It’s In Our Genes – 3/22/09

Are you smarter than a ninth grader? We’ll start with science. What does DNA stand for? It’s Deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is that tiny, spiral-shaped thing that makes up the basic building blocks of life. It contains all of our genetic instructions and stores all kinds of information. People compare it to a blueprint like those in architecture or to code like in computer programming or to a recipe like in cooking. Our DNA contains all of these instructions and information that produce all kinds of proteins that our bodies need to function so that we can go about our business throughout the day. In the last decade or so people have mapped DNA and DNA is becoming a more and more popular identification tool.

For example, I can look at my DNA and find out who my ancestors are. If you were to take some hair or saliva from my mom and dad and take some of mine you would find a certain level of matching. You could find out that we belong together. I’m not sure how many generations back that works, but it works. You can also confirm who I am. There are genes for eye color and height and skin color and blood type. No one else has my genetic make-up. I am who I am because of the information stored there. I will be who I will be because of the information stored there as well. So, DNA offers us a lot of answers to our questions. Where did we come from? Who are we? And, where are we headed? Those are all questions that might be found in our DNA.

These days, church leaders are saying that churches have DNA as well. In other words, they say that there are basic building blocks that tell us who we are and what we might become. What makes up a church’s DNA? Well, those same leaders will point to location and type of building and congregation size and denomination and theological perspectives, to name a few. But they will also point to stories. They will look back over the history of a church and pull out certain moments and say that these are part of the church’s DNA. They are stories that people might remember fondly or not, but either way those stories have played a meaningful role in the member’s lives. I’ve heard some of those stories in the two years that I’ve been hear.

It was a striking experience to read about the beginnings of the church. It is inspiring to go over the articles that cover the founding of the church and its building. You see men and women embarking on a new adventure, but filled with faith as they leave one church to start another. That’s part of Hope’s DNA. You read in the articles how, after just a few months, 100 kids from the neighborhood were filling the church’s Sunday School. It seems that there were more kids in the Sunday School program than there were among the church membership. Clearly, Hope was filling a hole in the life of families around the church. That too is part of the church’s DNA.

It wasn’t long into the ministry of the church that people who needed to find their way to God were welcomed by Hope. I’ve heard often from people, divorced or otherwise, that Hope was the place that people could come for a refuge, for a support when their marriage proved to be otherwise. I didn’t get the sense that the church approved of divorce, but that the pastor and congregation recognized the pain and the need for healing that these people carried with them. That’s part of this church’s DNA. Closely associated with that, is the role that women were allowed to play here Before many others, this church recognized that call that God had given to male and female alike; how both of them were made in the image of God and called to be disciples. Whether it was through the church softball league or ordination, this church stood up for the rights of women. That’s part of the church’s DNA. In both of those cases Hope was a kind of leader.

Hope was also a place for refugees. Whether they were from Vietnam or Bosnia or Rwanda, Hope has always seemed to find a way to make room for people from other countries. Not only did they welcome them here, but provided shelter for them and developed relationships with them. This is also part of the church’s DNA. Most recently, there was the decision to stay here in this building. When it might have been easier to move on to another place, Hope decided to make use of this place. When other congregations packed up and moved to another corner, this congregation decided to stay here; to worship and serve on the corner of Burton and Kalamazoo. That decision to stay this corner is part of the church’s DNA as well. Now, no doubt there are other stories that could be told; some of them good and some of them bad. So, it’s natural to wonder, “Why do you pick those stories to tell?” There are two reasons for that.

First, they are your stories. I didn’t make them up and read about them in a newspaper. You told them to me. From the Congregational Listening exercise that you did just before I came to the Consistory retreat we just recently had. When you all are asked when you have most felt like a disciple of Jesus Christ, you don’t talk about consistory meetings or committee meetings or Sunday school, you tell these stories. I’m simply telling them back to you. In a sense, these stories have become part of your spiritual DNA; some of the building blocks that make up your life of faith. I’m sure that all of you don’t connect with all of these stories, but I get the sense that just about all of you connect with at least one of them.

The second, and more important, reason these stories get told is because they fit within a larger story. These stories seem to have a significant connection with the greater story we tell as Christians. Where did Jesus come from? Who is Jesus? Where is Jesus headed? Those are the questions of our faith and they are answered in the stories of the Bible. When our stories line up with Jesus’ stories, we should take notice. So, when hundreds of neighborhood kids flock here to hear about Jesus, we remember how Jesus welcomed little children to his lap. When men and women find acceptance and meaning here, we remember all those stories about Jesus where outcasts were welcomed in and how Jesus often called unusual followers.

In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. In Christ, God was paving the way for everyone: male and female, Jew and Gentile, slave and free to have a right relationship with God, to be one with God. Therefore, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. Everything old, all the sins, all the shame, all the stories we would rather not tell about ourselves, pass away. Everything is new! There is a new beginning, a new direction, and a new way to walk. It’s a fresh start. That means that no one is to be regarded from a human point of view, based on how smart they are or the mistakes they’ve made or how much money they bring to the table, none of those things that the world values. Everyone who walks through the door is to be seen as someone who God might reconcile to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.

We, the church, Hope Church has been given the ministry of reconciliation; the task of helping people find their way into a right relationship with God and experience the amazing grace of walking in God’s kingdom. That’s the story of the Bible. As Hope has been a place of reconciliation for a neighborhood, for children and women, for divorcees and refugees, it has been faithful to that story on the corner of Burton and Kalamazoo. That corner has changed quite significantly over the past 20 years. In fact, Hope Reformed Church has changed quite significantly over the last 20 years. All that means is that there are opportunities to create new stories that people will tell, new building blocks that will form new people in their faith as they are reconciled to God. This church has touched so many people for many years, God has reconciled to himself many people. As a consistory, we have been talking about how Hope will be a place of reconciliation and welcome for the next 20 years. That conversation starts today.

In all of your pews are pink slips of paper that will begin to help us answer the question, “Where are we headed?” At the moment, I just want you to look at it. Write your name on it. Begin to think about how much time you can devote to the ministry of this church and when. Also, begin to think about where your deepest concerns and the world’s greatest needs come together. In a very real sense, this is where God is calling you to be a disciple. At the offering, you can fill it out. We’ll get more specific over the next few months as we meet together, but it’s always good to start with the heart. After the sermon, I’ll ask you to carry these forward and place them before God as a way to commit to those concerns again. It should be said, however, that this isn’t just about getting you to work harder. It’s much deeper than that.

As the apostle Paul wrote, “the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all.” That one is Jesus. Shortly before Jesus died he prayed a prayer and he prayed for us as we sit here today. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word.” Jesus thought about us as he spoke to God and he prayed that we would be one. He meant that we would work with him, but he meant more than that. He meant that we would have all things in common with one another and with him, but he meant more than that too. He meant that we would be in him, that we would have communion with him, just as he is in the Father in and the Father in is in him. Jesus prayed that we would be so surrounded by God’s glory that we would be transformed. Jesus prayed that we would be so drenched in God’s presence that all of the old would pass away and a new creation be born. This is why Jesus prayed and why he died.

Jesus died for all, Paul writes, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. Jesus prayed for all, “I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” God is making his appeal through us, Paul writes, giving us the ministry of reconciliation and entrusting us with the message of reconciliation. So, we are ambassadors for Christ; ambassadors who have been filled with God’s glory, ambassadors who God trusts enough to represent and who God loves in enough to send his son. This is what we acknowledge and stand in awe of every season of Lent: for our sake God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.

So, it turns out that it’s not only DNA that determines who we are and we are headed. In Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit, God has entered into our lives so that we might enter into his life. It seems that the reasons we tell the stories we tell is because they remind us of those moments, not when we were smart, but when we were faithful, when we were disciples. The reason those moments are so meaningful is not because we like to congratulate ourselves, but because we had found ourselves to be in God. Even if we couldn’t name it as such, even if they’re only fond memories or good feelings, those moments we remember most fondly are those in which we are in God as God was in Jesus and he in God. It’s those moments that we were completely one with God that stick out in our history; those moments when God is in us and we are enveloped in God’s loving presence. It’s this mystical communion that makes those stories most meaningful to us. And, it’s that same communion that we seek as we look for ways to create new stories for new generations so that there might be new creations in Christ. So, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, I say to you: On behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Amen.