Participating in Ministry with Jesus

What follows is a transcript of our guest speaker's message from our Sunday morning gathering. We share these messages on our blog for those who appreciate the opportunity to read the sermon again—whether for deeper reflection, personal study, or a quieter moment of prayer and introspection. As you read, we invite you to linger with the words, notice what resonates, and remain open to how God may be speaking to you through them.

by Sandi Mull

Today, I'm reading Luke 4, 14 through 20.

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.

And a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.

And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he stood up and read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were on him. 

What we read in that passage was at least part of Jesus' inaugural sermon in his hometown of Nazareth.

And that's always hard when you're doing something in your hometown, because people have varying ideas about you. He announced the focus of his ministry. It would be to people that are often overlooked.

And in fact, in Matthew 25, 35, and 36, he adds a little different twist to it. He says that when you do this to the poor or hungry or whatever, you're doing it to me. And he adds that I was a stranger and you took me in.

That wasn't in the Luke passage. Jesus invites all of his followers, that means then and now, to ministry of hospitality and care for those who are overlooked. First Christian Church has been good at reaching out to people who come to church, maybe people that they don't know, and we're getting ready to start a new school year.

So there's a possibility of students, new faculty, new people that have moved to town, and maybe people that have just been intending to go to church and suddenly decide to come to church some Sunday. And Jesus is saying that person may be a stranger when they walk in the door, but they need not be a stranger by the time they leave. There was a lady in one church that said that she really wanted to talk to people, but she was always afraid of talking to strangers.

It was just a barrier that she had trouble with. So what she did, she went home, and she made a little cheat sheet of information about the church and some greetings she might use and various things. And so then on Sunday morning, she said when there was somebody new there, she would take a deep breath and she would come up and introduce herself to the people and start talking to them.

And she said, you know, I dreaded it at first, but after a while, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed listening to them, hearing what they were saying, and getting to know a little bit about them. And so I went from dreading it to looking forward to it.

And I think Jesus calls us to do the same thing. Some of us, it may be easier for than others. Some people are just talkers, don't know a stranger, and others do, but we can all reach out to people and welcome them as they come in our front door.

But, and that's important, but there's more to it than that. When we had some international students, we welcomed them through conversation, action, if they needed it, asking and answering questions, helping with connections. These were just people that were far away from home and they needed to belong.

They needed to have a sense of belonging. And we invited them to participate in our service. Some of them did the call to worship and various things.

And we can also do, invite people who may be visiting or who visit several times anyway, at least for conversation over coffee during the week or a meal or something to show them that we are interested in them. And Paul in Romans tells the Roman church, he says, contribute to the needs of the saints and show hospitality. Now, probably they were contributing to people that they would never meet, even if those people lived in Rome.

Even then, that was a big place and there were several small churches in Rome, or they might've been in some other place where Paul had done ministry and had worked with people. But he was saying, hey, you take up an offering and you share with people. But sometimes I think we tend to want to classify an activity.

We classify it as social or spiritual or cultural or whatever. And yet I'm not sure, and the classifications are okay, but sometimes they can get in the way. For instance, we would classify worship, prayer, and Bible study as spiritual.

But if you come to our Sunday school class on Sunday morning that I wasn't there for this morning, you'll find that it's also social, that we have a social interaction with each other also and get to know people through our study and through our conversation about scripture and all. So it's a combination, it's not just one thing. When we spend time with family or visit people, sometimes we will put that in the classification of social.

But that can be a spiritual thing too. We're giving attention, we're showing care for them. Maybe sometimes if we have family far away, we've traveled to be with them.

And this can be not only a social event, but a spiritual one too. Jesus' ministry was one of compassion and care. It was both social and spiritual.

He had discussions with people on the dusty roads of Israel. And these discussions were probably some of them, just common, everyday things. And some of them were people asking questions and him teaching them.

He spent time with crowds on the mountain, teaching and feeding them. Teaching them about what God was like and showing them that God may be a little different than they thought. Also, he had conversations over meals with people.

You remember when Levi, when the tax collector invited him to dinner, he went to dinner. And sometimes those conversations were a little bit pointed in a sense. It might not have made him totally popular, but he did have those kind of conversations at meals.

And in people's homes, he would have conversations. So he wasn't just going to the classroom in the synagogue and holding classes. He associated with the poor and the rich, with those who were outcasts, with the tax collectors, with prostitutes.

And I think he would call all of those associations having a social and a spiritual component to them. He confronted power, that sometimes got him into trouble and upset the leaders. Later, in the sermon that he was preaching in our passage of scripture, he got into some things with people in his hometown that upset them and they actually chased him out of town.

So they went from he was famous and he was the beloved young man that had made good to we don't want to hear what you have to say. So both of those things, he was speaking the truth of God to them and they may not have wanted to hear it at that time. And sometimes for us, it takes a while.

We have to hear it, maybe hear it several ways before we understand and may accept it. The work of God is the work we do in the ministry center. That is spiritual, but it's also hospitality if we're waiting on people who need groceries.

And I know this is the month they're trying to get people and I didn't put this in here just as a ad for helping in the ministry center, but if you can, that would be good. And that's a way of being in ministry with Jesus. Sometimes we give clothing or give money to the ministry center.

There's also a time that we showed hospitality to people that might not have a good meal and we prepared meals and then we prepared meals for people that might be overlooked sometimes. And these were ways that we followed the practice of Jesus in hospitality and care for people. We give also sometimes to some of our national, Disciples National Organizations, the Week of Compassion is our disaster relief organization.

And they not only work abroad, but they work here in the United States too when there's a tornado or something. I remember years ago when there was a tornado that took out some churches and things along Route 136 and they were active in helping those churches. And so it's an organization that comes in when there's some kind of a disaster, hurricane, tornado, whatever, and helps.

And then there's another organization that's more long-term and that's Global Ministries. Several months ago, you heard from Elena Heagle who works with Global Ministries in Chiapas. And they go only at the request of a Christian organization or church in the country.

We don't go in and just tell them what they need. They come to us and tell us what we need. And they also, when there is a disaster in another country, they also rely on Week of Compassion.

Week of Compassion works with them and they become the feet on the ground doing the work. And Week of Compassion supplies the funds for that. And now I have a very important question for you.

Have you ever thought of a bathroom door as a cultural challenge? Anyone? Well, I hadn't either. Maybe some of you are just sitting there thinking, okay, what's going on here? But it was. On Easter, about two or three years ago, the last time we had a large group of international students, I had 13 Indian students and six Americans who thankfully brought food in my house.

So there were 19 people there. And they were in the bathroom. Some of the Americans were needing to use the restroom.

And they were watching the door. And it was always closed. They were looking for an open door.

And finally, one of the Indian students walked up to the door, knocked on the door, and when no one answered, she went in. So some of the American people said, why didn't they leave the door open? Well, I knew I had to step in and we needed to have a little discussion. In India, in Mexico, and many other countries, they leave the bathroom door closed.

And we tend more likely to leave it open or partially open whenever no one is in there. So we had a little discussion and I said, well, for the Indian students, if you can remember, because it's hard to remember when you're used to doing a certain thing, to leave it partially open, that would help. And to the Americans, I said, if you see a closed door and you need to use the restroom, knock on the door.

And if no one hollers that they're in there, then it means it's empty. And then we had a little discussion and some of them had some discussion afterwards among themselves, but I had to get back to the kitchen. We were finishing dinner.

And I think that that whole discussion of the two cultures that just came up, I think there was both a cultural nature to it and probably a little bit of a spiritual nature because people were learning to understand that people did things differently. They weren't necessarily right or wrong, but that different cultures reacted differently to things and had a different understanding. Now, I've never thought to ask, either in Mexico or India, what is the history of why they leave the bathroom door shut? And that's one on my list for some time.

But at least they were able to work through it and it became a way of actually uniting people and the people talking to each other more because sometimes the Americans would sort of be one place and the Indians another place and they weren't interacting with each other. And this sort of actually opened the door for them to do it. With the students and with others, we didn't really just tell them, oh, you're welcome.

We went beyond that. Many helped with, many of you helped give them rides and we invited them to participate in activities. Some of them did the call to worship a few times.

And then we also invited them to communion, which we invite all people to communion with us. And we made them feel like they belong. Then there were two eager students.

These are the ones, some of you probably saw Ashok and Rajitha when they were back in May. They came back to marching graduation. And I don't understand that either.

They wait until later to come and march in graduation, but that's neither here nor there. They came back for that and they did several things. I know that they helped in the kitchen a few times and I was told that they were good help.

They also did call to worship. And they were, but they were looking for some things they could do that didn't have a problem with the language. I mean, they knew English well, but the accent was hard for some people.

And so they came up, they were watching and they said, you know, is there a way that we could pass the offering and communion for people? Because we could do that. Well, they didn't understand that when they asked that, that that was quite a process. They had to be members first, which they did.

And then they had to become deacons. And Pam was head of the deacons at the time. And so I hit her with it.

And, you know, this was, by the next May, they were gonna be out of here. So, it seemed like we were going through a lot of gyrations for a small amount of time. And we worked it out that they were voted in as deacons.

And I think for about four months, they served. And some people, I know some people who were scheduled to serve would give up serving so that they could serve. And while it seemed like maybe for some people, it seemed like a lot of trouble for a short time.

And it didn't seem like it was that big of an issue. But for them, it was because it was a sense of belonging. And they were very joyful in doing it.

And I can tell you; they had two joyful moms back in India also, because their kids were being included in the church in a way that they weren't expecting to happen. And so, we were very good with that group of people. So, what does that mean for us now? We're here to welcome people.

I would say in the next month, we'll have people walk through our doors that we may not know. And it's more than just telling them they're welcome, although that is important also. They will have varying needs, expectations.

They could be students, they could be faculty, they could be other people moving because of jobs or moving because of retirement. Or like I say, people that move, that just decide, okay, now's the time to go to church. And some of them will be there to check things out and may go on and visit some other places and check things out.

But some of them hopefully will stay. And they're looking for worship where they have a place that feels like home, feels like they belong as they worship God. And so now, as we end this message, I want us to think about hospitality and care for people and welcoming strangers throughout the year and giving them a sense of belonging.