The Work of the Church
Sharon Rhodes Wickett, her powerful sermon, "Collapsing the Distance" shares the following story:
I attended the Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The meetings were held in the large sanctuary in the capital city, Freetown.
Each day as we entered the large doors into the sanctuary there was a young girl, maybe about the age of 8, who begged at the door. She looked ragged, dirty, her hair was matted and knotty, and she had on tattered clothes. No one seemed to know her, and people brushed her aside upon entering. Some of the pastors tried to tell her to go away. We were busy doing the work of the church. She was a bother. This went on for several days.
As I sat in the pew observing the Conference one day, my peripheral vision caught some motion outside. I looked out the window, and there on the patio, outside the sanctuary was a woman, a lay member of the conference. She found a bucket and some soap. Although dressed in a beautiful traditional tie-dye gown, she pushed up her sleeves, and she was giving that 8-year-old girl a bath. She soaped up her hair and was tenderly making her all clean and new. She washed the clothes the child had been wearing, and they were spread out on the bushes in the sun drying. The woman went out and got another dress for her to wear, too.
Hundreds of pastors and devoted lay persons poured into the Methodist Church of Freetown to do the work of the church. But outside, on the edges, quietly and without notice, the work of redemption - the work of Jesus Christ was being done. It was not the work of committees and reports and programs. It was the work of soap and water and human touch and being able to see the face of Jesus in that of an abandoned 8-year-old girl.
(Thanks to Dean at Atlantic Transplant for the lead.)
I attended the Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The meetings were held in the large sanctuary in the capital city, Freetown.
Each day as we entered the large doors into the sanctuary there was a young girl, maybe about the age of 8, who begged at the door. She looked ragged, dirty, her hair was matted and knotty, and she had on tattered clothes. No one seemed to know her, and people brushed her aside upon entering. Some of the pastors tried to tell her to go away. We were busy doing the work of the church. She was a bother. This went on for several days.
As I sat in the pew observing the Conference one day, my peripheral vision caught some motion outside. I looked out the window, and there on the patio, outside the sanctuary was a woman, a lay member of the conference. She found a bucket and some soap. Although dressed in a beautiful traditional tie-dye gown, she pushed up her sleeves, and she was giving that 8-year-old girl a bath. She soaped up her hair and was tenderly making her all clean and new. She washed the clothes the child had been wearing, and they were spread out on the bushes in the sun drying. The woman went out and got another dress for her to wear, too.
Hundreds of pastors and devoted lay persons poured into the Methodist Church of Freetown to do the work of the church. But outside, on the edges, quietly and without notice, the work of redemption - the work of Jesus Christ was being done. It was not the work of committees and reports and programs. It was the work of soap and water and human touch and being able to see the face of Jesus in that of an abandoned 8-year-old girl.
(Thanks to Dean at Atlantic Transplant for the lead.)
How many people get so caught up 'doing the work of the church' that they forget to do God's work?
ReplyDeleteThey may have been doing the work of the Church, but what about the work of God? Man, that woman awesome for taking the time to do all of that for that little girl. I wonder how many of those who went in just tossed the little girl some spare change and went in feeling good about themselves for helping her, but still having time to do the church's work? What that woman did for her was more valuable than a million nickels tossed her way! Sometimes we don't just forget what the work of the church really is, we forget where church really is! Is it inside the building or is it out where people need Jesus? This I believe is another lesson behind the story of the good samaritan, "Where is chruch?"
ReplyDeleteDavid Sheffield
Recently on returning from a mission trip to Zambia, Africa, I was sitting in my office, filling our reports and doing "church work". I was very frustrated at doing things that I thought were not significant. I had to ask God for strength and energy just to get through them. I often get frustrated at the "busy work" of "church work". I wish that being a pastor meant tending to the needs of the people instead of the needs of the church. (Oh that's right, I think that is what it means to be a pastor.) How did we get so far from what God really wanted, which was for us just to simply love on people like He did?
ReplyDeleteThis story sounds like the classic case of the church leadership playing church. They are too busy attending to their own business they didn't even notice someone with far greater needs. The lady described in this story makes me think of Mother Teresa and how she was so unselfish in helping so many children in need.
ReplyDelete