It
has been a week of intersecting journeys, a week of happy hellos,
mournful goodbyes, joyful circles of preschool children parading in
costume, and of a newspaper filled with stories of journeys intersecting
in miraculous ways. This morning we will be talking and hearing about
journeys, our role in this community and what God may be calling us
to be as good stewards. Let’s pray as we begin. May the words
of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts gathered in this place
be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our hope, our rock and our redeemer.
Amen.
Friends,
if you saw the California section of the LA Times this past Friday
you couldn’t help but see journeys and intersections. The one
that really caught my eye was right there in the middle of the page.
It was the story of Lovel Abram, the mother of Dexter Rideout who
was murdered three years ago. Lovel Abram tells her son’s murderer
that she doesn’t hate him. She says that she loves him. “We
love you” she says, “No hate. Just hurt and sorrow.”
Now, that is touching enough, yet also sitting in the courtroom are
the murderer’s two children – five and seven years old
– and their daddy has just been sentenced to fifty years in
prison. Lovel Abrams knows this and asks permission from her son’s
murderer to be allowed to set these children up in the Big Brothers
and Big Sisters program – a program that meant the world to
her son. Did you get that? Tthe mother of the murder victim is asking
permission of her son’s murderer to set his children up with
a future. An unusual, Christ-centered approach to life. We all have
intersecting journeys happening around us and like Lovel Abram, it
is up to us what we do with them.
There
is no doubt that we live in a complex time surrounded by amazing opportunities
for ministry. Over these past couple of months I’ve taken a
lot more time to walk and drive around our beautiful city to try and
come to terms with the complexities. I noticed just how many people
walk through the Third Street Promenade and Palisades Park on any
given day. I noticed the movement of homeless persons away from Reed
Park, into Douglas and Palisades Park and back down to the beach.
I’ve seen the hundreds that head for the OPCC Access Center
each day for food and help. I noticed that as the summer waned, the
surfers have headed back to the beaches. I noticed the groups of kids
that hang out down off of Pico & 18th and what I see worries me.
I’ve noticed the gatherings of kids as they leave Samohi and
where they congregate. I’ve watched the parents of our preschool
children and the hope in their eyes for the futures of their children.
I wondered if each of these might be an opportunity for ministry.
Then I watched the special two weeks ago that interviewed all of the
Santa Monica City Council Candidates. It wasn’t so much what
I heard but what I didn’t hear that gave me pause.
In
as much as we are now heading into our 132nd year as a church, I’m
not sure our presence is being noticed by as many as we would like.
In the City Council Candidates special each candidate spent about
five minutes answering questions and talking about the city they love.
They talked about affordable housing, homelessness, youth violence,
the schools, the bond issues, being friendlier to locally owned businesses,
tourism, and about our assets as a community. Not one of them mentioned
the churches. Not one. That, my friends should be a ‘heads-up’
to us that we need to re-establish our collective voices here in Santa
Monica. Why is it that we are not being noticed? This story of Jesus
and Bartimaeus, Paul’s message to the church at Corinth and
even John Wesley can each help us as we look and plan ahead.
The
story we heard this morning about the blind man and Jesus raises some
interesting points. It also offers us some potential answers. Go back
to the story for just a second. Jesus is on his final journey to Jerusalem.
The preceding sections of Mark help us see that it is as though his
whole focus is now on this final trip to Jerusalem. He is aware that
he is headed to his death. Suddenly, there, in the midst of this journey
and amidst “a great multitude,” the shrill voice of a
blind man interrupts the solemnity of the movement and the story.
This man will not be deterred. Jesus stops and turns and Bartimaeus
becomes the focus and the point of intersection – a defining
moment again. Jesus asks the blind man, “What do you want me
to do for you?” And the man responds, “Let me see again.”
Jesus does what is asked and the man, now healed, begins to follow
him. Key elements: a focused journey, a great multitude, an interruption,
a change of focus, a life-changing healing and a new follower. Jesus
shifted his attention and a man’s life was changed forever.
It left me with some questions as we look at stewardship and us. Before
we get there we need to look at Paul and his ministry in Corinth and
other locations.
To
more clearly understand Paul’s message we have to understand
how Paul worked. Some now believe that early in his ministry Paul
developed a very consistent approach to ministry in each community.
He would enter a community, visit the Synagogue, preach, meet the
leaders, find a place to live, establish himself, open his tent-making
shop, become financially self-sufficient, continue to preach and begin
to look for those in the community that needed work and food. He would
preach wherever he could and would bring the needy in to train them
and help them to become self-sufficient. From his preaching, people
would come and want to hear more. From the community people would
come to seek help. The community of believers would grow thus starting
a church. In many of Paul’s earliest locations, a house church
would be born out of this process, then another, then another. The
key here: Paul knew his message and knew his mission. Paul would journey
from city to city locating those willing to build congregations. Out
of this, new sets of believers were born, as were new churches. Paul
went to them. They then came to him. He went out again to them and
the cycle continued. Seventeen hundred years later, John Wesley did
something similar.
Wesley
felt that the Church of England was missing the most needy populations.
He made the decision to move beyond the walls of the local established
church and move into the places of most need. He preached outside
of the coalmines, in the city squares, in country fields and wherever
people would gather. He preached like no one they had heard before.
He also visited the prisons, fed the families in the poorhouses, offered
hope to those who had little and began a ministry of movement. He
developed leaders out of small groups or cells. In those places that
needed a pastoral presence he would appoint persons to visit. Circuits
were developed and pastors were chosen and trained to ride those circuits.
When Methodism came to the Americas, that type of ministry continued.
And to go full circle, this church was a part of a circuit, and three
of our earliest pastors were circuit riders who came to us so that
we might hear the good news of Jesus Christ and see our potential
role in this community.
Notice
the key elements here. Jesus allowed himself to change his focus because
of a recognized need while on his journey. Paul offered hope to an
ever-widening circle of people in need of hope. He offered food, training,
fellowship, support, encouragement and the motivation to go and do
the same for others. John Wesley moved beyond the established doors
of the Church of England and into a ministry to those most in need.
None of them had an easy time of it. But here we have Paul’s
response, “Through the testing of this ministry you glorify
God by your obedience to the confessions of the gospel of Jesus Christ
and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with others. Thanks
be to God for this indescribable gift.” The responses of Jesus
to Bartimaeus, Paul to the church at Corinth, and Wesley to the needs
of England describe our role, our potential next steps on the journey
of faith in this community.
Last
week Patricia talked about moving forward, facing the future, and
looking with fresh eyes at year one hundred and thirty two. She talked
about endeavoring into an adventure and moving ahead with great integrity.
I talked last week with the Christian Basics class of the adventure
now before us to explore new ways of being the church. We are called
to see with new eyes the community that surrounds us. And I wonder
if we might consider being like Jesus and listen and turn toward those
in need. Or like Paul and plant congregations around this community.
And like Wesley and make sure that there is a pastoral presence in
each of those congregations. Friends, people will no longer simply
come to us. We, however, can begin to think creatively about going
to them. Imagine having our two services that meet here in the sanctuary
on Sunday mornings. Imagine another meeting on Wednesday or Saturday
evenings in the New Simkins Hall with a different style of worship.
Imagine having a congregation meeting somewhere on the Third Street
Promenade or at the Farmers Market. Imagine holding some kind of worship
for those who come to Santa Monica to work or play. How about a congregation
that would meet early on Saturday or Sunday morning at Sunset Beach
or County Line with surfers? Or how about a congregation of homeless
that would meet before they bed down at Reed or Douglas Park?
We
are headed into a new future, an unknown future. It will take resources
to get there – and I don’t just mean money. Today we begin
the focus, but we continue the journey, and look at planning ahead
for those places of intersection. Over the next three weeks you will
hear folks like Jim Krause stand before you and talk about what stewardship
is for them. Every person who will be standing before you lives stewardship…every
one of them. But they are not alone. Hundreds of you could stand before
this Body and talk of your work, your time, your giving and your belief.
We’ve had three teams head for New Orleans, we’ve given
tens of thousands of dollars to the work in the Gulf Coast, the work
after the Tsunami, and other work around the world. I am not in any
way diminishing that. What I am asking for this morning is that we
continue that work while also turning our attention here – to
Santa Monica and the voices crying out to us here.
What I find spiritually challenging as we head into this concentration,
this journey in stewardship, is that it really does center on each
of us and on what we will decide to do. So, as we begin, here is what
I am recommending. Spend time with God, intentional time, thinking
and praying about why you are a part of this church, what your hopes
and dreams may be and what God is calling you to do to help move it
all forward. I’m asking you to consider becoming deeper and
more focused on our stewardship. I’m asking you to step into
leadership in your giving. Your contributions of time, energy and
money are what move this work forward. The combination of people in
this congregation and God’s Holy Spirit has the potential to
change this community and even the conversations of our community
leaders. I’m asking you to walk, drive, surf, run, bike and
look around you. Look with the eyes Jesus, Paul and John Wesley had
in mind and see if God may be telling you about places in need of
congregations of believers.
We live in a complex place, and yet it is a place where the mother
of murdered son seeks to help the children of her son’s murderer.
All things are possible. Life is a journey and so is faith. The steps
we take over these next four weeks will be substantial. They will
determine what we can and can’t do over this next year. Take
the time, friends. Be in prayer and make the decisions that will move
us forward in this journey of faith. May God bless you now prepare
for these next steps in what is already an incredible journey of faith.
Amen? Amen!
©Brad
Beeman, 2006. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
All other rights reserved.
First
United Methodist Church
1008 Eleventh Street
Santa Monica, CA 90403
www.santamonicaumc.org
(310) 393-8258
Taking
the Journey - Planning Ahead