Into the Wild
Last Sunday, I was not here. (Like many of you, I hear. We’re all guilty together.) I was backpacking in the Sierras. Who has ever gone on an overnight backpacking trip?
Well, let’s see. What can I tell you that would help you prepare for your first backpacking trip?
I could tell you that you will have to carry everything you need for the duration of the trip. All your food, all your clothing, your sleeping bag, your tent…
I could tell you that it will be physically strenuous.
I could tell you that it might get cold at night, or you might have an afternoon thunderstorm. If you’re at a high enough elevation, there might even be hail or snow. So whatever you need to keep warm, you need to make sure you pack it.
I could tell you that there will likely be bugs. Mosquitoes. And they will drive you crazy.
I could tell you that when you need to go to the bathroom, there is no bathroom. And I could teach you how to take care of business in a way that is ecologically responsible.
And with all this information, you would be able to carefully consider whether an overnight hike into the wilderness is something you want to commit to. Because, I admit: it’s not for everyone.
But I’m not sure I could really tell you what it’s like to lay in your tent at dawn, and have the first light of day wake you up, and you unzip your tent to behold the most magnificent vista: a mountain lake, glowing in golden sun, and distant rocky peaks with little, residual patches of snow left on them reaching to the sky.
And I’m not sure I could tell you how amazing the stars look at night from the wilderness. You will never see the stars looking like that from the city.
I’m not sure I could tell you what peace there is sitting by the lake after dinner, as the sun sets, watching the light and shadows change without any interruption, and feeling this incredible peace and awe at God’s beauty.
I mean, I could tell you, but I’m not sure you’d truly understand the incredible peace you feel being one with nature, miles from any road or development of any kind; just you, and all the other components of God’s creation. There is a part of that that you have to experience to understand.
I feel like the same thing is true for a life of Christian faith…we do need to consider, ahead of time, what we’re getting ourselves into.
I don’t think we do enough to let people know what they’re getting into when they join the church or make the decision to become a Christian. Being a Christian, following Christ, is not easy. It makes you wrestle with things. It forces you out of your comfort zone. It requires sacrifice.
Just like going on a backpacking trip, there’s a lot you have to leave behind, when you follow Christ.
But also, I don’t think we could tell you everything ahead of time. There is actually great joy in leaving stuff behind. There is actually great joy in sacrifice. Things like that, you have to experience to know just how true they are.
In some ways, whether you are thinking about going on a backpacking trip, or thinking about following Christ, you just need to do it. You just need to experience it.
Consider the Cost
Jesus says to “consider the cost” of following him. So I guess we should at least do our best to let people know what’s in store. We should tell them, “this is what it’s going to be like, this is what’s going to be demanded of you.”
And I guess some of that is definitely essential for a backpacking trip as well. I would never invite someone to go on an overnight hike without telling them that, yes, it is physically challenging, that you will be hiking several miles, you will be carrying all your gear, there will be bugs, and you will have to poop in the woods.
Some things, you just gotta know ahead of time.
When it comes to following Christ, you need to know that following Christ is a change in lifestyle. We gotta say that. Even a lot of people who say they follow Christ and who want to follow Christ and who think they are close followers of Christ haven’t been able to leave behind all the worldly baggage. They haven’t let go of a lifestyle that is more concerned with modern comforts and impressing others than it is with truly following Christ.
And probably, it’s because we who are the church haven’t adequately told them ahead of time just what will be required, the sacrifices that will be demanded of them.
Consider the cost.
During my sabbatical, I visited several Disciples congregations. One was Missiongathering in Pasadena. There are actually several Missiongathering congregations throughout the country; the first one being the one in San Diego.
This week, the city of San Diego ordered that Missiongathering congregation to shut down a youth homeless shelter it had been operating; and the city slapped the congregation with over $200,000 in fines. One would think that the city would work with the congregation to help meet the needs of that city’s homeless youth, but that’s not what’s happening. Instead, Missiongathering San Diego is facing a huge challenge.
Sometimes, doing ministry, working for justice, and loving one’s neighbor comes with a high cost. Sometimes, following Jesus comes with a high cost. Sometimes there are obstacles. Sometimes it’s a real struggle. That’s something those who seek to follow Jesus should know in advance.
The Cost of NOT Following Christ
When our board of elders and all of you gifted me with the time away that a sabbatical offers, you told me that it was hoped that I would spend some time in prayer and reflect on our New Beginnings process and consider what we might need to do next to keep us following Christ.
And at first, I wondered if we as a congregation might need to consider the cost of the changes that we have made, are making, and still need to make… that we needed to consider the cost of really following Christ, of allowing Christ to lead us.
But then I realized that, for most churches, what they need to consider most is the cost of not following Christ, and not making the changes that God is calling us to make. You know what I’m talking about?
Just as there is a cost to be considered when following Christ, there is also a cost to be considered when choosing not to follow Christ. What will it cost us, to do things the easy way, or to do things our way, instead of doing things Jesus’ way?
What would it have cost Missiongathering, if that congregation said, “It’s too hard; let’s not help the homeless youth of our neighborhood”? What would it have cost Missiongathering if they had said, “let’s not love our neighbors whole-heartedly”?
What does it cost, to gain comfort, but lose your soul?
Every change that a congregation makes has a cost, and requires sacrifice. But every refusal to change, every refusal to do the hard work we care called to, also has a cost.
No Magic Formula
While I was away I thought about all of you, and the elders and our board members and other leaders especially, and I think you who are this church have well considered the cost of not doing anything, not changing - and you’ve decided that the costs and sacrifice of change and transformation are worth it, because the benefits of change and transformation are worth it…
However, I know that a temptation for Christians is the temptation to still do what the world expects of us, to still behave in ways that don’t distinguish us from others who don’t follow Christ. We don’t want to set ourselves apart too much. We still want to be part of the “in” crowd. We still want to be like our neighbors. We don’t want to change too much.
When a church feels called to change, sometimes that church will seek out experts to tell them how to change and they’ll listen and they’ll think about change and they’ll talk about change. And all that is well and good… but after awhile, it just becomes a way of procrastinating. Talking and thinking about change becomes a way of avoiding actual change. Instead of engaging in actual change, we wait for a magic formula to appear that will make change easy and effortless, with no cost.
But here’s what I have learned: there is no magic formula.
Last month I visited Missiongathering in Pasadena, and I also visited another Disciples congregation: Oceanside Sanctuary. I chose those congregations because they have been engaged in processes of transformation, similar to ours, though not exactly like ours.
Missiongathering is a new congregation that meets in the building once occupied by another Disciples congregation. That congregation closed, and Missiongathering came in and began a whole new ministry in that place.
Oceanside Sanctuary, on the other hand, is a continuation of a Disciples congregation that has been in existence since 1875. I didn’t even know there were any Disciples congregations in southern California that had been around that long.
And a year or two ago, Oceanside Sanctuary reorganized itself. It’s the same congregation, but it’s been transformed.
After worship at Missiongathering, and after worship at Oceanside Sanctuary, I spoke with the pastors. Interestingly, they both said that they are still figuring things out.
One issue that came up is one that has come up here at Bixby Knolls: pews.
At Missiongathering, worship actually took place in the narthex, because they had just taken out their pews but had not yet acquired the chairs that would take their place. Chairs cost money, and they are working on that...
At Oceanside Sanctuary, they still have pews, and their pews are curved into an almost semi-circle, on a floor that slopes gently toward the front.
The pastor at Missiongathering said he was reluctant to remove the pews, but he does see that doing so does have some advantages.
The pastor at Oceanside said he’d like to remove the pews, because doing so would allow them to use their sanctuary in ways that they currently aren’t able to. He didn’t seem too deterred by the fact that the floor slopes, and would need to be rebuilt so that it could be level, if they get rid of their pews. It sounds like an awful lot of work and expense to me.
But each of those congregations is working real hard to focus on following Jesus and loving their neighbors. Each is willing to do whatever it takes. Even, perhaps, levelling out a sloping floor.
You Are the Equipment
In the search for answers, experts are helpful, but the best experts will tell you that the answer was with you all along. If we ask ourselves, “What is Jesus calling us to do,” I think we’ll figure it out. If we ask ourselves, “What does Love call us to do,” I think we’ll figure it out.
And we are figuring it out. And part of the reason we are figuring it out is because we’ve been searching deep within us for the answers that have been there all along.
Listening to the experts can be helpful, and finding out what other congregations are doing can be helpful, but above all, we should remember what Jesus told his disciples when he sent them out to minister to the people. He told them, “You don’t need any special equipment… You are the equipment. You have all that you need. You are all that you need to be. To love. To heal. To serve. To bring wholeness.
Spend a little bit of time, thinking and praying about it, and you’ll realize: you are the equipment. You know what to do.
Now do it.
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