"When Friends Become Family"
Acts 2:42-47
January 18, 2009
St. Paul United Methodist Church
Rev. John A. Fleming
I like the story that Max Lucado tells in his book The Cure for the Common Life. It's a powerful little story about two men, one whose name is Gary and the other who is named Steve.
The two live in the same Connecticut town and have been friends for more than two decades. If you knew the two of them, you would think they were brothers. Not only do the two men look alike, they also can finish one another's sentences. Gary was the best man in Steve's wedding and when Steve's dad was suddenly sick, it was Gary who was there from the get go.
On the next to last day of December, 1998, their friendship suddenly made sense. That was the day a renegade social worker called Gary to talk with him about an adoption. She asked both personal and pointed questions. He thought she was calling to see if he were interested in adopting, as odd as that seemed. As it turns out she was interested in an adoption, but it was his, not someone else's. At the time he did not know that he had been adopted. Up until then, he thought he was the only child of the ones who raised him.
While they were talking Gary happened to mention that his best friend, Steve was also adopted. The case worker took that and ran with it. She found out about Steve's adoption and decided to call him, too. When he answered the phone, the social worker explained who she was and why she was calling. She asked if he were sitting down. When he said he was, she asked, "Did you know that you have a brother?" He said that he didn't. She continued, with excitement in her voice, "Did you know that your best friend Gary is actually your brother?
Wow! As it turns out the two men weren't just buddies, they were brothers. The two weren't just friends, they were family. Can you envision that? Can you imagine how they felt? I can't, but then again, there are times I can.
You see, that is how I think of all of you. I think of you as my brothers and I consider many of you to be my sister. I discovered something while I was working on our sermon this week. Here it is. Between the biblical books of Acts and Revelation, twenty-three books if you count the anchors on both sides, the word brother or the words brother and sister are used one hundred and forty-eight times. Wow! The word, those words, far outpace and outnumber any other biblical words. Let me give you an example of one of them. To one of his churches Paul writes, "Now concerning the love of brothers and sisters, you don't need anything written to you, for you have been taught to love one another."
What I have discovered in you is that you all are good at loving one another. The other day I was doing some cleaning out of things. I came across a box of cards. In the box were cards that you sent me when my sister died just over three years ago. It is interesting. Tomorrow is her birthday. She would have been forty-two tomorrow. I read through the cards and I remembered reading them the first time. I recalled how grateful I was to serve a church who cared for their pastor. I remembered seeing your faces at the memorial service. You did that for me and you do it for one another and I am proud of you for doing that.
Someone has compared the church to a family and it may be one of the last things we can compare to a family in this world. As a family we have been together. We have been together down there at the communion rail where we have confessed our sins. We have stood at the rail and watched as our daughter walked down the aisle. We have stood side by side at the baptismal font, as early as last Sunday as we baptized our brother. We have been together in the room just after the delivery or in the waiting room while we hoped for good news. We have stood at the gravesite. We are a family, one that I am honored to be a part.
Here is something else I learned this week. I learned something about Aspen trees in Colorado. These trees, by and large, grow on otherwise bald mountains. They are sun seekers and root sharers. Unlike firs and pines who like the shade, aspens worship the warmth. Unlike the oaks whose roots go very deep, the aspen's roots go wide and intertwine with each other as they share the same nutrients. They are lovers of light and they share roots. To me that is the picture of a healthy church.
Can I give you a picture of another one? Our lesson for this morning paints a picture of a vibrant church with words. Just after the day of Pentecost, Luke tells us that the church got up on her feet. If you've ever wondered what that church looked like, look no further than the five verses I read for us just a few moments ago. Luke tells us a few things about that first church. He says that the believers were dedicated to the teachings of the apostles. He tells us that they spent a lot of time together at the temple, worshiping God and having fellowship with one another. Luke tells us that they broke bread together, prayed together, and shared together. He tells us something else that is radical for our world. He tells that they sold their possessions and made sure that no one in Jerusalem wanted for anything. Luke puts an exclamation point on this picture. He writes, "And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved."
Now that is a church! The cynical side of me wonders if it was really that way. I know Luke wrote his words forty years after the fact. Was something lost in those years? We know not everyone sold everything. Someone had to keep their house so that the church would have somewhere to gather. Not everyone in Jerusalem had everything they needed either. The apostle Paul speaks often in his letters of collecting an offering for the poor in Jerusalem. Was Luke's picture of the church one he knew or one that he dreamed and hoped for?
While we are on the subject of dreaming and hoping for a church, I'd like to talk about our beloved church. I take the chance every January to let you know how our church is doing. In year's past, I have given you facts and figures, things that our district and conference want to know. Things like total membership, worship and Sunday school attendance averages, the number of people we baptized and confirmed and memorialized. If you want those numbers, I am happy to share them with you. But here is the deal. I do not want us to get caught up in a numbers game. It is easy to do that, especially when you are the pastor and that is being asked for and you are being judged by that. To me numbers are people and I care about people and I want people out there in the world to find a family here.
What I can tell you is that our averages are down from 2008. I can also tell you we have a group of folks who are beginning to address this. I can also tell you that our Staff-Parish Relations Committee has set a goal for our church. I will ask our Church Council to embrace it tonight. The goal is ten percent more in worship and Sunday school in 2009. They have also set a goal of receiving fifteen new members this year. I am praying that someone will feel the call to join our membership this morning.
Can I ask you to do something today? Let's look past those numbers and see people and ministries and some of our success stories of 2008. In early December I sat near the back of our fellowship hall and I was worried. The Christmas pageant had just happened and Santa Claus was coming for a visit. The serving line backed up to my office and I worried that we would run out of food. God give me those worries!
Our men's ministry has been a blessing. We've met, dreamed, built, visqueened, and gotten to know each other better. I was so proud of the group the night we honored our veterans.
If you walked the hallways with me last July during the week we have Vacation Bible School, you would have seen kids everywhere, filled with fun and questions and energy. We have eaten together. It's a theme here. I'll not forget the Welcome Back celebration you offered my family last July to kick-off our seventh year. There are pancake breakfasts and ice-cream socials and Christmas feasts.
This year I've toured parts of North Little Rock with our senior members and been with them as they visited the Heifer Ranch in Perryville.
We held our breath last April as a terrible storm blew in and literally changed the landscape. It came closer to some of you than it did for others. One of our members is still rebuilding his house. The storm made us look beyond ourselves which is always a good idea.
I dream of a church, of being the pastor of a church that cares about one another as if we were brothers and sisters. Paul speaks of this church when he writes to the Romans. His idea is a church that rejoices with one another and weeps with one another. God uses all kinds of people in this family of ours. God uses logical thinkers and emotional worshipers and dynamic leaders and quiet followers. God uses up front people and those who prefer to be behind the scenes. God uses visionaries who lead and people who ponder. The church must offer an encouraging word and prayers and a place to belong. We must reach out and share with others what we have found here, a family.
Can I ask you when the last time you invited someone to our church? The world is looking for something and while we may not have everything, we have something very valuable here. We are a people who are amazed at the same manger, stirred by the same Bible, saved by the same cross, and headed for the same home.
Will you share this good news? Discover what Gary and Steve did, friends and family in the same faces. By the way, the case worker who called eventually identified eleven more brothers and sisters for Gary and Steve. It turned out that Gary worked out with his brother at the gym and in high school Steve dated his sister. That's scary. Oh the beauty and surprises of family life. In God's church may we find them all. Let us pray.
(Special thanks to Max Lucado for his ministry of words and for his book mentioned in the opening paragraph of this sermon).