m i n i s t r y f o c u s 1 : deepening relationships 9.28.11 Rev. Brent Wright Broad Ripple UMC Mark 1:40-2:5 (Message) A leper came to [Jesus], begging on his knees, If you want to, you can cleanse me. Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, I want to. Be clean. Then and there the leprosy was gone, his skin smooth and healthy. Jesus dismissed him with strict orders: Say nothing to anyone. Take the offering for cleansing that Moses prescribed and present yourself to the priest. This will validate your healing to the people. But as soon as the man was out of earshot, he told everyone he met what had happened, spreading the news all over town. So Jesus kept to out-of-the-way places, no longer able to move freely in and out of the city. But people found him, and came from all over. After a few days, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and word got around that he was back home. A crowd gathered, jamming the entrance so no one could get in or out. He was teaching the Word. They brought a paraplegic to him, carried by four men. When they weren t able to get in because of the crowd, they removed part of the roof and lowered the paraplegic on his stretcher. Impressed by their bold belief, Jesus said to the paraplegic, Son, I forgive your sins. Matthew 4:18-22 (Message) Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, Come with me. I ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass. They didn t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed. A short distance down the beach they came upon another pair of brothers, James and John, Zebedee s sons. These two were sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishnets. Jesus made the same offer to them, and they were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father. Luke 19:1-10 (TEV) Jesus went on into Jericho and was passing through. There was a chief tax collector there named Zacchaeus, who Rev. Brent Wright 1 Broad Ripple UMC
was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was a little man and could not see Jesus because of the crowd. So he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus, who was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to Zacchaeus, Hurry down, Zacchaeus, because I must stay in your house today. Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed him with great joy. All the people who saw it started grumbling, This man has gone as a guest to the home of a sinner! Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Listen, sir! I will give half my belongings to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times as much. Jesus said to him, Salvation has come to this house today, for this man, also, is a descendant of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Last summer, I put this image of an inch-tall baby corn plant on the wall of the sanctuary as a visual reminder that we are beginning a new chapter together, and, like this plant, it's hard to imagine the result of our journey at this point in the growth cycle. This plant will have a lot in common with previous generations of corn plants, but it won't be the same. This plant the body of Christ in this place in this generation is unique, and it is just beginning to become what it is called to be. The banner is still there because it's still early in the cycle, and I appreciate the reminder that when we gather in here to listen for God to speak, we are seeking to follow the One who knows what this plant can become with good water and sunshine. All we can see is a couple little leaves poking out above the soil. God knows the potential of what God can do in us and through us far better than we can even imagine! The banner reminds me that we gather here to listen for God showing us, week by week, what this generation's plant will look like. Today we begin another segment of our journey together. I've been meeting with Margie Schnelle, the chair of the Ministry Roundtable, and Wade Rademacher, our lay leader and chair of our Administrative Roundtable, over the past few weeks to assess where we are and what the next steps are for our ministry together. One thing has been clear to us: we need to focus our ministry activities and programs. Like most congregations with more than 10 years of history, we've accumulated a large number of activities, programs, and Rev. Brent Wright 2 Broad Ripple UMC
administrative committees over the years that we're trying to continue today, even though culture has changed, fewer people are available to make those activities, programs, and committees happen, and the people who are here may not share their predecessors' passion for a particular ministry. The result: we're overcommitted and stretched too thin. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 adults that make up the core of our congregation, that group of people who are present and active in ministry through our activities, programs, and committees, and Margie, Wade, and I were able to name upwards of 50 different activities & committees. On the practical side, this leads to burning out the core members who are trying to make it all work, while scaring off newer members who are constantly being asked to help with things and frustrating & disheartening many because there aren't many people participating in the activities we have. Churches stretching themselves too thin, trying to do too much, work themselves to death. And all of us who have experienced the spiritual costs of workaholism know that doing too much is a surefire way to quench the spiritual life. We are suffering from a congregational version of workaholism, and it's time for a lifestyle change. The solution is to get clear about our purpose, to discern a clear sense of mission, and use it to establish some boundaries that help us sort out which ministries are worth pouring our hearts into and which are best left for another community to tackle. If we can have a sense of who we are as a congregation, what distinguishes us from others, what gift God might be seeking to offer the world through this community, we can make inspired choices about our ministry together. Margie, Wade, and I have had some rich conversations seeking this point of focus, searching for how to encapsulate how this congregation understands itself and its mission. We thought a lot about the story of the gospel how did Jesus live his life, and what is God teaching us about spiritual life through the life of Jesus and we thought about the themes of our identity we named through the small group meetings last fall: Community, Acceptance, Neighborhood. The more we talked, the clearer the theme was that emerged: Relationship. It's all about relationship, in the life of Jesus, in spiritual life, and in the life of this congregation. This is a theme we see emerging throughout the life of Jesus, beginning with the fact that God chose to appear to humanity by becoming an incarnate, human presence in Jesus of Nazareth. This is the ultimate act of relationship! The God of all Creation didn't choose to appear to humanity by arranging the stars into a special constellation or causing the mountains to rearrange into a symbol of divinity. God didn't choose to appear as a hologram in the sky. God didn't choose to communicate primarily through language or art or mathematics or music. God chose to be with us; God chose embodied relationship with humanity. So how God lived that embodied life matters: what does the life of Jesus tell us about how spiritual life works? It's not about scriptural knowledge or religious practices or moral purity or exclusive clubs. It's all about relationship. Rev. Brent Wright 3 Broad Ripple UMC
When God walked the earth with humanity, it wasn't as a one-man band. He gathered a small group to walk the road with him the whole road, the joy and the pain, the miracles and the exhaustion, the exciting and the mundane. Jesus surrounded himself with friends not just as a practical measure the God of the Universe could have done anything but because spiritual life happens in community, walking the road together. And God did this one at a time. God related to people one at a time, as individuals. When Jesus formed his core community, he called particular people. He reached out in relationship, inviting particular people into relationship. He connected to his disciples, calling them one at a time. He healed one at a time, too. Rather than healing huge crowds at once, waving his hands over them from a safe distance, he touched the untouchables, one at a time. From the demon-possessed man to the government official's child, from his friend Lazarus to the woman with chronic bleeding, he healed one person at a time. Often, in the middle of a crowd, he would stop and attend to one person. He connected to the person in front of him. He focused on people, not groups. He touched the untouchables one at a time. He connected with people in conversation one at a time. He could have spent every day preaching to huge crowds. He could have set up shop in the capital, in the middle of the big city, having his disciples build a grand stage where he could speak to thousands every day. But he didn't. He wandered the small towns and the countryside, connecting with people, both VIPs like Zacchaeus and off-limits 'nobodies' like the Samaritan woman at the well one at a time. He was a man in demand, but scripture is full of stories like today's story of Zacchaeus or the story of Nicodemus, the leader of the synagogue, coming to Jesus at night to avoid being seen with him. And Jesus' response to people like Zacchaeus and the woman at the well and Nicodemus is the core of how he lived, the core of what he showed us about spiritual life. Jesus was willing to give his time and attention to the person in front of him, tax-collector or religious leader, one at a time. Jesus' way was the way of relationship. Jesus deepened relationships by drawing near to people at every turn. Jesus expanded relationship boundaries, refusing to be limited by the customs of his day, connecting with all people, whether or not others would approve. Jesus stretched his followers, calling them to deepen their relationships with each other as a way of loving God. In John 21 we hear the exchange between Jesus and Peter [paraphrased]: "Do you want to love me?" Jesus asked Peter. "Of course!" "Then love my sheep." Rev. Brent Wright 4 Broad Ripple UMC
We often hear that exchange as a call to serve the poor or as a call to evangelism, and it is, but I also hear it as a simple call to relationship. If we want to be in relationship with God, says Jesus, be in relationship with each other. And then when Jesus left his disciples to carry on the mission of embodying God's love for humanity, he reminded them that their call was to carry on his ministry: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." He wasn't talking about making more church people his life hadn't been dedicated recruiting people to religious groups he was talking about touching, connecting, embracing, healing, loving people as he had. The story of the life and teachings of Jesus show us that it's all about relationship. As Margie & Wade & I discussed this, we noted that the themes this congregation named in our small group reflections last fall, Community, Acceptance, Neighborhood, were very much in line with this understanding of the gospel. We knew we had it. This is a congregation that is about relationship. We settled on this focus statement: We deepen relationships with each other and our neighbors one at a time as a way of opening our selves to deeper relationship with God. What does this look like? I invite you to take time this week to ponder this. I see us already living this in some ways, though it's most often in places that are outside the structure and ministry of the congregation. See if you can name ways in which you and others you know are deepening relationships. Then see if you can imagine what might change if we as a congregation focused our ministry around deepening relationships. I'll continue my reflection next week with some specific thoughts about where this is already happening and what might change as we grow in this direction. Rev. Brent Wright 5 Broad Ripple UMC