"A church for others." This is the second in our summer series of sermons on the nature and purpose of the church. As Larry and Greg and I have been listening to you talk about church in conversations, meetings, small groups, planning teams, we've been noticing some gaps and some misperceptions even of what church is and is for. And so, over the course of these summer services, we'll each be offering some observations and reflections to deepen our understanding of the nature and purpose of the church.

Someone once said that the average congregation is like a basketball game, in which there are ten players badly in need of rest and 1000 spectators badly in need of exercise. We've been comfortable being an average church in that way for too long, and it's time to create ways for the thousands of spectators out there to become meaningfully involved in the greatest game in town.

We must become truly "a church for others." Many of you have heard me talk about what are, in effect, the two congregations of Santa Monica First United Methodist Church: the current congregation and those "who aren't here yet." It is my increasingly clear conviction that after several decades of slow but persistently steady decline, we must turn our full attention and resources to being a church for others-those who aren't here yet. In this time of the life of our precious church, it is essential that we open wide the doors of our hearts, of our buildings, of our programs and all the resources we can find, create, and scrape together, to invite and welcome and embrace more of God's people into the life of this place.

A church for others. This is a thoroughly biblical vision of how Jesus lived and what he taught his disciples. Jesus gave his life for others, did he not? Jesus constantly turned the attention of his followers from their selfish concerns about themselves, their place in his kingdom and which of them he loved most and all of that, to others and their needs. If you love me, he said, feed my sheep. The way to serve me, he said, is to serve others-those who are hungering and thirsting for hope, for meaning, for com-munity, for love. In embracing them, he said, you are embracing me. And today we learn that just giving a cup of cold water to one of Christ's little ones is the gesture through which Christ himself is received.

Just a cup of water offered. In the offering, we become a church for others. You know, Jesus has a way of saying really radical things in deceptively simple ways. We find ourselves saying "Yes" before we fully know what we've gotten ourselves into. A cup of water to the one who thirsts. OK. Now let's imagine together some of what that means for our life as a church for others.

We are a congregation that has, in so many ways, long practiced this welcoming generosity and hospitality. A mind-boggling example of that is found in our annual awarding of scholarships. As a congregation, through our Methodist Foundation, we just gave away $40,000 to deserving students. Praise be to God for the generosity and commitment of all those families who have established scholarships here at this church, who have chosen to offer resources, that they well could have spent on themselves, to assist others in their pursuit of learning and vocation.

Let's face it! Not everybody or every church has this vision of its purpose. And in our society, all too few people have this generosity as the goal of their living. As a culture, we have become increasingly selfish. In commenting on Worldcom's $4 billion "accounting irregularities"-now there's a euphemism for criminal behavior! -a Congressman said that maybe now we will see that the corporate culture of this country has become corrupted by greed. As a people, we have fed into that. We have been sorely tempted by the pursuit of material gain, at all costs. We have succumbed to the false gospel of Gordon Gekko that "greed is good."

As people of faith, we need to be drawn back to the gospel witness. We are called not to hoard for ourselves, not to indulge our every whim, not to live for ourselves, but to be generous, to give even the shirt off our back, a cup of cold water to the one who thirsts. And so, today we give thanks for the witness of those among us who established scholarships to support others, now and in generations to come, to students they may never actually meet. Their joy comes in giving for others.

The point here is not to be self-congratulatory, but rather to hold up this witness to faithful living as a way to help ourselves see what more could be possible if more individuals and more families and more congregations would commit themselves to sharing more of their resources with others. What other cups of water are there to be offered? This coming week, when you're talking at work, going for your morning walk with friends, chatting with your neighbors, tell them what this church is helping to make possible in the lives of these students. Let them be inspired by this example of generosity and faithfulness, and see what others might also be inspired to do.

A church for others. What other ways can we turn from looking inward to reaching out? We live in times when looking outward is counter-cultural. An example from our neighborhood-the parsonage on 19th Street is increasingly an anachronism that actually witnesses to our being a church for others. It has a front porch. And that makes us virtually unique on the block. The houses that have been redone all share a basic plan popular now, which is to have a smaller front yard and a walkway leading inside big front doors to where life really happens: big kitchens, big family rooms and maybe a backyard patio or deck. All private. All purposefully designed to insulate life in the house from the life of the neighbor-hood. David and I take a certain pointed pleasure, from time to time, in sitting out on our porch in the evening to read and talk and occasionally greet various ones of you as you stroll by.

But you know, that same inward-turning mentality that seems comfortable but is destroying community life can creep into the life of a congregation as well, especially one as historic as this one. A church can, over time, turn more and more of its attention onto its members and their needs. Programs are designed to fit our schedules and meet our needs. Resources-staff time and money-are prioritized according to our issues. Our preferences dictate how things are done. We become increasingly insular, we stop growing, and visitors who do come feel like they've stumbled into a private family gathering by mistake.

No one meant for this to happen. None would say we really don't want to change or grow. It's hard to see what it is that we're doing or not doing that communicates this to newcomers-the staff is talking about it, so is the Church Council, the Evangelism Council, the Vision Team. We are going to be working hard to reopen the doors of this precious place, and the doors of our hearts, as well. We need to start focusing our energies on the next person through that door. We need to find ways to reach out to the many, many people who live around us and share life in this community. People who are looking for love and hope. People who are eager to hear good news. People who are hurting. People who have been burned by church or bored to death by church. People who may not have a clue about what church has to offer.

Recently, I was speaking with one of our older members who lives alone and who had been visited by another member-a long-time friend. She said, "I don't know how I'd manage now without the support of my church. People just don't know what they're missing." We need to find ways to help them know. You are my disciples, says Jesus. And your job is to go out and welcome them, invite them in, love them, offer them a cup of living water.

To be a church for others, for the congregation of those "who aren't here yet," we want to grow. We want to grow our worship attendance and our choir. We want to grow our children's program and our youth ministry. We want to grow our small groups and our study groups. We want to grow our fellowship and our outreach. We want to grow our giving. We want to grow our hearts and our souls. And we want to have a lot of fun doing it.

We will work more and more to offer programs that invite a wide array of people in to explore and deepen their spiritual life. We will train ourselves in the ways of hospitality and keep working to make our facilities more inviting and user-friendly. We will work on our publicity and advertising. But still, the way most new people come to church is through the invitation of a friend, a co-worker, or a neighbor. They come because someone they respect and trust tells them there's something worth finding. Some-thing worth checking out. Something worth experiencing for themselves. New life to be found.

When Jesus talks about his way of being for others, he says an astonishing thing. He says that when we live this way, when we reach out and receive others, when we offer that cup of water, be it the flowing water in a new home built by a mission team or the living water of salvation and grace through Jesus Christ, that in that exchange we will meet him, we will meet God.

We think that by living unto ourselves we can thrive. But he shows us another way. A way of openness and hospitality. A way of generosity. He sends us out as his apostles, with authority to teach and preach and heal in his name, to be his messengers. He sends us out to proclaim his good news to those who have not heard it, to those who are not here yet.

I want to conclude this morning by sharing with you Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of our Gospel for the day from his book, The Message:

Jesus said: "We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts God who sent me. . . . This is a large work I've called you into, but don't be overwhelmed by it. It's best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apostle."

I have a feeling that we'll find God sitting out on the front porch, or on one of the benches in front of the church, eager to greet the next spectator who longs to become part of the action. Open the doors! Go out, and offer them a cup of living water!

© Patricia E. Farris, 2002. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution. All other rights reserved.