Today we continue looking at the five practices of fruitful living, based on a book of the same name by Bishop Robert Schnase. We have already looked at passionate worship, radical hospitality, and intentional faith development, and today we move on to risk-taking mission and service. What are some of the ways we practice mission and service? In the passage we just heard from Matthew, Jesus says that if we want to become followers, that it’s not based on what we say, it’s based on what we do. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” How often? Trick question, in Matthew it doesn’t say, in Luke we are told that we must do it daily, and I think that’s correct. This is not something we do once in a while, but instead that we do it continually, and what Bishop Schnase says is that when we do it we need to be a risk-taker.
What does risk taking mean? It means going beyond ourselves, beyond our comfort level, going beyond the bounds of safety, not necessarily things that actually are physical risks, but safety in the sense of playing it safe. In some ways this is at the heart of being a Christian, not only because we are told to pick up our cross and follow, but also because it’s inherent to faith. Has anyone ever said that you need to take a leap of safety? But you have heard someone say to take a leap of faith. That is to take some risk in what you are doing, and that is especially true when we are talking about mission and service, because what we would like to do is sit back, to do the things that feel comfortable, to do the things that are safe, to do the things that pose no risk to us, again not necessarily to our actual physical safety, but pose no risk to us in being changed in any way, of being transformed by the experience, of doing things that transform others, let alone our community and the world.
Our donations to the food pantry are fantastic, and I would never want to do away with them. I like seeing the food piling up at the front of the sanctuary each week because it’s important to what we do and who we are, but it’s not risk-taking. It’s important, but it’s really safe, other than perhaps missing a really good sale, what risks do we take? We never interact with those who we are helping, and one of the major problems is in doing this we can begin to think that we are being generous in giving, and those who are receiving are only receiving. It sets up hierarchical relationships. Even in our mobile food pantry, there is still a difference that is kept between those who are serving, and this is not unique to us. Rev. Joe Daniels said about many programs being run by churches, “The problem is that if we ask the people engaged in these serving ministries the names of those they are serving, where they live, what’s going on in their lives, why they are hungry, and what is the deeper need in order for them to reach God’s dream for their lives and their community — the answer for most is “I don’t know.” We are often doing ministry for people, but not with people. Many of us are doing “caring” ministry, but are we engaged in “transformational” ministry?” Are we seeking to be in mission and service to someone, or are we seeking to be in mission and service with someone? Although certainly not the only thing, that is one of the differences between whether mission and service is risk-taking or not.
It seems rather strange and simple to say that talking to someone about their life is risk-taking, but it is because when we do so then we seek to see someone not just as another statistic, someone we can help because they are helpless, and instead begin to see them as individuals, people with names and stories of their own, people who are also generous with their time and efforts, then we stop doing mission to them and we start doing it with them. And when we do that we open ourselves up to be transformed by the situation as we seek to transform the world. And when that happens then we begin to do radical, passionate, intentional, risk-taking mission, not being doing it for someone, but by doing it with them, and to talk about just one way that we can do some risk-taking mission and service with people, I would like to introduce, Debbie Welden, who is a member of Community United Methodist Church in Aspen, Colorado to talk about a project that we helping to bring clean, running water to schools in Kenya.
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