Drunk With The Wine Of The World?

Scriptures: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14, Ephesians 5:15-20 & John 6:51-58
By The Rev. Allen V. Harris, Regional Minister, Christian Church (Disciples Of Christ) Capital Area [Editor’s Note: this sermon was found in my drafts and I have decided it is still relevant and I wanted to post it on my blog, even if delayed.]

Sermon preached for North Chevy Chase Christian Church, Chevy Chase, Maryland
Sunday, August 19, 2018

Someone once said, “History belongs to the winners.” There is great dispute in internet chat rooms about the exact origin of the quote and who said it first, whether it was Napoleon or Winston Churchill or even Adolph Hitler. This debate led me to a fascinating blog post as to whether or not the maxim “History belongs to the victors” is actually true! (1) After pondering this quote and its ramifications for a bit, I decided I would rephrase it to read, “History belongs to the writers!” This hits close to home for the Christian Church (Disciples Of Christ) for it has been said of our founding years, “the Disciples of Christ do not have bishops, they have editors.” (2) One scholar called our founders “The Editor Bishops.” Whether the power of the pen be at the hand of the internet bloggers, Twitter tweeters, and Facebook pundits of today, the newspaper editors and textbook writers throughout history, or of the Biblical writers of old, let us say for sure, King Solomon had a pretty good historian writing for him.

In 1 Kings chapters 2 and 3, the regime change following the death of King David to the leadership of King Solomon was not only smooth, but positively beatific. Once David “slept with his ancestors” and was buried, King Solomon had a dream in which God says to Solomon, “Ask what I should give you.” Solomon, with the greatest humility, asks only for wisdom, for a spirit of discernment between good and evil. God, who is greatly pleased with this modest answer, grants the new king not only the wisdom of discernment for which he asked, but then God says, “I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you.” To top it off, God promises Solomon a long life. Not a bad haul, one might say!

And just in case we were skeptical, the very next set of verses after the ones read today illustrate the famous story of the two women who came to the king with the dilemma of each claiming a baby was theirs, and Solomon’s seemingly horrific judgement to cut the baby in two and give each woman a half. In the story, it is the real mother who backs off from the challenge, wishing only for her baby’s life and safety. This seals in the reader’s mind that indeed, Solomon was given the gift of wisdom directly from God.

I maintain that not everything In King Solomon’s reign was as copacetic as the biblical writers might lead us think. And the Hebrew scripture scholar I have to thank for giving me a more thorough view of things is Walter Brueggemann, who I am quite certain has been quoted in this sanctuary before, if not prolifically. In his multi-layered book, Mandate To Difference: An Invitation To The Contemporary Church, Brueggemann reminds us that throughout Solomon’s time as king of Israel, he continued his father’s extensive reshaping of the economy, but with a greater force and speed than ever before. This supposed humble and wise ruler enthroned a new economy focused on: expansive building projects, acquisitive commerce, a strong military apparatus, cheap labor by inscription, and sexual politics. (4) The building of the temple occupies the center of this new economy because such radical efforts needed a theological legitimacy. The temple provided that.

For Walter Brueggemann, the challenge is not simply to pull back the curtains of the biblical writer to expose the human flaws and failures of King Solomon, or any person of faith, but to ask the deeper question, “what went wrong and how can we either avoid the same traps or, more likely, get out of the trouble we’ve already gotten ourselves in.” For Brueggemann, the problem that Solomon, and to some degree his father, David, got caught up in was the failure to remember the covenant of God at the heart of their faith, which is never about fame and fortune and is always about faithfulness to the God who will and does provide for us, but rarely in the ways we want or expect. When we go off script, so to speak, and begin to listen to the voices of the world that tell us that bigger, brighter, bolder is always better rather than relying on covenantal values, we will always get ourselves into trouble, eventually. And when I speak of “covenant values” I am referring to principles like love of God/neighbor/self; or love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; or being poor in spirit, mourning, being meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, being pure in heart, being peacemakers, or being persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

What does this have to do with North Chevy Chase Christian Church, or any of the churches of our day? The epistle for today, from Ephesians 5, intones us to “be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise,” and to understand what the will of the Lord is,” and “Do not get drunk with wine.” Well the Ephesians passage calls us to seek wisdom, lest we become drunk, but I would say most of us in the church today are seeking the wisdom of the world rather than of God, and are at risk of becoming “drunk with the wine of the world,” in the inimitable words of the hymn “Lift Every Voice And Sing.” I think the church has become “drunk with the wine of the world” in looking at and trying to emulate other churches and denominations who are bigger, flashier, more hip, and therefore are at great risk of losing our sense of covenantal values.

I want to confess to you that I allow myself too often to become “drunk with the wine of the world,” as your Regional Minister. In the face of aging congregations, declining numbers, leaders who are tired and uncertain, facilities that are becoming unmanageable as they age, the temptations that are presented to us by what we see on television (Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar’s congregations seem more massive every week) and what pops up in our Facebook feed (such powerful sermon quotes from T. D. Jakes and Joyce Meyer), are captivating and our efforts seem pale in comparison. It is hard not to listen to those who would imply that faithfulness is tied to size and spirituality is directly in proportion to prominence. I will not be so arrogant to assume that North Chevy Chase Christian Church and your faithful leaders are as captivated by these shining examples of churches that are bigger, brighter, and bolder, I can only offer you my own honest struggle with these temptations. And you could magnify my temptation by 44 – the number of churches in the Capital Area Region! I yearn for nothing more than for all of our churches to grow and flourish.

Yes, I acknowledge that the challenges of running a church are real, and if you look at the raw data of giving units to sustain budgets and pool of candidates from which to nominate leaders and the changing nature of church commitments by various generations, the mainline Protestant church of 2018 does seem like it is in a dire situation and can draw one to want to mimic the techniques of the largest most successful churches, to be like Solomon. But God, and scripture, would call us back again and again to our covenant values.

This past March I attended the Black Ministers Retreat of the Christian Church (Disciples Of Christ) held in Alexandria, Virginia. One of the workshops on church transformation I went to was led by our very own megachurch pastor and world-class preacher, the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale of Ray Of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Georgia. I wanted to see what this amazing and gifted preacher had to say about how churches like ours could be transformed. Was it a better social media presence? Was it a sanctuary with cushioned chairs and high tech multi-media? Was it a glamorous preacher? Ray Of Hope has all that, and more! Well, Rev. Dr. Hale focused on a church’s Vision, Core Values, and Mission and being true to our covenant values! One of the things she said that really jumped out at me was, “Values determine what makes you distinctive as a church.” All those other things such as social media, comfortable chairs, and technology might be useful tools along the way, but if they are built on worldly values rather than faithful values, then we are building our churches on sand and not solid ground.

We, as followers of Jesus, must remind ourselves of the living covenant to which he calls us, and remember the priority of a true sense of service and purpose. In the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus using the challenging words about himself to make the point that sacrificial service is at the center of who he was and who we are called to be as his followers. In John 6 he says, “So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’” This is a call to true identity based in servanthood and sacrifice, which is a far cry from the fame and fortune beyond our faith that is so alluring. The covenant values of servanthood and sacrifice are not simply what is good for individual Christians, but for the church itself, the very Body of Christ.

I would want to help you, my beloved North Chevy Chase Christian Church, celebrate the sense of purpose, service, and creative spirit that you brings to the larger church and to the world around you. I would want to encourage you to feel ever more confident in your own identity, and not spend any time or energy comparing yourself to other churches, even those that have great editors, writers, bloggers, and historians. You have a set of core values that are powerful, distinctive, and compelling – but can you name them and proclaim them? You have the kind of faithfulness that is needed in the world of 2018, but do you know and share how unique your faithfulness is? I delight to hear that you are “Connecting Faith With Community.” I believe that as you remind yourself yet again of who you are, whose you are, and to what purpose you are called in this location in the world and this time in life, and you proclaim that humbly and joyfully to those around you, your history will faithfully be written. May those who read of North Chevy Chase Christian Church know well your covenant values and how you sought to live them in the world. And may history belong to you!

Amen.

(1.) Bad Historical Thinking: “History is Written By the Victors” by Nick Sacco in his “Exploring The Past” blog, February 15, 2016 at https://pastexplore.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/bad-historical-thinking-history-is-written-by-the-victors/
(2.) W.T. Moore quoted in Richard Hughes, Reviving the Ancient Faith (Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 1996); C. Leonard Allen , Distant Voices: Discovering a Forgotten Past for a Changing Church (Abilene, Tex .: ACU Press , 1993); and others. Found online at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1078&context=restorationquarterly
(3.) Leroy Garrett, The Stone- Campbell Movement (rev.; Joplin, Mo .: College Press , 1994)
(4.) Walter Brueggemann, “Weeping And Hoping In Jerusalem” Mandate To Difference: An Invitation To The Contemporary Church, (Louisville; Westminster/John Knox Press), 2007, p.23 (but all of chapter 1, really)