Why do you go to church? In this age of freedom and independence, on a beautiful day like today, why do you go to church, especially in an independent church like this?

There many answers that could be given to that question, but one of my favorite answers comes from the American writer Ann LaMott. LaMott grew up with both parents as atheists, so she had nothing to do with church, but later in her life she began attending church. Her answer to the question was "So I can practice being human."

Church as a Place to Practice Being Human

Somehow LaMott found her way to a church in the ghetto in San Francisco Bay, a very small church, and she arrived there when she was pregnant with her son. The community embraced her, and began to see her as an incubator for their new child. They were so excited anticipating the birth that many of the older women, who were very poor themselves, would sidle up and give her money, and she described it as if they were slipping her cocaine, as if no one was allowed to see. They would arrive on a Sunday morning with bags full of dimes to give to her.

As she became quite famous and wealthy, people still sidled up to her and gave her bags of dimes, because they didn't care how wealthy or famous she was, that's just what they wanted to do.

After her son was born, he would come along to church, and all of the community embraced their family. They practiced being human together.

She tells a beautiful story about her son, Sam, as he grew up hating going to church. She would drag him along to church, and when he got there his eyes would light up as he would see one particular 85 year-old woman, who would sit right up near the back door praising Jesus all the way through the service.

Sam would run to this woman when he saw her, and disappear into her embrace. And the woman would nuzzle her face into the seven year-old's neck Anne says that's what God smells like, the back of a young boy's neck. Unwashed potatoes, as she described it. They go to church to practice being human together.

In most churches that I've ever been involved with in the past, and I'm sure it's true for you as well, you went to church to become more Christian. This is really very strange, when you stop to think about it, because Christianity is just a map, it's not the destination nor is it the journey. Christianity is just a means; it's not an end itself. So often churches can confuse the map with the terrain.

Distinguishing the Map from the Journey

I don't know about you, but my wife Meg and I have most of our best fights in the car, on trips when there are maps involved. Our kids love it when we're fighting in the car, because the attention is taken off them, and for once they're not the ones in trouble, mom or dad is the one getting shouted at.

Picture the scene: A couple is driving on the road, is in new territory, and the driver says "We're approaching 52nd Street, should I turn left or right?" The passenger, the navigator with the map says, "Wow! You should see this beautiful map! The key is amazing on it, and all the roads are marked with different colors, I love this map!" The driver is tearing his hair out wondering whether to turn left or right, and the navigator can't get over the beautiful map.

We're attached to the map, and so often that's the case with religion as well, as we attach to the map rather than being willing to go on the journey that the map points us to.

Being progressive is also just a map. Being independent is a map. All the maps, all the different traditions, whether Christian, or not Christian, have their own map. Each has significance, and each is beautiful in their own way. I want to suggest that they are all pointing to the same journey. That journey is the place of deeper humanity.

Can you Keep A Secret?

Why do you come to an independent church, and an alternative to church as usual like ours? To explore a deeper humanity, and practice it together. Practice being human together. To know the map and to appreciate the map, but not to get stuck in the map. It's pointing us somewhere, and we need to go there, we need to be going on that adventure. There's only one prerequisite to participating in Christ Community Church, and that is a willingness to go on the adventure that is your humanity, a willingness to stand alongside others who are going on the adventure that is their humanity as well. If you say yes to deeper humanity, then you're in.

I'm reminded of a skit from Monty Python called " The Secret Service " in which John Cleese is interviewing someone who wants to join, and asks " Why do you want to join the Secret Service? " He goes on and on with some non sequitor questions, and the final question is, " Can you keep a secret? "

The man says, " Yes." and John Cleese says " Well, you’re in!"

I want to say to you that the question is: Are you willing to go on the adventure? Are you willing to go deeper into your own humanity and to recognize the humanity around you? If your answer is yes, then you’re in. It's as simple as that. There are no questions asked here about what you believe in particular, you craft your own religious beliefs, you shape your own spiritual destiny, and there are no hoops to jump through, the only prerequisite is a willingness to come on the adventure.

Jumping through Hoops

I wonder how many people present this morning have either had this experience or know someone who's had the experience? A young family with a new baby they want to have baptized arrive at church, ask for a baptism and the minister refuses because they are not members of the church. Or because they cannot explain correctly what their Christian beliefs are. And the family is turned way.

I wonder how many of you have had this experience, or know someone who has had the experience where a church refuses your marriage because you've been married before.

So many churches have hoops that you have to jump through. Gay and lesbian people are often excluded from the life of the church because they don’t match up to the church’s ideals. Divorcees are often excluded from the life of the church. You’ve not been baptized in the right waters, you can’t explain things in just the right way; whatever the reason is, and my blood boils every time I hear the story.

In the 15 years I’ve been a minister in the church I can't tell you how many dozens of children I’ve baptized, couples I’ve married, people I’ve accepted in the church who have previously been excluded from another church. It's part of the mission of Christ Community Church to embrace those who have been excluded from other places.

My blood boils when I think about people being excluded from church. It seems to me that every time a baby is turned away from a baptism at church, a nail is hammered into the coffin of the institution. Every time a couple is turned away from marriage because they had been married before, a nail is hammered into the coffin of the institution. And every time a gay or lesbian person is excluded from the life of a community, a nail is hammered into the coffin of the institution. Those institutions will die; there is no future in exclusion. Contemporary minds and hearts will not allow that situation to continue. People will vote with their feet.

My blood boils at the thought of people being excluded from church, and here we are in an independent community with a map that we call “progressive”, and part of that map points us to the inclusion of all people.

The Independent Opportunity

As independents we have a wonderful opportunity, and that is that we might craft our own religion. Your mind is your religion, so craft your own beliefs according to what makes sense to you and your experience.

This tension that we have today between exclusion and inclusion in churches is very similar to the tension that was experienced in the first century between Jews and gentiles. Jewish people had a long history of seeking independence, and over many centuries they were ruled by many different foreign powers. In the first century it was Rome, and the Jewish people lived in a tension between wanting to protect their map of what it looks like to be religious people, and also their right to self-determination.

Rome, on the other hand, had a different agenda, and Jewish self-determination wasn't always part of that agenda. The Jews and Gentiles lived with this very deep tension in the first century.

The statement this morning from Ephesians is one of the most profound statements that I believe has ever been written. It suggests that by the blood of Jesus, Jews and Gentiles could come together.
Ephesians 2
13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

I no longer see that statement as referring to the blood of Jesus paying the price for the sins of Jews and Gentile. I used to see it that way, but now my understanding is very straightforward and human.

That is, in light of such tragic and senseless death, the differences between Jews and Gentiles were now trivial. They were meaningless in the context of such tragedy. You know what I’m talking about because you know what it's like when in the midst of life a crisis strikes, and suddenly the differences between you and others no longer mean anything.

As a couple, when you are struggling in conflict, a sudden crisis will often bring you together, and suddenly you no longer sweat the small stuff. Your humanity overrides the difference. I'm suggesting that that is what it means in Ephesians. The death of Jesus brought these two groups together because they could no longer sweat the small stuff; the differences were trivial and their humanity was united in that tragic and senseless death.

You and I are surrounded by a world of senseless, tragic death and destruction. What the world needs is not religious distinction and rivalry, but more humanity. What the world needs is people coming together, affirming and embracing the humanity that is the destination of all the different spiritual paths.

What better day than Mother's Day to affirm coming together, the birth of new possibility, and I want you to consider one more detail in the Ephesians passage about blood and Jesus. Try to get out of your mind blood as the symbol of suffering for a moment; but rather consider that blood is a symbol of life force and connection.

The blood that ran through the veins of Jesus was the same blood that ran through his mother Mary, and the blood that ran through the veins of Mary was the same blood that ran through her grandmother, and her grandmother, going all the way back to the very first mother, the universe itself.

“We all share the blood of the first mother - we are truly children of one blood.” Layne Redmond.

Consider this reference to blood in Ephesians as the bringing together of all sorts of people despite all sorts of difference. Consider blood as an image of life force and connection.

As independents, we have a wonderful opportunity to craft our own religion without anyone looking over our shoulders watching for heresy or keeping us to orthodoxy. That allows us to retain a wide diversity of beliefs in the one community.

There's a beautiful verse that says, “There are as many names for God as there are tongues to speak them. There are as many faces of God as there are eyes to behold them. There are as many paths to God as there are feet to walk them. No name is the complete name. No face is the complete face. No path is the complete path. “

We have a wonderful opportunity as independents to fashion our own names, faces, and paths to God.

The Independent Responsibility- Interdependence

Being independent comes also with a challenge, or responsibility. Because of your independence, if you stand in isolation from all others and all else, there is the danger of becoming attached to the map.

The very situation that Ephesians is addressing is one you could be part of creating. Being independent is not a license to be isolated, and that's where the phrase interdependence comes in. Life is a journey from dependence to independence to interdependence. That's the journey of humanity- from dependence to independence to interdependence.

So here we are, standing at the point of independence, what will be the quality of interdependence? What will it mean for us to be human together, for us to be a human community, alongside many others all around the world, of all sorts of names, faces, and paths?

There is a beautiful Jewish story about a person who comes to a rabbi and says, “Tell me about Heaven and Hell.” And the rabbi says, “I’ll show you.”

So the rabbi takes him to a room and says, “This is Hell.” In the room was a very large round table with people sitting around the table, and in the center of the table was a great pot of stew, and all the people around the table had huge long spoons, longer than their arms. And the thing about this room is that all the people were very miserable and very hungry. On closer inspection it seems their spoons were so long that they couldn't get them into their mouths. So they're desperate and miserable.

The person says, “Now show me Heaven.” So the rabbi takes him to another room and again it was a large round table and chairs, and people around the table, and a great pot of stew in the center of the table. Again the people had very long spoons, but these people looked very joyful, blissful, and satisfied. And the difference in this room was that they were feeding each other. That's all they could do with their long spoons. Heaven is about interdependence. Heaven is about finding common humanity.

What better day than Mother's Day to be reminded of interdependence, and the flow of blood that runs through every one of us, the same blood as our mother, and her grandmother, and her grandmother, and going all the way back to the very first mother, the earth?

I want to finish with a reading about Mother’s Day, and Mother’s Day in America has very strong activist roots. A woman named Julia Ward Howe, in 1870, wrote this Mother’s Day Proclamation.

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

This could serve as our own manifesto on this Mother's Day as a community standing at the cusp of independence. A manifesto that reminds us that mothers are all about the birth of new possibilities and interconnectedness. And there is a part of every one of us where new possibility is born. And if that manifesto and every mother in our midst can be an inspiration to us today, the life that we live, the world that we have helped to create, is a place where we can put our stamp of justice and peace.

One particular verse in the manifesto stands out for an independent church.

“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.”

Noone will be looking over our shoulders, telling us how to answer the great questions. All are welcome here, to practice being human together.

The only prerequisite for being of participant of this community is a willingness to go on the journey, and that doesn't mean being necessarily good or virtuous. In the words of Mary Oliver,

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

If you say yes to your humanity, and if you say yes to the humanity of others, and if you say yes to being a human community where we are each embraced and encouraged to let the soft animal of our body love what it loves, then you’re in.