April 23, 2006
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Our Doorsteps It is great to be with you this Sunday after Easter. Christ is risen! Hallelujah! I bring you greetings today from some three quarters of a million sisters and brothers in 3700 Disciples congregations across the United States and Canada. Thirty seven hundred and counting, that is. Together we Disciples – that includes you – are committed to starting one thousand new churches, transforming 1000 established churches, forming enough new leadership to serve those churches, and making a true run at eradicating racism from our midst as a church – all by the year 2020. This is our commitment as a church, as a denomination. I want to thank you for the part you play in making this 2020 Vision come true. Here at Broad Street Christian Church, you have witnessed against the evils of racism since your founding, and you continue to do so today. Thank you. You are making yourselves available to God for transformation. You are an important witness to the rest of us. Thank you. You witness in other ways, as well, including through Disciples Mission Fund. As a result of your dollars in that offering plate, orphan children in Congo have roofs over their heads, pastors and missionaries in India and Thailand can rebuild after the Tsunami (had you almost forgotten about the Tsunami? – through Disciples Mission Fund, we were there before that wave struck and we are still there today). Because of DMF, mission hospitals around the world can have medicine, schools have teachers, ministers can be trained. Thank you. Well – it is the week after Easter, and today we turn our attention to the last story in Matthew. There are four gospels in our New Testament – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – and each one of them has a little different take on the resurrection story. They all agree that it was the women who were trusted to receive the news first of Jesus’ resurrection. Three of the gospels agree that when the women arrived at the tomb, the stone was rolled away! Matthew is different. In Matthew, when the women arrive, the stone is still there, blocking their entrance to the tomb. Now what are they going to do? Not to worry – suddenly there is a great earthquake as an angel rolls the stone away! Problem solved! Matthew knows that there are people out there in the world who are never going to believe the story he’s got to tell. He knows that some people are going to be convinced forever that disciples came in the night and stole that body. So he provides us with an eye witness account to the miraculous rolling of the stone. He lets us know that Jesus got out of that tomb by the hand of God not by human hand. Hallelujah! But quickly Matthew turns to the human part. He wastes no time in post-resurrection chit chat on the beach or along the road or at the table. Matthew goes straight to the passage we’ve read this morning. Jesus has risen. It’s time for him to be on his way. And he’s leaving the reigns in the hands of his disciples. As he gets ready to go, he gathers the disciples, there on the mountain and gives them his last words. “Go into all the world, baptizing and teaching.” Go. Baptize. Teach. Make disciples. That is still our mission today. In the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), we say it this way: Our mission is to be and to share the Good News of Jesus Christ from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth. Be the good news. Share the good news. Now, we Disciples of Christ have a pretty good handle on the being part. We respond in times of need. We like to be there for people. After Katrina and Rita, we saw it. Wherever there was a Disciples congregation located on the roads traveled by the displaced, that church opened its doors. We can be the gospel. It’s the sharing part that sometimes bothers us. St Francis once said: “Preach the gospel always. If necessary, use words.” We Disciples love that quote. We like to live our faith in deeds more than talk about it in words. We Disciples know how to love and to serve. We know how to be the gospel. There is, though, another implication of the St Francis quote that we have often missed. Which is, that it is, in fact, sometimes necessary to use words to get the message across. Where we run into problems sometimes is with the sharing part, with the witnessing part – with the words. It’s a problem that many mainline people have. My brother and sister-in-law recently went on a medical mission trip to Brazil from their Presbyterian church in Florida. They’re not doctors, but they thought they might get to make appointments or hold equipment or help the doctors somehow. Once there, however, they were assigned to go door to door in villages, telling the gospel story. When they heard their assignment, they looked at the trip organizers in disbelief. “But. . . we’re Presbyterians!” they said. From our doorsteps to the ends of the earth – our mission is not just to be the good news, our mission is also to share the good news – when necessary, with words. The scripture today emphasizes the point. Jesus says, “Go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them.” The door of the church is not just for us to stand at and welcome people in. That door is also for us to go out of to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. It’s time for us Disciples to get comfortable telling others about the difference God makes in our lives. It’s time for us to give evidence for the hope that is within us, as Peter ways. It’s time for us to learn to tell our story, in our own words, about how our own lives are transformed by the love of God. It’s also time for us to learn how to use words, because a lot of other people are out there using words as if they speak for all of us – which they do not. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love it that there are lots of different brands and styles of Christianity. There are lots of different styles and personalities of people. We need different personalities of churches to meet the needs of different personalities of people. Some people need us. At General Assembly last summer, Oregon Disciples were handing out business cards that said, “We’re the church you’ve been looking for.” They handed them out on bus stops and in the bars and restaurants of Portland. Most likely, we are the church that some of those people have been looking for – whether they knew it or not. But if people don’t know about us, the people who need us, will never find us. We have to speak up. There are people out there who need for us to speak up about what kind of church we are. They need to know that in a fragmented world, we’re a church with a passion for helping people find community. At our very roots, we’re about bringing people together. Because we understand the human family already as one. We give witness to a deep, spiritual unity given to us by God. We don’t create it by agreeing with each other, or by looking alike, or by coming to consensus on worship styles. We are one because God made us one. In this divided world, people need to know that we invite them into true community. People need to know that we’re a church that believes that every single Christian at their baptism is called and gifted for ministry. Each and every one. So we have elders as well as ministers at the Lord’s Table. We have strong lay leaders in every aspect of our church. In a world where too many people are blocked from opportunity because they are judged not worthy, God needs us to speak out about a church that will accept anyone. People need to know that we are a church that urges each one of us baptized, called and gifted Christians to grow in the spirit. We’re a church that understands that different people will take different spiritual journeys, and we respect those varied journeys. We’re not a one size fits all church. In a world where all too often, difference means disrespect, people need to know we encourage diverse expressions of Christian spirituality. People need to know that we are a church that will not leave them isolated on those individual journeys. We are a church that calls followers back together again – every week. Each and every week, we issue Christ’s call to gather with the living God around the Table of the Lord. At this table we individuals, scattered on our own spiritual journeys, come back together. The community re-forms. At this table, we who are many become one. By God’s grace we become one Body of Christ . . . One Body of Christ – for the world. Our healthy churches – those who are loving and serving, who are in mission for others, who are sharing the love of God in deed and in word – our healthy churches are a sign to the world. A sign of what God wants for the world. In a fragmented, divided world, where people use and abuse each other, people need for us to speak out. It’s time to find our voice, Disciples. Time to be and to share the good news of Jesus Christ – when necessary with words. Time to go out into all the world and make disciples, teaching and baptizing them. From these very doorsteps to the ends of the earth, brothers and sisters of Broad Street Christian Church, go, be, teach, share – when necessary, use words. Christ is risen. He’s depending on us. Dr.
Sharon E. Watkins |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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