Our story this morning is about what is important to us. A business manager gets called on the carpet
for not taking care of his boss’s wealth . . . in fact, he gets accused of
squandering his boss’s possessions. The
result? He gets warned that things had
better changed or he is finished . . . done . . . fired! Knowing himself well, the business manager
realizes that he really cannot afford to lose his job . . . losing his job
would be the worse thing that could happen to him . . . he’d starve to death
out on the streets. It is then that he
decides that “something is better than nothing.”
The business man decides that he would call in all those who owed his
boss . . . connive a deal . . . and, then see what his boss thought then. Of course the deal is based on “something is
better than nothing”, and with that philosophy he begins cutting the debtors
bills. In this way he figures he would
get something from the debtors to show his boss, and—in the same scheme, he
would find favor with those who owed debts.
Basically he would come out looking like a good guy, find favor with
those he has helped, and avoid starvation when he lost his job.
Now, Jesus does not tell us whether or not the business manager lost his
job, but he does tell us that the boss was impressed with the actions of his
business manager. The boss was not dumb
. . . he knew that the business manager was only looking after himself . . .
but, he was pleased that he got something back in return. He commends his business manager . . . but,
we honestly do not know whether or not he lost his job. From there, Jesus basically talks about who
people work for . . . for God or for something else.
Yesterday, Lena, Peggy, and I attended the Fall Harvest gathering in
Worden where the topic was hospitality.
It was an interesting time of learning, fellowship, and worship . . .
lots of interesting conversation around the topic of what it means to be
hospitable as a church. For the most
part, it was a good conversation about hospitality . . . yet, at the same time,
I felt an underlying frustration throughout the conversation . . . something
just did not sound right or feel right about this topic of hospitality.
After an interesting bible study about hospitality it dawned on me that
the whole dialogue centered on showing hospitality to those who come to our
doors as congregations and churches.
Hospitality is our reaction to those who seek us out . . . that is what
is expected from those of us who are the followers of Jesus . . . we are
hospitable to those who come into our world . . . who come into our
journey. It is a “reaction” to that
which is presented to us. I doubt if
there is anyone among us who would disagree with that understanding of
hospitality. Shoot, the church has been
doing that for generations.
My
bone to pick with that understanding of hospitality is quite simple . . . this
is not what Jesus asked us to do as his followers. He did not tell us to sit back and wait for
people to come to our doors wanting entrance; no, he told us to go out into the
world, share the good news, and make disciples of those we encounter. In the most general understanding of
hospitality that most congregations embrace, the hospitality is not to serve
others, but it is to serve the congregation.
Over and over again yesterday, I kept hearing the phrase about “entry
level programs” to attract people into the church . . . bible studies, youth
programs, child care programs, women’s and men’s groups, book studies . . .
just about anything you could name to attract people to come and be a part of
the congregation. It is a model we have
used for a long, long, long time . . . and, unfortunately, with very little
success. The numbers show that churches
are not growing, they are slowly dying.
With this model of hospitality the only person or organization or group
that we are serving is ourselves. Oh
sure, we put a BandAid on the problem, but we do not solve the problem . . . we
take care of ourselves and hope a little of it rubs off on the congregation or
church. That is exactly what the
business manager does in the story that Jesus tells . . . he really does not
care whether or not his boss recoups his losses. He is only concerned with saving his own hide
. . . he is looking out for himself.
Even the boss sees this . . . understand this . . . and, commends the
business manager for his shrewdness of business.
Is
this what Jesus called his followers to?
Is this what we understand is the business we are to be going about for
Jesus as a congregation? Who is it that
we are called to serve?
This is one of the biggest issues that is confronting the church today
in its decline . . . who is the church to serve? It is one of the biggest reasons for the
church’s decline . . . for too long we have focused on ourselves as a
congregation and church in hopes that we can survive. What we are learning is that this is the
death sentence for any or all congregations or churches that embrace this
understanding of hospitality.
So
who is it that we serve?
Jesus summed it up quite simply when he told us that we are to love the
Lord, our God, with our whole being . . . and, that we are to love our neighbor
as we love ourselves. God and
others—that is who we are called to love and serve . . . to do God’s will as
demonstrated by Jesus himself. It does
not begin with us, but with how we relate in life with others. Hospitality is not about ourselves, but
others.
With this idea, then, we need to do some serious discernment about who
we are as a congregation and a church.
First, we have to understand that the church is not a building . . . it
is about the relationship between people . . . how we care for one
another. A church does not need a
building—no matter how nice it might be—to be the body of Christ. Jesus, himself, stated, that wherever two or
three are gathered in his name, he was with them. It is not about brick and mortar, but about
relationships . . . meeting people where they are in the journey of life. Until we can accept this fact . . . embrace
this fact . . . nothing will ever change.
We will continue to die a slow death.
So it is that we need to broaden our understanding of what a church is .
. . it is the people involved.
Secondly, we need to change our understanding of what it means to be a
participant in the life of the church.
What is it we say to something that we have not seen in worship on
Sunday mornings—we missed you at church this week. We missed you because you were not there to
pass the litmus test of what we think “church” means . . . you weren’t in
church when it counts. That is a
self-serving understanding of what it means to belong . . . The problem is that
there are other things that go on in any church . . . there are fellowship
groups, bible studies, play groups . . . and, on and on and on. This is a numbers game that only serves the
church. It is self-serving.
Church is not about numbers and to focus completely on what happens on
Sunday mornings between 10:00AM and noon . . . well, it is wrong. It is discouraging and a little snobbish to
discount someone’s faith because he or she did not attend worship on Sunday
morning. What about that bible study
they attended during the week? Doesn’t
that count for something! I think so . .
. . I think so because our health of any congregation does not depend upon a
number for worship, but about relationships . . . relationships that are not
found on Sunday morning in the sanctuary of the church, but in the daily living
of life.
Thirdly, hospitality is not for our benefit but for the benefit of those
we encounter. Hospitality is not about
our comfort, but the comfort of those that we encounter. It is not about us, but of the other.
The business manager was only out for himself . . . he did not really
care about those he was dealing with.
That was just a nice aside . . . primarily he was concerned with saving
his own hide. We are not about saving our
own hides . . . we are about being the presence of Christ . . . the body of
Jesus . . . in this world. It is not
about a building, not about numbers, and not about our survival. It is about how we relate to others and God.
So, who do we serve? Amen.
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