February 8, 2009
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
All Things to All People
1 Corinthains 9:16-23
Our A New Baby
Rejoice! Lutheran Church, Hudson, Ohio
Last Sunday it was my great joy to join the people of Rejoice! Lutheran Church for the dedication of their new church building. Everybody there had a happy face on.
Rejoice! is the new mission start of ours (the Northeastern Ohio Synod) in Hudson, Ohio. And I wish I could have bottled up and brought home to you their energy and spirit.
After ten years of struggle, two pastors and three moves to three different temporary quarters, they are finally in their own building. And was just like the excitement that young parents have after the birth of a child
Yes, the labor was long and hard. Yes, there were aches and pains and frustrations along the way. But who cares?
The baby is here now. And all those aches and pains go away and it is worth it. Boy, is it worth it! You can tell by all the beaming smiles on the faces.
We are a Church for Others
And one common “mantra” they kept saying along the way was “We are a church for others because without others we would not be here.”
Twenty-six different congregations of the NEOS partnered up with them to give birth to this new baby. Support from the synod at large. In other words, our mission dollars. The Mission Investment Fund of which we are a part. Mission Builders—retired folk who travel up from the south and west over the summer to do much of the framing and carpentry work.
“We are a church for others because without others we would not be here.” That is true. That is literally true.
And so, for the offering last Sunday (the offering for their dedication), they took it not for themselves, but for Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church which is the new mission start (our latest one) in North Ridgeville.
And every third Sunday of the month, they take their loose plate offering and give it away to some designated benevolence on top of their ELCA Mission Support…because they are a church for others for without others they would not exist. They know it. They know it. They know in their bones.
And it hit me as I was sitting there: this is exactly the way our founders must have felt back in 1929 when they established this church and in 1931 when finally this building was dedicated. They must have had that same kind of passion and vision for mission and for ministry and for outreach.
And Harold Sayles, the first pastor, must have stood up here (well, actually over there) and said, “We are a church for others because without others we would not exist.”
Paul’s Mission Method
We are in chapter 9 of Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians this day where he lays out his “mission method.” And what he says is that he is always in tune…he is attentive…to the other person.
He doesn’t impose his own personal preferences and traditions and lifestyle on them. Rather he pays attention to them and he becomes like they are.
“To the Jews,” he said, “I became as a Jew.” And to the god-fearers (that is, to non-Jews who were attracted to Judaism) he became like those god-fearers. And to the gentiles, he became like the gentiles.
And the reason that he did it was “for the sake of the gospel” so that he might win some. “I have become all things to all people,” he says. “I have become all things to all people, so that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share with others in its blessings.”
And there you have it from the Apostle Paul himself: “We are a church for others because without others we would not exist.” Especially that one “other,” that one special “other,” Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Jesus Gives Birth to Us for the Sake of Others
It is so simple. We are the body of Christ. Without Jesus we would not exist. Jesus is the one who gave “birth” to us through the hard labor of his death and resurrection.
And he did it, not so that we might be a baby wrapped up in ourselves, but rather so that we may share his blessing with the various communities and the different kinds of people immediately around us to the ends of the earth.
And so like the Apostle Paul we are entrusted with this charge. We are given this commission. We have no choice but to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. And to do so as powerfully…and as spiritedly…and as winsomely…and persuasively as we can.
Revisioning For the Sake of the Gospel
ReVisioning our Future
How can we recapture the vision and the passion that our own founders once had—those folks in 1929?
How can we be more like Jesus and more like Paul who went and become like others—and who did not impose on gentiles the “ethnic” traditions of their backgrounds—but who rather created a whole “new thing,” a whole “new baby?”
What are the barriers that must come down? What reluctance and resistances do we have in welcoming other people in who are different from us? What can we do to open our doors, not just so that folks can come in to us, but also, so that we can go out to meet them where they are, like Jesus did?
This is the kind of re-visioning that people in every congregation must do every three to five years or so, if they are to remain a living and vital congregation. And it is time for us to do it again. We invite you to be a part of this process.
And the reason that we do it is because of what Christ has done to us. “We are a church for others because without that One Other, Jesus Christ, we would not exist.”
We do it for the sake of the gospel, so that we may share with others in its blessings.
© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster