Being the Church Today: Running

 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

24-25 You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.

26-27 I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.  1 Corinthians 9:19-27

I sometimes wonder if the model of ministry that best describes what I am doing comes from a cartoon I watched growing up.  On Saturday morning, I would get up early, a feat that could not be accomplished during the week mind you.  I would grab a bowl of Frosted Flakes.  They were great... for cavities.  One of my favorite cartoons was Wile E. Coyote, and his tirelessly efforts to come up with plan to catch that elusive road runner.  Every episode was pretty much the same.  Wiley would draw an elaborate sketch, he would order some item from the Acme Company, although I now wonder what his source of income?  He seemed to spend a lot of time plotting.  Usually his scheme meant strapping some kind of explosive to his back or feet, once said devise was lit it would sent him whooshing past the road runner into a rock or off a cliff where he would suspend in air and hold up a sign that read, “Yikes.”  Yikes might just be one of the most faithful words in trying to lead the church today.  

Paul gives us two great images today.  First is a willingness to meet people where they are at.  He says he reached out to everyone: religious and nonreligious, the moralists and those whose morals were questionable at best.  I think about the recent Pew Research Survey that was released and has been a cause of much discussion and debate.  I wonder if instead of discussing data, the church could start being more concerned about stories?  Your story of who you are, what matters, why, what is at the core?  What if we were less concerned about percentages and more about people?  Less concerned about attendance and more concerned about abiding/attending to each other?  There are countless surveys out there.  Every time we turn around we are being asked for our opinion.  But, the real questions that matter in life are not which soda I prefer or if this car makes me feel happy...the real questions in life are how am I living right now?  What sermon is my bank account preaching about my values?  Where am I energized and what exhausts me?  Those questions need time and space.  They are unending because my answers today are not the same as they were one year ago and won't be the same a year from now.

Tomorrow is Pentecost, the birthday of the church.  If the church is going to be a place with a wide door, a place of extravagant welcome, maybe we need to find new spaces and places to be the church.  Maybe we need to stop thinking about buildings and more about holy ground.  The truth that convicts me is that there are very few temples in Scripture...and the temples that are described are often destroyed or not exactly the places you'd want to hang out.  

So, what is the church?  I know from my childhood choir time, "The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place (which I now have some theological objects to), the church is the people."  Okay everyone now sing with me.

What I know about that song is that it reminds me that the church is a movement.  The church is a dance.  The church needs to be willing to run the race.  Last Sunday, I talked with the church I serve about agape love being a movement toward.  We are able to move toward another person (agape or love them) because God first agaped...moved toward us.  God continually swirls and stirs around us.  Which is a bit scary because if God is always moving, there is an unpredictability and uncontrollable part to the holy.  Which is where the word, "Yikes" is most appropriate.  It can feel often like the church is running in all directions... always plotting and scheming like Wile to come up with the next best thing to bring 'em in.  And yet "'em" remains elusive like the road runner.  Maybe it is time to be less concerned with stats and more concerned with being the church for the people around us.  Being the church is less about the what and more about the how, why, and where is God calling us now.  Being the church meanings staying open to that spirit which abides with us and in us and keeps us moving toward others...agape...for the living out of these days.  And yes, some days are "Yikes" and other days are "Yeah!" and others days are "Yawn"...and the good news is that God is in all that.  

Happy birthday church.  May we celebrate the relationships that bless and bind us together in faith...may we notice that we are the church today.