He came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power?  Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?  And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?" 
And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house.”  And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.

So,… why are you here?  I’m not asking anything so profound as why you are here on earth.  My question is more mundane.  Why are you here in church?  In fact, why do we need to be in church at all?Can’t we find God better on our own in nature, in our own prayers, or when we read scripture by ourselves?  

I know that many people believe that church is irrelevant to finding God.  For instance, I’ve had men tell me that they find God more on the golf course than in church.  It’s hard for me to buy that since there is nothing about golf that is God-focused.  It seems to me that if you find God on a golf course, it’s accidental. 

Several weeks ago I was talking to a person on the telephone, a man the church had contracted with to help us with something.  In the course of our conversation I tried to explain to him how the church makes decisions.  To find out how much he understood about church operations I asked him if he was a member of a church.  He said that his wife was, but that he wasn’t.  He then said, “But I pray every day.  And I read the Bible.  Isn’t that enough?”  It’s hard for me to respond to comments like that because the way it is asked makes it apparent that my opinion, even as a pastor, doesn’t matter.  It was more a statement than a question.  So I just stayed focused on the business at hand.  So how do you respond to a statement like that? 

A number of years ago I had a conversation with someone in my extended family.  We were talking about church, and she said that she didn’t go to church because she found God more in nature and on walks in the woods than in church.  Again, the comment wasn’t made for me to respond.  I had no idea what to say.  It was almost like a challenge:  “Here’s my opinion.  I dare you to challenge me.  But be warned.  If you do challenge me I’ll consider you to be a religious nut.” 

More recently I was talking to someone who lives in my neighborhood.  She put her beliefs more succinctly:  “I’m spiritual but not religious.” How do you answer comments like this?It’s so hard to answer them because they are not intended to be answered.  In fact, these statements come out like challenges that question how we could be so immature as to actually go to church and to worship each week.  

Back to the original question:  Why do we need church?  Why do we need worship?  To answer requires digging beyond short, pithy little statements.  There is no short little phrase that shows why we need church.  Instead, understanding comes with self-awareness and spiritual awareness, something too few people are willing to work for.  To answer we have start by recognizing a problem that all of us Americans have, a problem that people in Jesus’ day didn’t have.  The problem is individualism.  The problem is our tendency toward me-ism. 

I want you to think for a moment.  Who is the focus of our lives?  You can say your kids, others, even your spouses, but the truth is that the main focus for all of us is on ourselves, our desires, our ambitions, and our plans.  We tend to focus on ourselves and our situation and condition.  And when we do look beyond ourselves, we worship at the altar of the individual.  For instance, who do we idolize in our culture?  Celebrities.  Athletes.  Rock stars.  The rich and powerful.  We even love a television show that is focused on the rise of individuals from obscurity to individual stardom:  American Idol.  But our main focus is that these new idols entertain me.  Everything is about me, me, me. 

Of course, we don’t see it this way.   We see ourselves as loving, caring, and compassionate toward others, but in many cases we are only because caring for others makes me feel good.  Even much of modern American religion has become focused on the individual.  We worry about my salvation, my relationship with Christ, my experience in church, and my spirituality.  The question for many of us is will my faith allow me to get into heaven when I die.  We’ve created a very self-focused religion. 

This brand of individualistic religion has grown in many ways through a new movement that is sweeping through Christianity, something called the “prosperity gospel.”  This is a version of Christianity advocated by Christian preachers such as Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes.  They preach that God wants us to be prosperous; that God wants to bless us with bling;  that if we are faithful to God, and have the right kind of faith, then God will give us all sorts of blessings.  And they preach this while wearing thousand-dollar suits, adorned with thousand-dollar jewelry.  Their whole message is focused on how I, as an individual, can be saved and wealthy at the same time. 

But is this really Christianity?  If it is, then what do you do with passages such as the one in which a rich young man comes to Jesus and asks what he must do? What’s Jesus’ answer?  Sell all you have and follow me?  Sounds like a denial of self rather than a focus on self.  Unfortunately, this kind of self-sacrificial faith doesn’t sell well in modern life where we either are attracted to churches that focus on me, or as we try to create our own little bubble religions where all that matters are my beliefs, my faith, and my version of God. 

This brand of religion and faith would be unrecognizable in Jesus’ day.  They had a much different set of priorities.  In Jesus’ day you were Jewish first, a member of your tribe second, a member of your family third, and then an individual last.  Today we are individuals first, members of our families second, members of our nation third, and often Christians last.  Jesus understood that faith isn’t meant to be individual.  It is meant to be shared and communal. 

Here’s the problem: the focus of all religion and spirituality is not on the individual.  It is on others.  Think about this.  What is the focus of all religions, and specifically Christianity?  It is focused on God and love.  And love is not an individualistic thing.  It is shared.  To love means to be focused on others, and to be part of something larger where love is the rule.  What does love require?  It requires that we move away from being self-contained individuals to being part of something larger, to be part of community.  We are called to love God and others.  That’s the essence of life for Christians.  But it’s not enough just to love.  We are called to be steeped in love and to grow in love of God and others. 

So, where in our culture do we become steeped in love of God and others?  Where do we find messages of love and God outside of the church?  In politics?  In business?  In school?  On television?  In the music industry?  In the film industry?  Where do we find a focus on God and love in our culture? 

Church is the only place in the world that consistently teaches about God and love.  You can dismiss the church, but if you are not in the church, where else are you learning about love?  I’m not asking where you learn the basic concepts.  We all know the basic concepts.  But where do you learn about how to pray and discern God’s voice?  Where do you learn consistent lessons about love?  Where do you hear messages pushing you to serve God in love?  Where do you find opportunities to love?  You can create your own bubble religion and spirituality in which you self-educate in God and love, but by its very nature it becomes a self-focused spirituality because your focus once again becomes on you and your own spirituality.  True church and true community push us into a shared life in which we learn to love people we might otherwise never pay attention to.  And church becomes the place where every worship service, every class, ever ministry, and every mission becomes about love and God.  Where else do you find this to be true in our culture?  Where else is the focus on loving others, having compassion, acting in kindness, serving others, charity, generosity, selflessness?

By their very nature churches are learning institutions, teaching about God and love.  Think about everything we do in a church.  Our worship services are geared toward giving people the opportunity to focus on God, and to grow in love for God.  Sermons teach about God and love.  Our classes, both children’s and adult’s, focus on these issues.  Our youth group focuses on these.  Every committee we have supports the emphasis on God and love.  And our ministries and mission focus on God and love. 

The tradition of being learning institutions comes out of our roots in Jewish synagogues. The original synagogues were created in Israel to help people deepen their devotion to God.  Before synagogues were created, people had to make a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem once, twice, three times a year.  While there they may get the opportunity to learn more about God, but other than that there wasn’t much opportunity.  Synagogues were created to give people the opportunity to learn more about God and the life devoted to God.  People gathered on the Sabbath to worship and learn.  And the rabbis who taught were teachers.  The word “rabbi” means “teacher.”  Even today that’s our focus.  For instance, look at the robes Steve Polley and I wear.  They are not liturgical vestments like the ones Roman Catholic priest wear.  They are teaching robes, the same kinds of robes you see professors wear at graduation ceremonies.  Their point is to emphasize that my role as pastor is to teach you about God and how to grow closer to God.  We are here to teach so that you can learn and grow closer to God. 

Of course some people might say, “Yeah, well I learned the lessons of God and love, so I don’t need church anymore.”  I’ve heard this from many people.  They say that they grew up in church and it didn’t do them much good, and besides, they already know about God and love.  Here’s the truth.  Almost all of them have little more than a ninth grade religious education in God and love.  Why ninth grade?  Because that’s generally the point at which they left church after confirmation, either physically or emotionally.  Could you imagine validating this statement:  “I’ve got a ninth grade school education, so I don’t need high school, college, a training program, or anything else.  I know all that I need to know.”  We all know that this is a silly statement because any kind of work in life requires increased education, even if that doesn’t mean a college education.  If you want to be a mechanic you still have to have a high school education and extra training.  If you want to be a musician, you have to still take lessons and learn.  But people seem to think a ninth grade religious education is enough.  They don’t recognize that churches are devoted to life spent in advanced learning about God and love.  But they think they’ve learned the lessons enough.

I look around at our culture and I have a hard time seeing how the lessons have been learned about God and love.  I see a constant inverse correlation between church attendance and problems in our culture.  An inverse correlation means that as one event diminishes, an opposite event increases.  Think for a moment about where violence, drugs, and other persistent problems are their strongest.  Generally it is in the inner cities.  Think about where churches are at their weakest.  In contrast, where are these problems the weakest?  In the suburbs where churches tend to be their strongest.  It’s not just problems in the culture, but there is a clear connection between church attendance and problems such as abuse, addiction, marital strife, family strife, and the like.  This does not mean that no one in a church can be considered guilty of abuse, have an addiction, get divorced, or things like that.  It’s just that the rates of these are lower in churches, especially in mainline churches such as ours.  And there is also a strong correlation between people who grow up in churches and their ability to resist the temptations of many of the problems that plague children and youth in our culture, and to consistently resist the throughout life. 

Unfortunately so many people have become so cynical about church.  For example, many complain that church is boring.  In our defense I can say that we try to make in somewhat entertaining, exciting, and inspiring, but the fact remains that churches can be considered boring by people who demand to be entertained.  By the way, school is also boring.  Exercise is boring.  Eating right is boring.  Caring for someone who is hurting, grieving, or in trouble is boring.  But we also recognize the value of becoming educated, exercising, eating right, and caring for other people.  And these things can be exciting when we are committed to them.  Over time learning is an exciting adventure, exercise can be fun, eating right can be tasty, and caring for others can bring us a wonderful sense of fulfillment.  But they require commitment just as worship requires commitment. 

Some also complain that the world would be better off without religion.  John Lennon even wrote a song about it.  But is that true.  The world has experimented with the absence of religion.  Look at all the atheistic national movements, or the other nationalist movements that diminish religion.  Look at atheistic communist Russia under Stalin where 25 million people were killed, including many who held onto their faith.  Look at communist China under Mao tse Tung, where 20 million were killed.  Look at China now, a country growing at amazing speeds economically, but that also is ethically challenged because they have no basis for ethical business practices.  Look at Cambodia under Pol Pot where 2 million were killed.  Look at Nazi Germany, where Christians who stood up to Hitler were persecuted, and where 6 million Jews were killed.  Wherever religion is excised, a lack of concern for the individual human rights diminishes exponentially.  Here’s an interesting statistic that I came upon recently, one that is revealing.  Did you know that out of every $4 given to charity, $3 go to religious, church-related charities.  Take way religion, and you reduce charitable giving by 75%.  That’s astounding.

Of course some will say, “But religion causes more wars than any other cause.” That’s simply not true.  Religion has never caused a war, at least not modern religions.  It is the people within a religion who have a power agenda that cause a war by warping what the religion teaches.  For instance, the troubles in Northern Ireland are not a Catholic/Protestant conflict.  The Pope has never issued an edict that Catholics should fight Protestants.  No Protestant denomination has issued a decree that Catholics should be killed.  The conflict is between people who ignore Jesus’ teachings to love our enemies, and do well to do those who treat us spitefully.  Religion doesn’t cause wars.  People abusing religion causes war, and few of these people actually care about their faith when it comes to the conflicts they support. 

Some people complain that all churches want is our money.  That is not all that churches want.  But to be brutally honest, yes, churches want money to do terrible things such as teach children to love God and others, to create youth groups that teach youth to love God and serve others, to offer worship services that lead people to love God and serve others, and to reach out in love to God and others.  We also offer a place where people can contribute beyond themselves to a ministry of God and love.   So, yes, we collect money to use in ministry and mission.  And all the money given to this church goes directly to caring about God and others, whether that is through paying staff salaries or supporting the ministry and mission of the church. 

I do have a theory, though, about all the problems people ascribe to church, because the truth is that sometimes churches are afflicted by scandals, poor decisions, and outright bigotry and a lack of love.  The problems inherent in people still afflict the church.  The best way to get rid of all the problems in churches is to get rid of all the people.  But then you are left with no churches, no places for devotion to God and love.  And then where do people learn about God and love?

So, church,… what is it good for?  I can keep talking about the value of church, but the real value is only understood through personal commitment to worship.  If you want to really understand what the value of church is, you have to actually make a commitment to it.  It’s much like marriage.  You can’t have a good marriage without commitment.  Being present isn’t enough.  You have to invest your mind, heart, and soul to it to make it work.

You’ve heard that to truly live a Christian life requires imitating Christ, right?  Think back to our passage.  Where did it take place?  It took place in a synagogue.  Jesus worshiped.  Jesus was committed to church.  And he led his disciples to do so also, which is why he commissioned them to spread the word and start churches.  Jesus made worship central to his life, as our passage showed.  How central is it to your life?