Sacrament of the Survey Sunday: Micah 6:8
By Ken Wilson
Today is Sacrament of the Survey Sunday. Ten minutes to update info, consider together what it is that allows a church to work, to function as an expression of the body Christ humbly bearing the transforming presence of Jesus into the heart of our area.
Sacrament with lower case "s.": outward form of an invisible grace.
As an expression of body of Christ on planet earth, we are meant to serve the in-breaking kingdom of God. The prophets view kingdom as the future realm where God reigns supreme and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.
When Jesus rose from the dead, he punched a hole in the dam that separates the future kingdom from the present un-kingdom. And we, his followers, are to drink from the river of the kingdom flowing in from the future, inviting all who are thirsty to come and drink as well.
Task of every church: receive the kingdom coming, bear witness to kingdom coming, pray for more, cooperate with what's already here.
Some say, "I'm spiritually connected to the body Christ, but I don't need to be part of any particular church--they are all so messy, so human, so fallible, so hypocritical….I just do church on the Internet and I do church through my circle of self-selected friends."
Thank God Jesus didn't relate to us like that. He came down as the member of a human community, the people of God such as they were at the time, which was a mess, and he participated in their less-than-
idyllic community life, attended synagogue, went to temple.
He may be the treasure buried in the field of religion, but he didn't count himself too spiritual not to participate in it as he found it.
And the only thing he left behind, this Jesus, was the church: cracked pots bearing witness to a transcendent treasure.
Given our tendency to take our eye off the ball, the prophets spoke words to regain our focus. These words from Micah….
"He has told you, O man, what is good;/
And what does the LORD require of you/But to do justice, to love kindness,/And to walk humbly with your God?
No secret knowledge required. We have been told, and our hearts bear witness to what is required of us:
"to do justice" Much longing for justice, talk of, advocacy of justice. But the task is to do justice.
In everyday life: Doing justice in our relationships. Not tearing co-workers reputations down with our gossip. Or taking advantage of the weak. Putting in an honest days work for our pay.
But we're also to do justice together: the people of God, churches!
Learn to do right!/Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:17)
We can do together things we couldn't pull off on our own.
People are oppressed by misfortune: Stephen Ministers encourage, come alongside them. But it's easy to get overwhelmed by needs of of another! So we need help in how to be to be helpful, how to do what you can, not what you can't, where to go for back up.
The fatherless & widow: single moms & kids. Together we are doing things that alone we could never pull off: a monthly dinner where single moms get a respite….
Homeless ministries: Monthly Sunday meal in Ypsilanti; Friday homeless ministry. Workers from Google chipped in. People want to do justice, not just be for it. Current need: people to spend two hours on Thursday afternoon for Food Gatherers pick up.
313: Mentoring at risk kids in the city of Detroit
Environmental stewardship is a matter of justice. Trashing the earth is a crime against the future as well as the present.
We need a new activism to tend garden. Ave. of 46K pieces of free floating plastic on every sq. mile of ocean. We throw it away, ends up in landfill, picked up by birds, dropped streams to rivers to ocean. Traces of plastic in entire ocean food chain.
Adopt a block pilot:
"to love kindness" [hesed]
What do you love? What makes your heart skip a beat? What does God love? Hesed: Steadfast love & faithfulness. People who sign up and show up. People who give of themselves. Not just when they are in the mood, but as need arises. [Moms wake up in middle of night to feed their babies.]
Engine of the church serving kingdom isn't gifted people. Engine of the church is "steadfast love & faithfulness." People who love stead-fast love and become like what they love….
Friend who suffered unspeakable things as a child. Unspeakable abuse, continuous over years… How did you survive intact?
For a brief time frame, she was taken to Sunday School.
After that, wrote letter to God every day, telling her troubles.
Put letter in a box, when box filled, buried it in back yard.
Sunday school teacher who signed up and showed and did the lesson that day on telling your problems to God, doesn't know the impact….
"And to walk humbly with your God."
Dave Hile walked into the sanctuary--a little late!--and he saw John Getz across the aisle, and went over and shook John's hand. I happen to know that these two men, middle aged men, have been meeting together in a small group for years. I know some of the tough things they've been through. Dave owns his own business and the pressure that comes with that. John is the parking referee for Ann Arbor! Each of them has kids…are you picking up what I'm laying down?
These guys walk humbly with God, in great part, because they walk with each other. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 Jn. 4:20)
How can we walk humbly with God
if we're not walking humbly with others?
I've been part of one small group or another for thirty years. Some better the others. Worship leader played in one key and sang in another. Next to me, a professional singer, who tried to save the worship leader by singing in right key, but it didn't work.
What I love about being in a small group is this: they are real. I've met real people struggling--winning, losing, running, walking and falling--but struggling to walk with God.
We learn to walk humbly with God by walking humbly with others.
Ghandi, an admirer, if not a disciple of Jesus, said one of the seven deadly sins of the modern era was "worship without sacrifice."
Worship that doesn't cost us anything. Three steps, actions, habits to avoid the deadly sin of worship without sacrifice:
1. Regular giving--weekly, monthly, at some regular interval.
2. Regular serving. Sign up to do something, serve somewhere, so the church can work not just for you, but for others.
3. Getting connected in a small group or a ministry team so somebody knows your name you get to know the name of somebody who needs their name to be known.
First item on the survey: your name.
A major theme in the Bible: how hard it is to learn a name.
God's name, for example: El, God Most High (not very revealing)
Exodus: YHWH I am who Am (more personal, but enigmatic)
Gospels: This is my Son, whom I love (God as Abba Father)