The Church Has a Mission - Acts 6: 1-7

This is our last week of the summer sermon series on the book of Acts. We have spent time exploring how the Holy Spirit ignited the early church and leads us just as fervently today. It seems appropriate that we end the series by exploring the call of the Holy Spirit in the life of our congregation. However, this sermon has ended up being much more difficult to write then I anticipated. This particular text is challenging because it confronts the idea that everyone should be able to do everything, and that can be un-nerving at times.

As the early church grew, so did their need for organization. When a few people gather together to share their lives and possessions with one another, it can easily be contained. But when thousands upon thousands join in, there needs to be a different structure. When it became apparent that the old way of doing things was no longer working, the disciples, the teachers and leaders of the movement, called everyone together and honestly spoke the truth saying, we cannot do everything. We are called to teach and pray. So find seven people from among those whom you respect and trust who are called to organize the distribution of food. 

As I said before, this was a difficult passage for me, though philosophically it should not be. We are part of a denomination that believes that followers of Christ are all called to share their gifts and talents for the good of the church. We even have a name for it, lay leadership. Yet, as often is the case, philosophy does not always get lived out in the best way. We have people who step in and do whatever needs to be done, even if it is not their gifting. And we have people who do not view themselves as leaders, so they push their gifts and talents aside. We believe in lay leadership, but somewhere between our belief and our action things become muddled. 

I also feared that different works of the church were being prioritized by the disciples or a hierarchy of gifts being created, until I came upon Bishop Will Willimon’s comments on this particular passage of scripture when he said, “the disciples were not disparaging the work of feeding people; they instead are taking decisive action is that this necessary social administration might be assured.” The disciples were admitting a hard thing in this passage - they could not do everything. In fact they could not do everything, because they were not gifted and called to do everything. They were called to a specific task -teaching and praying. But they had faith that others in the community were also called - called to feed and see to organizational needs. The disciples saw the problem and addressed it directly. And the people were pleased. They were not offended as we may be at this passage. They instead picked people filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom to lead this new phase of being the church together. And the movement continued to grow in leaps and bounds because the leaders were living into their God given gifts and were freed to do what God had placed them on this earth to do. Praise God!

This past week in the parish missions class, we discussed how our service to the church and mission in the community flows from our relationship with God. How the most profound opportunities we have come when we allow God to reveal us to needs that we are called to meet. And how we are all called to do something for mission and service are necessary for our life as disciples. These may all seem to be simple truths but they lead to hard questions - how are we living out mission and service? Is this what God is calling us to do? How to we make room for everyone to be able to serve God? And what needs in our community are not being meet?

With these questions I was transported back to a summer I spent working as a faith-based community organizer in a little town called Denison, Texas. I came in as someone not native to the area with a different view of things. While some of the church folk in Denison had become overwhelmed by the needs of the community or stuck in their old ways of doing missions, together we saw new opportunities to serve God. The opportunity to open up a day center where people without air-conditioning could escape the 110 degree heat of early summer and find community. The teaching of young unwed mothers how to care for their young children and run a household by moms who had raised children as single parents. The opening of a community garden where anyone could come to grow vegetables that they could then take with them - moving from a model of giving to people in need to empowering them. 

We were not able to meet all the needs in Denison that summer. But as I and others spent time walking the streets, we got to know people and know their needs. I then was able to take this information back to the local churches to see how the needs could creatively be meet. I was not upset that the pastors were not out walking the streets with me, that was not their calling at that particular time. It was mine, and I needed to be faithful to it to the best of my ability. 

We need to be in positions where we can listen to people about their needs. One of the stories I remember most vividly from that summer involved a broken window. One evening, I was driving around the area with my supervisor pointing out some of the houses in desperate need of care. We stopped outside of one home where the windows had been shattered and I asked my supervisor to imagine how warm it must be in that house with the sun blazing around 115 degrees that particular day. She grew silent and after a while whispered, “that’s my cousins house. I didn’t even know that it was that bad.” We need to be in a place where we can listen to the needs of those in the community where our church is located, for we cannot be serving the biggest needs if we are not aware of them. It is not our job to speak to the validity of needs we do not understand. The disciples did not debate with those who came to them about whether the Hellenisitc believers widows were being slighted food or not. They simply responded in a way that appropriately said, we hear your concern and we will address it fairly. There wasn’t judgement. Simply reaching out in love. But the disciples had to be open to hearing the need and equipping others to respond, thus having leadership arise from the community’s needs. 

We also need to trust that God will give us the resources to serve in missions. Often we get so caught up in the reasons that we cannot do something that we overlook what we have been gifted to do. The disciples could have complained about not having enough food for everyone or not enough time or people to get the job done. But instead they approached in creatively, trying something new. They didn’t know if it would work, but they were willing to try. Are we willing to risk trying to serve our community in a new way, too? The needs and lifestyle today are not the same as they were even 5 or 10 years ago. We need to be open  to allowing the Holy Spirit work through us in a new way so we can touch people’s lives. 

In our United Methodist Tradition we have the beliefs and tools to transform communities for Jesus Christ, touching people’s lives, which is the true mission of the church. To spread the word of Jesus Christ to people through word and mission so hearts can be changed and hope can be found. We believe that everyone has a gift to share in service. We believe that we are called to serve God through acts of social justice. And most importantly, we believe that we do not do this work alone. We are lead by the spirit and work as a community. Notice that the disciples did not elect just one person to head up the food ministry. And they didn’t all leave their call to preach and teach in order to meet this need. They sent several people to start the new branch of ministry and left several people to the ministry of preaching and praying. We serve together, use our different gifts together, in order to have the greatest impact. For too long we have had lone-rangers in the church, who don’t invite others to be part of their work. When we serve together, we can reach more people for the kingdom!

Brothers and sisters, I ask you, how are we serving this community? What needs are there that we are called to address? How are you called to be in service and mission? And how are we doing living into the mission of the church? We need each and every one of us to be using our gifts in order to spread the word and witness to Christ. We need each and every one of us to rely on being lead by the Holy Spirit in order to be a Spirit lead Church! My hope and prayer is that together, as we serve this community, that we will have the same results as in the book of Acts, where the church grew in leaps and bounds, finding believers among all people. One step at a time, together, we can make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world! I hope that excites you! I hope that drives you! For the church through the ages is called to this mission in order to bring all honor and glory to God! Amen!