Robert's Rules and Righteousness

Good morning, Riverside, Good morning, Riverside. There's a viral video going

around of a little girl trying to make her bed with a fitted sheet,

and at each corner of the bed she says, help me, Lord,

And that's I decided that would be my pre sermon prayer this morning. So

pray with me, Help me, Lord, help us Lord Amen. I

would like to begin today with some embodiment, as we've grown accustomed to doing

with Reverend Thorn at the helm. I want you to look around your pew

or your home, and I want you to take out the blue Bible nearest

to you. If you can't find one, walk around and find one.

If your neighbor can't find one, help them out at home. If you

need to go, look on your bookshelf or under your bed, or on

your nightstand or in a box for that, go for that. I want

you to hold this Bible, and if you don't have one at home,

let me know. We don't want anyone to go without a Bible at home.

All right, We're going to hold our physical Bible. We don't use

these super often in our hands in this church, and I really like them

because I like to know what's going on around the parts that people are talking

about. But I want us to take a minute and just feel the book.

There's nothing special about these pages or this cardboard. This will eventually be

recycled when the next generation comes around, but I want you to feel it

with your senses, all four, not five. Although it is the bread

of life, we're not going to eat it. But let's take a look.

Mine has some nice binding breakage, which is kind of fun to look

at. Does yours have a dedication in it? Some of them do,

some of them don't. I like to smell old books, feel the pages.

I think sometimes we avoid opening it up because we don't want to make

too much noise. Let's make some noise. Let's do some rustling. Feels

good, I think, better than a kindle. I want to remind you

that anytime you're in our service and you feel curious about what's going on,

you can grab this thing. If you're bored about what's happening, there's some

crazy stuff in here. My dad taught me that a lot of the Bible,

he knows, he learned from being bored in church, and I have

done that ever since. I learned that is to start learning my Bible if

I'm not learning anything else, Lord have mercy, right, But these blue

Bibles are are a nice tool, and I want you to know that we're

going to come to this. But let's open to two thirty six, page

two thirty six at the back. These particular versions they like to start the

page numbers over at the New Testament, So I want the two thirty six

that's at the back of the book. Page two thirty six is our scripture

reading for today. So if you want to have it open and be looking

at it, that's fine. If you want to set it aside for when

we're going to use it at the end, that's fine too. But there

it is, page to thirty six in our bibles. If you have any

trouble finding it on yours at home, you can look at the table of

contents at the front. And of course Second Peter comes after First Peter.

That's helpful. Second Peter is a letter written to the church. And while

traditionally this book is attributed attributed to Peter, many scholars believe that Second Peter

is written in the face of Peter. That's how they would have said so

from the perspective of Peter. From petrine followers. I look that word up.

I've read it a number of times. Trust me, it's actually pronounced

petrine, but it means followers of Peter. They got together and they would

remember the vein of thinking of Peter, and they would write in that vein.

So many scholars believe that that's where this book came from. Many don't.

It was a common practice at the time, and several books of the

Bible we believe were written this way. But it doesn't really matter. It

doesn't take away from the power of the scripture or the inspired nature of the

scripture, but it does give us some information about what was going on in

church history when it was written. Many people consider Second Peter to be the

latest book in the Bible, so the youngest one. Some people who interpret

the Bible literally tend to date Second Peter around sixty eight CE. Common era

or ad historical critical readers place Second Peter between ninety and one hundred and sixty

eight CE. But let's just say we'll split the difference and say that it

took place about a century after Jesus was born and several decades after Pentecost.

The other thing I want you to know about Second Peter is that he writes

in the second person plural, so whenever you see the word you, you

have to interpret it. And this is my rule, as y'all English doesn't

have a good second person. We're supposed to just get it, which is

why we say folks and friends and you guys, and use guys and y'all.

So whichever I will allow you to choose your own second person floral.

But that's how we have to read it, because there's something different about reading

a scripture that says, y'all better behave yourselves versus behave yourself, bro.

And if we get that wrong, we miss out. This is a book

of the Bible talking to all of us, and we're supposed to behave ourselves.

So Second Peter is writing to the early Church, or at least that's

what we call them. We call them the early Church, even though it's

been at least a generation, probably several since Jesus walked among the disciples.

And I find it that really interesting because even though in the grand scheme of

history, Riverside is a young church, I don't think of us as the

early Riverside and we've been here for ninety three years a couple of generations have

passed through these doors, and it does feel like we're just starting out.

It feels like we've been around the block for a long time. We have

the Riverside Way, we have Riverside issues, Riverside glory days, we have

memories of Riverside way back when, and we have the way Riverside always does

things. But if Second Peter is talking to the early church, then we

are also a baby church, a young church, a church that has tremendous

potential and a lot of room to grow and figure things out. So this

disciple of Jesus Peter, Second Peter, New Peter, Peter's friend Peter.

He's telling a new and ancient church what it means to be the body of

Christ. We can hear it as he's talking to a baby church, or

maybe an ancient church, an old church, an online church, a thriving

church, a slowing church. The message of Second Peter is to all those

kind of churches. And his message is this, B who you were called

to b B who y'all were called to be? Second Peter is a culture

making book. The writer is looking upon the church to say, who are

you going to be in these days? Of peril, of persecution, and

yes, even of apocalypse. Who are you going to be? That's a

big question, especially for a tiny book of three chapters. But Second Peter

Chapter one is guiding us to become the Body of Christ. And my thesis

statement to present to you today is that we will not create a culture of

the Body of Christ by employing a list of rules. Second Peter inspires us

to create this christ culture based on virtues, and that is exactly what we

need today. I want to go back to twenty fifteen. Way back twenty

fifteen, I had been serving the church in some capacity in my whole life.

I had served or attended probably a dozen different denominations, but only recently

what we call a mainline denomination, and it was in the Mainline, specifically

Riverside, that I first encountered, after thirty six years of life, Roberts

rules of order. I know that might seem shocking to some people, but

I'd never served on a committee or board or institution where they'd use them,

and I'd never engaged them at all. All I knew is that everyone in

the room was following a list of rules that I had never seen before,

and honestly, still don't know very well if you don't know what they are,

and I have to assume some of you don't because I didn't. Again,

it just makes me feel better. This is the thing that that helps

everybody know when to say I motion, or I make the motion, or

I second that motion, or let's approve the minutes. Well, I'd like

to call the question all of these phrases I didn't understand. I didn't know.

I've done a little bit of digging about mister Henry Robert, and it

should surprise no one who's used the Robert's Rules of Order that mister Robert came

from a military background, and when he encountered civilian conversations in board meetings,

committees, and churches, he felt that there wasn't very much democracy happening.

People weren't voicing what needed to be heard. So he created Robert's Rules of

Order for the sake of justice. The whole point of Robert's Rules of Order

was to be fair. Now I have to say, I admit that this

is not reflective of my first encounter of Robert's rules. I've been observing them

among us for a few years, and I also see them in the UCC

and all of my meetings, Community Committee on Ministry, the Association, the

conference of every meeting has these special rules and they do provide as the quote

in your bulletin reads a bit of liberty. If you open up the inside

of your bulletin, we always have a quote for a reflection, so that

when you come in you can be thinking about what the themes of the day

are. In the inside of your bulletin. Inside front cover, I have

two quotes. The first one is from Henry M. Robert. We're going

to forgive him for his outdated sexism just for this moment. But his quote

says, where there is no law, but every man does what is right

in his own eyes, there is the least of liberty. The rules liberate

us, and his desire was that Robert's rules of order would liberate meetings so

that people wouldn't dominate, so that you wouldn't get mired and back and forth,

so that there would be a way to make sure all voices were heard.

Awesome, but they can also be oppressive. They can stop good conversation.

They can be used as a bludgeoning tool, ramming decisions through the formulaic

process. And the rules had a lot of extra talking sometimes right, So

do Robert's rules give us a more democratic and fair meeting? Sometimes they sure

do. But second Peter is not a list of rules to follow in order

to behave like the church. Second Peter knows that a good set of rules

is not going to fix or form the church. Rules don't make the culture.

You cannot build a church on by laws. You cannot form a fellowship

on Robert's rules. But even as I say that that might produce anxiety in

you if you are a big fan of the rules and the by laws.

And I understand that we do feel a sense of groundedness and foundation when we

have a nice set of rules to follow. So when I say that all

of that, please hear an asterisk that I know that guidelines keep us on

the narrow path. And this is not a throw out the rules with the

bathwater sermon. But let's look at that second quote in the bulletin. This

is from Henry David Threaux. And we will again exclude, excuse the white

Henry who is using these sexist men only phrasing for the sake of the sermon.

The law will never make men free. It is men who have got

to make the law free. These two Henry's and their quotes on the law

that are opposite, Let me go back to the first one again, where

there is no law, but every man does rud is right in his own

eyes, there is the least of liberty. And then threw the law will

never make men free. It is men who have got to make the law

free. Henry David Threau is an abolitionist, and he wanted to change unjust

rules and laws. He was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination,

but his perspective captured in this quote reminds us that laws are made for liberation,

and if the laws of the land or laws of the church are not

liberating us, they must change. Rules must evolve. Rules do evolve,

and sometimes they evolve towards dysfunction. But if we anchor ours our rules to

virtue, they will evolve towards liberation. We have a lot of rules at

Riverside, and they do change over time. Did you know that until pretty

recently you couldn't wear pants and be an usher. We've had racist rules,

We've had sexist rules, aged rules, anti gay rules, anti children rules.

But thanks be to God, Lord help us the Holy spirit moves and

we change. There are two rules. I'm going to move down to the

communion table. Folks, you can follow me. There are two rules that

are outside in the narthex. I wonder if you can imagine them in your

head what they are. Can anyone look in their mind's eye and tell me

what the one or one of the two rules are that we have posted in

the narthex. No food or drinks in the nave. The other one no

recordings or cell phones. Let's talk about cell phones for a minute. Things

are changing really fast. And when those placards were put up, I don't

know if anyone could imagine what our cell phone life is like right now.

But more than anything, I don't think anyone could imagine that it would be

the way young people show delight. If you've been with a young person,

whether Gen Z or a young millennial or now Gen Alpha, if they see

something they love or someone they love, they pull out their phone and they

take a picture, and then they do the best evangelism of anybody in the

room because they post it to everybody. One time we had kids doing a

protest up here. The youth came in did a protest about climate change,

and one of the youth was sitting in the pews and they pulled out their

phone to take a picture of it because it was so cool. It's happening

in church, and someone told them to put their phone away. That's fine,

that's the rule. The rules are great, But what are we telling

them when their method of delight isn't welcome. So you're welcome to use your

phone and worship in a worshipful way and share and send the pictures and say

this is what we're doing at Riverside. The second rule is about communion or

is that about food? And this is a rule we break flag rally every

month on the first Sunday, we say no food in the nave, and

then we bring in the stickiest, most staining drink there is, grape juice,

and we give it to everybody in cups that are impossible to get open.

We break it. We break the rule because the virtue is to remember

our beloved Christ. That's the virtue. There was a time when I was

doing family worship in Christ Chapel and I tried to have a clergy person with

me every time we did family worship, but they weren't always available, and

we have a rule that only clergy people can serve communion. I'm standing here

in front of everyone involved, everyone who could possibly have anything to say about

that, and I did it. I served communion to the children and families

without being ordained because we wanted to remember Jesus. I don't care at that

point. Rules are great, but those children are going to have the body

and blood of Jesus. And if no one has time for that, I

do. And to you folks who are joining us online during communion, a

lot of churches said, if you are going online to do to do church,

you cannot even have communion because it's not real. If you're not actually

touching the bread that we've blessed in this place, it's not real communion.

Tough luck after the pandemic, you can remember Jesus. It sounds silly,

but it's absolutely what happened in churches across the country. And we decided because

of our virtue, which is valuing that connection, that inclusion, saying that

you are just as important to us as anyone in the room. We said,

no, oh, that doesn't bring quite true with what we know of

Jesus, and we know that Jesus took ordinary things around him, and because

he used them, they became blessed. And so every month we say to

you, go get whatever is ordinary around you, and we bless it,

and God sanctifies it, and you're good to go. Because the virtue is

more important than the rules. I'm not again asterisk throwing out the rules.

There's lots of great rules. I have lots of great rules. As a

parent, A loving parent has good rules for their children. But rules have

to grow and involve and change with us. And we have to ground those

rules. If we're going to make rules for ourselves, or if we're going

to form committees and create by laws and vote and all of this, the

underneath it all, we have to be grounded in those virtues that second Peter

talks about endurance, knowledge, wisdom, love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gunness, self control. And that's how

we can write our laws to be liberating. To conclude, I want to

pray the virtues over us to empower us and to give us the strength and

wisdom we need to behave the way we should behave. I want you to

take that Bible back out, that blue Bible, open it up to page

two thirty six, and I'm going to pray these words over us, and

I just want you to have the embodied feeling of following the scripture along with

your finger. You don't have to say it with me, just silently tracing

the words with your finger as I pray for us, Verses one through eight,

two through eight. Fully, and gracious God, may grace and peace

be ours in abundance. In the knowledge of You and of Jesus, our

Lord, your divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness

through the knowledge of Jesus, who called us by his own glory and excellence.

Thus Jesus has given us through these things his precious and very great promises,

so that through them we may escape from the corruption that is in the

world because of lust, and we may become participants of the divine nature.

For this very reason, we must make every effort to support our faith with

excellence and excellence, with knowledge and knowledge, with self control and self control,

with endurance and endurance, with godliness and godliness, with mutual affection and

mutual affection with love. For if these things are ours and are increasing among

us, they will keep us from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of

our Lord Jesus Christ. Grow us up, God Lord, help us.

Lord, help us and Jesus sam We pray Amen.