Hello all:
For what its worth, I preached this short sermon this morning at my church:
For the last few months, one of the goals of the worship ministry here has been to make this church, specifically the Sunday morning worship service, more welcoming to those who come in for the first time. It has been our goal to make this church a place where people can come in for the first time and identify with us, and have a desire to return. I think that we have had some success, but much more can and should be done to welcome those who come to worship with us.
A sign on the front of the building of the Portland Avenue Church of Christ in Lexington, Kentucky reads “All are welcome here, especially the stranger and the poor.” This morning I want us to contemplate this statement, to come to an understanding of why the Portland Avenue church has this sign on the front of their building, and why our message should be similar to theirs.
But first, let us pray. Father in heaven, we come before you know as a broken people. We acknowledge and confess our sinfulness, and we ask you to forgive us. We thank you for the grace that you provide through Your son Jesus, and we are thankful that you love us enough to provide a covering for our sins. Lord, we ask that you help us to place all of our trust in you, both when we can see the path and when we cannot. Lord, I ask that you speak through me this morning, that you use me to convey your truth to the church, and that you cover my inadequacy through your perfectness. Lord, finally, I ask you to bless this congregation, and that in doing so that you instill in the church a desire to use those blessings to bless others who need your love. In Christ’s holy name, Amen.
Jeremiah 22:13-16 says: “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages,
who says, ‘I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,’
who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.
Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father
eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well.
Is not this to know me? declares the LORD.
The bible is full of scriptures that echo this sentiment. Amos 2:6-8: “Thus says the LORD:
“For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals—
those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way
of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned;
they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house
of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.
Proverbs 31:9: “Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”
These verses, taken together and with plenty of others scattered throughout the bible, suggest a theme… and I submit to you that this theme is one that we have largely forgotten, both here and across the Churches of Christ. Instead, we have embraced our culture, a culture that tells us that we need to have money to have self-worth; a culture that values a lucrative occupation over family; a culture that teaches that the poor and the homeless deserve their lot in life… we have embraced a church-culture that values having a large building and ministries that generate cold hard cash instead instead of one that values serving the poor, the down-trodden, the oppressed, the widow and the fatherless.
I think James, the brother of Jesus, sums it up best with his words in James 1:27 : “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” He goes on in the next chapter saying: “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?”
These are scathing words to James’ audience. Yet they ring as true today as they did almost two thousand years ago when he wrote his letter to the saints. James is writing to us as much as he was writing to the early Christians of his time. His message, and the message of many different writers in scripture, is that the heart of God is especially concerned with the poor and oppressed, and that, as His people, God expects us to have that same love and concern for the poor and oppressed that he has.
Part of the problem is that we don’t seem to have that same love and concern, or at least, not to the extent that we should. Someone here would probably like to stop me just about now and say, “But what about the collection that we take each month for the orphans in Zimbabwe?” or, “What about the indigenous preachers that we support each month, and all the orphans that they take care of?” While its true that we do these things, I fear that they’ve become just another ritual, just as many other things have become for us. We do send money to orphans in Africa, its true, but, does this church really care? Or do we send the money out of a feeling of obligation? What do we know of the people that we are helping? Not much. Am I suggesting that we stop sending money? No, I’m not. However, I think we should consider doing more than sending money to these orphans.
First, we should make our church welcoming to the poor. We must be attentive to what James said in Chapter 2 about showing favoritism to the rich, or even to the middle class. We must be attentive to James’ words, “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?” We must recognize that the poor have a special place in God’s heart, and make sure that we show those who enter our doors that the poor and oppressed have a special place in our hearts as well. Portland Avenue tries to show this recognition in many ways, one of them being the sign on their door. While the sign on the door is no doubt helpful, we must do more than just proclaim our love for the poor. We must demonstrate our love from the moment they walk through the door.
Second, we must take our faith out of the building and into the streets. We cannot simply show the poor that we love them on Sunday morning. We must demonstrate our love by doing good. Again, to quote Isaiah 1:17, we must “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” We can do this in a lot of different ways, as a church body and as individuals. One way, probably the most popular, is by giving money. We have somewhat of a hard time with that, though. Our contribution last week was only $190, which makes it hard for us to give money to the poor. So, if we want to exercise this option, we must become willing to give more. The people here have the resources, but they must commit them to God’s work. However, money isn’t the only answer, nor should it be. One of the reasons that giving money is the most popular option is because it also is the most impersonal and takes the least amount of effort. We cannot allow ourselves to give money alone, because money doesn’t bring people into the Kingdom of God.
We must be willing to seek justice, correct oppression, and bring justice personally. Last week Chris spoke on connectedness, or lack thereof. One thing that we must understand is that God created us as social beings. We are meant to be connected with other people. In this world lacking that connection, we can be most effective in helping the poor and the oppressed by doing so personally. People in this world, especially lost people who do not know Jesus, are longing to be connected. We can serve them by being connected to them, and helping them with their struggles. We can personally bring the homeless blankets, and spend time talking with them about their lives and the love that our Father has for them. We can personally provide food to those who are hungry and share the Good News of Jesus Christ crucified for their sins. We can personally help build a house with Habitat for Humanity and show the love of our God to those who need it most. You can volunteer to be a Court Appointed Special Advocate for abused children. You can spend time at a shelter for abused women and share your talents and love. You can stand up and do good when everyone else walks by and lets evil flourish around them. You can be the personal connection to Jesus that someone desperately needs in their life. That personal connection will do much more good to help the poor and the oppressed than any amount of money could.
So, to bring this all back around. This congregation has a need to strive to be more welcoming to those in our community. We cannot cater to the rich or the middle-class. We should certainly try to be welcoming to these people, but we must make a strong effort to welcome and reach-out to the poor, the oppressed, the widow, the orphan. Its not only what God wants of us, but it is also practical. The people in the neighborhoods around our building are the poor and the oppressed, and need us to be the light that we are called to be. We can be that light by working on being welcoming, and by connecting to those who have no connection. We have a choice. We can embrace the values that our culture espouses, or we can value what God values. We can practice pure and faultless religion, as James describes, or we can practice religion that we’ve developed using our logic and reasoning. Again, the choice is ours. May we choose wisely. Let us pray.
PRAYER
If you have a need of the church this morning, whether it be prayer, comfort, or love, or you want to take the next step in your faith and come forward to be baptized into Christ, I encourage you this morning to come forward as we stand and sing.
