Provocative thinking, maybe…

Epilogue – February 26, 2012 February 26, 2012

“Moms of Multiples” is a support group of/for mothers that have been blessed with twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets…well, you get the idea. There are multiple (no pun intended) groups like this across the country, but Waco’s group meets here at the Austin Avenue church, once a month, on Monday evenings.

Last month Moms of Multiples asked if they could use the church facilities to have a re-sale; they would be selling children’s clothing, strollers (the kind that hold more than one kid, I think), and other assorted baby/child supplies. I said it would be OK, provided they made the appropriate donation of the proceeds to our Lenten mission initiative (we call it “Beyond Our Doors,” an offering we collect to support local organizations like the Family Abuse Center, Caritas of Waco, and the Christian Women’s Job Corps). They agreed, and the sale was held yesterday.

One of the ways these moms advertised their sale was by using lawn signs, those little signs you can stick in the ground next to the street. Evidently, they forgot to take some of them down after the sale. I know this not because I saw the signs, but because someone else did. In between the 9:00 a.m. Chapel Service and 9:45 a.m. Sunday School, I was walking down a first floor hallway in the church when someone came in the rampside door (this is the door that leads to the portico and main parking lot). This person asked about the sale. I said, “What sale?” The lady then said, “I saw a sign outside that you were selling baby clothes.”

I spoke to her for a moment or two. She could have really used those clothes.

There are lots of signs outside of our building: signs that tell of our denominational affiliation, signs that tell what I’m preaching about this month, signs that tell you where to park, signs that tell you what door to come in, etc. But the one sign that got her attention was the one that got her thinking we might be able to help her with some inexpensive, used clothes for her children.

I’m preaching about love all through the Lenten season. Together, we’ll be examining the apostle Paul’s teaching from 1 Corinthians 13 on the essential qualities of love. But I’m wondering if, this morning around 9:40 a.m., love might have been best expressed with a few used articles of children’s clothing.

Some will say, “That’s not the church’s job.” They may be right. But that sign got someone in the door this morning when all the others did not. What if we, as the church, worked even harder to find more and more creative ways to make God’s love tangible—or even wearable? Do you suppose people would notice? And would some of those who came in for the clothes actually stay for church, trusting that we were people who didn’t just talk about love?

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is a long-term strategy for producing change. And, maybe, love is a couple of articles of clean, used children’s clothing.

Epilogue – February 13, 2012 February 13, 2012

Yesterday I preached about lifestyles, and the need for our lifestyles to be dominated by these twin principles: love God with all you have and love your neighbor like you love yourself. For most of us, that’s a call to a radically different lifestyle. In the sermon, I told people a little bit about Clarence Jordan. Jordan graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1938 with an advanced degree in Greek. But rather than going on to teach Greek in an academic setting, Jordan chose to return to his native Georgia where he founded an interracial community farm called Koinonia. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Koinonia community was met with strong opposition, sometimes violent in nature, and sometimes even from Jordan’s own church.

Through it all, the community endured. And in the midst of the civil rights movement, when many were demonstrating, protesting, and marching, Jordan chose not to participate. He believed that the best way to effect change in society was by living; living in community with others, living a radically different lifestyle. Some people still scoff at the notion that such an approach can really produce any appreciable change.

In 1965, a couple by the names of Linda and Millard Fuller visited the Koinonia Farm. They had planned only to stay a short time—maybe a few hours at most—but ended up spending five years at Koinonia. Millard Fuller went on to found an organization called Habitat for Humanity. Guided by their mission to help create “simple, decent, affordable housing,” Habitat has built more than 400,000 houses and sheltered more than 2 million people worldwide.

It started with a willingness to live a radically different lifestyle.