A Disciple's Path: Walk for Others

from my message on Nov. 17, 2013, from Romans 12:1-8

I know the title of this message says walk for others, but towards the end of the week, it became also walk with others.  But you will see that in a few minutes.

I want to start by bragging on you.  You do service really well.  We are in a series of messages based around the 5 ways we United Methodists follow Christ, by our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness.  We are on a Disciples' Path.  Today, it is the fourth way, the way of service.  This is probably this church's number one strength.

We just finished Christmas in October, where we get ahead of the culture's emphasis on consumerism.  You got involved in some 18 different ways of walking for and with others from helping with coats for kids to giving coffee to troops to volunteering to go caroling at a retirement center.  We need to serve in this way as a counterweight to the "buy more" trend around us.  I am amazed at how Black Friday is not the day after Thanksgiving any more.  More and more stores are opening on Thanksgiving, first at midnight, then 8 p.m., then 5 p.m., and now 4 p.m.  I think Black Friday has begun to be the day after Halloween!

You get involved at all ages.  We have the F.I.S.H., the Fifth In Service for Him, who go on mission projects.  Children.  Then we have youth who go to do home repair in North Carolina at ReCre.   Adults do home repair after tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri, and medical missions in Central America.  All ages and stages walking for others and with others.

I have a drawer full of t-shirts for walk:  CROP walk for hunger, NAMI walk for mental illness, Alzheimer Walk, etc.  We walk a lot for others.

I went to a meeting this past Tuesday with some leaders of the Hispanic-Latino community.  We United Methodists pastors were meeting with some folks who were not necessarily church folks.  I felt a little intimidated.  They had been on the front lines for decades organizing farm laborers, getting people registered to vote, and fighting racism  One man Gilbert, who admitted he had not been to church in 40 years, asked us what the term "ministries" meant.  We UM pastors tried to explain that for us faith meant not just sitting in the pew but getting to real human needs in the world.  We didn't just have good words, but also healing actions.

The leader of the group asked me to brag on Westlake UMC.  I got to tell how we house the offices of Mobile Loaves and Fishes which feed the homeless living on the streets.  I got to tell how SCORE helps people write a business plan and get a small business loan.  I told how our congregation got Any Baby Can started.  I shared about our involvement with Foundation for the Homeless, Habitat for Humanity, and others.

I want to brag on you.  You are walking for and with others.  Give yourselves a hand.

Now, we are going through this Healthy Church Initiative process, where some consultants have offered 5 prescriptions for us.  One of those is to do an audit of all of missions, our service projects.  Some of you may have felt threatened by this prescription.  "THEY are going to take MY special mission away."  I need to lower you anxiety.  There is no THEY.  It is only US.  WE will decide if some service projects need to be trimmed.  We get to choose.

For us, our service projects could also be seen as one of the primary ways that we witness to our faith.  It is often one of the first ways people get on the path of discipleship.  They may first come to a worship service, but join us as we go into the world to make a difference in a hands-on mission.  I think we could tweak this service component just a tiny bit to make it an even more effective witness, but that is next week's message.  This is my teaser to get you to come back and hear more about witnessing next week.

I do know that we have some issues in this church when it comes to serving that we need to look at.  We do so many things that projects compete for time and resources.  Just yesterday our mission day to do home repair in Bastrop after the fires there didn't make, because we had only 2 people sign up.  We get stretched pretty thin sometimes.  Leaders get stretched thin, sometimes ending up exhausted.  Guests to our church get confused about our central mission or how to get started in serving others.  In others words, our message gets diluted.  We don't have focus.

What does the Bible have to say to this?  We read from Romans 12.  After all, we are the church.  We are not just another service club.  God bless the Rotarians, and Kiwanis, and Lions, and ...so forth.  But our motivation is different.  We act out of a relationship with Christ.  We come from a place of grace.  Paul says to the church at Rome and to us, Therefore by the mercies of God.  We act in response to God's love and forgiveness, a free gift to us.  We serve others because God has shown love to us in Christ's living and dying and being raised again.

And we act in community.  The imagery is that of the Body of Christ.  We need all of the spiritual gifts in order to be a whole body.  The list is not meant to be exhaustive.  You can read I Cor. 12 and Eph. 4 to find other gifts.  The point is that we need each other in order to walk for others and with others.  We act in community, not just for those already a part of the church but for the wider world.  We walk for and with others, the world community.

Now, I need to bring this home with a story about walking. Many of you know that Cathy and I got 10 weeks renewal leave this summer.  I walked about 10 miles a day.  One of my big hikes was to climb the highest point in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak, 13,161 feet.  I called the leader of the hike to see if I could joint the group leaving from Angel Fire, NM.  The person vetted me, "What kind of shape are you in?"  "Well, I just spent the last 2 1/2 weeks walking about 150 miles of the Appalachian Trail.  I have spent the last week and a half getting acclimated to the altitude here."  They let me go on the hike.  It was challenging.  It was only 4 mile up, but it was a 4,000 foot climb over those 4 miles, starting at about 9,000 feet, thin air.  Here's a picture of me standing at the top of Wheeler Peak.  Do you see those storms clouds in the background?  We had just gotten to the top when it became time to come down.  Thunder and lightning.  I am only afraid of 2 things:  snake and lightning.  The leaders said, "We have to leave now."  They took off.  One woman in our group said, "If I don't eat something, I will be sick. I suffer from vertigo."  I stayed with her.  We walked down in a hail storm with lightning.  Watch the video of us slow stepping down the slippery rocks.  This poor woman had blisters, vertigo, and more.  She shuffled down the mountain like Tim Conway.  I could have gone a lot faster by myself.  But I put my agenda and timeline to the side.  I was not going to leave her behind.  We walk with others. It took us longer to come down than to climb up.  I did all of my Stephen Ministry listening skills.  I got her to tell me her story.  She was a recovering alcoholic, sober for some 18 months.  On the one year anniversary of her sobriety, her dad died.  Her brother took his own life not long after.  We had a lot of time to talk, to get down the mountain.  We do not leave people behind.  We are community.  We walk with others.

Today, I have these work boots, I am going to give for others.  We have the Methodist Free Store at 1717 E. 12th street.  See their website.  We Methodists let people shop for free, anything they want.  But the point is that the servants at the free store establish a relationship with the shoppers.  "What do you need?  How can we be in prayer with you?  How are things going in your life?"  It is not just offering stuff, but a relationship....a relationship with another person, with Christ.  Here's the amazing thing:  many of the shoppers have now become servants, helping others shop.  We walk for and with others.  I am taking this boots to the free store.

The good news is that we were made to walk for other and with others.  Amen.