The more that I read about Jesus, the more that I study the Christian Faith, the more that I pursue a connection with the One that created all things, the more I pray, "let me be your hands, your feet, and your heart!"
At A Church Under Construction, now officially The Vine United Methodist Church, we have wanted to be more outwardly focused. My goal has been to have everyone share my excitement, passion, and energy for serving others. We have had great participation the last 2 Sundays and many more people who think it is really cool that we are doing it.
I understand faith, not as a faith of complacency, but of action. No, I am not trying to earn a place in heaven, Jesus already offered that to me for free. That's what we call GRACE. But when I realized what grace is and realized how easy it is to follow Jesus (at least it is easy to understand free) I couldn't contain the energy boiling inside me to share that freedom with others.
My goal is not to reach all people, I know that is what God does through us. My goal is to reach and connect with the people God puts in front of me. Last week the group I was with handed out 70+ lunches to complete strangers. they were all different ages, races, and nationalities. I know we ran into language barriers a couple of times. But God showed up anyway! We had fun seeing the faces and meeting the people and being in their community. Even though we were strangers we were welcomed in.
From here we invest our time, we return with more food, with other ways to break down language barriers. We spend time with them where they are. We don't ask them for anything. We don't even invite them to church. We just let them know that they are loved.
Jesus did a lot of loving on people, healing people, and offering hope to them. Through my "Helping Hands" and your helping hands we can do amazing things. I haven't found a place in scripture where Jesus asked people to pray the prayer of salvation. I do remember Jesus saying, "Go, your faith has made you well." or "Go and sin no more."
It is through the conversation and the interactions and the stepping away from the expectations and into freedom and grace that people were and are healed. We allow ourselves to find opportunities to be in relationship, God does the hard work of opening hearts and convicting people of the Joy that was sent in the form of a baby.
I invite you to step outside of the expectations that humans have put on you and me. Step outside of what we have turned into an institution that perpetuates rules and guidelines. Instead, just live in the community you are in. Live with people who are messy and broken. (yes, live with yourself sometimes.) Admit that we all have issues. Admit that we wish we could do better, live better, treat others better, understand different people more, and try harder to forgive others and not point out their blemishes and faults. Then realize, you are loved and forgiven anyway!
Jesus really did come, live, minister, die, and rise for you and me and everyone else in between. Then share that great joy with everyone you can. You will find that it is FUN to make others smile. It is fun to use your hands, your feet, your time and your money to help others. You will find your own faith grow and see others ask a lot of great questions. Their smiles can move mountains of stress and worry. The greatest thing is that God is planting roots and the vine of Christ continues to grow!
