How Are We?
July 9
Matthew 18:1-20
In a world left to its own devices people are continually trying to lord it over one another: the rich over the poor, the intelligent over the simple, adults over children, men over women, whites over blacks…and the list goes on…But not so with us; rather let the greatest among us become as the youngest and the leader as one who serves.
One of the things we frequently overlook in the progressive church with our radical welcome is the pathway of discipleship. We have a tendency to think that once people start coming, and then when people join we're all on the same level of playing field. And, although all of us become part of the movement not all of us are at the same point of leading the movement or even cultivating our faith. Becoming a disciple, I believe, takes a lifetime. It takes a lifetime of reading the Scripture of pondering its meaning of doing the hard work of struggling with it as a whole and then many pieces of that whole. It takes a lifetime of prayer and living in prayer. Of being open to the experiences that arise in life: death, grief, poverty, loss, hate, love, passion, desire all of the things that life brings our way and the learning that comes from the consequences of dealing with them as we do.
Faith seems to me to grow with a steady portion of all of these things. Working with a community of people and living with them for awhile. Really hanging with a group of people, allowing them to see you in your ups and downs ins and outs, allowing ourselves to really screw some things up and be completely wrong and then come and ask for forgiveness and allowing ourselves to be forgiven and still a part of this community. Checking in with people throughout it all that we might see the best and worst in one another and accept each other no matter where we are on the journey. And, we do this at our best when we are in prayer and we are focused on growing the Presence of God in the midst of community. But, this means that we have people who have been doing this work for a very long time mixed in with people who are just beginning to do this work. And, as Jesus reminds us today, every voice must be heard, we must all be singing, praying, shouting for our lives. And, we must be comforted and aware that there are people ahead of us on this path. People who are more mature in their faith journey and it is up to these leaders, up to the disciples who have been doing this work for awhile, to open pathways for all.
Now in Matthew's community, there were people who lord this position of being “further along” on the Spiritual journey over others. And, there were disciples who were interested in knowing this as well. Who was the greatest? The appetite for prominence was a problem then, just like now. We all, but particularly those who consider themselves leaders, we must test ourselves regularly with the question, “How are we receiving?” For this change, this turn from being a person in our culture working on lording it over to becoming a participant in the Jesus movement is a change from worldly values to a commitment to bringing God's kin-dom here on earth. We, as disciples, must be working for peace and compassion to rule our world. We, as disciples, must be working to build relationships out of love. And, this work, this turning it's not actually one of just sharing hospitality. As leaders in the Jesus movement, the test is, "Are we considering this person as infinitely valuable to our community?" Are we looking for the blessings within our sisters and brothers and calling them out into being. Are we perpetuating a John Rocker world or are we working to honor all those on the Number Seven train in New York with the John Rockers of this world. We as the people of the Jesus movement we are the ones pushing for a world that has different values than our culture. We are pushing to unite John Rocker and those he despises, by loving the despised and finding ways to teach him about their gifts. As disciples no matter where we are on the journey, our words, our actions, our time commitments, our work, our follow through they all tell our story. We have no time to lord anything over on one another but instead must work to humble ourselves, into being this small baby, dependent, trusting, and loving that Parent God who is there for all of our basic needs and spiritual development no matter how or where it is we got born. For our leader born in the middle of a war zone, born to a woman too young, born of a woman outside of the marriage bed, born to a family with little calls us to remember all of us in this world are infinitely valuable. We do not need anymore crucifixions.
Now, I realize that I just gave a default and many of you are sitting out there going. Cool, she's preaching to herself. Go for it Briget, we love it when you are out there and making us feel like we're important. We like that in a preacher. But, the tricky part here follows. Once we determine that we are going to be part of this movement, we are all called to be leaders. We are all called to be teachers of the gospel. We are all called to monitor our living and actions and wonder how we are serving God in this work, in this time, in this place personally and communally.
It's true, with new believers; we can really do a number on them. And, I think that many can speak to this truth. We set up all sorts of silly games that get between them and this experience of the Presence. And, we have a tendency to ignore them, leave them out by speaking a language they don't understand, or propelling them into positions before they have the call, the skill, and the strength to do the job. It is the responsibility of all of us as part of this movement to be sharing our stories with one another but particularly those of us who've been on the journey awhile with those of us who have just begun, or feel like they've just begun. It's in that sharing that new insights open up, that Scripture comes alive, that the Sprit thrives. In that sharing we see possibilities in one another which allow gifts to surface. And, when we see the stumbling, when we see that someone is isolating, running out of worship, standing alone at Fellowship, doing a lousy job in their serving, not contributing, we must be there. We must be so in tune with one another that we recognize and know when someone needs help. We must know when someone needs to be encouraged, supported, and asked to participate. We must share how we began participating and how that worked. We can share phone numbers, email addresses and ideas of how we can make the experience of community and God more fulfilling for one another. And, this takes all of us, because we aren't all going to connect in the same way and we aren't all going to have the same gifts for sharing which inspire the same conversations. It takes us all hanging in and encouraging and challenging one another to become our whole selves, the whole self that God has created us to be. This test then becomes, “How am I helping myself know God, explore my relationship to God and see God in my life? How am I helping this community to know God and explore our relationship to God?”
To cut closer to the heart of where Matthew is going, I'm going to borrow from 2 nd Thessalonians where the economic sin is not sharing and it's pretty blunt which feels really brutal, but I'm going there. What is this freeloading where certain persons refuse to work but are happy to eat what other people buy? We can get really personal here and talk about our community refreshment time. We have 52 weeks in a year. And, we have 66 members. Of course some members come in couples so that makes up for the slack between the number of weeks and the members. If there are only 52 weeks in a year and if the church budget allows us to buy coffee and lemonade which are available every Sunday there is no reason each one of us can't sign up to do the Fellowship Hour twice a year. It is important to be able to worship together and then spend at least 15 minutes having a cool drink of water, a little lemonade or a hot cup of Fairly Traded Coffee allowing us to catch up with one another. Fellowship Hour is so important, for it allows new folks to learn more about us and us about them. How much effort does it take to come 15 minutes early, make coffee, lemonade and a pitcher of water? Then leave service during the last song, getting out cups and being prepared to refill anything that runs out. Staying until the end of fellowship and wiping off tables and doing all the dishes you pulled out dumping out the extra. It does not take skill and it feeds our community. Not because a meal was served, but because we took time to soak in the presence of one another and touch base. We reminded ourselves how much we like one another. Today's gospel challenges those of us who have been doing the Fellowship time to step back and instead of signing up to do Fellowship Time, step up and ask someone you know has not done it this year or you don't think so. Take the time to show them where the coffee and lemonade are, where they'll find cups and pitchers. It's a lot less of a time commitment than making snacks and lugging things here. Just takes 5 minutes of asking and directing. And, it touches the lives of all who stay for refreshment, which on average is at least half of the folks who are in worship. That's about 30 people these days.
Being part of a community takes discipline. It takes self awareness. It takes conviction. But, it only takes an emergency like a health scare, a death, a transition to remind us how valuable it is not to be alone or without support in our living. How are we doing here at First? Matthew's clear as are the words given to Jesus this morning; it is all up to us and our discipleship. Let's all do our share to make this community sparkle with the Presence of the Holy Spirit through our conviction that each person here and all who enter these doors are infinitely valuable to bringing the kin-dom come. As a human being I am going to stumble and make mistakes. As a human community we are going to stumble and make mistakes. But, with our faith, our focus, our discipline on prayer and learning to be witnesses of the ultimate Lover, we can sustain a vibrant, healthy community seeking to serve God in spite of any stumbling. Let us pray