February 18, 2024       Acts 2:42-27; John 12:1-8

Lent is a good time for reflection, for introspection, or for reviewing our relationship with God and with one another.  Over my 12 Lenten seasons with you here at Hunting Ridge, we have used a variety of themes to carry us on our journey to the cross and the resurrection of our Lord.  Over the next four Sundays we will be exploring our attitudes about several arenas of our lives as individuals and as a church—the way we practice our faith (today), the way we identify culture (next week), and then how we look at gender and then paying attention to how race impacts the way we interact with one another in our church family.  We each carry within us a perspective, a worldview, a belief system that is either embedded in us or which we have intentionally adopted with respect to any of these arenas and more.

I invite you to walk with me this Lent as we explore how the scriptures and our Christian ancestors speak to us in our current society full of so much variety and diversity.  We will find that sometimes this variety can create division.  

Our word for today is PIETY.  It is not a word we use all the time. Yet it is something that affects our lives day in and day out.  Piety is the way you choose to approach God, the way you practice your faith.  You may have grown up with a certain style of worship music or you have adopted gender inclusive language for God.  You may shout “Amen” during the sermon or you may feel uncomfortable when others clap while singing.  You may feel comfortable praying spontaneously or you may prefer to use prayers prepared by someone else.  You may best connect with God in this sanctuary or you may best connect with God in private.  You may feel strongly that the patterns of prayer found in scripture are what must be used or you may appreciate different expressions and styles of prayer.

For example, as the Christians first began to form groups of believers, not yet church families per se, they began to set themselves apart from those who continued to practice Jewish forms of piety, The established Jewish patterns of relating to God.  Listen to some of the activities the first congregation engaged in: (read Acts 2:42-47). Worship was definitely a communal, corporate experience—they became close knit, selling their possessions to support those in the body who were in need.  They spent lots of time together in the temple, praising God. It appears that being a part of a group was essential for their expressions of faith.  They could support one another as they grew in understanding and belief in Jesus as taught to them through the apostles teaching, and the wonders and signs they were observing. They practiced their faith together, praising God.  And they were identified by their neighbors who were not in the group as belonging to this group of believers in Jesus. We don’t know if some preferred one kind of song or prayer over another at this point.  Maybe this was all too new to have developed different expressions of piety within the Xn community.

Piety is not right or wrong. It is when one person’s piety clashes with another person’s piety that it can cause discomfort, alienation or hurt feelings.  I want to tell you a story about a congregation I know. 

Like many congregations these days, this one was what we call “purple”—meaning it was made up of a mixture of red leaning voters – generally Republicans in this century—and blue leaning voters—generally Democrats.  So there was what you might call a fault line in the body of the church regarding political persuasion.  Not so unusual in many churches.  And, like many congregations, in this purple church there were other fault lines: generational differences, differences in how to define the mission of the church, differences in the ability to accept church leadership of non-heterosexuals.   Fault lines exist because we have more than one member in this body of Christ and we have different attitudes about various arenas of our lives.  And we should!  If we all thought the same, life would be pretty boring at Hunting Ridge Presbyterian.  In this  “purple church”, one fault line was piety—the way the church members preferred to worship, to pray, to study, to connect with God. This too is not unusual.  But they learned the hard way that the key  to a healthy church familyis how we manage our fault lines, how we understand our own attitudes and the attitudes of others, in this case around piety.

When this purple church went through a pastoral transition, they discovered that they were no longer able to manage their fault lines effectively.  They found out that a large contingent of members did not like praise music and only wanted to hear the magnificent organ.   They found out that another contingent of the members preferred to pray always and only to God our Father, alienating some who felt God could be addressed with many names. There was one group who felt more comfortable in the informal evening worship in the fellowship hall and another group who would never attend that service.  On one side of the fault line were those who tended to be more theologically conservative, and on the other, those who tended to be more theologically progressive, or liberal. Our theology, the way we talk and think about God, definitely affects our piety, the way we prefer to practice our faith, both privately and as a church family.

The problem in this purple church came when the interim pastor was so very different from the retired pastor. The two groups ended up with hurt feelings on both sides, the Presbytery had to come in to lead “listening sessions” for church members to air their concerns and listen to the concerns of others, and the interim left after six months under very ugly circumstances. 

In our church family we too have a variety of expressions of piety.  For some, walking into the sanctuary carrying the cross is meaningful and holy.  For others, that may feel “too Catholic” and it disrupts their approach to worship.  For some, shouting Amen is familiar and encouraging to the preacher.  Others prefer to be more quiet as they contemplate the words being heard.  For some, the days when the organ is played are favorites, and others have no attachment at all to the organ.  Some long for more songs like the ones on the Christian radio stations, some find comfort in the centuries old .  For me, this diversity in our expressions of piety is an advantage, a blessing, as long as I can identify and be aware of the basic truth that not everyone has the same form of piety that I do. 

In contrast to the group gathered for praise in the book of Acts, listen to the account describing another form of piety, found in the gospel of John.  Jesus is getting close to the end of his life.  He is at an intimate gathering with friends in Bethany, a suburb of Jerusalem.  Listen:  (read John 12:1-8)

Mary and her siblings were close friends with Jesus.  Surely they had bonded when the brother Lazarus died and Jesus came to comfort them and to raise Lazarus from the tomb! There are other people in the room when Mary pours the costly perfume onto Jesus’ feet and wipes them with her hair.  But Mary is alone in her supreme act of devotion and love expressed to Jesus.  No one else joins her.  In fact, Judas, one of the disciples, scorns her action as wasteful and unnecessary.  Little did he know.  Her act of faith expresses a piety that grows out of a deep love for Jesus and self-lessness.  She pours out for Jesus a gift that has cost her dearly, a perfume that could have been used for many years drop by drop.  Mary values Jesus very highly. Her way of expressing her belief in him and his message is deeply personal, silent, involving the sense of touch.

What is piety?  How does your piety differ from the piety you see among your fellow church members here at HRPC? We left some space for you to note your own answer to those questions—I am going to stop and give you some time to do just that.  Find something to write with! You an take your notes home, but I also would love to collect your definitions at the door.

Each Friday during Lent, our question of the week will connect with the attitudes we will focus on during worship the next Sunday. This Friday, I asked:  “How do you communicate with God?”  You see, the style of your communication with God is a part of the way you express your faith.  Listen to some of your answers to that question:

“I communicate with God through … appreciation, alms giving, acknowledging His presence in everything, everywhere, all at once !!  This Lent I will try to pray every hour for at least 2-3 min.”  Wow!

“I communicate with God through direct prayers and by trying to have a God-mindset, letting God permeate my thoughts all the time and in that way guide my actions.”

“Some of the ways I communicate with God include music, meditation, art. Through worship services or group activities, and most importantly through prayers… I listen and find answers in faith that indicate that God has answered my prayers or that God is pleased with my praise and worship.”

            Here at Hunting Ridge Presbyterian, our piety has a wide variety of expression. And that is healthy.  It calls for respect of one another’s preferences, being willing to sing a different kind of music or pray in a different way.  And it just might expand your own faith practice as you engage in a piety different than your own.  With that kind of attitude, we will manage the piety fault line just fine.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

As we sing Lord of the Dance, think about who faith is expressed here—it is basically the story of Jesus in song.