Annual Conference 1998 Saturday evening, July 4, 1998 Orlando, Florida Preacher: Donna Forbes Steiner Sermon title: "Faithful people with a heart for worship" Scripture text: Hebrews 11:20-22 Romans 15:1-13 Greetings! Journey with me eight hours east over the Atlantic Ocean through Amsterdam and another eight hours south over the Sahara Desert to Nigeria in West Africa. Not exactly the first travel option one chooses from the excursion brochure rack, yet this trip was a reminiscent or dream trip for most anticipating the Diamond Jubilee Celebration in March. Indeed it was a trip of promise and hope. The spirit of the congregations within EYN (Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa A Nigeria) is effervescent and contagious. The increase in worship attendance in sixteen years from 40,000 to 240,000 is staggering. But the warm and genuine welcome showered on each of us was overwhelming. Quickly we were included and made a part of each fellowship. The faithfulness of their living was evident as they sang and entertained us; as they joyfully fed us the fruit of their crops and labors. Within them and their Christian attitude is hope - reflecting great appreciation for missionaries of the past and promise not only in numbers but in the leadership of the people and the beauty and depth of their spirituality. There is hope. "Ubangiji yana chikin haikalinsa mai-tsarki; bari dukan duniya ta yi shuru a gabansa." "The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." These words from Habakkuk 2:20, in both Hausa and English, are displayed in most Nigerian churches for all who enter to observe. And for us gathered in this place there is promise and hope. This Convention Center becomes a place of worship because the faithful are gathered. It is a place of worship because it is in the world - because it is of the world - because it is the world. God is here! Marva Dawn confesses her "need[ing] worship to put me in my place under the one and only Messiah...." Walter Brueggemann makes clear as he writes Israel's Praise, the worship of God's people is praise, not only toward God, but also against the gods. In all we are part of the larger plan of God. The Nigerians have a wonderful sense of welcoming. That sense is the mutual welcoming Paul speaks about to the Romans. No one is excluded. At each church where we gathered to worship there was genuine welcoming to each of us as outsiders. Among them there is total inclusion of each one in their community. The nature of God's love is inclusion of all persons. No area, no people, no group is separated from God's mercy. Whatever or whomever contributes to excluding another from the Christian community works at cross-purposes with God's redemptive intention. Two persons in our recent denominational heritage have left us a powerful legacy: Remember Mattie Cunningham Dolby in the early 20th Century? She is the first woman to appear on the Brethren ministerial list. Even though needing to travel some distance she had become committed to leadership in a Brethren congregation in Ohio. Another minister who was in charge encouraged her and her husband to "find another church closer to home," effectively dismissing them. Accepted by the Methodist Church and the Church of God she later ministered effectively among both these denominations. Would most of us be any more welcoming to her nearly 100 years later? Remember William Hayes? Pastor of Baltimore's inner city church he ministered to both black and whites, he was the denomination's first - and only - black moderator. A community and denominational leader he "was critical of the slow pace of the integration of minorities as full participants in the life of the church." We loved him for his adept ear, patient listening, and his cryptic challenge. But how slow we have been to act and change! Christ is for everyone and all persons. Can we trust God and in that trust welcome others? Paul keeps reminding us of this mutual welcoming. The Nigerian spirit of worship carries into their daily life. The sharing of food, the gift of music, the joy of conversation, the caring of children and of each other. Indeed, our Christian faith requires a different response in living our daily lives. Discussing the relationship between worship and ethics Marva Dawn and her professor probed the differing emphasis on spirituality and social action. The professor laughed, "There is no difference between worship and life." Both are the same thing -- fulfillment of Torah." The "theology of embrace" is the term Miroslav Volf uses to describe a framework for mediating the conflicts among ethnic and religious groups in the Balkans. The act of embracing involves two movements. One movement creates "space in myself for the other". A second movement communicates that I do not want to be without the other in her or his otherness. To embrace others suggests that we cannot "live authentically without welcoming others. -- the other gender, other persons, or other cultures" -- into the very structure of our being and faith. How do we offer a mutual welcoming and bring about healing and hope? Can we practice embracing different peoples in the faith community that seek to be close to others without losing the integrity of their own identities? Race relations is no longer a black and white issue. It is even more convoluted than when Bill Hayes tried to make us act on our words. Today we are required to embrace the many shades of multiculturalism. The Other Side magazine reports that "more than 1/3 of New York City's current residents are immigrants." Embracing and welcoming one another affirms all persons as God's people who need freedom to pursue a spiritual journey. All are called and invited to be present to claim God's love. All are free to accept Christ's reconciling grace. Embracing diversity requires the explicit commitment to becoming a new kind of community. A faith community that celebrates the gifts of diversity in the ways the group worships God and serves its neighbors. Intersections of faith and diversity occur with our lives. Church of the Brethren Youth Services in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, makes that connection. Their programs ignite a "spark" in the lives and relationships of parents, children, youth, families and communities. Robin Granzow, program coordinator, responds to the "'spark' in the eyes of children who have been carrying the burden of believing they were the cause of their parents divorce. "Or in the heart of a child who believes their parent doesn't love them anymore. To have their eyes opened to other possibilities has given hope to the hopeless." Returning from a meeting I scurried down the air terminal toward baggage claim. As usual I hoped to catch the next shuttle to the parking lot and beat rush hour traffic. On my approach to the escalator two young men were ahead of me - one slight of body, crippled of all four limbs and limited in his walk waiting at the side; the other moving ahead of me was tall, dark (and yes, handsome) strapping and strong of stature. Hesitating at the side the slight man looked the other in the eye and asked simply, "'Scuse me, will you help me on?" "Yes, and there's an elevator if that's better," was the response. Without missing a step they were on the escalator ahead of me. On the way down I touched the man's shoulder and softly said, "That was a neat way to help." Looking me in the eye he said, "It would be good if we did it more often." At the bottom of the escalator all three of us were off in our own directions. A simple gesture with no need to inquire of his pedigree of faith. No one lost a minute, but it was a moment of hope. Anne Frank said, "How wonderful it is that nobody need to wait a single minute before starting to improve the world." There once were a man and a woman who lived in a tree. They liked living in this tree, in spite of the obvious restrictions. In the tree they found shelter, a view of the world, fruit for food, and even branches to climb for exercise. Friends and family came to visit them in the tree. The fruit of the tree was exchanged for other needed goods. There came time, however, when their children announced that they wanted to leave the tree. One son said that he wanted to see the world -- the mountains and lakes, the cities and faraway regions. The parents said they too longed to do this, but could not bring themselves to leave the tree. So the son left his parents in the tree. The other child said she, too, wished to leave, since she found life in this tree quite restrictive. The parents could not understand this, and asked if she simply wanted to have her own tree. The daughter said yes, that was the basic reason for leaving. As years passed the parents fond fewer and fewer people visiting them in their tree. They devised ways to try to bring people to their tree: They held certain festivals where they gave away the fruit of the tree. This worked for short periods of time, but other times it was very lonely. So they tried to make their friends feel guilty about not visiting them in the tree. This only caused people to stay away. Then they thought they would threaten people: They would throw branches down on people if they did not come to their tree. But this was not successful, since people only walked wider circles around the tree. Life became more and more frustrating, as they could not meet their needs nor could they spend much time with other people. So their life came to a close. They tried every manner of strategy to solve their needs, except for one: it never occurred to them to come down from the tree. We Christians and members of congregations have acted much the same way. Leander Keck in The Church Confident indicates churches have acted "like inheritors of an estate who camped in the yard because they neither knew nor cared how to live in the house." In some ways we have forgotten how to behave in God's house so try an alternative. Or we are so distracted from knowing the real God we worship that we forget how to worship God in any place. What entices us before God in worship? For one - the rural meeting house tradition, for another - worship in a formal city church; the memory of being baptized in the river, for another in a concrete tank; some remember the heritage of the Eder River, others the Tamarind Tree, still others a vesper hill at camp. In each is a little hope, a little faith, over here a word of witness, somewhere else a song. That's all. Somebody's here with other things on their mind, someone else with a confession to whisper, someone else nearly bursting with some good news, and everyone with the dust of the world on their feet. Then worship begins. What is certain is that those who come together for worship with a little of this and a handful of that will leave having participated in the feeding of a multitude. Worship is shallow if it does not launch us into life - into the world for the world. Only as worship is available to all God's children. Only as worship becomes life-giving work in the world can we know the fullness of Christ. Only as we welcome all persons can we rejoice and fully worship. "The root of Jesse shall come....in [Christ} the Gentiles shall hope." So Jacob, his life ebbing away, reverently "bowed over the top of his staff" and blessed his grandsons, the sons of Joseph. As for Joseph, facing his own death, he looked out toward the horizon of God's future with eyes of faith. Like Israel, we yearn for an end to evil and hope for peace. Like those who heard Isaiah speak these words, we rejoice in the hope they provide. In the midst of diversity a peaceful response and maturity of faith can make hope real. The Rev. Dr. Musa Mambula addressed the Jubilee Celebration ending his comments with these words: "This success story of the EYN is not without challenges or frustrations,...but our Lord who has given us the vision has also given us the strength, ability and inspiration to face them all. And sure enough, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord Almighty that these mountains of challenges shall be removed in Jesus name. Amen." Ubangiji yana chikin haikalinsa mai-tsarki...! With a heart open to mutual welcoming, we, too, can worship, live glimpsing the promised land - and hope!