Sermon – Rev. Whitney Bruno for LCPC – May 23, 2021 – Pentecost 2021 – Acts 2: 1-21, Romans 8: 22-27
“All Creation Sings”
The CBC, March 10th, 2019 – a year before Covid-19 hit – published this headline: “From sacred to secular: Canada set to lose 9,000 churches, warns national heritage group” The author, Bonnie Allen, writes, “A national charity that works to save old buildings estimates that 9,000 religious spaces in Canada will be lost in the next decade, roughly a third of all faith-owned buildings in the country.
National Trust for Canada regeneration project leader Robert Pajot says every community in the country is going to see old church buildings shuttered, sold off or demolished… In rural areas, congregations are shrinking as members age or move away. In cities, the increasing secularization of society coupled with new spiritual practices has cut into traditional Christian church attendance. Even rising immigration hasn’t been enough to offset the trend. With fewer people in the pews, and less money in the coffers, rising maintenance costs on old buildings have overwhelmed many congregations.”
It’s like… hymns dying off. Silencing. Empty, echoing halls.
“Is Canada Losing Its Religion?” Asks Dr. Phil Zuckerman in Psychology Today. We are witnessing the “Secularization in the Great White North… In the 1960s, 50 percent of Canadians reported attending church on a weekly basis; by 2015, that was down to 10 percent.
• In 1971, only 4 percent of Canadians said that they had no religion, but today, that is up to 29 percent.
• In 2000, 70 percent of Canadians said that their religious beliefs were important to them; today, just under 50 percent say as much.
• In 2005, 81 percent of Canadians believed in God; that number had dropped down to 65 percent in 2016.
• Today, 64 percent of Canadians now agree that religion plays a less important role in society than it did twenty years ago; 67 percent of Canadians also now agree that it is not necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values; half of all Canadians today seldom or never go to church.
• Nearly 50 percent of those living in the province of British Columbia, nearly 40 percent of those living in the province of Quebec, and 35 percent of those living in the province of Alberta say that they “prefer to live life without God or congregation.” Such high rates of secularity are historically unprecedented.”
Again, these were the numbers before covid-19. During Covid-19, last year: “The Anglican Church of Canada heard a report recently that must have taken away its collective breath. The November report predicted there will be no “members, attenders or givers” belonging to that denomination by 2040.
The numbers may have been a shock, but those studying Anglican demographics (and those of the United Church of Canada) have seen this coming for a while now.” Writes John Stackhouse for Faith Today.
I don’t have to stand here and tell you these facts. You know them. You live them. In one generation, from 1950 to now, our churches seem to have collapsed and are closing.
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But history is weird like that. A few generations before the 1950s, most of these churches were not built. They were an answer to European immigrants who liked gathering in person, once a week, on a scheduled day and hour, in a single place for worship and fellowship. They were spaces designed for conformity, and political and ethnic identity. A place to sing in native English or Swedish or French. A place to not feel alone.
In the 70 years since 1950, the world has radically changed. In some ways, it has grown smaller so that this village and that village are no longer a week apart and only seeing each other on Sunday… now we literally meet one another in each other’s living rooms and bedrooms simultaneously any time we want through Facebook and Zoom.
My daughter is 850 kilometers from her teacher – and sees her and attends class 5 days a week.
I am 8500 kilometers from one of my closest friends – and speak with her daily.
Church no longer is the only place for people to meet and speak.
That means… church is only where one goes if you want to be in worship of God. But what if worship of God in the 1950s style just… doesn’t speak to your heart? What if you feel you’re worshipping God through hands-on service, or a walk in the woods, or an altar at home, or attending a protest? Why would you go to the church building?
The Protestant Reformation insisted on education and the printing press so that we could be a priesthood of all believers. Each and every person could own a Bible, and be able to read it, and live out their faith without any priest but themselves.
We have reached that point.
Traditional churches; traditional pastors; traditional methods are no longer relevant but to the generation passing who remembers the 1950s.
God is doing a new thing.
And that’s why all these articles on the “death of the Church,” or the statement “God is dead” or the “End of Christianity” don’t scare me out of massive theological school debt, or this career, or this calling to be a pastor of the Christian church.
God doesn’t pour new wine into old wineskins. That would burst open the old wineskin. They’re not able to stretch and grow. Instead, God makes something new.
Church as we have known it over the last 300 years is dying and unable to contain the new wine.
And here – here! In this generation that lives now – we are seeing the birth of this new thing God is doing! The birth of a new style of church.
We are so fortunate to be here at the cusp of where what church has been for centuries is going to its well deserved and earned rest, and the new church is being born.
News articles and the media forget that this is not the first time the church that is has ceased and a new style has come forth. About every 300 years this happens. Nor will what we midwife into the world be the last form of church. God shall yet breathe, speak, sing again and a new form shall arise again – likely in 300 or so years from now.
We are like the disciples who saw Jesus ascend to heaven, and then received with a wild roaring wind and scary, uncontrollable inferno flames new visions, new languages, new songs, new ways of being the Body of Christ on Earth. Stunned, they witnessed their faith move to non-Jewish people and from synagogue to homes.
300 years later, we are like the early church fathers and mothers who struggled to understand Christianity no longer as a minor sect of Judaism, but the adopted religion of THE Emperor of Rome. No longer is this a movement among Judaism – this is when The Christian Church emerged with an official creed.
About 300 years after that… the prophet Mohammed receives new revelations to share with humanity. The People of the Book – Jews, Christians, and Muslims – now are in dialogue and unity; and also in conflict and war.
300 years after that… the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope of Rome split – the Great Schism divided the church into two denominations for the first time since it was unified 600 years before. We are like our church mothers and fathers who witnessed the birth of two churches and had no idea what would occur from this. We, and they, wonder what God is up to bringing forth different styles and manners of worship.
300 years after that – I am ashamed to say the Western Church attacked and took Constantinople from the Eastern Church. The Western Church went on an offense to take Jerusalem from all other faiths. Islam took the chance to take out most of the Eastern church lands – now so weakened by the Western church – and the crusades and slaughter raged. It will not be until 2004 – 800 some years later – that the Western church shall apologize and the Eastern church agree to begin reconciling. We are yet to make amends with our Jewish and Muslim family.
300 years after this, Zwingli and Luther and Calvin heard in our sacred text a challenge to the faith they inherited and new ways of being the church filled their heads. How drunk and foolish they seemed! But what dreamers!
300 years later and science is reborn in the West out of the ancient writings of Muslims in the East. Science seems to take the place of religion – explaining superstitions and questioning our place in the world, in creation, and our relationship with God. We realize we are *not* the center of the universe… The Spirit, God’s Wisdom, points out we have thought way too much of ourselves. God has made so, so much more. Creation sings! We begin to hear! And take a place more humble among the cosmos.
And three hundred years after that… the 1800s most of our churches were built. We were alive with the Spirit translating Scripture into every language we could find. Oh still we carried the sin of colonialism and empire. The church is made of people – and people are perfecting love but not all loving.
And now – now – getting close to 300 years later – we see the sins of the past. The sins of making faith oppressive. We see the sins of self-focused faith. And we enter a time of contraction. Shrinking. Dying. And in dying to selfishness we rise in Christ-centeredness. In dying to exclusion and suppression, destruction and demands of conformity we rise to inclusion, fighting for the enslaved, rise in creativity and diversity.
Church as our ancestors knew it was never the same again after these major movements.
Church as we know it will never be the same again.
Something new is happening.
And praise God for that!
Once we needed our spaces for that weekly reunion, that weekly affirmation of our identities, our weekly time of attending to our community. Now we do not.
And God has noticed! And now does a new thing!
New things – inspiring new theologies out of South America on how to dismantle all systems that oppress … including our own churches when they do so.
New things – giving us the connection through the internet to share languages, videos, prayers, homes, and cultures regardless of distance. Do you want to understand your Sikh brothers and sisters? Now you can find one to speak with and dialogue! Do you want to see how God is active in central Africa? Go and look online! Do you want to help the Palestinian Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Israeli Apartheid? Here are ways you can help available at your fingertips.
God is doing new things – and showing us that the Church – big capital C there, the universal Church – has left the building.
I am excited for this new chapter! When the disciples left the building they stood before astonished crowds who heard in their own languages what love God has for them. The Holy Spirit of God has poured on all of us – old and young, male and female, free and enslaved – and given us the power to proclaim LOVE LOVE LOVE. Love in sighs too deep for words. Love in bold ways that make people think we’re drunk. Love in action and deeds, prayers and words, love as a way of living our lives.
For awhile, we got comfortable thinking our sacred space – the space we set aside – is the church. But WE are the Church. And God is reminding us. Our sacred space ought to be that – a space we set aside for doing the work of God. And in doing the work, we are the Church – wherever we wander and to whichever building the Spirit blows us. We are to protect the environment, care for the poor. We are to forgive often and reject racism. We are to fight for the powerless and share our earthly and spiritual resources. We are to embrace diversity. Love God. Enjoy this life. We are to practice what we preach in how we live, and die, and rise again!
What does all of this look like in practice? The early churches were private homes where people brought food and shared it with all who are hungry. A place where a person could get a cup of fresh water and a cloak. A refuge in a world that was concerned about tit for tat and economy.
In practice, we are a place where people bring goods and donate them for others to use. We give space to the Good Food Bank so all may eat. Before Covid-19, we were where people could gather for community and socialization with our open mics and pop up markets.
We are the Church. And our beautiful building lets us live out the call the Spirit has on us. Who knows how else we shall change to be a center of community and fellowship! Who knows what other languages the Spirit shall teach us so we can preach and do and be God’s love to all! Who knows who the Spirit shall bring to us with a prophetic voice and new ideas! All creation sings with the Spirit and we, part of this marvelous tapestry, are honored to join into the new song!
This Pentecost – rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! The Spirit dances among us. Brings forth new life, new dreams, and new ways of love. We might look ridiculous, but that’s just the Spirit bringing forth the new beginning the world has just barely begun to imagine.
Praise God! Amen!
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 