Frederick Buechner, Christian author, once wrote, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deepest gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” That’s a great way of saying, if the thing you love to do somehow serves the greater good, consider yourself blessed. Communion with God is somehow connected to our capacity to take what we’ve been given and share it with those who need it in this world. Martin Luther might have called it the vocation of the baptized, or our Christian calling. I was called to ministry at age 14, by Bernie Gigliotti, an obese diabetic Lebanese Lutheran with a bad comb-over who sat in the back pew every Sunday at my home church. He told me, after I had begun serving as a communion assistant and lector, that I should become a pastor. Thanks a lot Bernie. Don’t know why I listened to Bernie. But hear I am. We are where we are for many reasons, often too complicated to connect to one thing. To say I live here because of my job is not entirely true or false. We are where we are. Same with what we have. Some of it we earn, some we inherit, some we make, some we receive as gift. Some things we gain thoughtlessly at the expense of others. Some things we have, cost us dearly. Some things we have require responsibility and some things we have don’t. I have golf clubs. They were a birthday gift. I am not obligated to them. They don’t require much. I don’t use them much either. For the way I play, the clubs and a few other people are probably glad I don’t. But I also have three sons---also birthday gifts, not my birthday theirs. With them comes all kinds of responsibility and obligation, all of which I take on most gratefully. I am their dad. They are my boys. You get my point. We receive much in this life. From beginning to end. How we treat what we have received makes a difference. Not all things are treated equally. Hopefully, human relationships are the most valuable. In this life, how we manage what we have is important.
The parable Jesus tells in Matthew 25 (click to view) , like most parables, means many things. But today it means this to me: Take seriously what you have received. Believe it or not, you have received more than you can fathom, the giver was very generous and took a huge risk in being so with the likes of you. To be cautious and afraid is tantamount to death. So invest your life in the things that are most valuable and risk the big losses, because the gains are worth it. Invest in love. Invest in hope. Invest in peace. Invest in joy. And these things will be returned to you. Invest nothing, risk nothing, gain nothing. In the ancient world, a talent was the equivalent of 6,000 days wages. We are talking about massive wealth. Not only do the slaves in the parable bear the responsibility and risk of stewarding this wealth that has been entrusted to them, but the master entrusts massive wealth to these slaves: This is high risk behavior! I suspect most of us do not see the Christian life as a risky venture here. In other parts of the world,perhaps. But not here in the land of the free. Maybe the opposition is more subtle here.
In 2008, Zion Akron was struggling. I came in 2005 and realized that a stable congregation with NO mission, no message, and no identity beyond membership was tantamount to death. They had risked nothing and invested nothing in the community---at least not in a long time. Their history showed that they emerged in the late 19th century when there were more Lutherans than cats. Build a building and they will come. Lutherans made babies who grew up to bring their babies to church. This lasted three generations. Until the late 20th century. Everything changed, but church. Ironic that a Christian book series entitled "left behind" came out a time when people left the church behind in great numbers. The center of Christianity moved south. Today the fastest growing Lutheran church is in Tanzania.
So there we were,wondering what to do to stop the ship from sinking. The church leadership council spent a few meetings dwelling in the Word, Gospel of Matthew ch. 14, feeding of the 5,000 story. Know it? We heard God telling us a couple of things: There are a lot of needs out there. God is a great provider. The church, the body of Christ, is the instrument through which God offers free gifts to the world. We are called to serve, to distribute, to share. Ron, a member of the council, thought we might hold a clothing giveaway and community cookout. We formed a men's group to oversee the summer event. It was an experiment. Everything would be donated and free to anyone who came. When 200 people came, Zion’s leaders asked,”How can we do this more often?” And so we do it every month, on the third Saturday. We call it Peter’s porch after the story in Acts 10 where Peter meets a gentile solider named Cornelius and encounters the amazing possibility that the gospel might be for everyone. The porch is the place where we meet our neighbors.Those encounters are Spiritual. They are not transactions. It is grace enacted. We welcome them. They receive what we have to give: a little breakfast, clothing, groceries, toiletries, laundry detergent. About $125 per household. But we are not obligating them to us. We invite them to worship. Some people come. It takes times. But others never will. We are serving them anyways. We are not doing it to grow or increase attendance. We do it because God has called us to love our neighbors and share what we have. We are investing in our community.
Peter’s porch is not all we are called to do and be. It is part of who we are as God’s people on Main street in Akron. But it is significant, because we take a risk being open and generous with people. Some take advantage. Most, however, are grateful. I think Lutherans are cautious and careful with our stuff. We keep our church for ourselves, for members. We are charitable to be sure, but we are not necessarily open places for people to seek God, seek peace, receive grace. Some of us have lost our flavor, our zeal , our passion to follow Jesus and devote our lives to sharing the great news that life is a free gift, with forgiveness and reconciliation thrown in, too. There are signs that God is generous and invites our participation in his generosity—the Lord’s supper and the fellowship we share, the 4.8 million ELCA Lutherans that make us a nationwide megachurch with global outreach in over 19 countries and local outposts for bearing the kingdom of God right where we are. I guess we might ask ourselves: What are we willing to invest of ourselves; to risk for love, for grace, for hope?
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