The Church With No Walls

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
October 2, 2005

The Church With No Walls
Matthew 21:33-46
Philippians 2:12-24
World Communion Sunday

Imagine two visitors to our town who take a walk by our church,
They come down the hill from the direction of St. Mary’s
and walk past the driveway.
There they stop to look around; what do they see?
They see a lovely white clapboard building,
a simple building that bespeaks tradition and quaintness.
They look around the property and see a beautiful sign
that tells them something about who we are:
Presbyterians who have gathered to worship together
and grow in faith for 164 years.
They see another sign that tells them
that we think children are special:
the sign for Stepping Stones.
There is usually one more sign out front,
hanging from the post.
That sign changes with the seasons
as it tells us about Chicken Barbecues,
Auctions, White Elephant Sales,
and Vacation Bible School:
the many different activities that take place
in and around our building.

Look past the building, past the signs,
and the premises look tidy, and neat,
a good reflection of our Protestant focus
on doing things decently and in order.

Of course, the visitors are not able to see the heart of the church:
the people inside who make up our congregation:
you and me, the two hundred adults,
the seventy children and young people
who are all part of this community.
The visitor won’t be able to see the congregation
gathered here in the Sanctuary to worship,
or in Hazekamp Hall for fellowship,
or in a classroom to work and learn.

In an article I read recently, the author thought that every church
should tear down its walls.
Now obviously this author did not live in the Northeast!
For us as we look ahead to winter,
that would be a little impractical.
But still, the author made an interesting point:
Were we to tear down the walls,
and just leave the roof over us to keep the rain off our heads,
anyone walking by on the outside
could stop and see the world on the inside.
Our church would become transparent,
our activities would be out in the open,
nothing hidden, everything visible and accessible.
How well we worship and work together would be as apparent
as how poorly we worship and work together.
How do you suppose we would look to an outsider who stopped by
and watched not just what we did,
but how we treated one another,
how we really were toward one another?
Would a visitor be convicted by our faith?
Would a visitor say to himself,
“I would like to be part of this group?”
or would the visitor decide to continue his walk?

Paul was concerned about what was going on behind the walls
of the churches in Galatia, Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, and Thessalonica.
That’s why he wrote so many letters.
In the first few hundred years of the church,
followers of Jesus Christ had to worship behind walls,
behind closed doors, out of view,
so they would not be discovered by authorities and arrested,
and possibly be put to death.

But they were always under the watchful eye of Paul
even from a distance, as Paul sought to break down their walls,
their figurative walls,
even if he could not break down their literal walls.
The Philippians were among Paul’s favorites;
More often than not, they seemed to get it,
to follow Jesus faithfully.
But even they had walls that needed to be taken down,
and so Paul wanted to send his young protégé Timothy
to help them, especially to help them to learn to think
less selfishly, to spend less time thinking about themselves,
and more time thinking about others.

The tenants in the vineyard lived behind
what they thought were impenetrable walls,
walls that kept their behavior out of sight
of anyone except themselves.
They thought they could literally get away with murder.

But even when we think our actions are hidden from view,
there is one who is always watching us,
looking on, one who is never kept out by a wall,
any wall, that we build,
especially walls we build around our hearts and our minds.
God is always watching us,
standing outside on the sidewalk,
listening, watching, observing,
at times, delighted by what we do and say,
and other times deeply troubled, saddened that
his own children behave as they do,
that we say some of the things we say,
think some of the things we think,
do some of the things we do.

Do you remember in last week’s reading
Paul urged us to seek the mind of Christ?
That is something we are to work on constantly
and we do that by tearing down walls,
walls that separate us from one another,
walls that separate us from the world outside,
walls that act as barriers between ourselves and God.
Frederick Buechner reminds us that,
“we have it in us to be Christs to each other,
and maybe in some unimaginable way to God too…”
We have this ability,
but we have to work at it, always, each day
When we pursue what we want,
we are not thinking like Christ,
and we build walls.
When we pursue what God wants,
we do think like Christ,
and we tear down walls.

On this World Communion Sunday, we come to this table
in the company of more than a billion followers of Jesus Christ
in countries all over the world,
people all trying to follow Christ, to live Christ-like lives.
We come to this table to be refreshed and revivified in Spirit
so we can work at breaking down barriers, tearing down walls,
walls that exist between ourselves and others,
those in our family, in our church, in our communities,
in the world at large.

Even as we mark this special day on our liturgical calendar,
we should also note that this week marks the beginning of
Rosh Hashanah for our Jewish brothers and sisters,
and Ramadan for the faithful followers of Islam.
For both faiths, it is a time of prayer, spirituality
and community, with families gathered together
trying to remove walls that time and circumstances build.
If we look at members of those other faiths as somehow
less than ourselves, we know right away that we have work to do
to tear down the wall that prejudice and ignorance
have built in our own minds,
for we know that someone with the mind of Christ,
would not look at Jews or Muslims that way.

We start the process of tearing down walls
right here in our worshiping community.
We can’t hope to knock down walls in the world,
unless we can do it with one another.
As we tear down walls and work on building community
we will then bear fruit, the fruit our Lord calls us to bear,
fruit that will make our Lord proud of us.
fruit that will make us worthy of being called disciples of Jesus.

Come to this table to be refreshed and renewed;
that you can work on taking down walls,
walls in your hearts, in your minds,
walls you have built over days, weeks, months, years,
walls that keep you from bearing fruit:
the fruit we are called to bear,
the fruit of mercy, forgiveness,
kindness, and love;
the fruit of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen