonder if we could not say the same thing about the rejection of so many of our fellow Christians of the institutional church.

In the book of Deuteronomy God lays out for the Hebrew people God’s vision for the place in which God’s people will live. The Harper Collins Study Bible calls this “inspired polity” (a word dear to the heart of Presbyterians) and a normative guide to corporate existence for the people of God. Cast as a testament from the mouth of Moses himself, we hear in Deuteronomy what, above all, should shape the value system of society. First and foremost , Deuteronomy says, “So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all God’s ways, to love God, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and decrees of the Lord your God . . . for your own well-being.” (Deut. 10:12-13)

And how is that well-being assured? God has instructed that “you shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes, in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, and they render just decision for the people. You must not distort justice; you must not show partiality; and you must not accept bribes . . . Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue . . .” (Deut. 16:18-20)

And to assure economic fairness and equal distribution of God’s bounty, Deuteronomy says, “Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts . . . There will . . . be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today.” (Deut. 15:1-5)

God’s vision is clearly a vision of obedience to God embodied in justice, fairness, and equality for all. I think I hear an echo of these words. What is the greatest commandment? And Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind . . . And . . . you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

A few moments ago we heard a reading from Ezekiel, a devastating report on Judah’s breach of their covenant with God. Instead of letting that covenant shape their lives and bring them closer to God and each other, instead of assuring justice and economic equality, we hear about a world that seems to be the opposite. While God’s anger and frustration comes through loud and clear, God’s sorrow and desperate grief can be heard as well.

The Lord says, “The priests of your land have done violence to my teaching and have profaned my holy things . . . Its prophets have smeared whitewash on their behalf, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken.” Religion is being used to control people rather than bring the community into a deeper covenant relationship with God. In the time of Ezekiel prophets often were hired by the king himself and told what to say by the king, speaking whatever truth the king wanted people to hear. As we struggle with the demarcation between church and state in our country in 2006, I am struck by what a short distance we have come since the ancient days of the prophet Ezekiel. Last week I was watching Bill Maher on TV, and he had three guests, discussing the church/state issues that are high profile in the news these days. Bill Maher, who is very much a cynic when it comes to religion, said he thought churches should be taxed because they are just marketing a product like anyone else. Great cheers went up from the audience. But he then was reminded by one of the guests that tax exemption for religious organizations was instituted to keep the state out of religion, not religion out of the state - to keep kings and princes, presidents and senators, representatives and governors from seeking to control the content of religious belief and observance. The state should not become a religion, but neither should religion become the state, for then we would lose the prophetic voice that speaks trust to power.

Ezekiel speaks further of God’s exasperation. The prophet reports that God says, “You are a land whose princes are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it.” The “justice” system is not being used to administer justice to all but is being used to oppress those who have no power. David Hilfiker, a doctor working in Washington, D.C., speaks with alarm at the “apocalyptic destruction” of the inner-city that has happened in less than one generation, a result of thoughtless urban renewal, gentrification, subsidized housing projects, the Interstate Highway system, the movement of jobs to suburbia, lack of public transportation, and dwindling funds for public schools. Powerlessness and oppression become commonplace. And what about the widows and widowers who are made as wars continue to be honored as a legitimate form of political negotiation?

Hand in hand with this injustice, oppression, and violence is the lack of economic justice and equality. “The officials of your land are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain . . . The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and the needy, and have extorted from the alien without redress.” The growing gap between rich and poor continues to grow. There are those who make fortune after fortune and those who continue to go hungry and without a roof over their heads. Illegal aliens are hired at reduced wages and exploited for their cheap labor. Heidi Neumark wrote in Christian Century a few years ago (and I would venture to say what she says still holds true) that “the gap between the rich and the poor . . . remains as wide as ever.” She says, “We turn people away from the food pantry because we’ve run out of canned stew, canned tuna, cereal, and powdered milk. Yet this is the busy season at Dean and Deluca down in Soho where my husband works on his feet 12 hours a day trying to meet the insatiable demand for imported foie gras, truffles, and caviar. Sometimes he wraps up single sales totaling over $1,000.” I am reminded of being at Weiland’s last week, and the man at the fish counter told me he had sold a bushel of blue crabs that day for $150. And I am certain that hungry people knocked on the door of Neighborhood Services that day, happy just to have a can of beans and a loaf of bread.

And so we hear God’s anger and frustration. “The priests of your land have done violence to my teaching . . . You are a land whose princes are like a roaring lion tearing the prey, devouring human lives . . . The officials of your land . . . have oppressed the poor and the needy . . .” But we also hear God’s grief as God mourns for the state of the land. “I sought for anyone,” God cries. “I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land . . . but I found no one . . . I found no one.”

So far, what we have heard is a pretty depressing report on the state of the world. But I am here to say, “Let’s not despair,” because there is hope. Several weeks ago I participated in a BREAD workshop for congregations interested in learning more about faith-based community organizing and the mission of BREAD. For the uninitiated, BREAD stands for “building responsibility, equality, and dignity” and is our local faith-based community organizing group - an interfaith group comprised of 49 congregations in the city of Columbus. This group works toward and has had remarkable successes bringing justice and fairness to those who are oppressed by the political systems of our country and city - to those who suffer from escalating crime, lack of safety, and a growing sense of powerlessness in the face of our government and its politicians. BREAD has heard God’s call and strives to “repair the wall” and “to stand in the breach.”

Indianola has been affiliated with BREAD practically since its inception ten years ago. I have worked closely with this organization for an entire decade, and yet I was powerfully effected by that workshop a few weeks ago. I was reminded that while there are so many who despair about the institutional church, while people are leaving the church in droves to create their own self-serving style of spirituality, it may have less to do with the logic of our beliefs and doctrine and more to do with the church’s faithlessness to God’s covenant of justice, fairness, and equality.

Oh, I know there are many good and valuable reasons to be part of the institutional church. Yes, I believe there is value in worshiping together. That turns our focus on the center and source of all creation as well as strengthens my own personal spiritual life. Yes, I believe there is value in having fellowship together. That helps all of us experience God’s presence within Christian community. Yes, there is value in caring for each other. That carries each of us through the dark times of our lives. But let us not forget that, perhaps above all, the strength and value of the institutional church is that community . . . yes, the very numbers of our community . . . bring power to the mission of justice to which Jesus calls us. One person can feed someone who is hungry. But only many of us together can correct the injustice that has made that person hungry. One person can bring another in out of the rain. But only many of us together can correct the economic injustice which has made that person homeless, jobless, and illiterate. One person can give another a twenty dollar bill so that someone who is sick or injured can fill a prescription down at Kroger’s. But only many of us together can see that our city invests in the health care of all its people.

Maybe when all of God’s people invest in the matter of justice on which God’s kingdom is built . . . maybe then . . . maybe then will the skeptics, the doubters, those who have left the church . . . maybe then they will look back and say, “Oh, now I get it! Now I know what the church is all about. Now I know why the church needs me. Now I know.”

Today is Peacemaking Sunday. Sometimes it feels like peace is but the dream of the idealist who views a battered world through rose-colored glasses. But there is a saying that without justice there can be no peace. So I say to you today: May our commitment to peace begin with a commitment to justice. Let us stand in the breach so that God will be able to say, “I sought for anyone . . . and you have heeded my call.” Then at last we may know peace.






* For further discussion of this topic, see City of God, City of Satan by Robert Linthicum.