Love Boldly, Serve Joyfully, Lead Courageously
There is great joy in welcoming new people into Faith’s family and in light of that, today feels like a particularly special celebration – new households joining the church and our shared work of embracing new siblings in Christ through baptism. It doesn’t hurt that we get to hang out with cute babies today in the midst of it all.
As we have been growing here at Faith, as we have been welcoming new folks, I find myself watching it all unfold with a grin on my face and a song of praise on my heart. And sometimes I find myself holding my breath.
Let’s talk about church in general for a minute – not Faith specifically, but maybe we will recognize ourselves along the way.
Church is a funny thing. It is a global institution that has evolved over 2000 years. It is a community that is undergirded by tradition. At its best it is rooted in who God is, what Jesus taught, how Jesus lived, who Jesus called into leadership and how the Holy Spirit works. It is also influenced by the people who show up, the community in which a particular church resides, and cultural norms, including the influences of secular culture like economics and politics – for better and for worse.
In every little church there is the way things have been done over time. There are unspoken “rules” (and that is with air quotes) – long-time patterns in how decisions get made and what happens when. Sometimes there are unspoken rules about who can do what.
Over time, in any church, new people arrive and bring their experience and their traditions. They bring their needs, their vision. Folks are incorporated into an existing body – and they become part of it.
So…we can assume that over time, church will evolve, taking new shape, engaging in new practices, involving new leaders …and if it doesn’t, the hard truth is that churches die. I don’t say that to be dramatic – any community needs to be reaching and involving new people to thrive and continue. And that comes with an expectation that the church will evolve.
This is not a new thing. It has been going on since the dawn of time in communities.
In the wake of Jesus’ death and resurrection, as his followers grappled with how to live with all that they had been taught, how to share his message of love and hope, how to support new followers, they wrestled with what it meant to hold on to the most important things while adapting and adopting.
The wrestled at first with what it meant to be Jewish and a Jesus follower.
Over time they wrestled with what it meant for gentiles to become part of what had originally been Jewish communities.
They wrestled with what it meant to wait on the Holy Spirit for guidance and gifts. They wrestled with how the Holy Spirit gifted people differently. How she moved among towns and transformed people that didn’t seem to fit or belong to the young tradition….and yet….
They wrestled with new leadership.
They wrestled with times of growth and expansion that required one leader to travel from church to church, counseling growth and transition, theology and practice.
They wrestled with political powers that adopted Christianity and co - opted the church and its followers for power and control.
They wrestled with splintering divides between groups because of differences of practice and interpretation.
It’s been happening for 2 millennia – a community that is constantly changing and becoming…rooted in tradition and yet somehow a refreshed new thing.
Recently, in the United Methodist Church, our Bishops have shaped new language for how we are called in this season.
Maybe the words are new but the intent is age-old.
Empowered by the Holy Spirit we are called to LOVE BOLDLY…
Jesus poured himself out in self-emptying love. He taught that love of God and neighbor were all that was needed for salvation. But what was bold about the love he taught was that a neighbor was the person you were least inclined to love based on the norms of your society. He taught about a bold kind of love for God that involved seeking peace, sharing so that everyone had enough, turning the other cheek when someone seeks to offend or harm.
Empowered by the Holy Spirit we are called to SERVE JOYFULLY…
For some reason as I thought about serving joyfully this week, I found myself considering the disciples as Jesus told them to feed the thousands that were gathered to hear his teaching. Feed them all from whatever you can find among the gathered. I wonder how joyful the disciples felt in that moment?
Joyful service looks like a lot of different things. Maybe it looks like Jesus wrapping a towel around his waist and kneeling to wash the feet of his friends. Maybe it looks like the earliest communities gathering and pooling together what they had so that they could feed the widows of the community, the refugees who came through their towns. Maybe it looks like sending a group of youth and adults off on a mission trip. And likely it looks like our CCMs calling on folks who are lonely, ill, wrestling with grief, unable to get out and about.
Empowered by the Holy Spirit we are called to lead courageously.
I think about the crowd that gathered at Jerusalem’s West Gate with shouts of Hosanna to greet a humble carpenter’s son riding in on a donkey as Pontius Pilate rode in on a war horse flanked with military force on the other side of town. It is sometimes intimidating to gather in protest of what is wrong and in favor of a more just, merciful and peaceful way of being.
I think courageous leadership might also looks like leaders gathering on a Summer Saturday to get to know one another better so that they can have hard conversations and make tough decisions about the future of the church with shared vision and trust. I might look like relative newcomers stepping in to lead the stewardship team or to create a new mission partnership. It might look like learning as much as one can about affordable housing so that we can discern what work might be ours to do in our community.
The words offered by our bishops might be new phrasing, but the work is the same. They are putting a new spin on thousands of years of the work of being the church. They are bringing their hopes and their experience to the traditions of the church to reach and include new people in the good news of God’s unconditional love.
Today we celebrate new members and newly baptized siblings in Christ – a sure sign that the church will continue to evolve and take on new shapes.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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