Sermon (03 Lent, Cross 2017) Mark 8:34 9:1 Wizard of Oz or Field of Dreams? For most Christians, missionary work is like The Wizard of Oz. In the Wizard of Oz, we meet Dorothy and her dog Toto on a farm in Kansas. Dorothy is separated by a terrible tornado from her family. The tornado picks her up and takes her to a far away and fantastic place called the Land of Oz. There in Oz she meets Glinda, the good and kindly fairy godmother of Oz. Glinda tells Dorothy that if Dorothy wants to go home, there is a yellow brick road that will take her to glorious Emerald City. There in Emerald City lives the Wizard of Oz, and this Wizard will take care of her. And so Dorothy goes. She follows the yellow brick road to Emerald City, and along the way she makes some friends who also have needs. There is a lion who needs courage. A tin man who needs a heart. And a scare crow who needs a brain. Glinda sends them all to the Wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz. For most Christians, Glinda -- the fairy godmother of Oz -- Glinda is the ideal missionary. Glinda finds Dorothy, who is lost and wandering outside the city, and she tells Dorothy how to move from the outside to the inside -- Glinda gives her a golden path to Emerald City -- the City which promises to help her with what she needs. Glinda tells Dorothy, there is a place called Oz, and you need to go there. Missionaries, many think, are like this. It is the job of the Christian to go and find people who are not part of the Church, and to join them to the church. This is how the church grows. The church is an emerald city that should dazzle and satisfy, and we build our yellow brick roads so that those on the outside might choose to move inside. The missionary is the one who goes out and finds the wandering Dorothy and tells her about the Emerald City of God, and that she needs to go there. For many Christians, this is missionary work. But not for Orthodox Christians. To understand the Church s mission, don t look to the Wizard of Oz from 1939. Look instead to the 1989 movie, Field of Dreams. In Field of Dreams, we meet Ray. Ray is farmer in Iowa who is troubled by a broken relationship with his father. But his father is no longer alive and so he healing is not possible. But Ray begins to hear a voice, and the voice convinces Ray that he must tear up his farmland there in Iowa, and build a place to play baseball. Even if you have not seen movie, you probably know what the whispering voice says to Ray there in his 1
cornfield. It s one of the most famous lines in movie history. The voice says, what: If you build it (They will come). If you build it, they will come. (Keep that in mind.) And so Ray does this crazy thing. He gets rid of his corn and builds a baseball field where one does not exist, so that people can play baseball where baseball is not played, and so that people will come and support a team they did not know existed. And it does not matter to Ray. This does not make sense financially. His family thinks he s crazy. The town thinks he s crazy. But he is captured by the power of a vision to bring baseball to a place where baseball does not exist. He is captured by the power of that voice which says If you build it ( they will come. ) For Orthodox Christians, the good missionary is not Glinda the fairy Godmother of Oz. The good missionary is farmer Ray from Iowa. The Church does not grow by finding people and joining them to a church that already exists. Our mission is not to attract outsiders to Emerald City. The Church grows by moving to new places where the church does not exist, and by building new Eucharistic communities there so that the vision of life in Christ might be possible in places where it does not now exist. In Field of Dreams, there is no baseball in Iowa. So Ray gives up his corn and builds a baseball field. This is the Church s mission: to go where the church does not exist, to build new Eucharistic communities, and to be faithful to the vision of a shared life in Christ. Brothers and sisters, you and I and every Christian person is a missionary. But we are not called to be missionaries like Glinda from Oz. We are called to be like Ray from Iowa. We are not called to make Emerald City bigger. That s not the most important thing. We are called to be faithful to the vision that says to build, and to risk, and to join in. Glinda tells people where to find the church. That s nice, but farmer Ray builds a church for the people and then supports the vision which the church offers to those who live nearby. 2
Ray doesn t go and find baseball players, or find baseball fans. Ray builds the field. He supports the vision, and everything else unfolds as it needs to. For Ray back there in Iowa, there is a voice that whispers in his ear. For us too. As missionaries, there is a voice that whispers in our ear. It is the voice of Christ. For Ray, there is a vision that leads to his conversion. For us too. There is a vision that leads to our conversion. And this vision is placed before us this morning in the middle of the church. The vision we are called to be faithful to is summarized most powerfully in the cross of Christ. Farmer Ray did not train new baseball players. He did not educate new baseball fans. He built a field, and then he was faithful to the vision of baseball there in Iowa. The same is true for us. Maybe Cape Ann is a cornfield that needs a ball park. Maybe Cape Ann or Manchester or Danvers or Middleton or Saugus has no Eucharistic community and needs one. Maybe new missions are needed elsewhere. Maybe. And we should pray and be open to God s direction on this question. But where a parish does exist -- for instance right here in Salem -- your job and my job as missionaries has only just begun. Our job is to be faithful to the vision. To be faithful to the cross of Christ in the middle of the church reminding us that God gives himself to us in love, and he invites to do the same. Our church this morning is also a baseball field on farmland. But our church is still only a vision of what God hopes to see here. And His voice still calls to us to build and to be faithful. Behold the cross of Christ and be faithful to its vision of worship and sacrifice. Be faithful to the cross of Christ during the week and prepare yourself to receive communion on Sunday at the chalice. The eucharist is a fixed point on our calendar. Each day looks to the next time we receive communion, and each day looks back in gratitude for the holy mysteries we last received. Be faithful and pray. Create an atmosphere of prayer around you, at home and work and in the market place. For some people, all they can manage is a few minutes of prayer as the day begins and a few Lord have mercy s as the day unfolds. But if you earn a living wage, this is not you. If you can live on what you earn, you have made 3
choices. You have made the choice to give God only a few minutes. Be faithful to the vision set before us in the cross and find time to give yourself to God in love and keep a healthy rule of prayer. Be faithful and participate in worship. For some, only Sunday on occasion is possible. But if you earn a living wage, this is not you. If you can live on what you earn, you have made choices. Even if you live far away from this church, there have been many faithful Farmer Rays in the past, building churches near you. Be part of their services as you can. Be faithful to the vision set before us in the cross and find the time to worship at Saturday vespers and Feast Days. These are part of the beating heart of our life in Christ. Be faithful to the vision and love your neighbor. For some, it is only possible to write a small donation to the church and to local charities. But if you earn a living wage, this is not you. If you can live on what you earn, you have made choices. You have made the choice to let others welcome the stranger and to honor the poor and suffering. Be faithful to the vision set before in the cross and find the time to love your neighbor, up close and in person. In the end, the cross is a vision. It is not a set of expectations. It is an invitation into something that might be. The cross is a hint and a promise of what life will be like for those who honor the Christ who carried that cross. In the church there are no minimums. There are no expectations. No one will say: you must pray 4 hours a day, and attend 8 services a week, or give a $1,000 a day to the church. In the church, there are no minimums. In the church, there is only the cross. *** The cross does not demand a minimum. The cross, my brothers and sisters, the cross is a vision of maximums. The cross reminds us that Christ gives us everything he has and everything he is, in love. And he invites each of us to do the same. Christ s love for us is extreme and beyond reason. And the vision is to return that love in way that is also extreme and beyond reason. 4
*** The Wizard of Oz is a good movie, but it is not an action plan for the church. Our goal should not be to attract others and swell our numbers. Our goal is not to make the Emerald City more Emerald-y. Our goal is to build more emerald cities where they do not exist. To build ballfields on farmland, like Ray from Iowa. The one who heard the voice. The one who had a vision, and who was faithful to the vision. *** Earlier, I tricked you. (Forgive me.) I said you probably know the famous line from Field of Dreams even if you never saw the movie. The voice that whispers to Ray in cornfield. Remember? It says what, If you build it (they will come). *** But this is not the line. If you build it, they will come is the most famous movie line that never occurs in a movie. No, the voice says to Ray -- to this farmer who is hoping to heal a broken relationship with his dead father -- the voice says, If you build it, he will come. If you build it, he will come. And the same is true for us. God whispers to us, and calls us to be faithful to the vision of this our ballpark in the cornfield. He calls us to be faithful to the vision of life in this Eucharistic community. And if we are faithful -- if we build it with all we have -- then we need not worry about whether they will come. God will take care of the they. If we build it, if we build our life here on the vision of prayer and love if we build it, He will come. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be with us even in the midst of the two or three who are gathered in His name. 5