the improvisational church

Shalom Mennonite Church

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Known and Called by God - Part 1: Called as a Community

Texts: 1 Samuel 3:1-20 and John 1:43-51

Eric Massanari “the improvisational church”

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Opening prayer:

May there be open ground

in our hearts, our minds, our souls,

so that we might receive

the word and wisdom of your Spirit. Amen

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In the ancient Hebrew story we meet the boy, Samuel,

who hears his name called in the middle of the night.

Three times he hears the voice,

and three times he goes to Eli, the temple priest,

and asks him what he wants.

By the third time, Eli catches on that something

special is happening here, so he sends

the boy back with the clear instruction to listen

deeply and carefully.

Eli is wise.

In the gospel story, we meet some of the first disciples.

Philip has already met Jesus and has found

something convincing in this strange teacher.

In fact, he goes and tells his friend, Nathaniel,

that he has just met the Messiah, the one whom the people have awaited,

and that it is Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

is Nathaniel’s response.

It’s really less of a question

and more of a statement

of opinion and assumption:

nothing good comes out of Nazareth!

In response to Nathaniel’s presumption,

Philip simply says: “Come and see.”

Philip is wise.

Both Eli and Philip are wise

because they know that these are not

the moments for wordy explanations

or well-reasoned arguments.

Eli knows that what Samuel most needs

is to go back to that dark and quiet place

near the sanctuary of the temple

and listen very carefully for

what God might say next.

And Philip is wise enough to understand

that nothing he can say will convince

Nathaniel that something holy

can come from Nazareth.

Nathaniel has to be willing

to “come and see” for himself.

These stories are about making room enough

to look and listen,

for the movements

and revelations of the Living God

who is able to do something new.

A couple of weeks ago I

caught an interview on the public radio show Fresh Air

with actor and comedian Tina Fey.

In the interview she reflected on the

art of improvisational acting which, she noted,

has had more influence on her own acting

than all of the other methods and techniques

she learned during years of training.

Improvisational acting means

being on stage with others with no script to follow.

A topic or situation might be suggested,

but it is up to you, the actor, to create

the story, the dialog and the action

in the moment--a truly spontaneous performance!

Tina Fey said that when she trains other actors

in the art of improv, she often asks them:

“When do you know it is time for you to enter the scene?”

Beginners will often answer:

“When I have something to say.”

“When I have a great idea of how to develop the scene.”

She said it takes time to learn that

“you enter the scene when someone needs you.”

And in order to know when someone needs you

you have to stay focused,

you must listen deeply,

and let go of more self-conscious

assumptions of what you should be doing

or should be saying.

She noted, “Improv is about relationship . . .

When you don’t know what the next thing is,

you must be actively listening to know

how to respond to your fellow actors.”

I found that interesting,

and good wisdom for much more of life

than just improvisational acting.

To know when to act,

to know how to respond,

to know where to lend our voice,

we must sometimes suspend

our own quick judgments and assumptions--

our own questions like,

“can anything good come out of Nazareth?”--

and we must listen deeply

and “come and see.”

Living in faith requires improvisation--

working with what is there at hand in the moment

listening for the leading of the One

who is prepared to do a new thing.

It is a challenge to do this individually,

and an even a greater challenge

to live this way as a community.

How hard it can be for the church

to engage the world with an improvisational spirit!

The history of the church holds many

reminders that there is great risk for those of us

who form the church to grow set in our ways,

to follow the long-held patterns of our congregating

simply because that is how it has always been done,

and in the process to miss

the One who is among us now,

and within us now,

calling to us now,

seeking to lead us now in life-giving ways.

We in the church do well to remember that the ones who were

most resistant to Jesus when he taught long ago

were the religious folk,

those who were presumed to be close to God,

those who were most a part of “the fold.”

Those were the ones who had the most

difficult time listening, adapting, responding

to the “good news” he was trying to offer.

They had a tough time living improvisationally.

Something similar happened in many parts

of the church in North America

more than five decades ago

when a great struggle was going on

for desegregation and racial freedom in this country.

In a few parts of our society

the church was fertile ground for this struggle--

it was a sanctuary,

a place for planning,

a jumping off point for lunch-counter sit-ins

and bus boycotts and freedom rides.

However, in the majority of places

the churches were places where

the lines of separation were most visible,

and where there was either tepid

support voiced for the civil rights movement,

or outright resistance.

In April of 1963, on Easter weekend,

Martin Luther King, Jr., was arrested in Birmingham, AL

for leading a protest in that city.

While he was in jail, the Birmingham News,

the local newspaper, published an open letter

from eight white local pastors who were

considered some of the “liberal” clergy of that community.

In the letter they voiced their sympathies for

the freedom struggle but called the methods

of King and the protesters “unwise and untimely.”

This is what Dr. King wrote in reply:

[read excerpt from the Letter from a Birmingham Jail]

King wasn’t just writing to southern churches,

and not just to Southern Baptist churches,

but he was challenging all churches

who might prefer to put “order before justice. . .

who prefer a negative peace which is the absence of tension . . .”

He was speaking to Mennonite churches, too.

During that same period a young, African American

Mennonite church leader named John Powell,

who had worked with and been mentored by Dr. King, was facing

similar reticense and even outright resistance

in Mennonite church circles.

In Wichita, Powell converted a laundromat

into a place called The Brothers’ House,

a community center where religious leaders

could come together for dialog on race issues.

Soon after that he was appointed to become the executive secretary

of Minority Ministries Council of the Mennonite Church in Elkhart, IN.

During his time there he worked on a document

that suggested particular ways of empowering

Mennonite congregations in African-American,

Hispanic and Native American communities.

During a meeting held in Turner, OR where he was presenting

these ideas, a Mennonite pastor stood up and said,

“If we do what John Powell says to do, the next thing they’ll

have me out of my pulpit and [a black man] in there.”

Except the pastor didn’t use the words

“a black man” and instead used

a far more insulting and degrading word.

After experiences like those, John Powell

eventually left the Mennonite church.

However, as a recent article in The Mennonite magazine recounts,

over two decades, Powell eventually chose

to return to the Mennonite Church.

He now serves as a mission advocate to conferences

for Mennonite Mission Network.

In reflecting on why he came back he said

It was because of “brothers and sisters who loved me to death.

They invited me to meetings. They listened to me.

They became increasingly involved in the struggle for civil rights.”

They invited . . . they listened . . . they became involved . . .

The church was finally willing to “come and see” you might say.

Powell has been a bit like Philip in the gospel story,

encountering a very resistant and reluctant Nathaniel.

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Powell’s role was and is much like Philip’s

response to Nathaniel when he said

“Come and see.”

As part of his meeting with groups as a mission advocate,

he sometimes asks folks to go out, two-by-two

into their community for a few hours and simply

walk around and observe -

to see, taste, smell their community.

Then the pairs come back together and share

what they have seen and Powell asks them

to “listen for the intersections” in their stories

because “that’s where God is at work.”

In this way, he says, “we let the Spirit move us.”

That is the improvisational church.

That is the church willing to release

long-held patterns of resistance a presumption,

and listen for a God who is willing to do a new thing.

It is relatively easy for us to listen for each

other’s voices here in this congregation.

It is also easy to get caught up and trapped

in the workings of our own little world.

I’m intrigued by this very concrete spiritual practice

of walking beyond our doors, and walking the

streets of our community and simply taking things in

with as much openness as we can muster.

I wonder what that might be like

to give that a try as a congregation.

That might be a very good thing to do tomorrow

if you have the privilege of a day off from

work or school to mark the life of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Go for a walk, look and listen and smell and taste this community.

And if we do that we might ask ourselves

Where is God at work?

Where is the Spirit leading us to be?

What are we being invited to “come and see”?