Sermon by Rev. Russell Daye

Spiritual Growth & Renewal

Romans 12
St. Andrew's United Church, Halifax
Jubilee Sermon Series # 4

The last few Sundays I have been doing a five-part series with each sermon focusing on a value that was articulated by St. Andrew's folks during the events of our Jubilee Year (a special year of celebration, dialogue, and renewal). At the end of the year, I am going to encourage the congregation to go through an exercise in self-definition, a process of describing St. Andrew's collective personality through the articulation of a list of core values. I'm not contending that the five values I highlight in this series should serve as that list, but rather I am plucking out from among the values expressed during our workshops, interviews and discussion four that have been named with special frequency or vigour and reflecting on them. You folks, of course, will be free to use or not use each of them in the process of self-definition.

Before we get to today's value, here is a little review.

The first value we looked at was service, which was highlighted by you with almost unmatched emphasis. Folks at St. Andrew's not only hold service to the community and to the unfortunate in high regard, they live up to that standard. As a collection of individuals, you serve this city in a great number of ways with impressive dedication. As a congregation we also serve through Sunday Suppers (a free meal offered to about 200 people each week), support for the Brunswick Street mission, and other ventures. But here's the rub: we ourselves benefit a great deal from our service. We benefit through reciprocity and we benefit from the status and influence we gain. This isn't a bad thing, but the Gospel pushes us to go even further: to serve in difficult places and ways that will not bring us prestige, to serve expecting nothing in return.

The second value in our series was social transformation. In some ways the value of social transformation is a compliment to the value of service and is offered as a response to the question: how then shall we serve? Earlier in the Jubilee some of us had an interesting discussion about service to the unfortunate that works within the institutions and systems of society versus service that seeks to challenge and reconstruct those institutions. One line I heard repeated a number of times was, 'I'm not comfortable marching in the streets.' In response, I preached about economic injustice, giving the example of the global trade in cocoa, which enslaves thousands of child labourers and finances a civil war in the Ivory Coast, and I held up the fair trade movement as an example of social transformation (that doesn't require marching in the streets!).

Last week I preached on the value of fellowship, praising this church for the breadth and depth of its fellowship, but also naming our privilege - economic, educational, and social - and pointing out how it can create a social space that seems closed and unwelcoming to those who do not share our privilege. I also asserted that, as a congregation with destructive conflicts in its past and the need to manage conflict better in the future, we need to learn how to fight better. Essentially the sermon was a call to build upon our already impressive fellowship to overcome the tyranny of sameness and the tyranny of niceness.

Looking back, I can see that the first three sermons in this series have been about what we need to do, about the actions we need to take to make our church a righteous community that is engaged in our world as Christ and his followers were engaged in their world. This is the outer dimension of the challenge that lies before us. There is an inner dimension as well. There is a spirituality that needs to be nurtured; without it our efforts in the outer dimension will become hollow, our action cynical. Value number four speaks to this inner dimension. It is 'spiritual renewal.'

In Romans 12, Paul appeals to us, 'Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.' The prerequisite for renewal is non-conformity: non-conformity to the wisdom of the world; non-conformity to the systems of the world; non-conformity to the cultures of the world. Not that they are all bad, but neither are they all good, and we cannot be spiritually renewed if we are slaves to them.

At present, I cannot read these verses without thinking of the Amish community in Pennsylvania that recently lost five girls to a school shooting. Do not be conformed to this world. Do not turn your hearts to vengeance, even when you have been brutalised. Do not be conformed to this world. Do not let your hearts succumb to the fever of consumption, even when you are surrounded by a consumer society gone mad. Do not be conformed to this world. Do not fall in love with might, even when you live in the heart of the empire. Do not be conformed to this world. Do not let your hearts succumb to lust, even when you are living in the midst of a culture that is so obsessed with sexuality that it is leaves little room for love.

If we were to live like the Amish, there would be no global warming. If we were to live like the Amish, there would be no anorexia nervosa. If we were to live like the Amish, our children would not grow up plugged into a box that feeds their souls a poison diet of redemptive violence. If we were to live like the Amish, the body of a 14-year-old girl would not have become our greatest cultural icon and marketing device.

But we will not live like the Amish. Our challenge is even greater than theirs. Our challenge is to become equally non-conformist while dressing like, working like, and moving among all the other members of larger society. Our challenge is to spurn vengeance, might, consumerism, and lust while swimming in a soup made of those ingredients.

Non-conformity is not enough, of course. It's just groundwork. Let's look at the passage again. 'I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect.' And later: 'Let love be genuine… Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.'

This is how our minds will be renewed. It's an imposing list of imperatives, so let me try to make it more focused and concrete with a little interpretation, not literary interpretation but practical interpretation. We cannot live into these imperatives without discipline; let me suggest three disciplines.

First, find a way to stop the tapes that are playing in your minds so that the Spirit can speak to you. We all have these tapes programmed into our minds by our culture. They say things like: you have to have a nicer car; your teeth need to be whiter; you really deserve that cruise or jacket or sofa and if you don't by it you're not being good to yourself; you're not a success if you can't work full time, be a mother full time, look gorgeous, and reach enlightenment by 45. Silent meditation will stop these tapes for some of you. Contemplation of biblical passages will stop these tapes for some of you. Mantra prayers will stop these tapes for some of you. Quiet time in God's good creation will stop these tapes for some of you. Find what works for you and make it a daily part of your life.

Second, do an ethical audit of your finances. How much of what you spend contributes to economic justice? How much of what you spend supports sustainable development? How much of what you spend generates community? How much of what you spend helps the underprivileged? Learn about fair trade, food production and security, and sustainable development and let what you learn shape your life.

Finally, let me read to you part of an e-mail that Mary Schlech - the woman who organises the Sunday Suppers - sent to me in response to last weeks sermon on fellowship. She refers specifically to my challenge to make our social space more welcoming to those different from us. 'I do have an idea about how to become more inclusive. From what I see, we have to become intentional long before we go to church. Would our congregations look different if we were all intentional about relating to the people who cross our path during the day, and then, inviting and bringing them WITH US to church and sticking close by as they meet others. If this notion goes hand in hand with folks reaching out to those who are strange and weeping and lowly I guess it comes full circle to changing the social space. Too bad this kind of intention appears scary. I think God is very gracious and no matter the social status, puts people together with genuine love, which of course is not scary at all.'

This would be a spiritual discipline. Similarly, going to the Sunday Suppers and volunteering to serve the food or just sitting and eating with the diners would be a spiritual discipline.

None of the three disciplines I have suggested are easy. Transformation through the renewal of our minds is not easy. But it is blessed. Spiritual renewal is not easy. But it is blessed. If you choose this path you will suffer, but you will be blessed - and joyous.

Let me make a final comment. Spiritual renewal has an individual and a communal dimension. The journey must be taken alone. The journey must be taken with others. If St. Andrew's is to become a truly righteous community, it will be made up of people fierce enough to practice their disciplines alone, but wise enough to practice them together. It will become the nexus for hundreds of journeys to renewal. It will become the womb of our common journey to renewal.