"what Holds You Captive?"

“What Holds You Captive?”

Mark 10:17-27

A few summers ago, David Timothy bought an old van with 265,000 miles on it, with the help of his wife and a friend.

They named it the Soup Mobile and started taking food to the homeless of Dallas, Texas.

Timothy had wanted to open a soup kitchen for a long time.

In the name of Christ, “Soup Man” provides over 3,000 meals each month.

Volunteers, donations from some restaurants and grocery stores, and his own willingness to devote 60 to 70 hours a week to the ministry sustain his work.

"He does things for us that other people would not do, like bring us food, clothes, water, juice, cakes, dog food, blankets," said a 36-year-old woman.

He manages to find toys for homeless children on their birthdays.

"He doesn’t have to come out here," commented one homeless man, "but he comes out here because he’s got God in him."

“He’s got God in him.”

Could there be any greater compliment?

He’s got God in him.

Sounds great doesn’t it?

But what does it mean in reality?

The Covid-19 Virus has turned everything upside down, which makes volunteering at the Red Bank Community Food Pantry kind of risky.

Also, because of the need to keep the number of people volunteering at 10 or less, we have been working with a skeleton crew.

But there are also a lot of faces that folks don’t see—the people who help unload the truck on the Tuesdays before the pantry.

The folks who take inventory.

The folks who make sure the pantry is organized.

People like Angie Turnure and Sonya Keller and so many others.

People like Sue Parks, who, sewed 30 homemade masks for volunteers to wear in order to stay safe.

The folks who pack the bags of food all day Wednesdays.

The people we can always count on being here, Devere Keller, Mike Wright, Raymond Beebe and the list goes on and on…

And we can’t forget those generous folks who support us financially.

This all takes a lot of time—it’s a big commitment.

And the Food Pantry has been running smoothly.

Hundreds of folks are getting a lot of food every time we are open.

Volunteers are taking a risk by interacting with so many people—although we are wearing masks, gloves and practicing good social distancing guidelines.

People need food; perhaps now more than ever.

And, throughout history, it has been the Christian Church which has been on the frontlines feeding, housing rebuilding and taking care of people during times of pandemics and crisis.

And our volunteers at the Food Pantry always come through.

One thing about the Food Pantry is that if you take time out of your day to volunteer, to help your neighbor, to seek to feed Christ when a person drives up to the church building, you will never go home and say, “I wish I hadn’t done that,” even if, because of it, you missed your favorite t-v show, a golf outing or a million other things you could have spent that time doing.

Following Jesus is rarely convenient, but there is nothing more fulfilling.

It’s interesting that the rich young man asks Jesus how he can “inherit eternal life,” and Jesus invites him into a way of life which involves the right here and right now.

“Come, follow me.”

The Kingdom of God is not so much a place as it is a life.

It’s not so much a destination as it is a journey.

It’s about transformation and character change.

It’s about being in relationship with Jesus and other people.

It’s about something that is already happening when we take the first steps in following Christ.

It’s about allowing God to live in us and love through us.

It’s about loving God and neighbor.

A few years ago, a husband and wife, who are members of East Ridge United Methodist Church—where I was pastor before coming to Red Bank, met and befriended a homeless man named William.

William, who was mentally challenged, had been living on the streets his entire life.

William was horribly abused by his parents as a child.

My friends at East Ridge United Methodist, couldn’t stand to think of him living alone, out in the elements and so they brought him into their own home—just a small apartment—nothing fancy, a place that didn’t have a lot of room.

It was a huge adjustment, but it was an amazing and beautiful thing at the same time.

William had a hard time sleeping and would be up most of the night making sandwiches in the kitchen, watching television and so forth.

Although William was a great guy, he had a lot of problems, and my friends adjusted their lives accordingly.

Personally, I have never seen a better example of Christian Discipleship up close and in action.