The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

 When the Pilgrims set out for the New World, they intended to land in Virginia.  Inclement weather forced them to anchor further north, just off the tip of Cape Cod.  Aboard the Mayflower, forty-one of the 102 passengers signed the Mayflower Compact — a 200-word document that was foundational to this new society.  The overall objective of the document was to solidify the covenant they shared with one another and King James I of England, even though they had many reservations regarding the latter.  One of the more curious phrases in the Mayflower Compact appears halfway through it.  The signers of the text claim that they “covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic.”  It’s strange because it does not read as a church covenant so much as a secular one.  After all, they sought to form a “civil body politic.”

But think of that body, for a moment, being akin to Paul’s theology of the church as the body of Christ.  That is a lot different than the way we think of the words “politic” and “politics” nowadays.  For many of us, politics is a dirty word.  We think of it as a diverse term rife with corruption.  It is a polarizing term with people on each side of the political aisle pointing their fingers at one another and blaming them for all the problems in this country.  Even the dictionary defines the word in terms of power, and how one party yields power over the other to influence policy within a nation-state.

That is not how Paul used the word, and it certainly isn’t what our Pilgrim forebears meant.  By politics, the Mayflower Compact seems to evoke a work that would arrive almost 375 years later by the late Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder.  In his book Body Politics: Five Practices of the Christian Community Before the Watching World, Yoder argues that the church is to reflect to the world what the world is supposed to be.  His actual words were the “Church and [the] world are not two compartments under separate legislation or two institutions with contradictory assignments, but two levels of the pertinence of the same Lordship.  The people of God are called to be today what the world is called to be ultimately.”[1]

It is as if our sanctuary walls are made of glass, and the world sees the deeper meaning of our practices, and they want to emulate them.

So, as an example, Yoder offers a highly practical analysis of Matthew 18:18 in which Jesus declares, “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  He does not interpret this passage as a test to determine who is sinful and who is righteous, but as a way to create a society in which mutually-edifying dialogue that reconciles (rather than divides) governs our life together.

This is not to suggest that the Church is perfect or that our Congregational forebears were.  The same people who landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620 would settle colonies all along the New England shoreline.  Seventy-two years after they arrived, they hanged people in a little town known as Salem Village — that certainly is not the model for the world to follow!

But for all of their not-so-closeted skeletons, the Pilgrim Separatists sought to establish a Commonwealth that would be governed by biblical principles and be seen as “a city on the hill,” one that would light the way for others to follow.  The idea is not to force the world to change, but to draw seekers and sojourners — those who seek an alternate society based on the Word of God and not the dictates of a monarch — to draw them to new shores.  The new colonies were that city on the hill.

So, if we think about our theological ancestors and John Howard Yoder’s understanding of the influence the church can (and should) have on culture, we can easily see how it relates to us: their offspring removed by some 405 years.

I do not need to expound upon the state of the world, but it might behoove us to reflect on a few things.  We know our country is divided.  We know that the world is torn asunder by war, violence, greed, hatred, prejudice…you name it.  Even though we have progressed as a species, in many ways we have devolved.  Artificial intelligence is replacing independent thought.  Our devices hold our attention the way a good book or a mutual edifying conversation used to.  I could go on and on and on…  The point is that the church offers an alternative to all of this.  It gives us a perspective that culture lacks.  It enables us to see life through the lens of the Gospel.  That vantage point is hopeful.  It is governed by love, not competition.  It seeks the welfare of all people, not just those who are privileged.

I don’t want to give our Treasurer, Joe Kendall, a heart attack.  We have numerous repairs and deferred maintenance that will surely tax our budget in the months to come.  (Keep praying that the boiler holds up this winter!)  That said, maybe we should renovate our building, tearing down the brick walls and replacing them with pane glass.  That way, the wider community will get to see what goes on in here.  They’ll see our Senior Suppers: opportunities for older members of our community to get an inexpensive, delectable meal, thanks to Rachel Rigoli and her crew.  They will get to see all the outreach work that unfolds within these walls and makes its way across this community, this state, this nation, and the world.  For a church our size, we surely move mountains.  They’ll get to see children and adults engaged in a Christian education curriculum that teaches them biblical principles and Christian values.  They’ll get to see other organizations that use our space — be it Alcoholics Anonymous, a variety of theater programs, and an alternate worship space for our sisters and brothers from the Seventh Day Adventists and the Boston Church of Christ.  They’ll get to see people who run the political gamut join together in fellowship united by their love of Christ instead of being divided by ideological differences.

Imagine the vision people would have…  Imagine the cultural shift that could occur if they took it to heart…

Our Puritan ancestors were far from perfect, but they followed a perfect Law: one found in our sacred Scriptures.  They put their light on a stand for all to see.  When they gathered for that first Thanksgiving, they embodied the words of Psalm 100.  They entered God’s “gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise,” expressing their gratitude and praising God’s name.  They were like the one leper out of ten in this morning’s Gospel lesson from Luke, who, “when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.”

This is what our world needs to see because it is what the world needs.  It needs hope.  It needs to believe that love truly exists.  It needs to be thankful.  It needs to know that it is imbued with a special mission — to work together and with the Living Christ to make the kingdom of God a reality in our midst.  As the great Puritan Governor William Bradford said, “As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort our whole nation.”  Give thanks, my friends, and let your light continue to shine for all to see.  Amen.

[1] John Howard Yoder, Body Politics: Five Practices of the Christian Community Before the Watching World (Scottdale: Herald Press, 1992), ix.