This Time Is a Gift

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 NRSV

We are moving to our third location in the last ten months since the flood destroyed our building downtown. We are very grateful for the hospitality we have received from the congregations of Lovely Lane and Echo Hill and now from Kenwood Park. For many of us it has been difficult losing our home. A United Methodist congregation without a building feels naked!

Still, this time is a gift from God. Moreover, it is a gift that very few congregations receive. We get to begin again. In so doing we have the opportunity to think about what it truly means for us to be the Church. Here are some things to consider.

Our 2008 Book of Discipline defines the local church: “The local church provides the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs. It is a community of true believers under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by persons divinely called and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christ’s own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, the church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers, and the redemption of the world” (¶ 201).

Stanley Hauerwas, a professor at Duke University, was named “America’s Best Theologian” by Time magazine. He says the Church is to be a community of character. One of his students, Rodney Clapp, summarized Hauerwas’ understanding of the church in an article: "Worshiping together and supporting one another in community, Christians are a sign to the world. Sustained by the miracle of the Holy Spirit, the church is a palpable presence proving, by its existence and unique character, that the way of the world is not the only way—and certainly not the true way—to live" (Christianity Today, September 5, 1986):

We do not want to squander this gift of beginning again. I hope we will think seriously about what it means for us to be the Church.

Here are some questions worth struggling with as we move forward. What does it mean for us to be a holy people – God’s people! – who love God and neighbor and bear witness to Jesus in the world? What does it mean for us to live together in a way that inhabits the world of the Bible (rather than trying to make the Bible fit into my world). What does it mean for us to be a worshiping congregation of praise and thanksgiving? What does it mean for us to be a community of truth, challenging the reigning plausibility structure in the world? What does it mean for us to exist for the world rather than for ourselves? What does it mean for us to be God’s embassy in Cedar Rapids? What does it mean for us to prepare the members of Salem to use their spiritual gifts in service to the world in their public lives? What does it mean for us to live in deep relationship with one another? (I have drawn most of these questions from Lesslie Newbigin. He identifies characteristics of the Christian community in his book, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society.)

Beginning again, we can re-start Salem in a new way. At the same time we can think about what we want to carry forward from the past. There is certainly treasure in Salem’s tradition. Likewise, there may be some things we want to leave in the past. It depends on how we answer the question, what does it mean for us to be the Church in this time and place? Thank God for the gift of this time.