First, the hurricane came through. Then, the city tree crews came and cleared the streets, mostly by piling up stumps, and branches, and leaves on the shoulder of roads. It will take months for all of this to be cleared. Finally, the insurance adjustors came; and that was this past Monday.
His name is Steve, and he lives in Connecticut and is 59 years old. I learned all this as I walked with him around and through both of our buildings. Then, we went back to check out the three trees that fell from the back edge of our property, across the dead end city street behind us, and onto the fence that separates the car lot behind us from Burger King next to them. No cars were damaged, but the fence was crushed.
“Whose job is it to clean this up and pay for the cleaning?” I asked Steve.
Some version of that question must have been omitted from the text we have from the sixth chapter of
Acts of the Apostles. But I am not going to omit it from my message today.
I want to ask you and me and all of us, Whose job is it clean up the felled trees, and prepare the meal for the housing insecure who will come this afternoon, and open the mail and pay the bills, and teach the children the stories of Jesus, and plan the service of worship for each Sunday morning, and welcome the people who will buy the house across the street from the church?
Whose job is it?
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The Acts of the Apostles is about us.
It is about “the daily distribution of food.” Verse 1. Jesus told us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and welcome the stranger.
His first disciples had a food program like we do. Their’s was a daily distribution; ours is a weekly distribution. We serve a hot meal; and after the meal, people can visit the food bank and take home all kinds of food. And clothes and such.
This is what it means to follow Jesus. Some people emphasize doctrines, and others emphasize liturgies. But we can’t get any closer to the Way of Jesus than to emphasize food. How many of the gospel stories of Jesus are about food? How much of our gospel work, our common life, our Way of Jesus is about food?
Apparently, the apostles were personally involved in this food ministry. At least, at first. But it grew too much, too fast. It was taking too much time from other apostolic duties. They said to the church of Jerusalem: “We have our own duties in kingdom work: namely, teaching and preaching. We need others to manage this food program.” So, the people selected seven people to serve as their Ministry Team for hungry people. When, the question was asked, “Whose job is it to manage the food ministry?” these seven people said, “Yes. I will do that. I sense deep in my spirit that it is my job.”
They did precisely what we are doing. Or better, we are doing exactly what they did. We have teams of people, and today we are calling out others to serve on that team. How many of you signed up for the Ministry Team?
Others of you signed up for the Campus Team. On Monday, Inspector Steve and I walked through both buildings. He took a hundred or more pictures; he opened every door; he asked scores of questions; he had a small laser gadget to measure distances, and he measured every wall and door.
I don’t know what caught his attention, but I know what caught mine: the urgent need we have to upgrade, clean, and clear out throughout our property. Windows busted and cobwebs hanging; pews stashed around in places where chairs need to be; piles of goods sent our way needing organization.
Then I ran into Carol and Suzanne with their radon meter. They explained what the numbers meant and what needs to be done.
Whose job is this?
If you signed up for the Campus Team, it is your job! Maybe job one is to have a chain saw party on the back lot. Surely, there a biblical text that supports that as gospel work!
Whose job is it is certainly a gospel question!
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The Acts of the Apostles lays out a strategy of getting things done. Describe the work, identify people who are available and talented, and sign them up. This we have done.
I hope every one of you has signed one of these colored cards: blue for Ministry, yellow for prayer, orange for worship, purple for campus, and green for outreach.
We need to order a green sweatshirt for Francisco. We need to order a green sweatshirt for everybody on his Outreach Team. They had two events this week. Thirteen gathered in Guidon Brewery to sing, pray, and discuss the Bible. Plus eat brownies.
The star of the show was not the singer, nor the preacher, but the seven-month-old boy named Lucas. He was attending his first Bible Study, at age 7!
Then, on Thursday, Francisco and Marcy and a half dozen others set up a candy shop on the front lawn of the church. Tables, chairs, candies of all kinds, and a clown. He sent me pictures. I saw them on my phone. I took my fingers and enlarged that picture of a clown. Who is that, I thought. Why, that looks so very much like Gail, the same person who made the brownies the night before!
“How many children came around?” I asked.
At least 30, maybe 40! Who knew that many kids lived in the houses of our neighborhood. Some of you signed up for the Outreach Team. Some of you will plan more events for the neighborhood, especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming on.
We want our church to be the hub of activity as we reach out to children, their parents, and their grandparents all around us. You have heard me say this before: let’s hosts a neighborhood festival. Let’s close the street, bring in the food trucks, set up the sound system and sing, dance, eat, and party. That also is gospel work.
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You noted, did you not, that those apostles had a sense of their own role in kingdom work. “Select others to oversee the food ministry,” they said, “and we will give ourselves to teaching and praying.” Those were the two things those early apostles identified as their calling.
Here on Sunday morning, we gather for teaching and praying. Last week, all three hymns were prayers. We say our prayers and we sing our prayers.
Some of you signed the yellow card, the Prayer Team Card. Thank you.
We need other times for teaching and praying. And this Tuesday is one such time. It is Election Day. It culminates our election season. Already more than 70 million people have voted. It has been a time of great drama, great mystery, and yes, great anxiety. Let’s be honest: all of us are worried about the vote. Those who campaign for Trump are worried and those who campaign for Harris are anxious.
I hope you have or will vote. Senator Warnock of Georgia has said, “A vote is a kind of prayer for the kind of country you want to live in.”
The Bible tells us not to be anxious. Two years ago, I preached through Paul’s
Letter to the Philippians. In what we call the fourth chapter, he writes to us: “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank God for all that God has done.”
Jesus said, in the epicenter of the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not worry about these things, what will we eat or drink or wear? Your heavenly father knows what you need. Seek the kingdom of God and live righteously.”
We need to join thousands of others praying for a peaceful election, for a fair election, for an open election. We need to pray for poll workers and directors of elections. We need to pray for candidates and campaign workers. We want a free, safe, and secure election. This is a prayer God can and will answer.
I announced in the newsletter this week that this sanctuary will be open all day Tuesday for prayer. It will be open to all of you and to all of our neighbors and to anybody that passes by. Jesus, quoting Isiah, declared that “the house of God will be a house of prayer for all people.”
If you are near by or even if you have to drive a way, stop by this church, or some other church, on Tuesday to pray. I will be here and others will be here. No sermons, no programs, no hymns. If you want to sit at the piano and play a piece while you are here, do so. If you want to stand and sing something to give voice to your prayer, do so. If you want to sit quietly for five minutes, or fifty minutes, do so. Election Day can also be Prayer Day, don’t you think?
Many years ago, according to
The Acts of the Apostles, that first Ministry Team was recruited and put to work. They fed the hungry. They had a teaching team of apostles, and they had a mighty prayer team. This is the conclusion of that passage in chapter six: “So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.”
I don’t know what kind of summary statement will be written about our gospel teams here at Providence. I do know, as we commit ourselves to this work, we will be able to say, as Jesus said when he was a teenager, “I must be about the business of my heavenly father.”
Whose job is that? That is my job and yours.
