The other night I caught a TV show that featured people showing off the peculiar talents of their pets. One man brought a tiny little dog and proceeded to wind up its tail, sort of cranking the tail, much as you used to have to wind up a mechanical toy. Then he let go and the poor puppy ran round and round and round, chasing its tail, maybe 20, 25 times, but of course never catching it. The dog absolutely got lost in the pursuit of something he would never catch, and which, if he were to catch it, he wouldn’t know what to do with it!
Human beings may be, as the Scripture tells us, the very crown of God’s creation, made a little less than the angels. But we are also among the silliest, most incredibly trivial, most amazingly wasteful, of all God’s creation. We too have the ability to get so obsessed with some activity, so caught up in some passion, that we get lost in it. We can’t find our way out; we just get lost in it.
Recently I read about the "pearlies" in London. The pearlies are people who have created elaborate costumes for themselves, sowing thousands upon thousands of tiny pearls on their clothing, so that they can strut their stuff around the streets of London on various holidays. The typical pearlie, it is said, has invested months of work and a huge amount of money just to create one fantastic pearl-studded coat. People get lost in pursuits like that.
When I was a boy I got involved in stamp collecting. The hobby got a boost in the 1940’s because President Roosevelt was an avid stamp collector and used the hobby as a means of escape from the burdens of his office. Well, the bug bit me when I was about nine years old. It wasn’t long until my after-school hours were spent in poring over tiny bits of paper, trying to puzzle out those funny languages. My allowance was invested in answering stamp ads in Boy’s Life magazine. Mr. Faulkner, I think stamp collecting may have been the only Scouting merit badge I ever earned. Time I was supposed to be spending on homework or on music practice I was using on mounds of postage stamps. My father would find me late at night, well after bedtime, trying to organize the crazy things. Creating something which probably nobody but me would ever see, which would mean nothing to no one but me, and which would contribute very little to my world. I remember him saying, "You are getting lost in this stamp collection!" "You are getting lost..."
That is part of our humanness, getting lost. We get lost in things. We get involved in some pursuit, and it gets out of proportion. We forget how to balance that activity with everything else in our lives. Whether it is participating in sports or decorating the house, whether it is reading mystery novels or punching computer games, some of us get lost. We get lost in the trivial, the peripheral; we get started in something just because it is enjoyable, but soon it takes us over. We get lost.
Even church is like that. Some of us get lost in church. Some of us make church a place to keep busy, a pursuit to follow, a beehive of activity. And if church is nothing but go, go, go, and do, do, do, you soon get lost in it. You forget what it is all about, busy though you are, and you lose the real meaning of it.
I have often quoted, but will do so again, a parody of the nursery rhyme that describes us all too well. Getting lost in the busy-ness of church was aptly described by the wit who chanted, "Mary had a little lamb; it would have been a sheep. But it became a Baptist, and died for lack of sleep"! We get lost, even in church.
Now the Bible does not ask us to get lost in church. It asks us, if we are going to get lost, to get lost in wonder, love, and praise. The Bible asks us to see things in perspective, to remember what church is really all about, and then to focus not on activity, not on triviality, but on purpose.
I want to speak with you today about churchmanship. I want to encourage us to pay attention to the purpose of the church; I want to assess whether our particular expression of the church is worthy; and I want to challenge us to get lost in this church - not in a trivial, obsessive way, but in a caring, effective way. To get lost in wonder, love, and praise.
I
First, what is the church and why do we have it?
Listen to Paul’s description of the church. “In my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints."
What is the church? “ ... for the sake of His body, the church." The church is the outcome of the work of Christ. The church is not an accident of history. Nor is it just another social group. It is not just another pleasant, harmless, but trivial pursuit. It is the body of Christ. It is God’s chosen instrument to achieve His purposes.
And what is that purpose? Why do we have the church? “ ... according to God’s commission to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden … but has now been revealed.”
Perhaps you have heard people say that they believe in God, they consider themselves Christians, but that they can do without the church. Some will say that they admire Jesus, revere the Scriptures, and hope for salvation, but that they have a problem with organized religion.
Part of the answer to that complaint, by the way, is like Will Rogers’ old quip about not belonging to any organized political party, since he was a Democrat! If you have a problem with organized religion, come join us and we’ll give you Baptists’ disorganized religion!
But I submit that to say that you love Christ but do not care for the church is a shallow analysis. I have to say, on the basis of Scripture, that to love Christ is to love His church. To follow Christ is to be engaged with His body.
Now I well recognize the excesses. I well recognize that some people mistake church activity for a relationship with Christ. I well recognize that we can get lost in the busy-ness and hurly-burly of church life. Even so, I would still argue that to follow Christ demands that we honor His church, love His body. It is God-given; it is appointed and commissioned by God Himself to achieve His purpose.
Don’t get lost in things that don’t matter. Don’t get lost in clubs and organizations, lodges and hobbies, however harmless and fine they may be. None of them was created by the act of almighty God. If you are going to get lost, get lost in the body which is given to wonder, love, and praise.
"The body of Christ ... God’s commission to make the word fully known, the mystery... now revealed."
II
But now, if we agree that God has established the church to accomplish His purpose, how can we be sure that any particular church is worthy? What makes any given church, any particular local church worthy of our time and effort and energy? I admit that I have seen some I would not want to be a part of. I’ve seen some churches that wouldn’t interest me in the least. What justifies our asking you to set a priority not just for church in general, but for Takoma Park Baptist Church in particular?
The answer is very simple. The answer is people. People. Will the church do something to build people? Listen to how Paul puts it:
"[It is] Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is [Christ] whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ."
Our task is people: to present everyone mature in Christ. Our task is not things, but people; not religious services, but people; not ecclesiastical trivia, but people; not budgets, but people; not traditions, but people. Everything the church does, every energy that it expends, needs to be pointed toward this one thing ... redeeming and completing human beings. To paraphrase Bill Clinton’s famous poster, "It’s the people, stupid!"
The seductive thing, you see, about church is that it is so easy to get lost in its activities and its traditions. We so readily lose sight of why all of this is being done. I’ve seen some pastors and known some deacons who acted as though they could be great pastors and wonderful deacons if the people would just get out of the way!
Folks, if the church doesn’t do something for people, then get out of it. Lose it. Lose it, so that may be lost in wonder, love, and praise.
I’ve seen some churches which are so badly deteriorated, so deep in decline, that you wonder why anybody goes there at all. I could take you to churches in this city, Baptist churches, where, after many years of existence, there are not but a few tired saints still gathering routinely every Sunday morning. Maybe 25, 30, 35 people gather to do their thing, with no sense of mission, no passion for people, no hope for the future. All these tiny bands of survivors seem to want is to have their hands held and their traditions honored.
Such a church is not worthy; being in that you could get lost, but not lost in wonder, love, and praise.
How shall I interpret what it would mean for Takoma to be worthy? How shall I develop this idea?
Shall I invest time in reminding us that if we were to lose ourselves simply in renovating the building, and then declare this nice, fresh, remodeled building off limits for children and out of bounds for poor people, we would have lost track of what we are all about? No, I’ll not get into that.
Or shall I wax eloquent about our need to go beyond our tried and true patterns of worship? Shall I plead that we venture into new and bold and risky kinds of music and preaching and praising? Shall I take the risk of telling you that the churches which are growing are those which offer as one of their choices a very contemporary, free-flowing, loosy-goosy kind of worship experience? No, I’ll not say that, lest I have to defend at the back door.
Or shall I settle down on the discovery made by historically African-American churches, that the life of the church grows out of its ministries to the hurting, the battered, and the poor? Maybe I could settle down and argue that the church which gets involved in the nitty-gritty of everyday human problems is the one which is worthy.
I don’t know which of these things I would say, if I had time to say them. I suppose I’ll have to settle for just one thing; and that is that some of us are determined that this church will deserve your commitment, extending and deepening its efforts to present everyone mature in Christ. Everyone ... did you notice, by the way, that in
that 28th verse Paul says "everyone" three times? Warning everyone, teaching everyone, presenting everyone mature? That’s a huge agenda, isn’t it? That’s a tremendous task. Everyone.
Well, Takoma Park may not be quite able to reach everyone. But we can do much more than we are doing. We can make a deeper commitment to missions, which is an attempt to reach everyone with the good news. We can take seriously the work of evangelism, even with our introverted, quiet personalities.
And more than that, we can be more imaginative in our community. We can discern more carefully who is here and what they need. I’ve always been intrigued by the story of a church in Chicago that decided it would take as its responsibility meeting every human need within one square mile of its home base. Can you even imagine what it would be like to examine this community, find out who is here and what they need, and then serve that?
In fact, we already know quite a bit. We already know that the average age in our community is older than in other parts of the city. We already know that we are home to hospitals and colleges. We already know that the Avenue is experiencing everything from drug dealing to vandalism to just idleness. We already know a great deal.
I am saying that our church can deserve your getting lost in it. If, in everything that we do, we can give first place to the redemption of people, so that they might be presented mature in Christ, then we will be worthy. And you will not get lost in mere activity. You will get lost in wonder, love, and praise.
III
Now let’s get specific. Let’s get very specific. I’ve said that following Christ means involvement with His church, for you cannot really love Christ without loving His body. The church was commissioned by God Himself to make His will known. I’ve said that it’s worth getting lost in something with that profound a purpose.
But then I’ve argued that a given local church has to deserve that sort of commitment. I’ve argued that a church can legitimately claim that kind of involvement only if it is directed toward serving, redeeming, and perfecting people. I’ve argued that merely having church, merely going through the motions, merely maintaining a building, merely running a program is not enough. The church which deserves your commitment is one which devotes itself to people. That we can readily lose ourselves in.
But now I want to ask us think in very personal terms about our own involvements. How do you feel about what you have done or are doing for the Kingdom through this church? Many of us here are members, and have been for some while; others attend regularly, but keep ourselves a little distant; still others worship here occasionally, sort of sampling the fare and staying aloof. But whoever you are, I want to ask you to examine your commitment to the Kingdom.
You see, Paul gets embarrassingly personal in this Scripture! Paul just lets his feelings hang out there; he washes his dirty linen and hangs it out to dry!
Paul says, “For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me. For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those in Laodicea .. I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love ..."
Wow, that’s very personal! He insists that you know exactly how he feels about his efforts! Can you feel the tremendous energy just leaping off the printed page? "For this I toil and struggle with all the energy... I want you to know how much I am struggling ... I want their hearts to be united." Despite the passage of nearly two thousand years, can you sense Paul’s powerful personal commitment to the church at Colossae?
Now let me ask you, do you know what his circumstances were? Where was Paul when he wrote this letter?
In prison! In prison, probably in Rome, and probably not but a few years away from death. All kinds of restrictions, all sorts of restraints. If ever there was someone who had the right to fold his hands and shrug his shoulders and beg off, it was Paul. What could he do for the Colossians hundreds of miles away, in a Roman prison? But despite the handicaps, despite the inhibitions, Paul says, "I toil and struggle with all the energy that [God] powerfully inspires within me. For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you ... I want your hearts encouraged and united in love."
When I think of all that we are doing and hope to do in the next few months, I am not in the least ashamed to invite your direct, committed, consistent involvement. We’re doing to do some new things, important things. We will need the energies of every person we can possibly gather.
We are going to start a new young adult Sunday School class; help will be needed. We are going to create a marriage enrichment group; help will be needed. In October we are going to inaugurate a discipleship training program, designed to equip you to be effective; a good deal of help will be needed. And on and on it goes. I cannot begin to list all that is envisioned.
Will it work? Can it be done? That depends on you and me. That depends on whether we get lost; lost in pointless platitudes or lost in wonder, love, and praise.
We may say, Oh, but I’m already too busy. To that Paul, from prison, would say, even in restraints, "I am struggling."
We may say, Well, but I’m just at the point in life where I need a break. To that Paul says, "I toil and struggle with all the energy that God powerfully inspires within me."
We may say, I’ve tried it all, and it’s nothing but stress and unpleasantness. To that Paul says, "I want their hearts encouraged and united in love." I want you lost in wonder, love, and praise.
Last week I visited with one person who shared with me a considerable story of stress, strain, and illness. His professional responsibilities have escalated to the point where they are creating a serious health hazard. As we talked about how he might change that situation, I raised with him the question whether his church responsibilities were adding to his stress. He answered very quickly, very decisively. “Oh, no, don’t take that away from me. That relaxes me, that energizes me, that gives me fulfillment. What I do for the church could never be a stressor. I find refreshment in that.”
There is a man who has discovered a great secret. The job, the social position, the recreation, a lot of things we get lost in can go. But don’t miss the joy of being lost in wonder, love, and praise.
