“The Church Rummage Sale”
June 25, 2023
Matthew 10:24–39
“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.***
This is the season of rummage sales around where I live. “Rummage” is a word that doesn’t get used much these days. Instead, we speak of garage and thrift sales. Yet, they all involve gathering up from the basement, closets and kitchen cupboards items no longer wanted and then setting up a driveway store in in hopes of making a few dollars as people carry away the items you want to discard.
Rummage is defined as “a confused miscellaneous collection.” A rummage is a mishmash of a great many items that appear to have little in common.
Well, the string of Jesus’ teaching and admonitions in this biblical text makes me think of the word rummage. Jesus is giving instructions to his newly called and commissioned disciples. It’s a rummage of statement that makes me think that for the long-time church-affiliated Christian and the curious unaffiliated soul, there is little in this passage to inspire. Especially now when people in the pews have so many concerns about the church on their minds.
So, I’m not expounding on this passage today, but I am staying with the rummage sale theme. Read on!
Students of church history and contemporary research believe there is a church rummage sale underway. I’m not referring to those empty pews, untouched hymnals and unused Sunday School desks. This rummage sale is far larger.
It is generally agreed that every 500 years or so the church has a rummage sale. This curious observation was first made by the late Anglican bishop Reverend Mark Dyer and advanced by author and religious professor Phyllis Tickle in her book “The Great Emergence.”
Tickle uses the rummage sale to describe religious change over the years, looking back at history to show that the church “cleans house” roughly every 500 years and three things usually happen:
Ø a new and more vital form of Christianity emerge;
Ø the old, existing structures of the church — which had gradually become rigid, fossilized, and unbending are changed for the better.
Ø both the new form and the old form of the church begin to reach new geographies and new groups for Christ — something that could never have happened before.
This is hopeful for us today, even as data shows that since the youngest Baby Boomers were toddlers, church participation has been slowly declining. There’s no debating that in the past few years, traffic in and out of churches has dropped noticeably. The latest Pew Research Center survey finds Christians in the USA still make up a majority of the population, 63%, yet down from 75% just ten years ago. (From Pew Research Center, December 14, 2021 “About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated).
Today, as churches close, buildings are sold to be converted into breweries, condos, even sports centers with climbing walls, there is history we need to look back upon to gain some perspective.
The first rummage sale occurred around 500 B.C when religious and philosophical enlightenment was happening simultaneously across the East and the West. The Jews return from exile in Babylon bolstered by the writings of their greatest prophets. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle take Western philosophy to new heights in Greece.
Five hundred years later, a great transformation occurred with the birth of Jesus, “Emmanuel, God With Us” who brought a new understanding of God and God’s relationship with humanity. After a mere 30 years Jesus is crucified and resurrected. He and his disciples launch the global church. Forty years later the Romans encircle Jerusalem and destroy the temple, leading to Christianity’s gradual departure from its Jewish roots.
Around 500 A.D. the Roman Empire collapsed bringing about the “Dark Ages” a period of decline in culture and science. Superstition and corruption marked the Roman church. Yet, Pope Gregory the Great provided spiritual and political leadership in the power vacuum of the era. He launches the first large-scale mission from Rome to Britain while guiding the people of Rome through natural disaster, starvation and times of plague. His advocacy of monasticism ensured Christianity would survive as the church went underground with monks and nuns practicing the monastic tradition in abbeys, convents, and priories.
At the dawn of the new millennia in 1054 A.D. the Great Schism occurs, referring to the Christian Church splitting into two. Spiritual leaders of both the West (the Catholics in Rome) and East (the Orthodox in Constantinople) excommunicate each other over fine points of doctrine and practice.
500 years later the Reformation began in 1521 when a German monk named Martin Luther nailed his list of 95 theses (theological talking points) on the church door in Wittenberg hoping to bring reform to Catholicism. Instead of dialogue he unwittingly ignites a revolution resulting in new branches of Christian tradition (the Protestants), with different understandings of how people relate to God personally through direct prayer and individual reading of the bible. The invention of the printing press makes the Bible available to the common person for the first time in history.
Every 500 years or so, Tickle says, there were tectonic shifts in culture and the Christian tradition, resulting in huge changes of both understanding and practice.
So, here we are 500 years later at a hinge point in history again. Our culture has shifted dramatically in recent decades with immediate access to information, dramatic changes in the definition of the family and the diversity of culture. We continue to debate the role of women in the church, inclusion of people of other sexual orientations and how to understand the Bible and its application to complex issues.
Amidst all this, Christian tradition is impacted and altered by how we understand who we are, why we exist, and where God is in our lives.
The rummage sale is on.
In 500 years this current rummage sale might be called The Great Emergence. It is an intriguing and dynamic moment in history, even as it is a discouraging and disorienting time for many who cherish a deep love for God and the church and wish their children, grandchildren and others shared that same regard.
I’m not going to live long enough to have the vantage point of history to look back upon this rummage sale to see what church has lived on. But I do envision a religious movement that crosses many boundaries, seeks common ground and provides thoughtful and accepting community for mutual support. This spiritual movement must embrace causes that impact the lives of people as ways to live out Christ’s call to serve others and make his grace known.
What do you believe will be the church of the next 500 years?
God has always been in the business of doing something new. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19). That new thing may not be a familiar thing. This enduring truth has to be rediscovered by every generation for the basic message of Christianity is one of resurrection and renewal. “The old life is gone; a new life has begun.” (II Corinthians 5:17)
