"Broken Church"

That broken church placed before the altar this morning is a powerful metaphor. It took considerable effort, time and commitment on the part of the stewardship committee members to build that styrofoam church. And I know how upset they were to see pieces had been knocked or pulled out of it.

We believe it was done by an unsupervised child. The parents or other family members may have assumed their child was mature enough to be allowed to roam free in the church. The child, I’m sure, wasn’t being malicious - styrofoam is just fun to play with. Unfortunately though, damage was done.

But, if good can come out of evil, it can certainly come out of just thoughtless behavior. Some children will, hopefully, see why we tell them to not touch objects that don’t belong to them. And, we adults will hopefully be more aware of the coming’s and going’s of children during worship or other activities here.

Fortunately, the church was not destroyed. It will be mended, completed and used. It will serve the purpose for which it was created.

Deeper good can also come from this incident if it leads us to see that we all belong to a broken church, and each of us is called by Jesus, as part of our call to discipleship, to do our part in mending and further developing His Church.

What we do or do not do, individually and as a congregation has a tremendous impact on the church, on the world and on our children, even on future generations of children. It may seem that St. Paul’s does its ministry just fine with much the same core group of individuals who have always done various jobs. It may even seem to some that members of that core group would rather do it themselves. But the truth is, if we are to do the ministry God calls us to do effectively, we need everyone’s gifts. The degree of brokeness of a church can often be measured by the degree of member involvement. The healthier and more vital a church, the more people are involved in the ministry.

The stewardship committee intended to use its styrofoam church as a means of lifting up the ministry done here both for our own people and for those in need of God’s love outside of this church. We plan to attach labels to the building naming those ministries. We want to show that while we have much to celebrate, with the help of more members we can do even more ministry in Christ’s name.

We also had the glass case purchased from memorial money and hung in the entry. This is to be used to show who our families are and to celebrate the ministries they are engaged in both at church and out in the world. Stewardship is a way of life. It is not limited to formal programs done through the church. While we certainly need some of everyone’s time, talent and treasure for our church’s ministries, we also encourage and celebrate member participation in caring projects in the community whether it is Kiwanis, Gam Sac Mah, the fire department, the food pantries or some other endeavor. Stewardship of our gifts also extends to where we work, learn and play as we come to see that all that we have is a gift from God and all that we do can be a done to God’s glory and as a gift given back to Him. We will once again be seeking your participation in this by providing information and a picture of your family.

The Church - the gathering of disciples, not a building made of styrofoam, wood or brick - was created by God to be a part of His plan to mend the world. The church (speaking metaphorically) is broken because it is full of broken people from a broken world. That brokeness is due to sin. Jesus gave His life on the cross so that broken people can be mended by His love. As writer, Douglas John Hall said, "The cross demonstrates God’s utter commitment to life." God gave all He had in order to mend our brokeness and give us life. As mended people we are then called to take up our crosses so as to help in that on-going mending.

I think the choice of that word, "mended" was Spirit inspired. It carries the image of people who are not perfect and won’t be in this life. At times our cracks open up and our chipped edges get rough. We then need more mending and God gives it to us through the ministries we extend to each other.

We in turn help mend the church by working together in these various ministries. We go out into the world to offer mending to others and contribute to the mending of the world by working through the larger Church to carry the love of God to broken peoples near and far. As we participate in these ministries we as individuals and as a church help in our own mending.

All of this mending requires some denial of self. This is what it means to take up one’s cross. No one feels like dragging themselves to a committee meeting, work project, choir rehearsal, fellowship event or even worship after a long day or week at work. Everyone experiences demands for their talents. Anyone can find uses for money and reasons to limit giving to what is left over after other needs are met. To push beyond what the "everyone, no one, anyone" inside us wants, for the sake of others is denying the self. It is also a response to that greatest denial of self in history: God’s Son coming to earth to die on the cross for us. And it is also an act of commitment to give life to the world.

I said in the beginning that what we do or do not do has a tremendous impact on the church, on the world and on our children, even on future generations of children. What we do for our children in terms of religious education is not meant to be a spiritual immunization, giving them just enough religion to "get them into heaven". That’s been done by Jesus taking up His cross anyway. Nor is religious education intended as a means of teaching right from wrong. That’s more the roll of home and family.

No, what we are to be about in religious education is helping young and old develop a relationship with Jesus so that they can experience the comfort and joy of being mended. We do this, not primarily through Sunday school classes. We (each of us) teach about being mended, about being in relationship with Christ and about participating in mending the church and world by the example we set. Children learn much more from what they see adults doing than they do from what they are told, and so do adults. Consciously and deliberately denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and following Jesus does more than anything we could say about who we believe Jesus is. Furthermore, being part of God’s mending of the world through mending the church is a privilege beyond compare.