Where Have You Been the Church This Week?

On most Sunday mornings, when I was growing up, my family went to church.  My understanding, and I think the understanding of most people who, like us, also went to church on Sundays was that going to church meant more than going to a physical location.  Church, as we understood it, was that that hour or so on Sunday morning we spent together in a place much like this.  And, when that hour was over and the creeds had been said and the hymns had been sung and the coffee had been served and the kitchen cleaned up and the last person left and the doors were locked, church was over for another week. Maybe that worked for most of us 50 years ago, but the way we thought about and understood church was flawed.  I am pretty sure that understanding of what it meant or means to be a follower of Jesus is not what Jesus had in mind.  That, if you put in your hour on Sunday you were good, and had fulfilled your commitment. 
And, if you didn’t well…
Maybe not so good.  

Please don’t get me wrong.
I think our being here together is important.
My hope always is that our time together here on Sunday mornings…

Reminds us and reconnects us to values – gratitude, compassion, hospitality – and to a way of thinking and being that sometimes gets lost in push and pull of everyday life.

And, reconnects us to a larger community where we do our best to care for one another.

And, moves us beyond the pronouns me and mine to consider the needs and insights and place of us and ours.

And, provides a place to slow down for a moment, and to take a deep breath.

And, creates a place where we come close to God and God can come close to us.

Sunday mornings matter.
We need to be together.
I am less…
We are less…
When one of us is not here.
But…
Church…
Being the church…
Cannot be limited to one hour on a Sunday morning or confined to a space and place like this.

We are called to something more.
The communities in which we live;
The world in which we live;
The places where we work;
The people whom we encounter;
Long for and I believe need something more.
They need us to be the Church out there beyond these doors.
They need us to be that embodiment of Jesus in whatever way we are able to do it…
In whatever way you are able to do it…
Going into the world…
Carrying something of the Holy;
Being that light and hope and compassion and peace that we know in Jesus and find in that which we know and name as God.
The community…
Our community gathers here on Sunday morning (and at other times as well!).
But, we are the Church out there. 

One of the things that Rachel and I have come to realize over the last several years…
In part because you tell us…
Is that we can change, drop, forget, do in a different way…
Just about any part of our worship service except our sharing of joys and concerns and our time of prayer together.  When we can express our gratitude and voice our concerns, and do our best to wrap not only our prayers, but also our arms and sometimes our actions around each other’s lives both shapes and strengths who we are together.
As I have thought about that…
And about this morning…

And about how my understanding of church is so different today than it was growing up…
I wonder what it would be like not just to share joys and concerns…
But each week to take a moment and to respond to the question:
Where have you been the church this week?

Where have you extended yourself for the sake of another?
Where have you cared for another?
Where have you faced down injustice or intolerance in any of its ugly forms?
Where have you practiced kindness?
Where have you added to hope?
Where have you taken a moment to recognize the Holy in the person or the moment before you?
What if we shared something of that with each other each week, would it help us remember who we are and who we are called to be and what we are called to do? 

Mother Theresa, the Roman Catholic sister who worked among the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India said, “We cannot do great things.  We can only do small things with great love.”
Maybe that is what is needed for us to be the Church today.
Each of us adding our small acts;
Done with all the love we can muster;
To continue to inch our way towards that grand dream of God’s Kingdom come for us and for all.