Let us NOT be sheepish....

Hello ______Church! As you know I am the social work intern with you all this semester. Most of my time here will be spent visiting agencies and congregations, hearing their stories of how they minister to their communities and how they work together to meet needs in the community. As I gather this information I intend to share it with you all either in situations much like this or in written form, repeating some things you may already know but hopefully refreshing you with stories of what God is doing in your community! I want to briefly share with you about my experiences the last couple of days.

Monday, I decided to attend the community celebration in honor of Martin Luther King at the held for the last 20 years. I decided to attend this because well I had the time to attend but I wanted to honor the legacy that Martin Luther King, a devout Christ follower left for us, his brothers & sisters in Christ. I desired to get to know more people from the community and thought this would be a great opportunity to do so as well. Expecting a quick, formal service where I could slip in the back and leave without being noticed too much I was surprised when an older African-American woman asked me to walk in with her, helping me to find a seat. What a comforting expression of the body of Christ! As she walked with me it was as if her hand reaching for mine, guiding me in the building with her kind eyes were saying “come in child, you belong.” The service included figures from all facets of the community: the mayor, president of the University, many local African-American pastors, a university gospel choir, children’s groups and citizens filling the venue until there was only standing room left. At one point in the service the speaker, when discussing the ills of society all around us in which we (all people) point our fingers naming what is wrong but rarely doing much fix it, said,

“we should be like the good Samaritan, not thinking about what others think of us if we choose to help but rather considering what will happen if we DO NOT help.”

Wow.

With that theme in my mind I continued my journey of meeting with various people in the community by going to visit the Hospitality House on 10th street and letting the ____ share with me stories of how they have given hugs, wiped tears, prayed with inmates’ families, victim’s families, inmates themselves and shown through their smiles and patience, the love of Christ no matter how difficult and irritating some people might be. Hospitality after all is not just a gift, it is a discipline I think! It hit me as their eyes lit up talking about the way God has shown up and how through their daily ministry --How difficult, how exhausted, how misunderstood, how countercultural they must be and they are!!! …..wow….they are really doing it! They experience the Gospel in REAL terms….it’s where “the rubber meets the road” some might say!

In the gospels Jesus is identified by his public ministry to the marginalized and all those in need! In Luke 4 he quotes the prophet Isaiah,
18"THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, 19TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD."

Are we all not to mirror His image?
Then finally yesterday as I returned from Hospitality House, I came into the church office to see Our pastor was visiting with ___, pastor of Iglesia ____ as you know. I accompanied them to view the changes that have taken place at Iglesia ____ and to hear ___ explain how God has worked through their church. Again, I stood in awe as one of God’s ordinary radicals….just a man with a heart for people and for a God that no doubt drives his every move, is not only working in the lives of those attending his church but is concerned about the community! As he shared with us his ideas, his passion seemed to tangibly touch and affect me! He shared at one point how families in his church have started to adopt other families to mentor and guide and as we commented on what a great idea that was he asked the pastor and I, “Who gives birth to sheep?” I could not quite understand him the first time and with his bright eyes and wide smile he asked “WHO GIVES BIRTH TO SHEEP? Not shepherds….. Sheep.” Interesting….

I realized through personal experience in the last two days what scriptures attempt to teach us and how we, in our American, fast-pace, selfishly-driven, independent culture so often distort in our churches because we are so far from perfect.

Those that we fear (several pictures should come to your mind as we all come from different experiences), those issues we don’t understand, injustices we see, oppression of people temporarily, people in need…. Whether for a moment or long-term…… they ARE OUR responsibility. No questions. Because we are followers of Christ.

We all have responsibility to our brothers and sisters in need whether we be retired, mothers, fathers, grandparents, youth, children…. We all play a role.

What that role looks like may be different for all of us; for example, for some of us it may be to educate our kids about injustices and how to “love their neighbor”, to be intentional about educating ourselves and continually be aware of happenenings in the world and in our local community, writing to our congress men and women on behalf of issues we feel are unjust, supporting agencies and those from our congregations that have sought to minister and fight these injustices vocationally like _____ (local church member), volunteering, mentoring…… participating in IMPACT ____ and caring about people living in poor housing conditions all over the city, teaching ESL at Iglesia ____, giving the ____a rest one weekend—checking inmates’ families’ in when they arrive, training Sunday school teachers at Iglesia _____….. the needs are there..and they will ALWAYS be there..

We have to continually ask ourselves, Will we be more concerned with success of those we minister to OR with the faithfulness of the service to our brother and sisters?
AND.....remember you are NEVER alone.

“Sheep produce sheep” as Pastor ___ said. The body of Christ all around you right now supports you and sends you out…with prayer, with hugs, with shoulders to cry on, with listening ears, with notes of encouragement, with pizza and sodas Tuesday nights at men’s fraternity, with a relaxing golf game…….

The needs are all around, the support is all around! God is at work --- let’s join Him!!