The Connectional Church

Over the past month or two, I’ve had a number of experiences that have renewed my hope in and thankfulness for the “connectional church.”  The first came when I was able, for the first time in seven years, to attend Christmas Eve services at the two congregations in which I grew up.  Reconnecting with people who were my Sunday school teachers, and seeing young adults who were once “youth” when I served as an advisor, was wonderful.  I remember getting ready for bed that night and thinking, “Where else do I feel so connected to the flow of generations?”

My second experience of hope and thankfulness came at the Montreat College Conference at the beginning of this month.  What a joy to see over a thousand college students gathered during the final days of Christmas break to worship, hear calls to lives of discipleship, and enjoy fellowship.  While I enjoyed watching students from all over connect, my moments of hope came as I joined other clergy and church workers/volunteers for meaningful conversation about ministry, our lives, the world, and just where we saw God’s kingdom breaking forth.  I realized that I’ve known some of those people since I was 15 or 16 years old.  Again, where else but within the connectional church do I have relationships that span a lifetime?

The final experience I will share with you is the weekend I just had.  On Saturday morning, our local TOT group helped guests shop for food and clothes at The Little Pantry That Could.  Stacy and her committed band of helpers are practicing the gospel of abundance and hospitality in radical ways.  Then, just last night and this morning, PSF hosted Room In The Inn at St. Augustine’s Chapel.  Last night I watched college students lovingly prepare mattresses for our overnight guests, serve a meal and eat with new friends, clean up after the meal, and get things ready for this morning.  Ah, this morning.  It began at 4:15 with students and friends rolling in to make breakfast, keep the coffee going, drive guests back to the RITI mothership, and clean up St. A’s so nobody would know we were here.  As I sit here waiting for the laundry to finish, I’m mindful of all the other congregations throughout our fair city and, indeed, throughout the nation who shared this experience on nights past, this very same night, and will do so in the future.

In this week’s scripture passage, Jesus tells Peter that he will be responsible for calling people out into a new form of community.  For all we may want to say or not say about “the church” there is still beauty in the connectional nature of our community of faith.  I pray that you will find reasons to hope in what God is still doing through disciples in this day and age.

Matthew 16:13-28

Peter’s declaration about Jesus

¹³ Now when Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “ Who do people say the Human One ^o is? ”

¹⁴ They replied, “ Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. ”

¹⁵ He said, “ And what about you? Who do you say that I am? ”

¹⁶ Simon Peter said, “ You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. ”

¹⁷ Then Jesus replied, “ Happy are you, Simon son of Jonah, because no human has shown this to you. Rather my Father who is in heaven has shown you. ¹⁸ I tell you that you are Peter. ^p And I’ll build my church on this rock. The gates of the underworld won’t be able to stand against it. ¹⁹ I’ll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Anything you fasten on earth will be fastened in heaven. Anything you loosen on earth will be loosened in heaven. ” ²⁰ Then he ordered the disciples not to tell anybody that he was the Christ.

First prediction of Jesus’ death and resurrection

²¹ From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and legal experts, and that he had to be killed and raised on the third day. ²² Then Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding him, began to correct him: “ God forbid, Lord! This won’t happen to you. ” ²³ But he turned to Peter and said, “ Get behind me, Satan. You are a stone that could make me stumble, for you are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts. ”

Saving and losing life

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “ All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. ²⁵ All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will find them. ²⁶ Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives? ²⁷ For the Human One ^q is about to come with the majesty of his Father with his angels. And then he will repay each one for what that person has done. ²⁸ I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see the Human One ^r coming in his kingdom. ”

 

Scarcity or Abundance?

One summer, on a mission trip to Chicago with sr. high students, I sat with everyone around tables, after a long day of work, and listened as the leader of the DOOR program there explained how we would be doing dinner that evening.  Each person would be given $, be transported, with 10-12 other folks, to an area of the city and encouraged to find dinner.  There were a few ground rules:

1. You couldn't use any of "your" money that you brought with you.
2. You couldn't do a street performance of any kind, because Chicago required a license to do so.
3. You could beg for money, but you had to tell people you were part of a group participating in a "poverty simulation."

You can imagine the moans, groans, and questions that erupted in the room.  "Seriously?"  "This is stupid." "But I'm sooooo hungry."  You can also imagine different ways in which individuals and groups handled the situation.

• Some people exited the van, walked into a convenience store and bought a snack item that cost less than $1.
• Some people cheated and pulled money out of their own wallets.
• Some people went in together to buy a pizza, only to find that they couldn't afford a very large pizza with only $10-$12.
• Some people went straight to asking for money and found it was harder than they thought, and that they felt pretty embarrassed to even be asking.
• Some people tried to find a grocery store, but their area of town was a food desert.
• Some people pooled their money, did find a grocery store, and also begged for money

The group I was in did that last thing, with no direction from me or the other adults, by the way.  We were able to buy enough food to feed everybody in our group, including sandwiches, chips, fruit, and even some ice cream that somebody behind us in line helped us buy.

As we processed this activity, we found that groups who focused on how little they had and became defensive of "my dollar" had the most difficult time, while groups who thought positively and sought communal solutions with "our money" seemed to fare better.

That experience was a real-life example of how different things can go depending on whether you focus on scarcity or abundance.  In a scarcity worldview, there are only so many resources and I need to "get what's mine" so I withhold from others, hoard what I do have,  and live in fear of losing what's mine.  In an abundance worldview, there is more than enough for what everybody needs, I take joy in thinking creatively about how to make sure everyone receives "enough," and I live without so much fear and anxiety.

In this week's story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people, we see a story of abundance, even though the disciples seem to live according to scarcity.  Whether this was a miraculous replication of 5 loaves and 2 fish into enough food to feed the multitude, or it was an example of everyone sharing what they had so that people were fed, it is a beautiful story of provision.

Questions to consider:

• As you think about resources, do you think in terms of scarcity or abundance?
• How does that affect your choices regarding the use of resources and/or sharing resources?
• When have you experienced unexpected abundance?
• When have you hoped for abundance and only found scarcity?

Matthew 13:13-21

Feeding the five thousand

¹³ When Jesus heard about John, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. When the crowds learned this, they followed him on foot from the cities. ¹⁴ When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, he had compassion for them and healed those who were sick. ¹⁵ That evening his disciples came and said to him, “ This is an isolated place and it’s getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves. ”

¹⁶ But Jesus said to them, “ There’s no need to send them away. You give them something to eat. ”

¹⁷ They replied, “ We have nothing here except five loaves of bread and two fish. ”

¹⁸ He said, “ Bring them here to me. ” ¹⁹ He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves of bread and the two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them and broke the loaves apart and gave them to his disciples. Then the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰ Everyone ate until they were full, and they filled twelve baskets with the leftovers. ²¹ About five thousand men plus women and children had eaten.

Gracious Abandon?

Ah, Jesus and his stories about farming and living off of the land.  I can’t say that all of Jesus’ agrarian stories “speak” to me in quite the same way they may have for his early listeners.  I’m not sure I’ve ever kept a plant alive longer than six months, even the ones that people hand to me and say, “Oh, you can’t possibly kill this one.”  I underwater, I overwater, I put it outside one day too early and it frosts, or I simply forget the plant is there until it sheds its leaves and I’m sweeping them up.  While I am drawn to the beauty of nature, and have a sense that I would love to grow some of my own food, I have yet to master any elements of gardening or farming.

Maybe that’s why, in previous readings of this passage, I’ve been fairly frustrated with Jesus as he goes on about secrets and all the bad soil and equates that soil with “bad people” who waste the gift of God’s word.  After all, doesn’t God know about casting seed in productive ways designed to pull in the greatest gain?  It seems like if God is a farmer, he isn’t a very good one.  To be honest, I would walk away from this passage shaking my head a bit, wondering why the seeds, the path, the rocky soil and the thorn-infested soil seem to take the brunt of Jesus’ judgment, when they aren’t the ones casting the seed.

I suppose that’s why God casts scripture in front of us again and again.  It may be that I’m placing my own bias on this text…my own American bias toward productivity and efficiency.  A bias that values strategic planning, measurable results, and predictable timetables.  This little bit of scripture just might call all of that into question, at least when it comes to how God chooses to operate in the world.  It just might be that God is less worried about productivity, efficiency, and predictability, and is more concerned with the practice of gracious abandon.  This will be the question before us at PSF on Tuesday.  I hope you’ll come and join us in the conversation.

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

The Parable of the Farmer

13 That day Jesus went out of the house and sat down beside the lake. ² Such large crowds gathered around him that he climbed into a boat and sat down. The whole crowd was standing on the shore. ³ He said many things to them in parables: “ A farmer went out to scatter seed. ⁴ As he was scattering seed, some fell on the path, and birds came and ate it. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground where the soil was shallow. They sprouted immediately because the soil wasn’t deep. ⁶ But when the sun came up, it scorched the plants, and they dried up because they had no roots. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorny plants. The thorny plants grew and choked them. ⁸ Other seed fell on good soil and bore fruit, in one case a yield of one hundred to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of thirty to one. ⁹ Everyone who has ears should pay attention. ” 

Explanation of the parable of the farmer

¹⁸ “ Consider then the parable of the farmer. ¹⁹ Whenever people hear the word about the kingdom and don’t understand it, the evil one comes and carries off what was planted in their hearts. This is the seed that was sown on the path. ²⁰ As for the seed that was spread on rocky ground, this refers to people who hear the word and immediately receive it joyfully. ²¹ Because they have no roots, they last for only a little while. When they experience distress or abuse because of the word, they immediately fall away. ²² As for the seed that was spread among thorny plants, this refers to those who hear the word, but the worries of this life and the false appeal of wealth choke the word, and it bears no fruit. ²³ As for what was planted on good soil, this refers to those who hear and understand, and bear fruit and produce—in one case a yield of one hundred to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of thirty to one. ”