8th Sunday after Pentecost

I’d like to invite you to cast your mind back to several years ago, when we decided that it was time to take things to the next level. We talked to the synod’s Director for Evangelical Mission, we talked to the Bishop, and they encouraged us to apply to the ELCA for what are called partnership support funds to help us put our plans into effect. We planned expanded outreach. We planned to raise our profile in the community. We planned to revamp our publicity program. All the stuff you’re supposed to do.

The centerpiece of this effort was a new worship service, to be held Sunday evenings. We gathered together a dedicated team of people of faith, for whom worship is an important part of their lives. We took a lot of time, and established a very considered process by which we discerned our target group. We wanted to really focus on unchurched or de-churched young adults. We wanted to emphasize its informality. We wanted to make it a low-threshold, non-intimidating experience that anyone could walk in and feel comfortable. We wanted it to be discussion based. And we wanted to approach it in such a way that even if someone didn’t know anything about the Bible, they would still be able to participate and, more importantly, get something out of it. We put a lot of thought, prayer, blood, sweat, and tears into shaping that service. Making it just right. Making it perfect.

We decided that we would launch it the week after Easter, April 12, 2015. The first Sunday evening, when we opened the doors, we had four people show up. And all of them were from the team that designed the worship service. But that was OK. We had committed to doing this service for a full year, because that’s what you need to do. You can’t just do something for a month or two and then deem it either a success or a failure.

So, we kept working at it. We kept massaging it. We kept working to make it better and better, until we really had it down. We had it refined to the point where it really flowed. We were dedicated. We were committed. We were there every week, doing what we had promised ourselves, one another, and most importantly God. We persevered, knowing that this was what we needed to do!

One year later, April 3, 2016, at our Sunday evening service, you wanna guess how many people we had at that service? Two. Me and Bob Bloch. The fact of the matter was that this had pretty much been the average attendance for the preceding two or three months.

In spite of doing everything right: Taking the necessary time for planning. Backing it up with adequate financing. Defining our perceived target audience.

Ah.

That’s the operative word: “perceived”. There we were. Meeting every week or every other week. Immersing ourselves in Bible study before we got to the work of the meeting. Taking all the right steps. But hubris can take a lot of forms, including that of best intentions; doing your best for people you don’t even know. It was only in hindsight that I realized the ridiculousness of it all. There we were, sitting around a table planning a worship service for people who were either unchurched or de-churched. But there wasn’t one person in the planning group that fell into that camp. We hadn’t even bothered talking to people who were part of that target group. We had completely isolated ourselves.

When we read Luke’s story about the rich farmer, our first thought is that it’s about our relationship with wealth. And that strain is certainly there. This story has probably been used for more stewardship sermons than you could shake a stick at. But as with any good story, there are multiple possible layers of meaning here. Yes, it’s a story about a man and his wealth. But it’s also a story about relationship or, in this case, the lack thereof.

This is the story of a man who lives in apparent isolation. Look at the conversation he has with himself. It’s not just to himself, it’s also about himself, and only himself. There doesn’t appear to be anyone else in his life. There doesn’t appear to be anyone else who might have participated in the accumulation or benefit of his tremendous harvest. Instead, when he sees the blessing of an abundant harvest, all he can think of is what he can do to make sure he gets the most out of it so that he can live comfortably into his old age.

But the narcissism doesn’t end there. In fact, because of his narcissism he begins to believe that he has the power to control his destiny. He believes that he can secure his own future. He needs no one. He depends upon no one. He’s a self-made man. That’s why God calls him foolish! Because he’s not immune to death.  And now he will die alone, and everything that he’s bundled away will do nothing to offer comfort or protection from that. And if he is truly alone, it will go to nobody who loved and respected him; who might put it to good use. It’ll just disappear. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The last line of the story reads, “21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” But how can one be rich toward God without being rich toward others? Luther said, “God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does”. We could just as well say “our wealth” as our “good works”. If we view this as a parable about community, what does it tell us? It tells us that it’s in community that we find sustenance and comfort. It’s in community that we find help and hope. And it’s in community that we experience life with God.

Remember, this parable is brought about as a result of a break in one of the foundational communities of our society: family. One brother comes seeking Jesus’ intervention in a family squabble about an inheritance. And so, Jesus tells a story about a man who is so enthralled with his good fortune that he ends up all alone. There is, right now, a deeply disturbing but increasingly popular message being shared that we should not and cannot trust one another; that the world is an increasingly dangerous place and we should, therefore, be increasingly afraid.

Fear will not lead us forward. The continual biblical refrain of “be not afraid” isn’t offered simply to bolster our individual courage. It’s there to make it easier for us to turn to one another with our fears and hopes and dreams and needs in order to build up this community. The Bible warns us against fear, and instead tells us to love, because it’s almost impossible to care for your neighbor and create a community when you’re afraid.

Community isn’t easy. It means putting up with people who disagree with you. It means putting up with people who annoy you. It means putting up with people who have hurt you. Forgiveness and trust are vital and necessary for a community.

This congregation and our surrounding communities share a common need: evangelism and revitalization. I think that’s something upon which we can all agree. And we need to contend with the fact that, as a result of COVID, the nature of church, what we consider to be church, and how we relate to church has changed. One example of this change is the nature of our worshipping community. Prior to the pandemic, it was 100% analog. Worship happened right here, in this physical space, where we were all face to face with one another. Our new reality is that our worshipping community is now both analog and digital. So not only are we are called to be the church in this place, at 16151 Old Frederick Road, Mt. Airy (but really Woodbine), MD. We are also called to be church at all the satellite campuses where people are worshipping with us, who are not in this physical space.

So, what’s the difference between this go round and our sincere but somewhat misguided efforts from 2015? The difference is best exemplified by our new mission statement. “As followers of Jesus, we are called to be an inclusive and compassionate community, where everyone is connected in relationship with God and each other to foster wholeness of mind and soul.” As opposed to our efforts from 2015, this mission statement is not something that we just pulled out of our assumptions. Instead, we talked to people who had a real sense of what’s going on in the area. School principals. Senior Center staff people. Police officers. Fire and Rescue staff. We talked to a lot of you, as well. We took the time to focus on the community. We took the time to get to know this community. And what we discovered is that the most pressing needs came down to mental health and substance abuse, food insecurity, and isolation. We can minister much more effectively to the surrounding community when we actually know what the most pressing issues are.

And the community is there! Within a twenty-minute drive to this very spot where I’m standing, there is a population 171,592 people. 24% of that population attends religious services regularly. An additional 17% indicated that they attend “frequently”. 59% indicated that they attend occasionally or rarely. That’s over 101,239.28 people. Taking into account geography, let’s say we make some sort of meaningful outreach to 50% of that number. That leaves us with 50,619.64 people. Even if only 1% would respond positively to our efforts, that would still be 506.1964 people. And if only half of them showed up on any given Sunday, we would more than triple our weekly attendance. Granted, a twenty-minute driving radius encompasses a big chunk of territory. So, let’s bring it down a bit; let’s cut it in half. That’s still over 250 people. 253.0982 people, to be precise!

We are not farmers. And this is not a barn. This is a church, and we are the body of Christ. We do not exist in isolation, but as part of something bigger, far bigger than us alone. And we have a mission. Strengthened by the Holy Spirit, encouraged by God’s Word, God sends us out to bring good news to the poor and belonging to the lonely and isolated, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to offer the love and community of Christ, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. God sends us to strengthen the Kingdom of God, here, in this place, in this community. God sends us to build an inclusive and compassionate community, where everyone is connected in relationship with God and each other to foster wholeness of mind and soul.

AMEN