Panzer Liturgical Service, Stuttgart,
Will Willimon tells the story of an evangelism campaign gone wrong, one which I think many of us can identify with. It seems this medium sized congregation decided they needed to grow. They studied a program from their denomination telling them how to get new members. Among other things, the church-growth program advocated a system of door-to-door visitation. So they organized into small groups, and on an appointed Sunday afternoon, set out to visit, to invite people to their church
The teams went out, armed with packets of pamphlets describing their congregation, leaflets telling about their denomination, flyers portraying their warm, smiling, accessible, pastor, all with the purpose of inviting people to their church. Each team was given a map with their assigned street. And they were off.
Now Helen and Gladys were given a map. They were clearly told to go down Summit Drive and turn right. That’s what they were told… “GO RIGHT!” But Helen and Gladys were both approaching eighty, and after lifetimes of teaching elementary school, were better at giving than taking directions. They turned left, venturing into the housing projects to the west of Summit Drive. They were told to turn right… but they turned left. Which meant that Gladys and Helen spent the whole afternoon evangelizing the wrong neighborhood, and thereby ran the risk of evangelizing the wrong people.
Late that afternoon, each team returned to the church to make their report. Gladys and Helen had only one interested person to report, a woman named Verleen. She lived with her two children in a three-room apartment in the projects. And although she had never visited a church in her life, Verleen wanted to visit theirs. The minister thought to himself, “This is what you get when you don’t follow directions, when you don’t do what the pastor tells you to do. This is what you get, a woman from the projects named Verleen.”
The next Sunday, Helen and Gladys proudly presented Verleen at the 11 o’clock service, along with her two children. She liked the service so much she decided to attend the Woman’s Thursday Morning Bible Study. Helen and Gladys said they would pick her up. On Thursday, Verleen appeared, proudly clutching her new Bible, a gift from one of the ladies’ circles. The passage they were studying was on Luke 4, the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. The group talked for a while about the passage, and then the pastor asked, “Have any of you ever been faced with temptation, and with Jesus’ help, resisted? Have any of you refused some temptation because of your Christian commitment?”
One of the women told about how there had been some confusion at the grocery store, and before she knew it, she was standing in the parking lot with a loaf of bread she hadn’t paid for. She confessed, “At first, I thought, why should I pay for it? They have enough money as it is. But then I thought, ‘No, you’re a Christian,’ so I went back and paid for it.” The minister made an appropriately approving comment.
It was then that Verleen spoke. “A couple of years ago, I was into cocaine really big. You know what that’s like. You know how the stuff makes you crazy. Well, anyway, my boyfriend, not the one I’ve got now, the one who was the daddy of my first child, that one, well, we knocked over a gas station one night – got $200 out of it. Well, my boyfriend, he says, ‘Let’s knock off that Seven-eleven down on the corner.’ And something in me says, ‘No, I’ve held up that gas station, but I’m not going to do it again.’ And he beat me up something fierce, but still I said NO. It felt great to say NO, ‘cause that’s the only time in my life I ever said NO to anything. Made me feel like I was somebody.” [*]
Isn't that just the way it happens sometimes. We take a wrong turn, and all of a sudden we are in an area of town that we just don't want to admit exists. A place where people seem to wander aimlessly... place without purpose or direction... full of people without purpose or direction, too. But unlike Gladys and Helen, we find the quickest way out of the area, and try to forget that we were ever there. For many of us, we can hardly imagine getting out of our cars and knocking on a few doors. No, right away, we would know that we were in the “wrong” place.
That must have been how the rich man assessed his situation. “There's someone out there... someone right outside my gate... but I don't want to know about him. I don't want to know his name; I don't even want to believe that he exists.” "Maybe if I ignore him he'll just go away" or “I’m too busy to deal with this right now. I’ll take care of it later.” I bet that's what I'd say if I were him. Even worse, he could have thought, “He’s not worth my time.”
Before I entered the ministry, a wise clergy friend told me, "Whenever you begin to think of ministry in the terms of "them versus us” -- that's when you're in real trouble. Because in ministry, there is no them... there’s only us.” I’ve decided that this is true in life, too. In this competitive, all or nothing world, where winning or being on top is everything, the concept of “us” is often lost.
That's what today's scripture is all about. As we live our lives in Christ, we cannot afford to separate ourselves into groups based on arbitrary definitions on what we think might or might not be acceptable to God or to other people. Liberal vs. conservative... liturgical vs. charismatic... straight vs. gay... rich vs. poor... housed vs. homeless... well vs. sick... employed vs. unemployed... those definitions have no meaning in God’s family. We are all sons and daughters, whether we want to accept one another or not. And that means we have a responsibility to one another, not just to do, but to care and to love.
As the family of God we have to do whatever we can to bridge the differences between us so that God’s word can be lived out in the world. Too many times, we wonder why people with needs don't get help, rather than asking the question, “what can I do?” Too many times we wait for somebody else to be in charge, when we also have the means to make things happen... when we have untapped knowledge and drive and the will to change things. As followers of Christ, we are commissioned not to just bring people to Christ, but to be on the journey with them, through the love that we show to all people in all situations that we can.
Jesus tells a story of an unnamed rich man and a named beggar… a total turnabout from the way we expect. In life, the rich man steps over Lazarus and goes about his business. But at the end of their lives, Lazarus ends up in heaven and the rich man goes to a place totally absent of God’s presence. Even the death, the rich man has learned nothing. He asks Abraham to send Lazarus to serve him in the midst of this torment, even though he did nothing to serve Lazarus when the two of them were alive. For the rich man, the lesson learned is only about what it means for his discomfort. He never saw that his eternal situation was a mirror to Lazarus’ life. And the message he wanted sent to his brothers – save yourselves from this same fate, but only for their sake of their comfort, not for the sake of anyone else.
So why did Jesus tell this story in this way? Is it just about learning from the mistakes of others to avoid going to the same place as the rich man? That’s the way many would interpret it. But I also think that’s too simple an explanation and misses the real point that Jesus is trying to make.
Responding to the gospel is not about keeping ourselves from the fires of Hades. Keeping ourselves out of hell is not a good enough reason to love and follow Jesus. Loving God, loving Christ, loving all of God's creatures and creation, these things are the result of our hearts being so full of the love of Christ that we can't help but love others. Our faith is a response to the gracious and overwhelming gifts that God has given us. Our faith is not based on fear… it’s based on love. It doesn’t happen all at once or overnight. It happens bit by bit and day by day, as we practice love, in relationship we those within our immediate frame of reference, and as we reach out to those who are different from us.
I believe that Jesus told this story to remind us that we have to look for the people sitting outside our gates and our doors, before it's too late... not just too late for us, but too late for them, too. And in the process of reaching out, our lives are enriched and enhanced. They are made more full, more meaningful, more possible. Just ask anybody who has ever stepped out on that limb of faith. Or remember what's it's like for yourself... the exhilaration... the power of a living, breathing faith in Jesus Christ... remember it... experience it... and know God and yourself and the world in a whole new way.
I think about the problems of the world today, violence against women and children, distrust between races and nationalities, enmity between religious traditions, and even our lack of urgency to address the changing climate around us and I wonder how we let it all get so far away from us. When we allow the differences between us to define our lives, surely we are all as guilty as the rich man of not seeing how the actions of our days will impact the ways our futures will play out.
God gives us the gifts of prosperity so that we can use whatever means we have to spread the good news of his love. Even if we don’t have much, the fact that we are here this morning emphasizes our need to give past our own situations, to open that gate, or cross that bridge, or take that wrong turn on purpose. Looking and walking outside the gate may, in fact, change the way that we look at life. And whether that prospect is scary and/or exciting, it means that life in Christ will never be dull.
As we gather around the table today, remember this: each time we share in the Lord’s Supper, we commune with Christians all over the world, most of whom live more like Lazarus and less like the rich man. As we worship on this Lord’s Day, let us remember that life that Jesus calls us to is not about THEM vs. US, but is about being one body, the living body of Christ. Now we just need to live like we believe it.
Peace in Christ,
Deb
[*] Willimon, William H., The Intrusive Word, pp. 1-3.
The teams went out, armed with packets of pamphlets describing their congregation, leaflets telling about their denomination, flyers portraying their warm, smiling, accessible, pastor, all with the purpose of inviting people to their church. Each team was given a map with their assigned street. And they were off.
Now Helen and Gladys were given a map. They were clearly told to go down Summit Drive and turn right. That’s what they were told… “GO RIGHT!” But Helen and Gladys were both approaching eighty, and after lifetimes of teaching elementary school, were better at giving than taking directions. They turned left, venturing into the housing projects to the west of Summit Drive. They were told to turn right… but they turned left. Which meant that Gladys and Helen spent the whole afternoon evangelizing the wrong neighborhood, and thereby ran the risk of evangelizing the wrong people.
Late that afternoon, each team returned to the church to make their report. Gladys and Helen had only one interested person to report, a woman named Verleen. She lived with her two children in a three-room apartment in the projects. And although she had never visited a church in her life, Verleen wanted to visit theirs. The minister thought to himself, “This is what you get when you don’t follow directions, when you don’t do what the pastor tells you to do. This is what you get, a woman from the projects named Verleen.”
The next Sunday, Helen and Gladys proudly presented Verleen at the 11 o’clock service, along with her two children. She liked the service so much she decided to attend the Woman’s Thursday Morning Bible Study. Helen and Gladys said they would pick her up. On Thursday, Verleen appeared, proudly clutching her new Bible, a gift from one of the ladies’ circles. The passage they were studying was on Luke 4, the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. The group talked for a while about the passage, and then the pastor asked, “Have any of you ever been faced with temptation, and with Jesus’ help, resisted? Have any of you refused some temptation because of your Christian commitment?”
One of the women told about how there had been some confusion at the grocery store, and before she knew it, she was standing in the parking lot with a loaf of bread she hadn’t paid for. She confessed, “At first, I thought, why should I pay for it? They have enough money as it is. But then I thought, ‘No, you’re a Christian,’ so I went back and paid for it.” The minister made an appropriately approving comment.
It was then that Verleen spoke. “A couple of years ago, I was into cocaine really big. You know what that’s like. You know how the stuff makes you crazy. Well, anyway, my boyfriend, not the one I’ve got now, the one who was the daddy of my first child, that one, well, we knocked over a gas station one night – got $200 out of it. Well, my boyfriend, he says, ‘Let’s knock off that Seven-eleven down on the corner.’ And something in me says, ‘No, I’ve held up that gas station, but I’m not going to do it again.’ And he beat me up something fierce, but still I said NO. It felt great to say NO, ‘cause that’s the only time in my life I ever said NO to anything. Made me feel like I was somebody.” [*]
Isn't that just the way it happens sometimes. We take a wrong turn, and all of a sudden we are in an area of town that we just don't want to admit exists. A place where people seem to wander aimlessly... place without purpose or direction... full of people without purpose or direction, too. But unlike Gladys and Helen, we find the quickest way out of the area, and try to forget that we were ever there. For many of us, we can hardly imagine getting out of our cars and knocking on a few doors. No, right away, we would know that we were in the “wrong” place.
That must have been how the rich man assessed his situation. “There's someone out there... someone right outside my gate... but I don't want to know about him. I don't want to know his name; I don't even want to believe that he exists.” "Maybe if I ignore him he'll just go away" or “I’m too busy to deal with this right now. I’ll take care of it later.” I bet that's what I'd say if I were him. Even worse, he could have thought, “He’s not worth my time.”
Before I entered the ministry, a wise clergy friend told me, "Whenever you begin to think of ministry in the terms of "them versus us” -- that's when you're in real trouble. Because in ministry, there is no them... there’s only us.” I’ve decided that this is true in life, too. In this competitive, all or nothing world, where winning or being on top is everything, the concept of “us” is often lost.
That's what today's scripture is all about. As we live our lives in Christ, we cannot afford to separate ourselves into groups based on arbitrary definitions on what we think might or might not be acceptable to God or to other people. Liberal vs. conservative... liturgical vs. charismatic... straight vs. gay... rich vs. poor... housed vs. homeless... well vs. sick... employed vs. unemployed... those definitions have no meaning in God’s family. We are all sons and daughters, whether we want to accept one another or not. And that means we have a responsibility to one another, not just to do, but to care and to love.
As the family of God we have to do whatever we can to bridge the differences between us so that God’s word can be lived out in the world. Too many times, we wonder why people with needs don't get help, rather than asking the question, “what can I do?” Too many times we wait for somebody else to be in charge, when we also have the means to make things happen... when we have untapped knowledge and drive and the will to change things. As followers of Christ, we are commissioned not to just bring people to Christ, but to be on the journey with them, through the love that we show to all people in all situations that we can.
Jesus tells a story of an unnamed rich man and a named beggar… a total turnabout from the way we expect. In life, the rich man steps over Lazarus and goes about his business. But at the end of their lives, Lazarus ends up in heaven and the rich man goes to a place totally absent of God’s presence. Even the death, the rich man has learned nothing. He asks Abraham to send Lazarus to serve him in the midst of this torment, even though he did nothing to serve Lazarus when the two of them were alive. For the rich man, the lesson learned is only about what it means for his discomfort. He never saw that his eternal situation was a mirror to Lazarus’ life. And the message he wanted sent to his brothers – save yourselves from this same fate, but only for their sake of their comfort, not for the sake of anyone else.
So why did Jesus tell this story in this way? Is it just about learning from the mistakes of others to avoid going to the same place as the rich man? That’s the way many would interpret it. But I also think that’s too simple an explanation and misses the real point that Jesus is trying to make.
Responding to the gospel is not about keeping ourselves from the fires of Hades. Keeping ourselves out of hell is not a good enough reason to love and follow Jesus. Loving God, loving Christ, loving all of God's creatures and creation, these things are the result of our hearts being so full of the love of Christ that we can't help but love others. Our faith is a response to the gracious and overwhelming gifts that God has given us. Our faith is not based on fear… it’s based on love. It doesn’t happen all at once or overnight. It happens bit by bit and day by day, as we practice love, in relationship we those within our immediate frame of reference, and as we reach out to those who are different from us.
I believe that Jesus told this story to remind us that we have to look for the people sitting outside our gates and our doors, before it's too late... not just too late for us, but too late for them, too. And in the process of reaching out, our lives are enriched and enhanced. They are made more full, more meaningful, more possible. Just ask anybody who has ever stepped out on that limb of faith. Or remember what's it's like for yourself... the exhilaration... the power of a living, breathing faith in Jesus Christ... remember it... experience it... and know God and yourself and the world in a whole new way.
I think about the problems of the world today, violence against women and children, distrust between races and nationalities, enmity between religious traditions, and even our lack of urgency to address the changing climate around us and I wonder how we let it all get so far away from us. When we allow the differences between us to define our lives, surely we are all as guilty as the rich man of not seeing how the actions of our days will impact the ways our futures will play out.
God gives us the gifts of prosperity so that we can use whatever means we have to spread the good news of his love. Even if we don’t have much, the fact that we are here this morning emphasizes our need to give past our own situations, to open that gate, or cross that bridge, or take that wrong turn on purpose. Looking and walking outside the gate may, in fact, change the way that we look at life. And whether that prospect is scary and/or exciting, it means that life in Christ will never be dull.
As we gather around the table today, remember this: each time we share in the Lord’s Supper, we commune with Christians all over the world, most of whom live more like Lazarus and less like the rich man. As we worship on this Lord’s Day, let us remember that life that Jesus calls us to is not about THEM vs. US, but is about being one body, the living body of Christ. Now we just need to live like we believe it.
Peace in Christ,
Deb
[*] Willimon, William H., The Intrusive Word, pp. 1-3.
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