4-4-24 - Why Are We Still Here?

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

There is a line in this week’s gospel reading that is easy to pass over: "A week later his disciples were again in the house…" This is not hard to understand when we remember the grave danger facing them in the wake of Jesus’ execution and now rumors of resurrection. That place with its locked doors was a somewhat safe space for them. But Jesus had shown up inside those locked doors a week earlier and said to them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He had imparted to them the Holy Spirit and sent them. Why were they still there?

Why are we still here, in our same routines, the ones that keep our God-life somewhat contained within the lines we’ve drawn for it? Why do we mostly hang out with the people we know in somewhat safe places when the Gospels show us a Jesus continually sending his followers out to find the lost, last and least? Why is our faith life centered on buildings when the New Testament shows us a Jesus, and later his apostles, continually on the move, bringing the life of God to people where they were?

I am deeply convicted by these questions, as most of my time and energy goes to nurturing the faith of those already in; I’m not so great at leading us out. But I am repeatedly convicted that “out” is where God is inviting us. Some of the greatest movements in church history came about because someone began to take the message out.

John Wesley was an Anglican clergyman with a rather ho-hum ministry safely within the bounds of the somewhat complacent and semi-corrupt church of his day. But after he had an experience of the Holy Spirit in which he felt his “heart strangely warmed,” that safe, comfortable ministry no longer felt right. And when his desire to reform the church in which he had grown up got him into trouble with church leaders, he began to preach the Word in fields and crowds came out to hear him. The movement he started with his brother Charles, which included a “method” for growing in faith, became Methodism. And though the bonds were strained nearly to the breaking point when he began to ordain leaders for his churches, he remained an Anglican priest until his death. It was four years later that the Methodists formally broke away from the Anglican fold.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated 56 years ago today, could have exercised his ministry within the confines of a church, preaching, proclaiming, pastoring. But he felt the Spirit move him out to preach the Gospel and work for justice in city streets and lunch counters and jails. He followed that call, and touched many more lives than he would have in a more traditional ministry. Crowds came out to hear him. "Out" is where God leads us, and meets us.

Writing this, I wonder, “Why am I still here?” Not why am I still the rector of these two churches – that is a blessing. But why do I let the “business” of church divert my energy away from “out there?” Where is God calling me to lead my congregations to the highways and shopping malls and parks and other places where the Spirit will equip us to bind and to loose?

Where is the Spirit leading us to be present? Where does Jesus intend to meet us? Where do you want to go with me?

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.