Proper 18a
St. Alfred's Church
The Rev. Dale C. Hathaway
Sept. 9, 2023
Metaphor for Church
I remember a snippet from a sermon many years ago. I think it was probably in my teens. The preacher made reference to the way in which looking up at the roof of the church it looked like the ribbing of a ship. He said it's not by accident that that part of the church is called a nave. The nave of a church, from the Latin navis meaning "ship." We get our word navy.
Now of course Saint Alfred's doesn't have the appearance of a great sailing vessel of yesteryear, with planks and ribbing. You look up at our ceiling and it looks more like a bobbing teacup or some thing. In fact I guess looking up at the architecture in our church building it looks something like the basket that Moses was floating in down the Nile River. We heard that from the first chapter of Exodus two weeks ago.
Still, all in all, there you have it. The church is as if it was sailing on a journey – to somewhere.
Church on pilgrimage
On the website of the church of England there is a whole section set aside for experiencing the church on a journey from the richness of the past into the unknown riches of the future. 1 The website describes a new approach to catechism, teaching the way of the faith as a pilgrimage, being on a journey.
This new Pilgrim catechism – The Pilgrim Way – stands in this great tradition, consciously drawing on all that has gone before. It also offers something new for today’s generation of Christians, helping us to understand and live out our faith and identity as followers of Jesus Christ.
In the Catholic Church, over 50 years ago, Vatican II thought of the church as the light of the world. Christ the one lighting the way and the church as the Sacramental presence of Christ to the world.2 If the pilgrim people are to be the light of Christ showing the way forward, we must embrace, "The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of (all people)." 3 We the pilgrim people are to be Christ in the world, seeking the way forward into the future which we can only see dimly.
Models of the church
The church as a ship. The church as a pilgrim People. These are not the only metaphors that have been used through the ages. But for me, they are particularly powerful.
The church as a ship was first used in the first and second century in the catacombs. The drawings can be seen still. The church as the people of God is already in the New Testament as we have it.
The word church (ekklesia) appears only two times in the gospels, and we have heard one of those today. The only other use of the word in the gospels is also found in the gospel of Matthew, 2 chapters earlier. Today we hear of the pilgrim people down together, not as a gathering of individuals but as a living body. The earlier reference in Matthew refers to how the church this pilgrim people is in fact founded on a rock foundation.
The word ekklesia was in use centuries before the Christian church appeared on the scene. It referred to an ordinary gathering of citizens, called together to attend to the concerns of their city. In the time the Christian church was forming, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, (Septuagint), the word ekklesia was used to refer to the people of Israel gathered in sacred assembly.
In the acts of the apostles, the word church refers to the followers of the risen Lord, who are gathered in the different cities. The church in Jerusalem. The church in Antioch. And so on.
Paul refers to the church, as gathered in various places. The opening chapters of the revelation of John are addressed to churches in various places. But in every usage of the word in the New Testament, it refers to a gathering of people, not a building
For many of you that may be common place . But of course it doesn't fit our common usage of the word. For us, church is a building, and all the associated fixtures required to maintain a functioning building.
I had a bishop in Northern Indiana who had once been interned in a Japanese camp during World War II. His father was a missionary there as the war broke out and General MacArthur made his famous retreat. At the end of the war his family made its way to where my Bp. Gray's grandfather was then a bishop -- South Bend, IN. In 1945 the Cathedral church of the diocese was St. Paul's in Mishawaka. When I heard the newly elected grandson Bp. Gray tell this story at St. Paul's, Mishawaka, I happened to be living in the old rectory of that church. The grandson Bp. Gray said that when he, as a youngster walked through those doors, having traveled from the Philippines where the only church he had known was the one gathered around his father in an interment camp, -- he said when he walked through those doors of St. Paul's in 1945 it was the first time he experienced "church as a building". Before that, the only thing he had known was church as a gathered people.
Exodus
Our reading today from the book of Exodus continues the narrative from last week. Fr. Peter referred to the "Big Picture." Moses having a conversation with the living God, the creator of the universe. God commanding him to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground. God revealing God's name.
Like the core of the Earth itself, these passages feel like a burning core at the center of God's foundational work for the chosen pilgrim people. This week the narrative is advanced as God and Moses put the last pieces of the deliverance in place. It is the event of Passover that all future Passovers refer to. The people slaughter a lamb and the blood from that offering is spread on the lintel and on the gates of the peoples homes. In the very anthropomorphic imagery used by the text, God uses that blood to recognize the homes of his chosen people so that in his work of destroying the first born of Egypt he will be able to pass over the children of Israel. It is both graphic and vivid.
This is the event that gives its name both to the Jewish Passover and to the salvation offering by Jesus on the cross. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. As if in reenactment the roasted lamb meal is repeated at every Seder meal from time immemorial to the unknown generations of the future. So too the Eucharist is celebrated both to recall and to make present the salvation once offered to God's people and the goal of our pilgrimage. Observant Jews remind themselves each time they go in and out of their house where that mezuzzah is posted.
4 שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה׀ אֶחָֽד׃ 5 וְאָ֣הַבְתָּ֔ אֵ֖ת יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶֽךָ׃ 6 וְהָי֞וּ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֗לֶּה אֲשֶׁ֨ר אָנֹכִ֧י מְצַוְּךָ֛ הַיּ֖וֹם עַל־לְבָבֶֽךָ׃ 7 וְשִׁנַּנְתָּ֣ם לְבָנֶ֔יךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ֖ בָּ֑ם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֤ בְּבֵיתֶ֙ךָ֙ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ֣ בַדֶּ֔רֶךְ וּֽבְשָׁכְבְּךָ֖ וּבְקוּמֶֽךָ׃ 8 וּקְשַׁרְתָּ֥ם לְא֖וֹת עַל־יָדֶ֑ךָ וְהָי֥וּ לְטֹטָפֹ֖ת בֵּ֥ין עֵינֶֽיךָ׃ v'qesharthem l'voth al-yadeqa v'tayev l'totapheth beyev eyneyqa 9 וּכְתַבְתָּ֛ם עַל־מְזוּזֹ֥ת בֵּיתֶ֖ךָ וּבִשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ׃ ס vqethabethem al-mizuzoth beytheqa vbeshareyqa
*Hear, O Israel! The Eternal is our God, the Eternal alone. You shall love the Eternal your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.4
For generations, for centuries, Christians have celebrated the eucharist for every imaginable reason in order to make the reality of Christ our Passover present and real in the present day. ## Waking up
Today's readings are an opportunity for us to return at least for the moment to a more ancient understanding of the church. We are the pilgrim people who are gathered together on a journey, sailing in a ship, a nave. Our pilgrimage is not just for ourselves but for the whole world.
In an old saying that I've often repeated, "If that's true it's important."" Paul says it's ultimately important.
[It is] now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than whmakeen we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.
There is no time to lose. This is the Day the Lord has made. This is the Day the Lord has set before you. So now is the time to start rowing, sailing, walking, or just dreaming of the day to come.
https://www.churchofengland.org/our-faith/pilgrim-way/about-pilgrim-way↩
Lumen Gentium (light of the nations) "Christ is the Light of nations. Because this is so ... is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race...↩
Gaudium et spes (Joys and hopes)↩
Deuteronomy 6:4-9↩
