Occasionally there are folks who find their way to the doors of Celebration who need help. They may need gas money, food, or diapers. They may need a prayer. Darcie told the story of once people coming in need of holy water, like they were getting ready to do battle with a vampire or something. We were never quite sure to make of that one.

 

But when you’re a church, people come. Not all the time, but often enough that our Packing Friendships team may notice that their supplies look like they’ve been raided a bit. And that’s because Darcie and/or I have raided it for the sake of someone arriving here in desperate straits.

 

The latest story like this was just this last Tuesday, right as the lectionary Bible study was getting ready to start.

 

A young woman came to the church. She was from Texas and was in Wenatchee by herself, away from her network of support and her life, to get something cleared up with her immigration status. It was something that couldn’t wait, so she make the trek all the way here only to have her car break down. She spent the last money she had repairing this car and now she was terrified for what came next. She came in asking for some money for gas, which we were able to give her. But we also gave her some food, a place to feel safe for a little bit, a prayer, and word of encouragement.

 

It’s an honor to be a place where people come for help and to be able to give it, even if it is small. It is a big deal to help someone know that they are not alone as their world is squeezing them so very hard.

 

Our outreach committee previously provided $300 of petty cash for the church office to share with people just like this young woman. I believe we set that up sometime last fall sometime and we just handed out our last $40 of this $300 yesterday.

 

This $300 has helped four people. Four people left Celebration knowing that at least someone cared enough to hear their story and respond with water, a piece of candy along with something nutritious, a prayer, some money, and encouragement.  

 

It is an honor and a joy to receive someone in need and to be able to say yes. Yes, here’s some water or a cup of coffee. Yes, there’s the bathroom down the hall. Yes, here’s a couple cans of tuna. Yes, here’s some resources to help you further. Yes, here’s some money to fill your tank. Yes, let’s pray for your health and provision in the days to come. Yes, you do matter, not just to us, but to this church body who has provided for you. Yes, you matter to God. You are loved and you are included in the gift of life with dignity.

 

This fund has been a blessing, not just for the people, but also for Darcie and I who get to say, “Yes!” on your behalf.

 

Because $40 does not buy very much in gas, I asked the folks at the Bible study if they felt moved to give a little extra. So, our young friend left that day with enough food for a couple small meals and just over $100 to help her in her next steps. Clearly, we did not provide enough to solve her problems. But we gave her enough to breathe a little more deeply. To eat something. To get some gas and figure out her next steps.

 

This is an expression of love in action for our community, for the ones who end up here on our doorstep without much hope other than the hope of asking at one more door.

 

This young woman came to the church right at the beginning of our lectionary Bible study, which is at noon on Tuesdays btw. By the time I joined the group again, the discussion had turned towards the end of the gospel where Jesus is telling Peter how to love him. We love Jesus by loving the people around us. We realized that we had, in this small way, had the opportunity to love Jesus in caring for this young woman who was feeling so alone and afraid.

 

In asking Peter, “Do you love me?”, Jesus is also asking us, do we love him? Do we love God? If we do, we are told to feed Jesus’ sheep. Again, we are commanded to love one another.

 

If you remember, Peter denied Jesus three times in the night of Jesus’ arrest as he warmed himself with a charcoal fire. In this gospel, Jesus gives Peter the opportunity to declare his love and commitment three times, again around a charcoal fire. But this is not a private reconciliation between teacher and disciple. Jesus makes it clear, a commitment to him means a commitment to all people and all Creation.

 

When Peter says, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you,” Jesus doesn’t seem to be fully satisfied. I think he accepts Peter’s words, but just a personal relationship is not enough. It’s not just about me and Christ. Or you and Christ. It’s about all of us because Christ is in us all, he is in all of life. So, to love Christ is to see and love Christ everywhere we look, in every person we see.

 

Notice the Acts text, Jesus appears to Saul, asking him “Why do you persecute me?” Saul does not think he’s persecuting Jesus. He thinks he’s persecuting his followers. Again, this is a declaration that Jesus is in us, is part of us. We are inseparable from God and so to love God, we must love each other.  

 

So, every time we come across another creature of God, we have the opportunity to love the Christ who is in them. Whether or not we know someone, we are called to already love the core of their being, their soul in their inherent wholeness of being because that is where Christ is in them and in all of us. And if we love someone, it stands to reason that we care for them.

 

It’s all well and good to say these things in the abstract, but what does that actually look like. Well, it looks different for everyone. Around here, we all have different ways of expressing love. For some of us, that comes in the form of mowing the lawn or digging holes and fixing sprinkler heads. For others, it’s making coffee and doing dishes. I’d also say, part of the church loving the community was having that $300 be whittled down slowly by folks who had the courage to show up and ask for help.

 

But it’s a good question to ask ourselves as individuals and as a congregation. How do we love? How do we tend Jesus’ sheep?  How do we do that as Celebration? And as individuals?

 

The answer to that question is what we folks who speak Christian-ese say is our call. How are we called to respond to the world’s needs? Our own needs? Each other’s needs? How do we know what our call is? It’s not always as dramatic as Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus. We’re often not told so explicitly. So, we need to discern. We need to listen for the nudging of the Spirit, just like Darcie feeling this wonderful excitement to go back to school amidst the fear and sadness of change. Something in her, dare we say Christ, is saying its time to go and start a new way of caring for the world.

 

Discerning the Spirit’s action and our call to get involved can be exciting, but also scary. We can get afraid that we’ll get overly excited, overly committed. We might just get caught up in the Spirit and find ourselves overextended. And so, we are tempted to make our circle of love small; to keep our actions and ourselves a bit small. Perhaps we get a bit miserly or careful in our love and action, because we’re afraid of the consequences. It is indeed possible to give to the point of pain and beyond.

 

So, if this is your fear, remember that you too are a lamb of Jesus. You are being commanded to love and care for yourself, as well. We are human. We can only do so much, give so much, particularly as individuals.

 

We need to remember that God is the source of love and life, not us. In our limitation and vulnerability, the temptation is to grab God’s love and provision for ourselves and just keep it. Hold onto it. But the invitation, and I dare say command here, is to not grasp God’s love for ourselves, but to receive it and share it. And when we share God’s love with others, even in the smallest of ways, it is like completing a circuit. The electricity of life can flow with power, connecting us with each other, all of life, and God.

 

It is this flow that we are invited into. The love of Christ that we have, we can extend to anyone, because we know they are also children of God. We know that they are one of Jesus’ lambs, whether they know it or not. We’re all carry the divine spark in us. So, to love Christ in our lives, here and now, all we have to do is love the people around us … just like we did last Tuesday, sharing some of your provision with this lost lamb of Jesus, this young woman who came with sweaty palms and fear in her eyes.

 

We get to love Jesus in every person we meet, even the difficult ones. Our love of God, our gratitude for the gifts of God and the promises of God all bloom into their fullness whenever we share this love with others. This is the divine invitation of how we live in love with Christ.

 

AMEN