I am interning at First Baptist Church in Asheville this summer. This is my homily for the Wednesday chapel service. There are so many things that I would say different, but I’m glad that I did it. The summer series is based around the beatitudes, and saints or other spiritual figures are matched with the passage. My verse was “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Matthew 5:3 paired with St. Francis of Assisi.
But to Serve
When I consider the term poverty in spirit I am reminded of my Grandmother.
My grandmother was the picture of humility. Always, meek and eager to help. She led a simple life of devotion in the isolation of a ranch in West Texas. She attended a church of less than twenty-five people situated between two massive properties. She was the only member of the tiny church who was not related to one of the two families which owned the sounding property. This was where her funeral was held.
I remember the moment when I realized she was going to die. She had been battling cancer for some time, and for a while things were looking good. It was Christmas Day and we had just finished a late dinner. We had opened presents with all the extended family, and the combination of shredded wrapping paper and dirty dishes created an environment that testified to the excitement of the day. I absentmindedly began to clean up along with my aunts, and I realized my grandmother was resting on the couch. She wasn’t helping us clean. For a moment I was confused. She was always the first to serve and looked for anyway to help even when she was tired. I remember her washing dishes, changing dipper, watching children cleaning floors all without ever being asked. Why wasn’t she helping us now? Then I realized she was too sick to help. She could no longer serve the ones she loved. Although we eagerly longed to serve her especially in her hour of greatest need, that is not what she lived for. She lived to not to be served but to serve, and her health had robed that from her. A few months later she died surrounded by her daughters. It was a tender, bitter-sweet moment when she left us to be with Jesus. She had no more work here with us, but I know she is serving her master in heaven.
I Don’t Know How to Love Him
I have just started my internship at First Baptist Church of Asheville. So far it has been an ah-mazing experience. Over the past two weeks the church has been obsessed with the youth choir’s presentation of Jesus Christ Super Star. With good reason, the entire body has worked diligently on the program for nearly a year. More than the incredible skill and talent with which it was executed, I was impressed by the deep spiritual maturity the congregation and especially the youth who worked so hard on the controversial rock opera.
A few days after the presentation, the cast was interviewed by the pastor in front of the church during a talk-show style event. Each teenager acknowledged how their perceptions of Jesus had been affected by the opera. Most of them were challenged with the mystery of the incarnation and what it means for Jesus to be fully human and fully divine. They discussed heady theological issues with a maturity difficult to find in many seminaries, let alone a youth ministry. One statement, offered by an sweet young girl who played Mary Magdalene, struck me with an indelible blow.
“People always ask me who Jesus is to me, and to me Jesus has always been best friend,” she said. “My whole life he’s been the one I turn to. Well, in this musical I had the opportunity to play Jesus’ best friend. And when we started rehearsal I realized I didn’t know how to act around Jesus. I was standing right next to him and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what it looked like.” She smiled and I thought that the tears in my own eyes would be mirrored in her’s. But she simply looked out in to to audience and said in an sweet even tone “but Jesus really is with me all the time. He is my best friend, and he is standing with me. Still, most of the time I don’t know how to act around Jesus. And I think that’s true of all of us sometimes.”
Reconciled
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
The first time I heard a sermon on reconciliation I found the idea almost magical. That not only has God brought us near to Him through Chris, but also we are to be committed to the same action. We are to emulate His actions in dealing with one another. Loving one another like Jesus loved us and bringing relationship where sin has divided.
One of my Professors was trying to explain to us the Holy Spirit’s work of reconciliation. To emphasize his point the professor read us an account of a deacon who caught several men, all very young, in the act of vandalizing and robbing his church. The police came and arrested them men, but Sunday the pastor had an idea. He asked that a love offering be taken up for the robbers and their families.”Don’t spread the word that we’re doing this,” he said, but he wanted to do something radical. All the things they stole and destroyed were material possessions that could be replaced. The church responded by donating money, visiting with their families and giving them the same electronics they men tried to steal.The pastor and his church wanted to show that they didn’t care about the stuff; they cared about their souls. For this they received attention and acclamation from several news agencies and the local and national communities. This action seemed so unique to the outside world. What motivated such an action? The gospel.
As my professor finished the story, he look around with a smile and asked what we all thought. I was startled when every person he called on thought the church naive. Even the kindest and gentlest members of our class believed they were rewarding theft and that those men don’t deserve it. Some asked if the men had changed their ways as if our soul motivation in showing graces was determined by the results. I became heartsick at the thought. Of course these men didn’t deserve it! That is exactly why this church acted the way they did. This church showed these men in a tangible way that their sin was forgiven, and they desired to be reconciled with them. They did the work of reconciliation. It was hard and it cost them. It was against their instincts and against culture. But it is the ministry of Christ.
We are all sinners. We should never look down on any expression of grace. None of us deserve the blessings we receive. Those thieves didn’t deserve the gifts of that church, and I don’t deserve the gift of Christ. The beauty of grace is that we don’t get what we deserve. God makes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on the good and bad, and we are to show love in the same way. For in Christ we are forgiven and reconciled with the living God. We are called to forgive others always if we are to be forgiven, and we are to reconcile whenever possible if we are ever to bring the Kingdom of God hear on earth.
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Kena Hawkins Newkirk 