March 28, 2004
By Jack Price

There was great joy in watching the Crossroads Church production of Godspell.  There was ever greater joy being part of the cast and crew.  The relational dynamics in such a group create an unusual kind of community.  Anthropologist Victor Turner calls this “anti-structure.”  It refers to the unusual community that often forms in the process of a dramatic performance or on an athletic team, in which relationships grow across the usual boundaries of age, race, gender, philosophy, theology, politics, nationality, and even language.  Differences are subordinated to the group’s higher goal.

Anti-structure community reflects the dynamics of a church’s community.  We are examples of an unusual community because we have been called together by Christ.  Consider why you came.  Many of you came to Crossroads originally for fear of being left behind or left out or fear of losing significant relationships during the split out of which Crossroads was formed.  You may have chosen to come in reaction to what seemed a volatile or distasteful situation.  Perhaps you felt you had no place else to go.  Those who have found Crossroads subsequently have come because you found something unique here.  Perhaps this was a particular sense of the Spirit’s presence that seemed real to you.

Crossroads community is an example of anthropological anti-structure.  Some of our friendships would have formed outside the “church setting,” but many would not have.  Christ calls us to be community, regardless of the circumstances that have led us here.

Our reason to be together is not primarily to enjoy each other’s company, even though fellowship, friendship, and mutual support are very important.  Our reason to be community here is not primary to have a good time, even though joy in worship and our shared life is vital.  We are not called primarily to build an institution, though our congregation’s continued ministry may well depend on our choices regarding institutional growth, financial stewardship, and purchasing a church house.  Our primary task is to take up Jesus’ banner of reconciling ministry, to be agents of sharing the good news, to foster openness to God’s Spirit, and to help in God’s work of transforming the world.

Today’s Gospel Lesson (John 12: 1-8) reveals a slice of Jesus’ community.  That group reflects many of the same factors.  Some of them were friends before they met Jesus.  Many were not.  They included a mixture of men and women, and were people from many different backgrounds.  Most of them were poor.  Perhaps that is why they were available to follow Jesus, unencumbered by the commitments inherent in climbing the social and economic ladder. 

There was an outer circle of learned men who followed Jesus.  Pharisees always seemed to be around – some seeking to trap Jesus while others apparently wanted to learn from Jesus’ wisdom. 

The immediate community of this passage includes three of Jesus’ closest friends.  There is Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead in the preceding chapter.  He is sitting at table with Jesus.  Martha, Lazarus’ sister, is waiting on the guests.  His other sister Mary is not waiting on them.  Instead, she manages to choose her own distinctive way of relating to Jesus.  She buys expensive perfume, bathes his feet with it, and dries them with her hair.  The perfume is valued at 300 denari, a full year’s wage for a laborer.  For us today, that might be about $25-$50,000.  It is a pretty extravagant bath!

Judas Iscariot is there as well.  He is one of the 12 and his named literally means “Jewish.”  Some scholars see him as symbolic of the Jewish that, by rejecting Jesus, betrayed him.  Judas is the treasurer of the disciples, though the writer of John’s gospel calls him a thief and embezzler, in addition to a betrayer.  His past behavior betrays what seems to be his concern for the poor.

Jesus is present and, in response to Judas, says, “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”  He is not questioning ministry to the poor.  The evidence of his life and his teaching deny that accusation.  In fact, these words emphasize that the time for ministry and concern for the poor is all the time, not just when it is convenient for you or when your energy is up.  “The poor are always with you!”  But, there is also an appropriate time for extravagant worship and for expressions of opulent love that make no economic sense.  Valentine’s Day is a time for gifts of extravagant love and flowers are appropriate on any occasion.

What can we learn from seeing this “slice” of Jesus’ community?  Perhaps we can find an example to follow.  One can make such a case for Martha who is hard at work doing her job.  Also, there is a case for Lazarus, who is basking in the glow of being healed by Jesus.  There is an especially strong case for Mary in her courageous worship and witness.  But, given choice, most of us would rather be like Jesus.  Gordon Cosby is the founding pastor of a groundbreaking and innovative church, the DC-based Church of the Savior.  It is a wonderful model for Christian communities such as Crossroads.  He writes,

There are those who try to be like Jesus….  But we are never to imitate him in the sense of becoming a copy of another person, not even Christ….  What is really involved in being a Christian is far more difficult and exciting and frightening.  It is to let Jesus Christ actually be within us and resuscitate within us all those wild hopes the world has taught us to distrust….  It is to let him revive those great expectations that quietly disappeared when I learned to be ‘realistic’ about my limitations.  It is the let the very word of God in Jesus Christ call to life the dead within me.  It is to let him call me into being.  (from Handbook for Mission Groups)

            What can we learn about our own journey, then, and that of our community?  The Community of Christ, however it is expressed, is always about resurrection.  Christ is calling new life forth in us.  So, how does new life happen for us?  New life is God’s gift and it comes to us as we offer ourselves to be Jesus’ disciples – individually and corporately.  The path of discipleship is actually two spiritual paths that are taken simultaneously – the journey inward and the journey outward.  Elizabeth O’Conner, poet laureate of the Church of the Savior, literally wrote the book (Journey Inward, Journey Outward).  She is our guide to

understanding and participating in this journey of the Spirit.

What is the journey inward?  Matthew 16: 26 (NEB) -- “What will a man gain by winning the whole world, at the cost of his true self.”  It is a journey of the true self.  Matthew 7: 13-14  -- “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.  For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

There are engagements on the journey inward.  First, there is engagement with yourself – your “self.”  We move toward experiencing our authentic self and begin to pay attention to our own growth & development.  For example, we come to recognize that what we dislike in others is often what we struggle with in ourselves, and our feelings of unrest may well be places of growth. 

On the journey inward, we discover an enfleshed theology that is open to God’s living Spirit.  Our second engagement, then, is with God.  The effort to balance these two engagements, self and God, pulls us toward prayer – the whole of life moves toward becoming prayer without ceasing.  We cannot know God without knowing self and we cannot know self without seeking to know God.  O’Connor writes,

“This God with whom we will be engaged for the rest of our days comes to us across a great distance, and at the same time is the divine force at the core of our own lives.  He is a God whom we will know in many ways, but one of the primary ways is prayer grounded in scripture.  As people on our inward-outward journey, we are committed to take whatever time is needed to develop our interior life – a life of prayer, …to settle into the silence that is always there.  We will take the time to be with God in the quiet places of our spirit, so that we can come to know a different quality of life.” (Journey Inward, Journey Outward, p. 17)

The third engagement on this journey is with others in community, an engagement that is characterized by commitment to each other.  This can be challenging in a community of congregational anthropological anti-structure!  But Christ calls us into community.  In Christ, we can learn to trust the honesty, accountability, and support of Christians.  Perhaps the most important gift in community is the ability to speak the truth in love.

Journey inward has a corresponding journey outward.  O’Connor writes, “The inner life is not nurtured in order to hug to oneself some secret gain.  It is not important in the end that in the quiet of a morning hour we find in ourselves a dwelling place, unless in the midst of [living] we can get back to it, and what is spoken there and what we become for being there comes to have its influence on the world outside ourselves.” (p. 28)

Giftedness and energy discovered on the journey outward allow us to let go of lesser goods and invest in ourselves.  We can invest in life on the basis of our authentic selves and we are able to receive the gifts of discipline and accountability.

“The outward journey is determined in part by the gifts discovered in the inward journey” (p. 33).  We learn to “hear” God’s call as we begin to pay attention to what’s going on inside ourselves (energy) and what God is leading us to do (discernment).  We can become aware of possibilities and choices, and of the reason for our choices.  Faith enables us to trust one step at a time.

Never sacrifice the outward journey to the inward and never sacrifice the inward journey to the outward.  The ultimate goal is transformation – ourselves first, then our world.  The structure for holding these two journey’s in tension is the small group.  As a result of the support, discernment, and accountability of a small group, we can take serious the application of faith in daily living.  We commit ourselves to social and prophetic action.  We reflect prayerfully on vocational choices and the stewardship of our lives and possessions.  In small group, we continually face the ongoing question:  “Am I using my gifts?”

O’Connor writes, “The discovery of the real self is the way to the treasure hidden in a field.  The gift a person brings to another is the gift of [your] self (p. 38).  This sermon ends with an invitation -- to take journey inward and the journey outward.  It is an invitation with four facets:

You are invited and encouraged to:

1.      be in small group that has commitment to inward-outward journey or to transform your existing small group to take seriously this dual journey

2.      take on a spiritual discipline as a lifestyle (within context of a small group or with spiritual guide)

3.      examine your vocation examination (not just what you do for money, but the primary focus of your passion in life) – “Am I using my gifts?”

4.      be engaged in ministry and social involvement (what is God leading you to do in terms reconciling ministry?).

On this journey, the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts and mind through Christ Jesus.