Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · July 13, 2008

Ninth Sunday After Pentecost

Prayer of the Day

Living God, we praise you for Christ’s coming into the world and into our lives. In this hour of worship, open us to Christ’s living presence. Through word and song, prayer and praise, bread and wine, give us new life that we may please you in all that we do and say. Amen.

Scripture

John 8:25-32

“Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been claiming all along,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be, and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him. Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Message

The Indispensable Christ

William S. Ryan

You cannot comprehend the joy that is mine in being with you today for this portion of Broadway’s fiftieth celebration year. I am so grateful, too, to those from 50-years ago who presented me with the opportunity and privilege of being the minister of this remarkable congregation for its first ten years. Indeed, the joys of those years with you include Narka and our children who were also enriched by your friendship and love during that first decade. And I must add, our son, Bill, has never forgiven me for taking him away from all of you.

We are grateful that our daughters and their families have traveled from Baltimore to be with us today – Cathy and her husband, Pat, and our grandson, Kevin; and Margie and her husband, John, and our granddaughter, Amelia. It’s an added joy that our son Bill, Kim, Gage, and Keller, not only are among those present today, but who are members of today’s Broadway family. I also want to applaud Rick, Kim, Jacob, and your staff, and all of you laity for the significant mission that takes place here. 

When I think of the birthing of this faith group known as Broadway Christian Church, a treasure trove of memories floods my mind. My temptation is simply to engage in reminiscing that moves from joys and celebration over amusing incidents and significant accomplishments to the sadness of premature and untimely deaths that occurred during those first ten years.

I will have to resist that temptation however, in part, because your membership growth has been so impressive that at the most, 5% of your now-over-1200- members could identify with such nostalgia, while the vast 95% would have little way of connecting with what once was.

I will then recall only these several observations:

1. When Broadway was chartered, October 5, 1958, in the sanctuary of First Christian Church, during the ministry of Dr. Clarence E. Lemon, there were 102 Broadway members. Age-wise, there was only one senior citizen, maybe a dozen in their 40s and 50s, but the vast majority of us were in our 20s and 30s, along with lots of children and young children at that.

2. Your young minister was within three weeks of his thirtieth birthday, making that now old man before you, 50 years later, three months from being… well, you do the math.

3. Our program budget was $14,000. The minister’s salary was $5,500 plus parsonage, and Narka and I considered ourselves fortunate to have this significant increase, because that salary was more than any salary we had received previously.

Moving on, now with this tip of the hat to nostalgia of 50 years ago, I’m asking you this morning to engage in a nostalgia far more distant, one separated from us by some 2,000 years to consider a statement from John’s gospel attributed to Jesus.

“If you continue in my work, you are my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”

Truth and freedom, according to the good news of God and Jesus Christ, are the pivotal markers in our text today. 

As we proceed with the probing where this text takes us, it is my firm belief, we will encounter the indispensable Christ, who is the premier presence for us as Christians. 

Our text from John proclaims that the reason Christ is indispensable in our lives, is that Jesus’ message is truth. Our text insists that Jesus is the defining central authority for those of us who profess Christ as Lord. “Lord” means the one who is master, leader, shaper, model for what we believe, and say, and do, and are. Christ-like values such as compassion, love, fairness, justice toward all including the least of these who are the poor and the powerless, even our enemies. These are the values we live by, if Christ truly is our Lord. It is not just any truth, being supported in the marketplace of life. It is that vision made known to us in the gospel story of Jesus. 

In a vaudeville routine between the late comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Bud says to Lou, “If you put on a pair of pants and discover a $50 bill in one pocket and a $100 bill in the other pocket, what have you got?”

Lou responds perceptively, “Somebody else’s pants.” 

What have we got ensconced in the apparel of our lives? Is the substance in the pockets of our lives the power of Christ? Or is some other conflicting lord determining our choices? What lord is driving, giving direction to you and to me? Once we accept the authentic and powerful goodness and the godliness of the truth of the good news in Christ, then today’s text implies, we become empowered to be free to place ourselves in the company of those who are, at least, trying to live out the gospel of love in all aspects of their lives.

With great respect and admiration, I recall my father’s actions in a particular situation 84 years ago. These actions embodied this empowering freedom. His absolute confidence in the truth of Christ’s message as it impacted racial and religious prejudice empowered him, in 1924, to have the courage to be free and publicly condemn that prejudice.

Parenthetically, my father William A. Ryan, after whom our son, Bill, is named, lived the final 15 of his 97 years at Lenoir Home and as a member, along with my mother Miriam, of Broadway Christian Church. 

Dad was a Disciples of Christ minister. His courageous witness took place those many years ago while he was serving a church in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. It was an era in American history when the Ku Klux Klan was enjoying great support throughout much of our country. A delegated body from the Klan came to him asking to visit his church on a Sunday for a worship service, requesting he deliver a patriotic sermon. Dad had already spoken out against the Klan and knowing he had Klansmen in his church, told them they could visit under three conditions:

There would be no demonstrations.

They would not wear any “regalia.”

They should not expect to like what the preacher would say.

Taking on the Klan and its national theme of 100% of Americanism, the Klan meant by that only those who were white, Protestant, and native born could qualify, Dad in all of his five foot five inch stature delivered his sermon entitled, “What is 100% Americanism?”

Pulling absolutely no punches, Dad thoroughly and unequivocally disagreed with, condemned, and denounced the Klan for its nonsensical, completely un-Christian, and constitutionally un-American stance. Dad knew that his uncompromising confrontation would cost him his job and it did, but for him, it was of far greater importance that he keep his Christian integrity in tact. Dad’s faithfulness, I believe, was an instance where knowing Christ truly, about dealing lovingly with all people, gave him the courage to be free to proclaim with unmistakable clarity Christ’s compassionate message of equality and justice and righteousness. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead.” 

Dad’s courageous faithfulness to the gospel placed him among those not afraid to side with Christ as the indispensable, loving Lord. Such is the criterion for us Christians in all of the decisions we make and all of the positions we take on issues from family and church to nation and world.

As I thought about this sermon coming during the fiftieth year of Broadway’s journey, it’s important for me to note some of the evolving social gospel issues that the American church, prompted by Christian love, has addressed across these years from 1958 to 2008 in which we have met as a congregation. 

The unfolding civil rights movement was a powerful presence in our nation that required, I thought, a Christian response. Broadway had this young minister, who to the chagrin of some, insisted on talking about equal access, and public accommodation, and fair housing, and welcoming people of all races in the church membership. I remember Bill Bower coming to me one day and asking me what I would do if an African-American came forward to place his or her membership in Broadway. I responded that I would receive that person just as I would anyone else. Bill, bless his heart, in an accepting and approving spirit, said, “OK.” 

But beyond the issue of race that continues on the church’s agenda these 50 years later, there are additional significant instances of the intersection of Christian love with formally-held beliefs and practices which admirably Broadway continues to address, including your recent mission trip and current program on empowering teens with relationships. Time constraints here limit me to little more than mentioning four of these issues that have impacted the church over these last 50 years. 

There is the inclusive language debate within the Church which is about using gender-inclusive language and how we address and refer to God and to one another. This awareness was not even present when I was in seminary at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, that bastion of liberalism. When I was there, it was not present, but it definitely was here 30 years later.

Feminism has been another powerful and important movement dealt with by the church nudging us closer to Paul’s announcement in Galatians, “There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ.”

Sexual orientation is another very challenging discussion that has emerged within the church and beyond. And here, I believe, the gospel and the genetic research indicating that human sexuality is basically determined by genetics, not choice, encourages a spirit of compassion and understanding, not condemnation of homosexuality. 

The last issue before Christians I will mention is the current controversial war in Iraq, the morality of which I believe we Christians are challenged to subject to the scrutiny of the gospel. James Lawson, a close clergy colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement, said recently, “Much of Christianity in the Unites States has been more influenced by violence, and sexism, and racism, and greed than by the teachings of Jesus.” 

I want to affirm Mr. Lawson’s description of the dilutions and flat out distortions of Christianity that too frequently prevail among us church people instead of the radical teaching of Jesus. 

Throughout my ministry, I have held the conviction that faithful proclamation of the love of Christ necessitates relating it to such justice issues as these I’ve mentioned.  They are not all that Christians must address, but faithfulness requires that they be included – not cultural mores, not parochial nationalism.  They cannot be our ultimate loyalty. Our preeminent Lord is Jesus, by whom all other cherished loyalties are to be evaluated and judged. 

In the New Testament book of Revelation, the unknown author’s purpose was to bring hope to late-first-century Christians suffering persecution under Roman rule.  In one of these well known images, that of Jesus standing outside the door knocking to be let in, I see the image of the indispensable Christ, but not as one who breaks down the door and rushes in. Rather, he is one knocking, leading us to let his Christ Spirit come into our life as the motivating and driving force of whom we will follow amid all of life’s choices. 

James Russell Lowell’s powerful hymn, “Once to Every Man and Nation” includes this verse:

Tho the cause of evil prosper,

Yet the truth alone is strong, 

Tho her portion be the scaffold,

And upon the throne be wrong:

Yet that scaffold sways the future, 

And, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within  in the shadow,

Keeping watch beside God’s own. 

Emboldened by God’s powerful message of love in Christ, let us mount that scaffolding. Claim God’s truth in Christ to be our truth. Proclaim from that commanding height that our unqualified commitment to the Lordship of the indispensable Christ is the truth that sways our future.

Amen.

Benediction

God of Truth, thank you for writing your word on our hearts. Help us to walk in truth as your people. Empower us to live faithfully, set free by your love. Amen.