This week, we’ve once again held our
collective breath as we watched a hurricane threaten people we care about, in
our own country and beyond. As a
powerful tropical storm, Isaac passed over southwestern Haiti last Saturday. In the storm’s path was Maniche, the home of
our partner school; but from what we’ve heard, there was no significant damage there. Elsewhere in Haiti, 24 people lost their
lives. A few days later, we held our
breath as Isaac grew into a hurricane and stalked the Gulf Coast, landing near
New Orleans seven years almost to the day after Hurricane Katrina. It was “only” a Category 1 storm, so the
damage was certainly less than seven years ago.
But still, thousands are suffering; and we hold them in our prayers
today, along with the people of Haiti, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.
There are always stories of heroism and
love in situations like these – people in small boats, picking up neighbors on
rooftops; first responders saving lives despite the elements; churches and
hospitals rallying to meet overwhelming need.
We take such heroism almost for granted, knowing that people will step
up and amaze us with their care for one another.
Among all the media coverage of the
storm, I was struck by a TV news story about Faith Bible Church near Dallas,
Texas. The hurricane “news” there wasn’t
about the storm directly. The news was
the church’s preparation for people expected to come from far away. As you’ll remember, when Katrina struck the
Gulf Coast, thousands of displaced persons needed to be resettled temporarily, going
even as far as Dallas looking for help.
Well, this congregation in DeSoto, Texas, had turned its worship space
into a dormitory, with hundreds of cots set up in careful rows, bedding neatly in
place – each one ready to welcome someone in need. But at the time the story aired, of course, not a
soul had come; and the reporter seemed almost apologetic that he didn’t have
any drama yet to show the folks at home. (See http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2012/08/north-texas-revs-up-hurricane-isaac-relief-efforts.html.)
But seeing the church’s set-up on TV made
me realize how much work that congregation must have put into planning for this
contingency. They must have spent years
preparing to love and serve people they didn’t even know. They’d developed a relationship with the Red
Cross and built a detailed plan for caring for whoever came their way. It’s a great example of faithful people who discerned
a calling to very specific work: the job
of being available, ready to serve others in need.
Tomorrow is Labor Day, so we might have
work on our minds as we come to worship this morning. Interestingly, so does God, at least if
today’s readings are any indication. These
readings have no official relationship to Labor Day; they’re just what the
Sunday lectionary calls for. But I hear
them being all about the work God calls us to do, both as individual disciples
and as St. Andrew’s parish.
In the reading from Deuteronomy, Moses calls
the people to demonstrate their faithfulness to God as they begin their lives
in the Promised Land. And what’s the
most important way to do that? It’s not
so much about believing specific doctrine.
It’s not even so much about worshipping just the right way, as important
as that is in the Law. Instead, God cares
deeply about the day-to-day, mundane aspects of life – preparing food, relating
to family and neighbors, working with livestock, resting on the Sabbath. So to honor God, the people must focus on the
primary work involved in keeping the Law: bringing God’s holiness and justice
alive in the world around them.
The theme continues with the psalm. It asks, “What qualifies someone for
admission to God’s holy temple for worship?”
Is that based on getting the doctrine right or doing worship just
right? No. It’s about the work of faith, just “do[ing] what is right” (Psalm 15:2): treating neighbors honorably, telling the
truth, keeping promises, refusing to profit from other people’s poverty. Faithfulness is in how we live and what we
do.
Then the theme continues in the reading
from James: God “implants” the Word in our hearts with “the power to save [our]
souls” (1:21). And what should be our
response to this gift? James says, “True
religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for
orphans and widows in their distress…” (1:27).
Do the Word; don’t just hear
it.
And finally, in the reading from Mark,
Jesus puts a fine point on the kind of labor God’s looking for. The religious leaders give Jesus trouble
because his disciples don’t always keep the ritualistic aspects of the
Law. So Jesus cuts to the heart of the
matter: Keeping God’s law isn’t about maintaining ritual purity, he says; it’s
about enacting God’s purposes through the way we live in the world, day in and
day out.
But bringing God’s purposes to life
always happens in a specific context and by specific people – you and me, this
parish. We have to know our gifts and
strengths, know how God has wired us, know ourselves well enough to be able to
say, “Here’s the job I can do to bring my faith to bear in the world.” At that church near Dallas, clearly they
discerned gifts for organization, logistics, and coordination with community
agencies. The storm wasn’t even in their
city, and they’d gone to work, getting ready to care for “orphans and widows”
from a distant storm.
As we’ve discerned the work God asks of
us, we’ve also found ourselves called to care for people battered by distant
storms. We may not have many people in
our congregation who are hungry and homeless, but we go downtown each week to
serve hungry people there. We may not
have many children here lacking educational opportunity, but we fund a school
for 150 kids in rural Haiti, and we work to support the teachers and students
at three schools in our own city. We may
not have many people coming to our church seeking food each day, but we’re
taking a step in that direction, too. Our
Outreach Commission and our children’s ministry are joining forces to collect
food regularly for the pantry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 40th
and Main. In fact, the first Sunday of
the month, we’ll bless a token of the food we’ve gathered – you’ll see it in
front of the altar this morning when you come up for Communion. St. Paul’s pantry is serving more hungry
people than ever before. They don’t have
enough food to meet the need or enough volunteers to help give it away. Well, service is one of our core values here,
and our mission includes “sharing God’s love” with the world. So we’re going to become “Pantry Partners”
with St. Paul’s. We’re going to serve
people whose lives are battered by hunger’s distant storm.
And at the same time, fulfilling our mission
to share God’s love with the world means discerning what work God wants us to
do here in our own neighborhood. As the
Hodges and Murrays described at the parish meeting last Sunday, we’re listening
to you and to our neighbors to hear what needs, in Brookside, God’s asking us
to step up and work on. Last Sunday,
after the meeting, several parishioners went out and did surveys in our
neighborhood, standing in the sun at Price Chopper and going door-to-door,
talking to people who live here. We’re
also listening to urban-studies experts, and Brookside business leaders, and people
in homes associations, and educators, and city council members – the list goes
on. The point is to see where our
calling to share God’s love might take us in our own backyard. Maybe we can help meet the needs of lonely seniors. Maybe we can help families whose kids and
teens need a safe place for recreation.
Maybe we can help kids and teens who need mentoring and tutoring. Maybe we can help social entrepreneurs get a
start on their own work to build our community and heal its divisions. Months ago, we talked about the idea of e = mc2: that our church’s mission in our second
century (“mc2”) involves several “E” words, such as education and
the essentials of life. Maybe social “entrepreneurship”
is another “E” for that list. We don’t
know yet, but I do think we’re asking the right questions.
Now, if a tornado were to cut through
Kansas City, I have no doubt we’d be all over it. But day to day, our call is to use the gifts
and skills God’s given us in the context where God’s put us. That certainly looks like serving people
afflicted by distant storms. But it also
looks like sharing God’s love with the people of our neighborhood.
In both contexts, the message is the
same, as we heard in our readings today.
The measure of our faithfulness isn’t so much about getting all the
answers right or doing worship perfectly (thank God). The measure of our faithfulness is how we
live, day in and day out. As we begin
our second century and discern what it looks like to share God’s love with
people near and far, we have a pretty good handle on the “far” part of the
equation. How we share God’s love with
our neighborhood? That’s still a work in
progress. It might not end up being what
many people would expect a church’s “neighborhood ministry” to look like. It might not necessarily make for good
TV. But it will be authentic to us. And
it’ll be the job that God will have given us to do – the labor that best uses
the body of Christ in this time and place to share God’s love with the world.
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