Recently,
I’ve heard and read lots of things about service and sacrifice within
the church. Blogs by various people and church newsletters discuss
expectations. The sermons for the last two weeks were about sacrifice.
The point is to not have a consumerist attitude towards church, to not
go to church thinking, “What do I get out of it?” but instead thinking,
“How can I serve?”
Church
is funny, because it’s not just a service group. If a person just
wants to do some good in the community, there are lots of secular
organizations: animal shelters, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, United Way,
Kiwanis, food pantries, etc. Church is about serving its members and
serving the community. Although anyone who has volunteered will tell
you how much they get back from it. Still, they probably don’t complain
that the leader of the Kiwanis club is a poor speaker and why don’t
those people learn to sing, for God’s sake! They don’t go to the United
Way looking for spiritual guidance. Church is supposed to overflow the
cups of its parishioners with loving grace, so it spills over to
everyone else.
When
I found my first adult church, the Unitarian Universalist church, I was
pretty broken and small. I needed to rebuild myself. So, of course, I
needed healing, love and support. I found it. I also was challenged
to serve but I didn’t rise to the challenge very well. Maybe I wasn’t
ready, maybe I was too shy, maybe it just wasn’t the right opportunity
for my talents. I did get involved in the worship planning. Some of my
projects there led me in a surprising direction--to an Episcopal church.
Again,
here I went, into to a new church. I was a little stronger than I had been
four years ago, a little calmer, a little wiser. Still, I needed
something. I needed to hear the Good News, the universal, catholic,
salvific words of Jesus. I needed to see the love of God spoken in a
Christian church. I needed to see it acted out by Christians. I came
to church looking for something I needed. Most people come to church
looking for what they need.
I
wonder how I would have felt in the earlier, more broken, days if I’d
heard from the pulpit that I should look to serve. I wonder how I would
have felt if told that the church needed part of my already poor, empty
spirit. I wonder if I would have felt challenged or if I would have
walked out with tears in my eyes. The thing is, those broken days could
very well come again. Life is surprising and not hardly ever easy.
Some days, even now, I’m just plain worn out and I go to church for a
moment’s rest. Now you’re telling me to sacrifice? WTH? (excuse the
expression). I am here to get some help, dude!
Except…
If most people come to church looking for something: broken, hungry,
sad, empty, then who is left to heal, feed, comfort and fill up their
spirits? Is it the ones who happen to be strong and happy that day?
Somehow I don’t think that’s the answer. Do ministers say, “If you’ve
got some extra time and you’re kinda bored, we’d love you to come to the
soup kitchen? Just throw whatever extra you’ve got into the collection
plate--thanks! If you’ve had a really great week, got a raise and your
spouse and kids tell you they love you every day AND you have had a
great night’s sleep, then please chair our next fundraiser!”? No, I’m
sorry, but out of the three churches I’ve attended for over 25 years, I
NEVER heard any of those things said. Churches are full of people who
need something desperately and those are the exact same people who give
the most to the community.
You
know what’s funny, I’m pretty sure I heard sermons about sacrifice and
service my entire life; and I’m sure I heard a few when I was broken and
needy. Maybe I just wasn’t ready; maybe the seeds of sacrifice fell on
rocky soil at that moment. Or maybe they were buried deep in the cold,
frozen ground and waited for the thaw.
So,
if a person comes to church in need, how do you change from looking for
what you need to looking for what you can give? For me, it took some
time. For me, the work and sacrifice of my fellow
parishioners running fundraisers, serving food and teaching the
children, that spirit started to spilled over into me. For me, after
discussions at adult christian formation and serving potatoes at a fish
fry, I, too, saw a need I could help fill.
I
guess that when you serve even when you’re tired, broken and sad, you
will find what you need. I know for sure I wasn’t always thrilled to
head up my chosen project, Vacation Bible School. At times, I had no idea how I would get it done, with
working full-time and having two little kids. Yes, I’m a teacher and
I’m “off” in the summer, which is why I stepped up for this project.
Still, it wasn’t like I had so much free time that I longed to make
schedules and organize craft materials. At times, I had a hard time
focusing on church services because I was distracted by all the work I
should be doing. Through all the anxiety, everything came together and
we had a wonderful week of fun, laughter and worship with a bunch of
great kids.
That’s
the funny thing about serving, it builds more service. Although my
current focus is family and work concerns, I miss having a project at
church. When the next fundraiser came up, I didn’t think, “Oh, I wish I
could help but…” I thought, “What can I do with the time, talent and
money I have at my disposal? There must be something.” I had avoided
comments about teaching Sunday School before. I just didn’t need one
more thing to teach in my life, not with 7th graders all day and
toddlers all night. But, after VBS, I sought out the Sunday School
teachers to see how I could help. I know I’ll be tired when it’s my
turn to help with primary Sunday School, but I also know how much I will
get out of it. I am not volunteering to head up the biggest fundraiser
or chair the most important committee, I don’t even quite know what
I’ll be doing next. I do know my attitude of “No, not me”, has changed
into, “How could I help with that?”
So,
how do you take people who are looking to fill a need and teach them to
fill others’ needs? I surely don’t know, except that it seems to be
happening to me. Churches all over the place are doing it and it must
be happening through the strength of their members. Healing must be
happening over coffee hour sign-ups, soup kitchen rotations, silent
auction donations and kitchen clean-up. The needy are serving and
meeting their own needs all the time.