Who to invite?
It is pretty amazing how many special occasions all of us are involved in. There are birthday parties and graduation parties, block parties , retirement parties, 4th of july, labor day.
I have been blessed as a pastor to be involved in lots of special occasions for families. Weddings and baptisms are events where we invite people to celebrate a special kind of joy with us.
Yesterday, as I was getting ready the movie father of the bride was on. It is generally about what happens in a wedding from a father’s viewpoint. In the brief time I watched, the process of planning the wedding was spiraling out of control. Everything the dad suggested was seen to be a problem. He gave in to allowing a wedding planner to take over the event and then things really went crazy related to cost.
Basically, He was given an estimate of $250 per person that attended the reception which was to be held in their own home. He gets a count on the number of people they are inviting….over 500 guest.
The next scene the has the family sitting at the dinner table with the invitations and is insisting that they get this list down to no more than 125.
When we have a special event we often have to look at the cost…we want to know that we can afford it. We want to control the list to our closest family and our best friends.
We feel it in necessary to be protective of our resources.
This morning we are talking about a problem. It is a big problem that affects churches all around our nation. It is becoming a bigger and bigger problem for our little church.
It seems that on any given Sunday there are far more people that never attend church than do attend church. There is no argument on that point. That is a fact.
What might be questioned is why?
We have a bit of a problem. We for the most part are church people. We think like church people that are white, middle class small town people. We think that those people that stay home on Sunday, treating it like another Saturday are missing something.
We just don’t understand why they don’t seem to feel the need to be in church!
They should know that they are welcome to come here any time. We will be friendly. We will do our best to speak to them. All they have to do is show up!
At this point II wonder how many of you have already checked out and started planning Lunch or started making up the shopping list.
I hope you will bring your attention back here for a while as we read the scripture for today.
Jesus has been moving around the country preaching to the Jews. The scripture identifies that the religious leaders have noticed that Jesus is baptizing more people than the trouble maker John the Baptist…he heads back toward the north to Galilee. History records that most Jews would have taken a longer route that Jesus choose.
They considered walking through the area of Samaria to make them ceremonially unclean. Our scripture picks up while they are on this part of the trip.
John 4:5-41
Tom – So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her,
Eric - "Will you give me a drink?"
Tom – (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
Cheryl - "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?"
Tom - (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Eric - "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
Cheryl - "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
Eric - "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Cheryl - "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
Eric - "Go, call your husband and come back."
Cheryl - "I have no husband," she replied.
Eric - "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
Cheryl - "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
Eric - "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Cheryl - "I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
Eric - "I who speak to you am he."
Tom – Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
Cheryl - "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
Tom – They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
What in the world could this passage have to do with the problems in the church today?
We could look at this passage to learn about the humanity of Jesus. – tired and hungry, we could also take notice of the divine nature. - He knew all about this woman.
But the interaction I want us to notice is even simpler. First, I want to remind you that we believe that Jesus was sinless in all he did. But, that sinless nature is against God and not the rules of the Law of Moses.
There are lots of things that we wonder about and that scripture is unclear about.
One of them is while Jesus was living with man as a limited human being…was he all knowing?
Did he know every step and every word that would take place or was the revelation he experienced just based on the opportunities of the moment.
I tend to think that it is like people that have amazing discernment when dealing with people and situations. That the spirit revealed a direction or an important meeting or moment.
So this set of choices and interaction were at the leading of the Spirit similar to what we might experience.
Back to basics, Jesus was not worried about the taboo of taking the most efficient route to where he wanted to go.
He did not avoid the area of Samaria like we would avoid the bad part of town.
He did not hold a taboo of not speaking to a woman in a public place.
Add to that the woman’s race was not a restriction either.
It sounds like he just wants a drink of water but the woman challenges him on the Jewish rules He is breaking by speaking to her. The conversation hits on living water and worship.
When the woman wants to know more Jesus moves closer to the rules and asks her to bring her husband….but oops she has had 5 husbands but now she is in a live in relationship instead of a marriage.
This woman is damaged goods. She is the poster child for why the Jews should avoid any contact with these trailer trash folks.
Yet, Jesus actively interacts. He talks. He teaches. He offers her living waters.
-- As Christians, are there people in our community that we might consider inappropriate or too expensive to invite to church.
When we are in the Lindale mall, the dollar store or Millikan’s, and we see a teen with pants almost ready to drop to the floor, or shorts that reveal parts of a thigh that we have not even seen showing on ourselves exposed in public.
-- Is our first thought that this person needs living waters or that I need to teach them the usefulness of a belt or about how to dress in public.
What about when we see a Hispanic walking up the road with a 12 pack of cheap beer….
What about the woman with dirty half dressed little kids shopping for school supplies?
As Christians, what is our first thought when we see people that are obviously different in any way from us?
Do we have any compassion for their situation?
Can we over look bad choices?
Can we resist and overcome our personal judgment of what we see and hear in the moment?
-- Man I just want to turn that kid around and help him pull those pants up above their underwear so bad…but instead of interacting with him. I write him off.
I don’t let the Holy Spirit that made me notice the kid in the first place soften my heart instead.
Here is the point I want to reach.
The church today, our church has limits on who we will invite to be a part of the family of God. We let earthly differences lead us to qualify and disqualify people from being a part of this church.
I know that what I am about to say is not universal but, it is pretty clear that we have some really high standards.
They are so high that the majority of people here today have not invited a single person to attend church with you in the past month, 6 months, year and maybe even longer.
There are two reasons that may happen, you have disqualified the people you know and meet as not being good enough or you have disqualified the church as not being good enough or unable to help people with spiritual needs.
The result is that the church, this body, this branch of the family of Jesus Christ is shrinking. It is losing power provided by the spirit.
The flow of love and grace and mercy that should flow through us is getting smaller and shallower each day because we don’t give it away without restriction.
The problem is that we are choosing not to be in the world and interact with those people that God places in our daily normal mundane path to nowhere… called a normal day.
But what are we to do? How can we gain back health and power offered by our relationship with Jesus. Have we waited too long? Are we too weak?
The answer is no. It is never too late with God!
When the disciples were focused on food and earthly things. Jesus told them to look at the fields. That they were ready for harvest and that they were called to reap.
Folks the seeds that draw people to want to know more about God and Jesus and another life are constantly being planted.
In this hard economy people want stability; in the pain of loss people want comfort, when life hurts people want peace and healing.
We are called to live as Christ to reap a harvest of people that want something more.
What is reaping? It is being available to the Holy Spirit and open to being in inviting person.
--
I recall a story about a young new preacher that was called to his first church. He prepared his first sermon on love one another. He studied and refined it until it seemed to be the best he could ever do. At the door on Sunday after the service, he received complements. The people seemed genuinely moved by the message.
Well his first week as a pastor he was overwhelmed with all the duties. He had visited about 1/3 of the families in the church and listened to their stories, their troubles and their pains. When Sermon time came the next Sunday he got up and gave exactly the same sermon on loving one another. The next week was just as busy. He spent most of his waking hours meeting people in the church and when Sunday came around he preached the same sermon again.
The people in the church started having parking lot and phone line meetings about this strange situation. The next Sunday, everyone sat expectantly thinking that this surly would not be a repeat. To their surprise, the pastor gave the same message again.
Notes were passed and after the closing prayer, one of the church leaders stood up and said pastor, we are a bit confused. For the past three weeks you have given the same message. We are concerned. This is not normal and you need to know that it is an important problem.
The pastor responded….yes it is important. After meeting with most of you I have learned that the lack of love is it the most important problem in this church and I will preach on it until I start to see you responding to this problem.
Folks, I have been preaching on this problem in our church regularly for the past 3 years. I have not used the same message. Instead I asked how you would address the problem of not being an inviting church.
I have used scriptures to encourage you to have a love of the lost and hurting.
I have used scripture to point out the great commission.
I have suggested that you limit the process to family and friends…safe relationships.
Most recently I offered an opportunity for you to be anonymous…to simply to offer a small set of names that would be invited by postcards. No connection to you….no required interaction except between you and God.
And it seems that “your standards” of who can be invited to the church are very very high. Or perhaps the cost of new people is too expensive. New people with needs will drain our limited resources.
Folks, we are not living as the body of Christ if we are not willing to do the work that Christ calls us to.
But there is still good news. We, with God’s help can be active again. We can be members of the harvest team and make a difference in people’s lives. We can he healing hands and loving friends.
All it takes is the willingness to invite someone.
Invite them to your church home and to meet your church family.
If you don’t like post cards, if you don’t like Jesus Jam, if you don’t like VBS…..find something you do like.
Find something that leads you to celebrate your relationship with Jesus that you want to share. Something that is about Jesus and not limited by what you think.
Stop being a judge, stop limiting love, stop limiting grace to your standards and let Jesus change your vision of the fields around us.
Invite someone to learn about the relationship God offers through Jesus Christ. It is not about you….it is about the work and love of Jesus Christ.
May you give God the Glory!
