[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #523, Pentecost 17, Oct. 1

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Pentecost 17, October 1, 2006

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 or Numbers 11:4 6, 10 16, 24 29
Psalm 124
James 5:13 20
Mark 9:38 50

God, Not The Church

Moses selected seventy elders, but when the spirit descended on them, 
it splashed over and landed on people who were not chosen as elders.  
The distinction that Moses had made was not so distinct to God.  Moses, 
ever on the side of God, sees the possibility that there would be no 
distinction at all between elder and laity.

James emphasizes the enfranchisement of the laity by comparing their 
access to God through prayer with that of Elijah.

Jesus refuses to grant the disciples patent rights to his name and 
power.  He promises dire consequences for anyone who thwarts even the 
most modest of attempts to align with him.

M. Scott Peck insisted on a non-denominational baptism because he 
rejects the idea that church doctrine and order control the door to the 
kingdom.  He says that taking communion while yet un-baptized was an 
essential step to his conversion.  His comment reminded me of a time 
when I, as a young pastor and full of my newfound authority, invited 
all baptized Christians to come forward for communion.  It hurt my 
feelings after the service to find that other feelings were hurt 
because of me.  A young boy who had always taken communion, though he 
had not been baptized, felt excluded by my action.  I have never quite 
reconciled my servant role and my pastoral responsibility for church 
order.

The church serves God’s love for the world by treating holy things 
sacredly, but the church doesn’t make them holy.  God does that.  How 
does one treat something as holy?  You submit yourself to it because it 
is deserving of your devotion.  So, the church submits itself to the 
sacraments, but in administering church order, that delicate 
distinction can be subverted into the implication that the sacraments 
submit themselves to the church.
The distinction between elder and tribe, clergy and laity, is only 
appropriate as a submission to the Spirit of God and the leadership of 
that Spirit.  Moses submitted to God’s call to be the pastor of God’s 
people.  He wasn’t elevated to that position.  In fact he says he’d 
rather die on the spot than bear that burden.  I have felt the very 
same way.  I didn’t express it as gracefully as Moses.  I said I felt 
like an old sow with more piglets than tits.  (Just like a gentile to 
identify with an unclean animal!)

Church order is not a matter of laity submitting to clergy, of course, 
but rather laity and clergy submitting to God.  Just as the seventy 
gathered around Moses to support him in his submission to God, so the 
laity gather around the clergy when the church is in submission to God. 
  For, as the Psalmist reminds us, it is God who saves us; and, as that 
reminds me, it is not the church that saves us.

May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
 (an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
these lections.]

http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/

Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at
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      --Copyright 2006, Roland McGregor, all rights reserved—
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