A sermon by Fr. Davenport ©
Church of the Ascension and S. Agnes, Washington, D.C.
24 February 2002
Genesis 12:1-8
Romans 4:1-5,13-17
John 3:1-17
'Renew a right spirit within me, O Lord.' (Ps 51)
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Like Adam, the men of Babel wanted to be like God. Instead of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they tried to build a tower to heaven. They wanted to make themselves inhabitants of heaven. They sought power, fortune, fame, and security of their own making. God responded to their pride and presumption by scattering them all over the face of the earth and by confusing human language. A single language promotes unity, giving men common cause and identity. The emergence of many languages divided humanity. It is the beginning of competing tribes and peoples and nations. The story of the tower of Babel is in chapter 11 of Genesis. Following this scene of division and confusion and chaos, chapter 12 opens with God's call to Abram. God orders Abraham to leave his father and his home and to go to a new land, and God promises Abraham that he will be the father of a great people, of a great nation. "I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: . . . and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Gen 12:2,3) In other words, through Abraham God is working to undo the mess of Babel and to renew all of mankind; through Abraham God will establish harmony and unite mankind. God has chosen Abraham, and his descendants, Israel, to play a decisive role in the salvation of humanity. Abraham faithfully, obediently responds to God's call. Throughout his life, Abraham built altars and offered sacrifices to God. He gave a tithe to Melchizedek, the royal priest of Jerusalem. He pleaded for God to spare the just men of Sodom. He prayed to God. He patiently waited upon God when it seemed impossible for God to fulfill his promises. Even when he and his wife, Sarah, are quite old and without children, when he is wondering how God would fulfill his promise to give him an heir, Abraham remained steadfast and faithful to God. He was positive and optimistic when most would not have been. Abraham believed God. He trusted him completely.
In today's epistle, S. Paul commends Abraham's faith to us and argues that Abraham's faith is a type of Christian faith. Abraham is 'the father of us all,' the father of Jew and gentile, because we believe in a God who gives life to the dead, and calls into existence the things that do not exist. We have confidence in things not seen. Christians have this faith because Jesus rose from the dead. In Christ, God invites all people to share the great gift of Abraham's faith. In this way, God seeks to renew and reunite all of humanity. God intends to use the Church, the body of Christ, to heal all the divisions of humanity. God calls the Church to this cause. Just as God called and chose Abraham, just as Jesus called and chose the Apostles, so at our baptism God calls and chooses each one of us to help reunite humanity by helping the Church to grow. Through twenty centuries the Church has diligently and faithfully responded to her call. Even in the 20th century, her gains were amazing. "There were fewer than 10 million Christians in Africa in 1900; by 2000 there were more than 360 million." (1) The Church is also rapidly expanding in Asia. So in the big picture, the Church is growing and working to unite all creation, thereby reversing Babel. Like Abraham, she is being faithful to her call.
Her progress, however, is uneven, and she is always encountering new obstacles. In the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Toby Lester has a good article about the religious scene as we begin a new century. In recent centuries the assumption has been that as the world becomes more 'advanced,' "that last, vexing sphere of irrationality in human [culture, religion, will inevitably diminish]. Inconveniently, however, [Lester shows that] the world today is as awash in religious novelty, flux, and dynamism as it has ever been." The editors of World Christian Encyclopedia have identified nine thousand nine hundred distinct religions, and that number is growing by two or three a day. "New religious movements are not just a curiosity." (2) They are a serious force that leads to Babel, that confuses humanity, that challenges the Church. We are fools to dismiss these new religious movements merely as cults and weirdos. In China there may be as many as 30 million adherents to Falun Gong. There are tens of millions of people in schismatic Muslim groups. There are millions and millions of Christian Scientists, Seventh Day Adventists, Scientologists, Wiccans, and Jehovah's Witnesses. There are over ten million Mormons, and over five million live in this country, more than double the number of Episcopalians. There are about the same number of Buddhists in the United States as Episcopalians. The Mormons and the Buddhists, however, are growing much faster.
How do we respond to this? Well, a popular way, especially for Anglo-Catholics, is to heap abuse on the Episcopal Church for her flights of fancy, for her lapses in regard of the catholic faith, but that is a pathetic cop-out. If it were true, Anglo-Catholic parishes should be bursting. There are two ways we should respond. First, everyone of us needs to accept some responsibility for the troubles of the Church. In Lent, we try to face our sins and deal with them. We are not more godly and holy than anyone else. The troubles of the Episcopal Church are our troubles. Let us repent and amend our ways. We have to have amendment of life. Second, we have to humble ourselves and learn from these new religious movements. We ought not to be surprised when Lester tells us that the people joining these new religious movements tend to be young, well educated, and relatively affluent. They also tend to have been born into an established religious order [like the Episcopal Church] but they profess a lack of religious belief prior to joining [their new movement]. They are drawn to new religious movements primarily for social reasons rather than theological ones - usually because of the participation of friends or family members. (3)
What that tells us is that the Church is doing a lousy job evangelising in the West. Cardinal Arinze, the Vatican's point man for ecumenical affairs, and on the short list to succeed the current Holy Father, commended these new religious movements for "the dynamism of their missionary drive, the evangelistic responsibility assigned to the new 'converts,' their use of the mass media, and their setting of the objectives to be attained. [These things] should make us ask ourselves questions as to how to make more dynamic the missionary activity of the Church." (4)
A lot of people say that Christianity is absurd, but as C. S. Lewis pointed out, if men do not believe in Christianity, they will believe in anything at all. When they ring on your doorbell, what are those neatly dressed nineteen year old Mormons telling you? In 1820 in Palmyra, New York, a teenage boy, Joseph Smith, bumped into an angel, Moroni, who gave the youth a set of six-by-eight inch gold plates, six inches thick. Inscribed in these plates, in so-called 'reformed Egyptian' text, translatable only by this rural lad, was the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon "tells of Jesus' appearance to believers in North America after his resurrection [and of his promise] to build the New Jerusalem here." (5) The Book of Mormon, the definitive revelation of God, "teaches that God and Jesus are separate, physical gods and that the Holy Ghost resides in each believer as his or her conscience. [It also] teaches that every faithful Mormon has the potential of becoming a god and creator of his own world." (6) While the Mormon authorities no longer support polygamy and racism, they still baptise the dead, have oaths of secrecy, and wear unusual underwear. The faith and practice of Mormonism is weirder, far, far more outlandish than the sacraments, the communion of saints, the Immaculate Conception, or any of the teachings and devotions of the Church. But Mormonism is growing, and growing very quickly, and its converts are not stupid, bizarre, inept, uneducated, credulous, anti-social people. Those nineteen year olds have some fire and courage and gumption, and we need some of that.
Rodney Stark, a professor who has studied these new religious movements extensively, explains that Mormonism is growing because their faith is part of their daily lives. Mormons "not only tithe money but also tithe time. They do an enormous amount of social services for one another, all of which builds community bonds. It also gives you this incredible sense of security - I'm going to be okay when I'm in a position of need; there are going to be people to look out for me." (7) They make close friendships and welcome new friendships. They create a sense of belonging. And here is the surprise, the beginning of conversion is forming relationships. Faith follows. Stark puts it this way:
What happens is that people form relationships and only then come to embrace a religion. It doesn't happen the other way around. That's really critical, and it's something that you can only learn by going out and watching people convert to new movements. We would never, ever, have figured that out in a library. You can never find that sort of thing out after the fact - because after the fact people do think it's about faith. (8)
Relationships are first, then theology follows. Christianity flourished in the Roman Empire because it "prompted and sustained attractive, liberating, and effective social relations." (9) That is what is happening in Africa now.
If the Church is going to grow, it has to be hospitable and warm and friendly. There should be joy and optimism. It must be obvious that the Church cares for people and welcomes people. When the unchurched and the lapsed form relationships with Christians, they can see how Christ has changed us. They can perceive the strength and meaning and well-being that the Church provides us. They can experience God's love through us. We might even tell them that the source of whatever strength we have is Christ. People want the good news that their lives are rich and meaningful, that they are loved, that life continues after death. We can tell them the Good News.
Lent is a time of renewal. This Lent as we fast and pray and give more of our time and money let us make evangelism our primary intention. Let us renew the promise that we made at our baptism to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. Let us try to be as faithful to our call as Abraham was to his, and so continue to reverse Babel and unite all of humanity in Christ. "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." (John 3:17)
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
1. Toby Lester, 'Oh, Gods!', The Atlantic Monthly, February 2002, p. 44.
2. Lester's quote of David Barrett.
3. Lester, p. 42.
4. Ibid., p. 39.
5. Bill Broadway, 'Striving for Acceptance,' The Washington Post, Saturday, 9 February 2002, p. B9.
6. Ibid.
7. Lester, p. 42.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., p. 43, and p. 44.
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