Church Vitality: Outward Incarnational Focus

So, our conversation continues this morning on what it means to be a vital congregation. If you have been tuning in the past two Sunday’s you know that we have been discussing this word “vital” as meaning “necessary, important, essential.” We’ve already discussed the marks of Intentional Authentic Evangelism, in other words, sharing the stories of our lives and our lives together, connecting with others in a way that they might discover the love of Jesus without cramming him down their throats and without a bunch judgement. We’ve also considered Lifelong Discipleship Formation as the way we daily equip ourselves so we feel like we can share the stories of our lives and how we have been personally affected by the love of Christ. One of the ways we said we can do this is through the rituals of the church. That is bringing them home, making them ours the way those first Christians did in the early church. Praying, singing, teaching, being taught. These, we said would build up the church and be for the good of the people. Today, I want to warn you that our attention will be turned away from ourselves as Jesus calls us to consider those He calls “least.” And as we consider these, we are challenged to think seriously, not just about what it means to be a vital congregation, but really, what does mean to be church. At its essence, at its core. In my opinion, today’s mark of a vital congregation, “Outward Incarnational Focus,” is probably the hardest of these Seven Marks that we will talk about. It’s the hardest because it pushes us beyond the limits we place upon ourselves and our congregation. We can place limits on our discipleship formation. We can place limits on our evangelism. But if we take this call to an outward incarnational focus seriously, we’ll remove any such limits. We will break down any barriers we might construct around the Gospel. We will feel ourselves being pushed outward and we will desire to participate in what Christ is already doing around us—regardless of where and to whom we might be called. This morning, we might recall some of last year’s sermon series on the Neighborhood Church. We must begin to reassert ourselves in this neighborhood God has planted us. We must consider seriously our neighbors, our brothers and sisters who do not look a thing like us or speak the same language. The very nature of “church” is to be called out. Ekklesia, is the word Paul used to describe the church. It was the closest word he knew to describe what church was to be—and that is a group of people that would add value to the village or community or town in which it exists. The “called out” ones. The “sent” ones—that is the church. And we sent because we worship a sending God. We are sent because we follow a missioning God. Anyone every hear of the “Missio Dei”—it’s not just the mission of God, it’s the missioning of God, the sending of God of his faithful out into the neighborhood, out into the world ---to discover where Christ is already at work and to join in there. Before I get too far ahead of myself, I better read our scripture passage this morning: Matthew 25:31-46 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,[a] you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Just as you did it or did NOT do it to one of the least of these, you did or did not do it to me. Again, we are considering an Outward Incarnational Focus and asking this morning what Christ is already doing in our community. And the purposes of this sermon, when I say “our community,” I am talking about our neighborhood or neighborhoods. I have asked myself the question of why about this text this week in a way that I haven’t ever. Why is it so important to do unto the least of these for Jesus? The only answer I can come up with has to do with the fact that Jesus seems to believe that all of these things, food, drink, welcome, clothing, comfort (which is what I am calling visitation of the sick and the imprisoned), all of these things are life necessities. Meaning without them, one does not have life. And if we break down the whole purpose or the whole reason of God becoming flesh in the person of Christ, aka-the incarnation, it was for the world to discover life. Jesus would call it life abundant—I came that they may have life and have it in abundance. Imagine for a second that you are in your late 70’s and you live in a mud-walled hut in rural Kenya. No electricity, no running water. A world-wide pandemic has forced the government to shut down all major roadways which has cut you off from the outside world. Your access to food has been diminished greatly and to top it off it’s the rainy season which means the potential for flooding is great. Thankfully, a group of local people notice your situation and show up with a bag of rice, maize flour, and head of cabbage. Your situation has gone from seriously thinking you may starve to death to know being filled with hope, or should I say life. Unfortunately, this is not a made up situation and I am grateful for those noticing their elderly neighbors in Kenya sure they have what they need—when was it that we saw you Jesus? I believe with all of my heart that God, our God, is a God of life. He desires life. He calls people to life. He calls us to call people to life. I continue to be pulled back to a book I was introduced to in my doctoral program entitled “Nobody Cries When We Die” by Patrick Reyes. He states very pointedly that God calls people to life with and through others. We do this work together as a church. We find those who we can love unconditionally, not so we can pour our values and ways of what we think are right and wrong into them, but so we can lead people to life. A church is to be “a life-giving presence” to those who have never been called to life, to those who have never had the opportunity to share their stories, their experiences. Jesus calls us to see the other, to create space for the stranger. This is where healing takes place, where community is formed, where life is discovered. Y’all, this world we live in is not a life-giving world. Racism is real. Hate and bigotry and real. The systems that are in place don’t really help people—they make it as hard as possible for the least to I mentioned the idea of the Missio Dei a minute ago, the Missio Dei leads us to the “Imago Dei.” Which means the missioning of God leads us to seeing the image of God. Every person we will ever meet bears the imprint of God. Regardless of what they look like on the outside, regardless of what they have ever done. Reyes quotes author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “There is always something left to love.” Our job as the church is to find that one thing no matter how small it may be. It’s like that tiny coal still glowing hours after the flames of a camp fire have long gone out. If we sift through the ashes, we’ll find it. And then, we can begin fanning it back to flames. I will never forget that summer I learned how to build a fire. It was the breath I would breathe on it. Gently blowing to ignite the flame. In the same way it was God blowing the Holy Spirit into the chaos of darkness that brought about the first signs of life in the very beginning. Fanning the flames into life. Jesus would command his disciples very early on his ministry that they were to be salt and life. They were to make others better. They were to add value. In essence, Jesus was commanding them to call others to life. Whenever you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.