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A sermon preached at
Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ
Bethesda, Maryland
by the Rev. Rich Smith
November 27, 2005
1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37
Recently the President of our country has been accused of behaving in ways that are not exactly presidential, doing things that gratify the desires of the flesh, that cater to his baser passions. But Mr. Clinton flat out denies it. Says he: Since I have been president, I no longer eat Big Macs!
I'm sorry to report that is a claim our family cannot make. Over the years, we have certainly done our part to keep MacDonalds in business. And yet, I have a kind of love-hate relationship with fast food!
I love the fact that while travelling, you can go into a MacDonalds anywhere in the world and be assured of receiving a meal of consistent quality. When motoring with hungry kids in a far away state, it is a source of comfort to know that you don't have to take a chance on Ma 'n' Pa's Greasy Spoon.
I also love the fact that fast food has probably saved our marriage, and that of countless other two-wage-earner households. Many is the night that both of us come home tired and starving only to find that nothing is thawed, the left overs are sprouting fungus that is surely a cure for something, the kids are way past hunger pangs and the cook has the night off. Having a MacDonalds or an Eegees or a Pizza Hut around the corner has been the best thing to happen to family stability since TV Dinners.
And I love the fact that, on the whole, Fast Food leaves little mess to clean up, and is not all that expensive.
But I also have concerns. I'm not sure the stuff is all that healthy, in spite of the nutritional charts they put out to tell us it is. Hamburger, fries and a milk shake or coke do not make a very balanced meal, unless you happen to believe the four food groups are meat, potatoes, catsup and chocolate. I worry about the environmental effects of fast food -- beef imported from Latin America, from animals that are pastured on what used to be rain forest; and served wrapped in foil, styrofoam and a paper sack.
But mostly I worry about fast food as a symptom of a troubling trend in our culture to do what is convenient, fast, easy, expedient, with no thought as to what is best.
Granted, we need conveniences, and I bless those people who invented the dish washer and clothes dryer, the microwave oven, and the personal computer. I wouldn't want to go back to the days when most of one's time and energy was spent just taking care of the basics of food and clothing and keeping warm. I'm glad I don't have to hunt my food and chop wood and carry water....though my wife says, "If that's true, why do you keep trying to take us all camping?" But our lives are so complex and we have so much stress, I am glad for those technological doohickeys and gadgets that make life easier.
And yet, I wonder what it's doing to us in the long run to have so many things so convenient. We expect everything to be instant, from instant coffee to instant telecommunications. We don't know how to practice delayed gratification, to wait for anything, to put the effort into things so that we will appreciate them. Maybe that's why I like to go camping once in a while....to recover that kind of value. And why I like to have a vegetable garden. Last night we finally got to savor the first peas, from plants I've been nurturing since October! It was worth the wait!
Some eight years ago, when we still lived in California, our lives had gotten so busy that we concluded that what we didn't need was to drive over to Phoenix for Thanksgiving, which we had always done. What we really craved was four days at home, breaking our normal routine. We thought about going out for Thanksgiving dinner, but only for a minute. We decided to have the traditional meal that we would have enjoyed with our family, and to do everything ourselves, from scratch, short of going out and hunting the turkey, especially since the grocery store gave us enough coupons to get a free one.
We got up that morning and filled the bird with homemade stuffing. We made three kinds of pies, all from scratch (if you don't count canned pumpkin or canned cherries). The cranberry sauce also came from a can. But we rolled out real pie dough, peeled real potatoes, made rolls from yeast and flour, concocted gravy from dripping and giblets -- we had an absolutely marvelous time, spending all morning putting this feast together, for which we were truly thankful. We enjoyed each other as much as the food and lamented that we didn't have time to cook this way more often. I think after we got tired of leftovers, a couple of days later, we did go out for Big Macs. But we've made a point of doing a nice family meal, like Grandma used to make, on several occasions each year, and it's wonderful.
Sadly, this is the exception, rather than the rule. We rely more often on conveniences, for good or for ill. I have a great time shopping for them at Price Club! And the hunger for convenience seems to be a hallmark of modern life.
It even finds its way into the church, into our faith lives. I've often fantasized about "McChurch", that place where the services are 45 minutes long, we sing only the first and last verses of the hymns, the scripture lessons are from the READER'S DIGEST CONDENSED VERSION, and the sermons run for 10 minutes at most, and are never upsetting to anyone. All prayers are answered within five minutes. They hold no work parties or committee meetings, since all the essential tasks are hired out. There are only 7 commandments, 8 apostles, 3 sacraments, the tithe is a mere 5%, and if you're really in a hurry, you don't even have to get out of your car -- they open the window and set up a drive-in type speaker. Come to think of it, that part has already been tried, over in Garden Grove, CA at what is now the Crystal Cathedral!
You may think this is all a bit far-fetched, that we would never try to become McChurch, but churches in this day and age, finding themselves in competition not so much with each other but with all the other things there are to do in life, with all the demands we all have on our time and energy, make it easier and easier for people to be members, and more and more of the basics of faith gets sacrificed on the altar of convenience. We try to offer a drive-through religion that is easy to follow, that makes no demands of us.
I read about a church that accepts MasterCard and Visa in the offering plate. When you use plastic it doesn't really seem like money, does it? And I've thought -- why don't we go a step further than that and just arrange automatic monthly transfers of your pledges from your bank account to ours? That would make giving practically painless!
The problem is that giving probably shouldn't be painless. It should be noticed. You should feel it! It should cause you to make some sacrifice. Otherwise you get no credit... It's like Jesus said about love: the real test is whether or not you can love your enemies. Anyone can love those who love them. Even tax collectors can do that, he said. It's when you do the difficult though inconvenient thing that you grow humanly and spiritually.
Ah, but it's easier to go the convenient path. Even we at First Church fall into that once in a while.
A case in point: We have always had Sunday School and worship at the same hour. Parents have told me they like it that way! One even said they left another church where they had worship and Sunday School at two separate hours -- one at nine, the other at ten, and they expected that children and adults would attend both! Imagine -- a two hour block devoted to learning about and worshipping God! But not us, not here! We've put it all together in one convenient package. Something for everyone in one quick hour.
What would happen if we had Sunday School at nine and worship at 10:30....other than someone might go looking for a church that made it more convenient? For one thing, we might have an easier time finding teachers, because now they wouldn't have to miss worship and seeing their friends. For another, we might be able to break the faulty assumption that learning is for kids and worshipping is for adults. We teach kids, not in words, but by our format, that the worship of God is not for them, that they are welcome for a few minutes to sing a song if they are quiet, and then it's conveniently outta here. When they turn 16 or 17 or 18, we expect that they will now become part of the worshipping community, instantly knowing all the hymns and rituals, knowing how to listen to a sermon, entering into the "holy mysteries" in proper awe and reverence. But they've generally been excluded from that part the church, and they are more used to MTV, and so they find spiritual fulfillment at a more convenient or congenial place, if at all.
And what about adults, most of whom were raised in a time when church going was what you did, but are not as addicted to convenience as the kids? If they have learned anything, it is that they don't have to learn anything. Sunday School -- education -- is for kids. And so biblical illiteracy is very high, and a serious grappling with the scriptures for anything more than personal inspiration is rare. And when our fundamentalist neighbors (or children!) challenge us with their doctrines and dogmatic views of faith and life, we don't really know how to answer. We've been nourished on fast food....quick, easy, non-demanding, but not really the nourishing kind of food that will produce a strong, healthy, growing, active body of Christ.
I am convinced that children belong in worship, from a very early age. They need to know the "worship culture" (and their presence may force a change in the worship culture). They need to grow up singing the hymns, saying the prayers, confessing their sins and being forgiven. They need to learn about giving and sacrifice and service, so that they are not expected to make an unnatural shift when they suddenly become adults.
And I am equally convinced that adults need ways to keep their understanding of the faith growing and alive -- in ways far beyond what we can do in a 15 or 20 minute sermon. It would mean change. It might even mean inconvenience. But then no religion worth its name is ever convenient!
I think of orthodox Jews, who keep their faith by eating kosher food and following certain rules. I think of Muslims who must drop whatever they are doing five times a day and face Mecca and pray, and who just concluded the holy month of Ramadan, during which they ate no food during daylight hours, and practiced special devotions each night. I think of those members of Peace Churches like the Quakers and Moravians whose convictions often put them at odds with the culture. Mormons require each male who turns 18 to go on a two-year mission -- not the most convenient thing for a person on the edge of adulthood with so many possibilities in front of them. Jehovah's Witnesses require door-to-door evangelism -- and yes, they are pesky and interrupt our doings and never come at convenient times -- but they should at least make us think, even though we may not agree with what they are trying to tell us.
None of these are convenient forms of faith; but then any religion worthy of the name is never supposed to be convenient. Remember those great heroes of our faith? Noah was doing just fine till God called and said, build an ark. Amos was just minding his own business as a tree doctor when God called and said, "Go preach!"
Even Jesus must have had some misgivings about what God wanted him to do -- how else can we read the Temptation accounts? And when he called the disciples -- Peter, James, John, Mary Magdalene, and all the rest -- he interrupted their normal lives, which caused them a great deal of inconvenience. "We have left everything to follow you," they said, and they had!
Paul was struck down by a blinding light which sent his life off in another, totally inconvenient direction, which often as not got him into trouble. He was later to write those words which were our scripture lesson today, words which urged the church in Corinth to not think of bread and wine as fast food: "when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If you are hungry, eat at home..."
We come now to partake of a meal of non-fast food that has long been in preparation -- some would say two thousand years worth. And we participate in that preparation through the liturgy, the recalling of God's gracious acts, the singing and the praying that set the stage and set the table. We come prepared in heart and mind and spirit, taking the time to get ready, a small inconvenience when you consider what Jesus went through to make this meal possible! Or, to paraphrase the late Orson Wells, at this Table, "we will serve no wine before its time!"
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