following One, serving all

from my sermon on 3/21/10 from Matthew 25:34-40

Following One, Serving All--this is not just the sermon title but our tentative new vision statement. Today, we are completing the 5th week of a 6 week Lenten series on the practices of fruitful congregations, looking at risk-taking mission and service. I want to do 3 things: 1. talk about this new vision statement, 2. talk about how we might live into it, 3. tie all of this into the scripture we read.

One, Following One, Serving All is a tentative vision statement. The Jesuits at Boston College taught me to make a tentative decision, then live with it to see if it gets confirmed. So this phrase is not set in stone. But if it is not it, it is very close to being it.

We came up with Following One, Serving All thusly: When I came to be pastor here, not quite 3 years ago, I asked if the church had a vision statement. Yes, was the reply, it's there on the front of the bulletin. But can you tell me what it is? No one could. I knew it wasn't exactly motivating anyone. This past fall when we were to have our stewardship campaign, I delayed the campaign. I said, No money until we know our mission. That Sunday in worship, we had about 100 entries given of things people said that they would invest their lives in. The church council took those statements and over 2 very long meetings, filled with prayer, distilled the essence of what people were saying into these 4 words, Following One, Serving All.

Let me unpack the words, and tell you how this vision statement motivates me. I like it that it is brief. I want a vision that a first grader can remember. I like it that it has participle phrases. It implies continuting action. The verb tenses are also inviting, not imperatives.
Following implies that we are not finished, we are going on to perfection. We are called to be disciples no less than those early Christians were.
One for me is Christ. There may be other revelations of who God is and I don't want to discount other people's faiths , but we are Christians and we have a particular revelation. I like it that Christ is right in the middle of the statement, 3 syllables before and after. Christ is right in the center of everything we do. He sets the agenda, the direction, the tone. Because of this One, we can become one in Him, in community. He's the One who makes us one.
Serving, now this is something we do well already. When I came to be your pastor I was so impressed by how you extended yourselves for others. You are not isolated, insulated up on this hill in west Austin. Your fingers reach across this town and around this globe. We have Christmas in October, and the CROP Walk 2 weeks ago, and youth and adults just back from New Orleans Mission trip last week, and on and on...Christ came not to be served, but to serve. The master of all washed his disciples feet. He has set for us an example.
All is a word that stretches us. We so quickly set our limits, saying we can't possibly love this kind of person or that. With whom did Jesus associate? Sinners and tax collectors, prostitutes and the unclean. There is a Sunday School class here, the Journeys Class, that is really taking this All faithfully. They are exploring becoming a REconciling class. In UM language that means to welcome persons of gay and lesbian orientation. All means all.

The Following One is like breathing in, staying close to Christ, being renewed in Him. The Serving All is like breathing out, witnessing to the presence of Christ in the world.

How do you feel about Following One, Serving All? I am asking you to live into these words and see if this is who Christ is calling us to be as Westlake UMC.

Second, I have a way for us to act upon this vision, Following One, Serving All. Here I am expecting wild applause......on April 25, a Sunday, just over a month from now, I propose calling off worship and Sunday School in this place. I am challenging us to be the church in the world that morning. I am asking us to Rethink Church. You can start by getting one of these cool t-shirts that say REthink Church for about $10. Then you can wear that while you are out serving all that morning. When someone asks you why you are doing what you are doing, you can say that you are a Christian, Following One, Serving All. It will be our public witness. If you don't know what to do, you can go to our website and check out the 12 projects and contact persons listed there. These are just suggestions. You may create your own. You may go with your class. You may go with your children. Then we will gather at noon that day at Valley View Elementary School cafeterian, which can seat more than 400. We will have a box lunch together. We will have a brief worship service around the tables. We will share how we experienced the presence of Christ that morning. You remember that one of my beliefs is that the church ever so often needs to get together for a family reunion, not 9 or 11:15 service, not UM men or UM women, not the Fellowship Class or Perspective Class, but the whole body of Christ. We have the opportunity to do that on April 25.

Third, how Following One, Serving All ties in with this scripture. So many times we think that when we go out to help that we take Christ with us to the needy person. What this scripture says is that Christ is already there. We go out to give Christ and find that we receive Him. We meet Christ in the most vulnerable ones.

Kathleen Norris is an author I like. She writes of her re-discovery of faith after many years of being gone. It's funny how becoming an adult makes us deal with things. She writes of going to a Benedictine Retreat house. The monks are trained to receive each guest as Christ Himself. You may not believe it, but this retreat house and others are booming with business as people try to unhook from the busy-ness of their lives and connect with the holy. At the end of one long day, with many people coming in the gate, the gatekeeper hears the bell ring one more time. As he goes to answer it, Kathleen overhears him say, "O Lord, is that you again?!" And of course the answer is Yes.

We get compassion fatigue when we forget this. When we can no longer see Christ in the least, the last, the lost, then we grow tired because we are just being busy, doing our own thing.

This scripture is also an eschatological passage. That's a fancy word for talking about last things. Or as I like to say, about lasting things or ultimate things. Jesus is trying to tell us that what really lasts, what is of ultimate value is meeting Him in those He loves best, the needy among us.

That's the good news I have to share with you today as we are Following One, Serving All. Amen.