Everyone – Decentering
5 November 2023
Miak Siew (FCC)
Let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, there was a church located at the heart of town, and not only in terms of physical location, but also its involvement in the community. It was where town hall meetings were held, it was where people gathered when there was a major decision to be made, or when there was a crisis, and there was once when victims of a fire in the neighbourhood stayed while their living arrangements were sorted out.
The congregation were good faithful Christians.
As time went by, the church grew. And with that came difference in opinions, conflicts, disagreements. Some wanted the church to go one direction, and others wanted the church to go another. And as they grew, the responsibilities grew as well. Because of who they were, where they were, and what the church represented, the town often turned to the church for help.
The responsibilities soon became burdens as the church started to be concerned that their resources were stretched.
Then, because of political strife and war, a wave of refugees arrived. Of course the town turned to the church for help. But the congregation was divided – some wanted to help, but were concerned that they didn’t have enough resources. Some were hesitant, because they were worried that housing these refugees may disrupt their planned programmes and schedules, and some were resistant, because they were concerned about safety, having heard a lot of sensational news about how these refugees are a threat and couldn’t be trusted, and others had misgivings because these refugees were of another faith.
<M1> what do you think the church should have done?
Some time passed, and just like many congregations all over, attendance declined, and the congregation was aging. They wanted to “attract” the younger generation. They wanted to be inclusive, they wanted to be diverse. But somehow, that desire to be inclusive and diverse didn’t translate to any growth.
There were proposals to make changes – make the worship more contemporary, put up some banners – a rainbow flag and a Black Lives Matter banner. Some of these were approved, and some rejected.
Yet they continued to decline. And one sad day, they came together to decide to sell the church building because they could no longer afford to maintain the building maintenance.
I told you a story. The story isn’t based on FCC, or any church in particular, but at the same time, it is about FCC and many other churches at the same time. It is happening over and over again in many churches all over the world.
FYI, it isn’t the story of the church in the photos – I don’t know the story of Parkview Presbyterian Church. It had a history of 161 years before closing down in 2021. Its membership had shrunk to 28 members when it closed.
<M> Why do you think the church declined?
Pauline introduced the current sermon series Everyone with three questions:
Who are we?
What kind of community are we?
What kind of community is God calling us to be?
One answer that I hope all of us can agree on is – we are called to be a Christ-centered community.
I will tell you why I think the church declined.
Because it wasn’t Christ-centered.
But every week that church sang worship songs praising God, praising Jesus! But every week there were cell-groups doing Bible study, and the sermons were “biblically sound.”
Is the church in the story I shared a Christ centered community? It may have been at one point in time, but over time, they lost their way.
<M> Then what is a Christ-centered community?
A Christ-centered community isn’t A) a community that has a lot of statues or paintings of Jesus all over the place, or bible verses all over the walls, B) a community that talks about Jesus all the time.
In 2010, when I was in seminary, the president of the seminary retired and had a trip to Indonesia. We managed to invite him to preach one Sunday as he transited through Singapore. After his sermon, a member messaged me “he didn’t talk about Jesus!”
Being Christ-centered doesn’t mean we just talk about Jesus all the time. A Christ-centered community lives it out. That doesn’t mean we have to do it perfectly. We will constantly asking ourselves “how does being loving look like” in new situations that we have not encountered before. We will make mistakes, and that is part of the journey. We are not asked to be perfect, what is required is “Follow me”
A Christ-centered community is – one whose actions are aligned with values / ethos / teachings of Jesus – in particular the love commandment(s) of loving God and loving our neighbours.
It is not enough to proclaim on top of our voices in song or prayer or ritual that Jesus is Lord and saviour. It is not enough to just believe in Jesus’ teachings.
Too often, talking about Jesus is a substitute for living out what Jesus taught. Jesus taught justice, love, compassion – and these are central to the Christian faith!
Let me return to the story I started with this morning.
The church in the story probably checked all the boxes expected of a church – doing bible study, prayer, worship – yet they missed the mark somehow. Somehow, along the way, Jesus wasn’t at the center. They were at the center. What we do that’s expected of church (bible study, prayer, worship) is to learn and know values / ethos / teachings of Jesus so we can live them out. They are not meant to be a performance to show we are followers of Jesus. They are to help us follow Jesus.
“Christianity is a lifestyle – a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared and loving. However, we made it into an established “religion” (and all that goes with that) and avoided the lifestyle change itself.
One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain in most of modern Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one’s “personal Lord and Saviour”. The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering in the world is too great.” – Richard Rohr
Jesus told a story in Matthew 25 of judgement and separation of goats and sheep. In the story the people asked, “‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
Christ is the refugee. Christ is the stranger at the door. And just like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, I think when we encounter Jesus, we are most likely not about to recognise Jesus.
I really love the song – I asked the worship team specifically for it.
Jesus be the center of it all!
From beginning to the end
It will always be
It’s always been You
Jesus, Jesus
Nothing else matters
Nothing in this world will do
Jesus you’re the center
Everything revolves around You
Jesus You, at the center of it all, the center of it all
But we need to be careful, that singing that Jesus at the center isn’t the only thing we do – to convince ourselves that we are putting Jesus at the center, but in reality, not doing that.
Because when we ask that Jesus be at the center, we are saying who is not at the center. And who’s not at the center when Jesus is at the center? Us. The opposite of Christ-centeredness is not faithlessness. The opposite of Christ-centeredness is self-centeredness.
I want to read to you the passage from the Gospel of Mark. I want you to imagine – picture in your mind what was happening, as though it was a TV show and analyse the details. Those that stand out – the obvious ones, and the not so obvious ones.
Mark 2:1-12
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door, and he was speaking the word to them. 3 Then some people[a] came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.” 12 And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
<What struck you?>
Some of you may remember that I have preached on this passage before. I pointed out then, how the owner of the house must have felt!
This time round, what I noticed when I was preparing for this sermon is that Jesus healed the man, not because of the man’s faith, but the faith of those who found ways to get around the obstacles bringing the man before Jesus.
And to do that, they had to decenter, and center on the man, and that man in that moment is Christ. (whatever you did for the least of these)
Decentering means we try to understand things not from our own position, but from the other person’s position. We tend to center themselves in conversations about events that happen around us, meaning we see issues solely through our own perspective. Decentering ourselves instead helps us consider other worldviews and experiences.
“listen with curiosity rather than with judgment.” Listen, and try to center the experience on the other person.
Recently, I caught up with one of our members who, till now, even though she has been an FCC member for a year, have not stepped into FCC physically.
We talked about the need for community, and what worked and what didn’t. When we found out we were having members from overseas, we thought one possibility was to have hybrid cell groups so they can join. This is something new to all of us and we are still learning. Hybrid doesn’t work for the people joining online. Everyone present in the room is interacting at a different level than the person joining in online. It is nobody’s fault – as much as we try to include someone – there is an inequality.
So we would be starting a pure online cell group for all those folks in 2024. It would be more challenging – because how do we build relationships when we cannot be physically together? But we are going to be decentering from our experience and allow those who need this online group to be at the center.
We have been working on decentering for a while, whether you realise it or not.
We all come from different financial backgrounds – and you may not be aware – we do have members who struggle. As a community of inclusion – we have always made accessible all our activities to everyone – especially our retreats that can be pricey ($300+ for a weekend!) We would find sponsors so that everyone who wants to come can come. Yes, there is still stigma attached to asking for help – and we want to be as loving as possible so people don’t feel that they are imposing…
We have also been working on inclusion of people with mobility issues. Shawn shared with me how he imagined how Beng Kwang may feel when after service, everybody is standing up around him and chatting while he is on his wheelchair. That is decentering – centering on how the other person feels, thinks, experiences.
Race – Kyra shared about the racism she experienced from another church during our anniversary service. But we must also admit, a lot how we do church is not centered on the experience of people of other races, but centered on the perspective of the majority.
Year ago, another person shared with me their experience of racism – this time here at FCC.
“I have experienced some form of racism in other churches but also in FCC here and there from members who probably did not realise it was hurtful, whether it was jokes about the Tamil/Indian accent or gestures that mimicked Indian mannerisms (eg wobbling of the head). I usually have no problem speaking up against racism in more obvious circumstances, but when I don’t know people well and when I’m often the only minority, and when it’s an implicit remark, I usually end up being unable to say anything and end up feeling hurt/upset without knowing where to go with my feelings.”
However, in my bible studies with Scandal, we’ve also had weeks where we’ve specifically talked about social issues and I’ve had space to talk about my experiences to people who were very intent on listening and understanding the perspective of a racial minority. I have also felt edified when sermons explicitly bring up incidences of racism (but also classism, sexism, etc) and called them out, eg. when you once talked about the insensitivity of the racial majority around the Subway-going-Halal incident. Calling out colourism, racism, etc and hearing from the pulpit that they are displeasing to God has always been affirming.
Some folks became defensive when the jokes / mimick Indian mannerisms were brought up. It was just a joke, we didn’t mean any harm. That’s still centering on ourselves. We want to show we are good people, and not “racists” To decenter, we need to acknowledge the experience of racism, to own up to it, and to do better.
What Scandal (the cell group) did – creating space for folks from a racial minority to talk about their experiences, intent on listening and understanding the perspective of a racial minority – is decentering.
I am not here to make us feel bad or guilty. Rather I am inviting all of us to grow, and be transformed, and to live out the way of life that is Christianity, Jesus’ way.
So that Jesus, not us, are at the center of it all.
Amen.
