Isaiah 22:19-23
Romans 11:33-36
Matthew 16:13-20
Bishop Untener’s Homily
The Word "Church"
This is an interesting passage in Matthew’s Gospel, because Jesus uses the word "church". Jesus will do it again two chapters later, and these are the only two times in the Gospels when Jesus uses that word. In the other 23 books of the New Testament, the word "church" is used 83 times.
The whole New Testament was written in Greek, and the Greek word that we translate as "church" is a word that means, "people called together." That in itself is worth thinking about. Often, when we hear the word "church" we tend to think of an institution, an establishment, or even a building. But that’s not what the word means. It means people... people who are called to come together as a group.
When I looked at the picture of your groundbreaking back in the 1950’s, it was obvious that the church is people. There wasn’t any building - just this small group of people gathered together in a field... people who already were "church," even though they didn’t have a special building where they gathered.
The Church: Seen From the Outside, and From a Distance
Sometimes it can be helpful to step back from something that is part of our life and, instead of looking at it from the inside and up close, look at it from the outside and from a distance. For example, there is that famous photograph of the earth that was taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts when they were on their way to the moon in 1972. You’ve seen the picture - our beautiful planet as it looks from 25,000 miles out in space. It has become the most famous picture in the world - the first time we’ve ever been able to look at the world from the outside - and it has had a profound effect on us.
Perhaps if we look at the church from the outside, and from a distance, it can help us better understand who we are.
To do that, we have to do sort of a "let’s pretend." Let’s pretend that there was a group of people who had been cut off from the rest of the world since the second century. We’ll imagine that they were living in the immense Australian "outback" where there’s plenty of room to stay separate.
Now, in our "let’s pretend," a contingent from this group discovers the rest of the world, and of all places they travel here to Mayville. (Don’t ask me how or why they selected Mayville - we can make up anything we want.) Well, they come here and talk to you, the parishioners of St. Joseph, and they want to know more about this group called a parish, a church. They spend a couple of days asking you questions, and then they return to their own people to tell what they learned. What would they say? It might go something like this.
All the Way Back to Jesus
We found this group of people in Mayville, Michigan, who, believe it or not, can trace themselves all the way back to Jesus Christ! They go back that far, and are direct descendants of Jesus and his disciples. After Jesus died, his disciples continued on as a group - Peter and Andrew and James and John... and Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Jesus - and they invited others to join them. They explained to new members who Jesus was and how he lived and what he taught. As they died off, all this was passed on to others, who passed it on and on from one generation to the other. And this group in Mayville can trace itself all the way back to the beginning.
Besides that, they have writings from the middle of the first century! They have writings about Jesus, and writings about the very first generation of the disciples of Jesus. It’s remarkable. They go all the way back.
Called by Jesus
Besides that, this group of people in Mayville has felt a direct call from Jesus to be part of this group. They have a real sense of being called by no less than Jesus himself. Imagine. After all these years they still feel that Jesus is here on earth calling disciples.
A Divine "Life Force"
There’s more. These people experience some kind of ‘life force’ within them that is more than human life. They say that they have, running through their body and soul, a life force that is God’s own life. Can you believe that? Human beings who claim to have God’s own life coursing through their body and soul! You see they believe that Jesus is still alive, and that Jesus has breathed his own Spirit upon them just as he did upon his first disciples.
This ‘life force’ is what most of all binds them together as a group. They say that it is stronger than a bloodline - ties of blood or race or country. It goes far deeper, and they are joined together in a way that goes far beyond any human bonds.
Communion with the Dead
That’s not all. Listen to this one. They believe that they are in touch with the dead. They really do. These people believe that dead people aren’t really dead. People go through death sort of like through a doorway and they’re still alive - different, but still human, and still alive. These people in Mayville still include the dead as part of their community. They call it something like ‘the communion of saints.’ They can talk to them, pray for them, and those who are dead can pray for those who are still here on earth. In other words, the dead are still connected with them. They’re still considered part of this group they call ‘church’.
A Strange Way of Life
There’s more, and this next may be the strangest of all. These people in Mayville have a different way of life - in some cases, really different. For example, they believe that instead of hating our enemies, killing them... we’re supposed to love them, forgive them, and do good to them. They talk about ‘turning the other cheek’ when someone slaps you. It makes you wonder how a group like this could have survived all these years.
They also believe that this world, this universe, and everything in it, belongs to God. So what they’re supposed to do is share what they have, especially with people who don’t have much. They remember all sorts of quotes from Jesus about this, and they consider themselves as ‘stewards’ - managers - of what really belongs to God.
Getting Together With Jesus
There’s lots more, but this is the one that we found most startling. These people in Mayville come together once a week for a meal - a banquet - and they believe that Jesus is the host of the banquet. They believe that Jesus is right there with them. They actually get together around a table (they call it an ‘altar’) and Jesus, as the host, speaks to them, and eats with them.
Now, understand... they believe that they’re not simply imitating what Jesus once did with his disciples, or remembering what Jesus did. They believe that Jesus is right there, really there, and having a meal with them. It’s all ‘live’ - really happening.
But, not only that (and here’s the part we couldn’t figure out) they believe that Jesus gives himself to them as food. They call it the bread of life.’ They say that they receive Jesus into themselves and that because of this they are shaped more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ himself. They do this every week, and for them it’s the most powerful, awesome, wonderful thing that they do. Every week they do this! We watched them do it. They sing, and pray, and listen to the words of Jesus, and join with him in giving themselves entirely into God’s hands as he did in his own life and especially in his dying on the cross. This is the heart of their life as a group called together by God."
They’re Right
Well, that’s how we look to people who look at us "from the outside." And do you know what. They’re right. That is who we are. That’s what you have been doing here in Mayville for the past 50 years. And it all goes back to Jesus himself.
We’re not a perfect group of people. We go back to Jesus Christ, and in the course of those 2,000 years we’ve had a great mixture of success and failure, holiness and sin. Why... right from the beginning, Peter denied Jesus three times - under oath. And all the disciples abandoned Jesus when he was arrested. And not too many years later, Paul and Peter got into a public disagreement, and people took different sides.
Oh, you can go back to the early days, the middle days, and the present days of the church and find plenty of evidence of how human we are. But our faith is not in ourselves. Our faith is in Jesus Christ who promised to be with us all days, even to the end of the world. The church isn’t the only place he said he would ever be. It’s the only place he said he would always be.
So, we celebrate 50 years of the Lord’s special presence among the people of Mayville - a group of people that can be traced all the way back to Jesus Christ... who themselves have been called by Jesus to be part of this group... who have God’s own life within them... who lead a way of life that is different from the way of the world... and who once a week gather around this supper table at a meal hosted by Jesus himself.
What a gift to be part of this gathering we call "church". It’s a cause for celebration. And celebrate we will.
Originally given on August 25, 2002