Hilton Head Island, SC – June 26, 2016
The Chapel Without Walls
Luke 18:1-8; Romans 10:1-4,10-17
A Sermon by John M. Miller
Text – But how are men to call upon him in whom they have believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how can they hear without a preacher? – Romans 10:14 (RSV)
The Cypress and The Chapel Without Walls
This is the fourth and last of a series of sermons. They are the first four sermons preached in the first four services of The Chapel Without Walls in The Cypress Retirement Community.
The purpose of these sermons has been two-fold. First, and more importantly, it has been an effort to acquaint Cypress residents who have never attended a Chapel service with what The Chapel Without Walls perceives itself to be, and how it fits into the local Christian community and American Mainline Protestantism. Secondly, these sermons have been a kind of refresher course for people from the Hilton Head community at large and The Cypress who have previously attended The Chapel for a few or several years. I trust it can’t seriously hurt anyone to hear once more why there is a Chapel Without Walls, and what we are trying to accomplish as a small congregation of what we trust are mature Christians, both in theological and chronological accumulation. No one with good eyesight would accuse most of us of being young, but we are trying to be older people who are open to new ideas and new ways of perceiving very old truths.
Today I want to address another important subject, namely, the relationship we hope to establish between The Cypress and The Chapel Without Walls. This it addressed equally to those who have attended The Chapel for a long time as well as Cypress residents who have attended it for the first time during any of the previous three Sundays. All of us need to understand and appreciate the grace-filled decision of The Cypress administration and staff to approve our holding services here. I want everyone to know we are aware that the Cypress hospitality was offered to us both as a risk and as a sacrifice. (By the way, I especially want Cypress folks to know that I am emailing a copy of this sermon to Jim Coleman, Sandy Bukoskey, and Randi Selman so they can read for themselves what I am saying to you. And to long-time Chapel people I say this: Don’t mess with any of these three folks, for heaven’s sake! It is largely because of their generosity and forbearance that we are here in the first place.)
How is it a risk that we are allowed to hold our services in this beautiful location? It’s potentially risky because some Cypress residents may object to our being here at all. Some of you are aware that my wife Lois and I live in another retirement home on the island. We have noticed, in our eighteen months of residency there, that retirement home people tend not to be shy about expressing opinions. And they may do that about anything at all that careens through their gray matter to express opinions about. We understand that, and you who live in The Cypress or any other island retirement home understand that. (There are a dozen-plus Chapel Regulars who live in retirement communities.) And having been a pastor of congregations for over fifty years, I know that anyone associated with any institution of any sort feels free to offer suggestions of how any institution should or should not do this or that. It’s a free country, after all, isn’t it!
But the risk for The Cypress administration and staff is they may hear objections that any kind of Christian congregation is holding services in what technically is a private club or that this kind of congregation is holding its services here. In previous sermons I have attempted to give rationale for why we made the request to be here, but it is important for everyone to realize that not every member of The Cypress is going to welcome us with open arms. So it is essential that we do everything we can to be a good addition to The Cypress rather than a bad detraction.
Having us here is also a sacrifice for The Cypress. It means more work for the housekeeping staff on Sundays and on Saturdays in preparation for Sundays. It means some events which otherwise might have been held in this room on Sunday mornings might not be held at that time. And it also means there will be occasions when The Chapel will need to go to the Living Room at the other end of the main hall or somewhere else. That will be the case on July 10 when the annual Cypress “Breakfast at Wimbledon” event occurs in this room. (Incidentally, anyone who comes to the Living Room that morning will not be permitted to trot down the hall every few minutes to see how whoever is doing against whomever in the finals. As The Cypress is making a sacrifice to allow us to be here, you have to make the sacrifice of staying in the Living Room for the full hour on July 10. But sacrifice is part of what life is all about for all of us, isn’t it?)
There is another very natural question which needs to be thought about by everyone. If there is risk and sacrifice for The Cypress in offering this space to us on Sunday mornings, what is the advantage to The Cypress? What does this institution derive from their benevolence toward us?
I have said that The Chapel Without Walls hopes our move here will insure our existence for many years to come. On the basis of the marked increase in attendance since we arrived four weeks ago, that seems to be coming to fruition already. We are a congregation of older people, and Cypress is a large facility with numerous older people. We want to add a new dimension to the lives of a number of Cypress residents who will become regular attendees of The Chapel. And we have no doubt they will be a wonderful new dimension to the life of this congregation.
There are probably scores of Cypress residents who were very active in churches in previous communities or here on Hilton Head Island. The passing of the years and the reluctance of feet, ankles, knees, and/or hips to function as they once did may have rendered that pattern more difficult if not impossible. Not going to church at all or going to church where one lives may be the only two choices some Cypress residents have with respect to a congregational involvement. And since most Cypressians come to brunch on most Sundays anyway, it may make Sunday mornings a more fulfilling double-function day. (I used the term “Cypressians” a couple of weeks ago. A Chapel regular suggested it should be “Cypriots.” The people who live on the island of Cyprus are called Cypriots, he said, which is true, and which is an interesting linguistic interpretation. But so far as I know, the island of Cyprus has nothing to do with Cypress trees, so I am sticking with my nomenclature until otherwise instructed. And I have pronounced it Cypressians, just as the German mercenaries who fought Washington at Princeton and Trenton, and who awaited him when he crossed the Delaware, were known as Hess-ians.) [Hesh-uns]
And how does the Bible relate to any of this? To that, finally, let us now turn.
The first passage I chose for today is found only in Luke’s Gospel. It is referred to as The Parable of the Unrighteous Judge. And I want you to know the point I shall attempt to make about this parable is not the point Jesus made. In fact, my point is almost the opposite of what Jesus was saying. In other words, I am trying to turn this story into something for our particular setting and concern here in The Cypress, and obviously Jesus meant nothing even close to that.
In the Jewish tradition, those who are called “judges” were either religious officials or royal family members who passed judgments on various legal matters. Luke informs us at the beginning that Jesus’ story was told “to the effect that they” [meaning all of us] “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). In full disclosure, that is not the point of what I am going to say. In the parable, a widow kept coming to a judge and demanding that he vindicate her from her adversary. We are not told what the legal dispute was. Finally, after having appeared before him so many times, the unrighteous judge gave her what she wanted, because she was wearing him out with her constant courtroom kvetching. In conclusion, Jesus said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? … I tell you he will vindicate them speedily” (Luke 18:7-8).
That parable is admittedly a very difficult one to interpret. Perhaps Luke had not been told the entire story, or perhaps something has been lost in translation. But, as I said, whatever is the valid moral of the parable, that is not the point I am trying to make. What I want to say to everyone is that I do not want the occasion of The Chapel Without Walls holding its services within the walls of The Cypress to be the basis for frequent complaints of Cypress residents to the staff or administration. All of us need to be aware of the risk and sacrifice The Cypress has taken in allowing us to come here. It is a very wonderful and kind action they have taken. Therefore it behooves us to be the very best guests we can be. Ben Franklin famously said that fish and houseguests begin to smell bad after three days. We must avoid that situation at all costs, because we hope to be here on a mutually advantageous and permanent basis.
But it is not just Cypress people who may have issues with our being here. Apparently there have been a few problems for people who don’t live in Hilton Head Plantation to be allowed through the security gates to come to our services on Sunday mornings. I spoke to someone in the security department of the plantation, and he told me that our being here is a violation of plantation protocols. If they don’t have the names of people who ask to go through the gates they are not supposed to go through the gates. Obviously we cannot know everyone who will attend on any given Sunday. But what about the many Lifelong Learning classes that are held at The Cypress, I asked him. Or what about the weddings or memorial services at Dolphin Point at which I have officiated in Hilton Head Plantation; there was no “guest list” for those. They all technically violate policy, he implied. I am much older than I once was, and my memory is thus perhaps impaired, but it seems to me that in a previous life and in a previous pastorate I was known occasionally to rail homiletically against the inequities and unintended consequences of gated communities. However, that is an issue none of us can satisfactorily resolve, but I just want everyone to know we need to be very careful in the manner in which we conduct ourselves not only with respect to The Cypress but also to Hilton Head Plantation. We are something new which inevitably requires new thinking for many different people.
The 9th through the 11th chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans are devoted to an explanation for how the apostle believed the Jews fit into the grand scheme of God. Paul was certain that only those who believed in Jesus of Nazareth could be welcomed into God’s eternal kingdom. Most Jews in Paul’s time didn’t believe in Jesus, and he assumed most Jews through the rest of time would not believe in Jesus either. But because the Jews were God’s chosen people, Paul declared they were saved anyway. Still, he was going to do everything he could to convince his fellow Jews that Jesus was not only the promised Messiah but also the Savior of all humanity. He wrote, “But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14)
From fifth grade on, all I ever wanted to be was a preacher. I never deviated from that vocational choice. And I confess that as a minister, preparing and delivering sermons has always been my primary priority in terms of general weekly ministerial responsibilities. I also preach longer than most other clergy, as no doubt you have noticed. For many Christians, liturgy is the most important facet of worship. Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, and Lutheran worship focuses on liturgy. For many other Christians, the music or the prayers in worship are the most important thing. For still others, the sermon is the center of worship.
Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist clergy tend to put their emphasis in worship on preaching. I was raised as a Presbyterian. For eight years I listened most Sundays to the man I consider to be the greatest preacher I ever heard. Dr. Elam Davies was pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. For three years when I was in seminary in Chicago and for five years when I was a minister on the staff of Fourth Church, I listened to him preach the Gospel from that lofty pulpit in that beautiful Gothic church, and I was entranced. He was named by Time Magazine as one of the ten greatest American preachers of the 20th century. If I could preach one tenth as effectively as he did, I resolved to myself, I would feel fulfilled as a preacher.
The ironical factor about the apostle Paul is that the New Testament Church consigned him to become the apostle to the Gentiles. The Jewish Christians of the 1st century were understandably very leery of him. As an itinerant preacher, Paul went mainly to Gentile congregations of Christians scattered throughout the eastern Mediterranean region. But his concern for his fellow Jews never left him. Paul knew that if they did not have Christian preachers come to them, they would never become part of the Christian Church. That was the heartfelt observation he made in Romans 10. I deliberately choose not to comment on his concern, but merely to express it.
There is a story about Muhammad. Its origin apparently in unclear. In the story, Muhammad said to a group of followers that he could command a mountain come to him. They assembled in great numbers, eager to see this miraculous sight. Muhammad called and called to the mountain, but it did not move. So he said --- and you may be familiar with this statement --- “If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.”
The Chapel Without Walls has moved to The Cypress in hopes that it will be providentially beneficial both to The Chapel and to The Cypress. The Cypress did not have to come to the preacher; The Chapel and its preachers have come to The Cypress. We have assumed there are a sizeable number of Cypress residents who do not and cannot go to church, and so “the church,” broadly defined, has come to them. Surely older people need to worship and to hear scriptures read and sermons preached as much as do younger people. From its very inception, The Chapel has consisted mainly of older people. What we envision here is a natural merging of two groups of mature Christians engaged in the worship of the Creator and Redeemer of humanity.
Robert Browning wrote a classic long poem. It is called Rabbi Ben Ezra, and it consists of thirty-two six-line stanzas. It is the reflections of an elderly man who ponders the outlooks of older and younger people, and how we all perceive things differently as we progress through life.
The opening sextet is the best known.
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made;
Our times are in his hand
Who saith, “A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God; see all, nor be afraid!”
The Chapel Without Walls worshiping in The Cypress Retirement Community of Hilton Head Island is that poem turned into action. To everyone here and to everyone who shall ever come here, I warmly and wistfully invite you: Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be.