Nice Place You've Got Here
Matthew 28:18-20

Nice place ya got here! After all the planning, all the dreaming, all the work. After the great step forward on faith, here you are. In this building designed just for you. A building that invites people into the center. Invites everyone into the center. Anyone into the center. A statement of who you are. Very nice!

On this great day of dedication I bring you greetings. Greetings on behalf of some three quarters of a million Disciples in the United States and Canada in some 3700 congregations. It is a true joy to share this day with you in this great new place.

Here’s what I know about you: Your emphasis as a congregation is on outreach – both in your community here and in the larger world. I know you took this step to build this building while making the commitment not to reduce your outreach giving.

I know this – because Maureen said so.

There’s a sermon I’ll need to preach at a lot of churches over the next five or six years, a sermon about transformation. I’ll have to preach that transformation happens when a church gives up maintenance mode and becomes drawn boldly forward by their mission. I’ll have to remind them (as I read somewhere) that “God never told the world to go to church, but God did tell the church to go to the world.” – as in our passage this afternoon.)

“God never told the world to go to church, but God did tell the church to go to the world.”

But I won’t have to preach that sermon here. You’ve already claimed mission as a way of life.

In some places I’ll have to preach that transformation involves change, even difficult change, and I’ll have to urge, beg, plead with those churches to be willing to change. But I won’t have to preach that sermon here. My gosh, look at what you’ve done with your worship space – notoriously one of the most difficult things to change.

I’ll have to tell many churches that transformation involves mission in our own back yard. But you’re involved all over the community: Central Missouri Food Bank; Showme Central Habitat for Humanity, Interfaith Day Center, St. Francis House of Hospitality, Lenoir Retirement Community, Voluntary Action Center, Loaves and Fishes, The Wardrobe, Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN), Woodhaven Learning Center.

I won’t have to preach the community involvement sermon here.

Nor will I have to tell you that transformation also involves mission far away. You give generously(?) to Disciples Mission Fund. As a result of your dollars in that offering plate, orphan children in Congo have roofs over their heads, pastors and missionaries in India and Thailand can rebuild after the Tsunami (had you almost forgotten about the Tsunami? – through Disciples Mission Fund, we were there before that wave struck and we are still there today). Because of DMF mission hospitals around the world can have medicine, schools have teachers, ministers are trained. No I won’t have to preach the sermon about global mission here today.

So what is the message for today?

Maybe it’s just to say congratulations. Keep up the good work. And to thank you – which I do – from the bottom of my heart. I do thank you. For all you do for so many through all your good works – and your good financial stewardship. Thank you.

Maybe the word for today grows out of the fact that you’ve built a building. That you’ve made a place for the presence of God to be celebrated, for tears to be shed – and dried – tears of joy and sadness, a place for blessed community to spring up, for the sacred stories of our faith to be told, a place for people to find their mission, claim their mission, a place to be equipped for that mission.

Mission. Maybe that’s the word for today.

The stated mission of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to which this congregation belongs is this: To be and to share the Good News of Jesus Christ from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth.

As of the completion of this building, my brothers and my sisters of Rock Bridge Christian Church, you’ve go the doorsteps part made in the shade. From our doorsteps to the ends of the earth. You’ve got some pretty doorsteps now.

To be and to share the good news. It’s the “be” and “share” part that sometimes gives Disciples a problem. Well, not so much the “be” part either.

We Disciples of Christ have a pretty good handle on the being part. I recently read an article in a regional newsletter saying that Disciples are known for doing. We’re known for responding in times of need. After Katrina and Rita, we saw it again. Wherever there was a Disciples congregation located on the roads traveled by the displaced, that church has opened its doors. We can be the gospel. We can open our doors. We can offer a warm welcome.

St Francis once said: “Preach the gospel always. If necessary, use words.” We Disciples love that quote. We like to live our faith more than to talk about it. We Disciples know how to be the gospel; we know how to love and to serve. I celebrate that.

There is, though, another implication of the St Francis quote that we have often missed. Which is, that it is, in fact, sometimes necessary to use words to get the message across. Where we run into problems sometimes is with the sharing part, with witnessing to the gospel – in words.

It’s a problem that many mainline people have. My brother and sister-in-law recently went on a medical mission trip to Brazil from their Presbyterian church in Florida. They’re not doctors, but they thought they might get to make appointments or hold equipment or help the doctors somehow. Once there, however, they were assigned to go door to door in villages, telling the gospel story. When they heard their assignment, they looked at the trip organizers in disbelief. “But. . . we’re Presbyterians!” they said.

From our doorsteps to the ends of the earth – our mission is not just to be the good news, but also to share the good news – when necessary, with words.

Words. That’s where we Disciples sometimes run into problems. We can be the gospel. It’s the sharing part that seems to leave us tongue tied. Wordless. To be and to share the gospel. When necessary with words.

The scripture today emphasizes the point. Jesus says, “Go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them.” The door of the church is not just for us to stand at and welcome people in. That door is also for us to go out of to share the good news of Jesus Christ. to make disciples and to teach them. “Go,” says Jesus. Go out of that nice church and “do”, but tell people what you’re doing and why.

Invite people to this wonderful building. But even more invite them into what this building stands for. Invite people into this worshiping, praying, serving, giving way of life that we call discipleship.

Yes, I think this could be the message for today – that we Disciples need to learn how to share the gospel sometimes – in words – so people will even know what this nice building is all about.

Yes, the word for today just might have to do with mission – with our mission to use the gift of our words to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. To share with them what we’re doing when we’re out there being the good news through our community and global service.

Go into all the world and teach, says Jesus. It’s time for us Disciples to get comfortable talking to others about the difference God makes in our lives.

It’s time for us to be able to tell our own stories, authentically, about how our lives are transformed by the love of God – through this community.

It’s time for us to learn how to use words – because a lot of people are out there using words as if they speak for all of us – which they do not.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love it that there are lots of different styles and brands of Christianity. There are lots of different kinds of people. We need different kinds of churches to meet the needs of different kinds of people.

But some people need us. And not everybody’s finding us. And sometimes it’s because we aren’t telling.

At General Assembly last summer, Oregon Disciples were handing out business cards that said, “We’re the church you’ve been looking for.” They handed them out on bus stops and in the bars and restaurants of Portland. Most likely, we are the church that some of those people have been looking for – whether they knew it or not. But if people don’t know about us, the people who need us, will never find us. We have to speak up. There are people out there who need for us to speak up about what kind of church we are.

They need to know that in a fragmented world, we’re a church with a passion for helping people find community. The building we dedicate today is all about the embrace of community. At our very roots, we Disciples are about bringing people together. Because we understand the human family already as one. We give witness to a deep, spiritual unity given to us by God. We don’t create it by agreeing with each other, or by looking alike, or by coming to consensus on worship styles. We are one because God made us one. In this divided world, people need to know this about us.

People need to know that we’re a church that believes that every single Christian at their baptism is called and gifted for ministry. Each and every one. So we have elders as well as ministers at the Lord’s Table. We have strong lay leaders in every aspect of our church. In a world where too many people are blocked from opportunity because they are judged not worthy, people need us to speak out about a church that will accept anyone.

People need to know we are a church that urges each one of us baptized, called and gifted Christians to grow in the spirit. We’re a church that understands that different people will take different spiritual journeys, and we respect those varied journeys. We’re not a one size fits all church. We encourage diversity. In a world where all too often, difference means disrespect, people need us to speak out. They need us to invite everyone in.

They also need to know we are a church that does not leave people isolated on those individual journeys. We are also a church that calls disciples back together again – every week. Each and every week, we issue Christ’s call to gather with the living God around the Table of the living Christ. At this table we individuals, scattered on our own spiritual journeys, come back home, to the family table. The community re-forms. At this table, we who are many become one. By God’s grace we become one Body of Christ . . . One Body of Christ – for the world. People need to know this. People need to be invited to the center.

Yes, I think the word for this afternoon is this: It’s time to find our voice, Disciples. Time to be and to share the good news of Jesus Christ – when necessary with words.

Time to go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them. Time to go out and call people into the center, into an amazing community of all God’s children.

Nice place you’ve got here. You need to tell people about it. You need to tell people what happens here.

From these very doorsteps which we dedicate today, to the ends of the earth, brothers and sisters of Rock Bridge Christian Church, go, be, teach, share – when necessary, use words. It’s a life-giving story you’ve got to share.