The common complaint about the news media is that the news is always bad. Oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. A teenager dies of a drug overdose. A man is murdered. The stock market is down.
And thats just today. In some sense, we can predict the headlines coming over the next several months: a terrorists car bomb explodes, killing many persons. There is a severe heat wave and drought. A hurricane is coming. On and on it goes.
For those of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ and find great strength and support in our congregational life, it is easy to see the church as a place of refuge. Worship, prayer, study, and fellowship are great sources of comfort in the midst of a rapidly changing world. And so we come on Sunday mornings seeking stability, reassurance, and calm. The church is a strong fortress in the midst of a stormy world.
But I wonder if this is the best way to understand the role of the church. The church as fortressis a great metaphor for those of us on the inside. But what about those on the outside? Who will proclaim the gospel, inviting other persons into relationship with Jesus Christ? Who will care for those who are homeless, or those who could work but have no source of reliable transportation to a job? Where do victims of abuse or neglect find refuge? If the church retreats into a fortress, who is left to engage the sometimes difficult and unpleasant challenges of urban living?
One answer to this question is found in JesusParable of the Sower(Luke 8:4-8, 11-15). In the parable, Jesus says, a farmer went out to sow his seed. Jesus then explains that the seed represents the word of God, planted in peoples hearts. Some of the seeddid not yield a harvest because the trials and pressures of life crushed it. Much of the seed, however, found good soil and did what seed is supposed to do: it grew, and yielded a harvest! This is what happens in the life of the disciple.
All this being said, however, I would like to focus on the faithfulness of the farmer. There would have been no harvest had the farmer not gone outside of his house into the field. The farmer engaged the world around him by sowing the seed. The farmer knew his field, he knew what kind of seed to plant, and he knew how to plant it. Because the farmer was active in the area around him, crops were planted and a harvest realized.
In the face of a changing, uncertain world, the church should never lose sight of its calling to creatively engage our communities with the word of God. We are called to sow seedsin the neighborhoods around our congregations, within our families, among our friends, and around the world. What is more, as we move out of our fortressto creatively engage those around us, we should recognize two general types of seed to sow.
Sometimes we will sow seeds of mercy. The church rightly chooses to become involved in issues such as poverty, racism, homelessness, disaster response, and other areas like these when those concerns are nearby. God is always concerned with peoples suffering, and has called Gods people to be compassionate and merciful.
Other times, we will show seeds of evangelism. Inviting people to church, praying for one anothers needs, explaining the Gospel and inviting people to make a commitment for Christ is equally part of the outreach ministry of the local congregation.
The church must move beyond the fortress mentalitythat so often paralyzes us in the face of urban challenges. Moving beyond the fortress will require new ministries, new use of our time, new risk-taking, new priorities, and more people who come to worship, then depart to serve. Moving beyond the fortress will cause us to learn to trust Godmaybe for the first time.
In a sermon to a group of clergy, Pastor Fred Craddock described what creative engagement with the world around us might look like: To give my life for Christ appears glorious,he said. To pour myself out for others. . . to pay the ultimate price of martyrdomIll do it. Im ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory. We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking $l,000 bill and laying it on the tableHeres my life, Lord. Im giving it all.But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $l,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kids troubles instead of saying, Get lost.Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isnt glorious. Its done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; its harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.
Join me in leaving the fortress behind.
Tim Harvey is the senior pastor at Central Church of the Brethren in Roanoke. Come visit them at www.centralbrethren.org
