Going to Church

Short sermon preached at 8am Eucharist at St Alphege Church, Parish of Solihull
Sunday 27th September 2009, Back to Church Sunday

Readings for Back to Church Sunday, taken from Year C, Proper 26.
Isaiah 1: 10-18 2 Thessalonians 1: 1-4 & 11-12 Luke 19: 1-10


Quite often, when I meet people from the fringes of our church community I get the comment, “Of course you don’t have to go to church to be a good Christian!” Well, you won’t be surprised to know that vicar/curate types like me don’t particularly like this kind of comment; it reveals very restricted form of Christian life in which the worship and community life of the church are marginalised.
But if you wanted to try and prove from scripture that, “You don’t have to go to church to be a good Christian,” one of the texts that you might well go for is the reading from Isaiah that we heard this morning. The reading is from the eighth century BC. In it, God, through the prophet Isaiah, complains bitterly against his chosen people, the nation of Israel. And God’s particular complaint appears to be their worship. He says, “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? …Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. … I can’t endure your solemn assemblies with iniquity.” On the face of it God is complaining about their worship. He hates their worship. So there you have it; it is better not to worship. It is better to be a Christian who never comes to church! QED!
Well, no! To understand the passage in this way is to misunderstand it completely. If we read the passage carefully we will see that the real problem is the iniquity of the people, the evil of their doings. The real problem is their bad behaviour. If people behave badly then their worship becomes hypocrisy. It’s becomes like a child telling you that you are a wonderful Dad, while steeling your money. It becomes like a neighbour praising your good nature, while bringing a lawsuit against you. It becomes like a work colleague who is all sweetness and light, but who is quietly stabbing you in the back.
So the message of the passage is not, “Don’t Worship!” On the contrary, the message of the passage is, “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; …cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice … then your worship will be acceptable to God. Then God will listen to your prayers. Then God will not hide himself from you.”
And this might feel like a challenge too far. You try and do a favour for God by coming to church, and then God turns round and tells you that you need to get you whole life in order first. He tells us that we need to live a good life before we can worship. Well, we might as all well go home right now!
But no! This isn’t the message either, and we can see this in the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a public sinner of the first order. He conspired with the Romans to take taxes off the Jews. His work strengthened the occupying Roman army and weakened the Jewish people. To the Jews he was the lowest of the low; a betrayer of God’s people, a traitor. And Jesus knew all this. Jesus knew that Zacchaeus’ whole lifestyle was embroiled in sin. And yet Jesus called to him. Jesus came to visit him. People criticised Jesus for visiting a sinner, but Jesus went all the same and stayed at Zacchaeus’ house.
And when Zacchaeus realised he was loved by Jesus, suddenly he found the capacity to change. Suddenly he could throw off his sin, he could give generously to the poor, he could make good fourfold the loses of anyone he had cheated. He remained a tax collector, but now a just one, and Jesus confirmed that salvation had come to his house.
When we come to church, we come to meet Jesus. It can be a bit awkward and uncomfortable, a bit like climbing a tree. But let’s listen to Jesus calling to us. Let’s listen to Jesus wanting to stay with us. Let’s know that Jesus loves us, and calls us to walk the path to heaven. And with our fixed on Jesus, we will find the grace to put aside our sinful ways. We will start to live lives worthy of our calling. Our worship will become pleasing to God. We will find ourselves able to walk the journey to heaven and to dwell always in the presence of God. Amen.