“NIMBY”

Acts 1:6-8

Just so you know the sermon title isn’t really a silly word pronounced “Nimby.” The letters N-I-M-B-Y are an acronym for Not-In-My-Back-Yard. This is a reference to all those folks who demand new roads, prisons, and airport runways, but don’t want them built near them, as in not in their backyards.

Originally this sermon was going to deal with Christian witness, evangelism, and mission in a way that attempted to shake us free of the popular notion that missionary work was something we gave money to specially called and trained folks for their work far, far away from our backyards. The problem with that notion is that the most accessible mission field for us actually is to be found in our backyards. It’s not something we pay other folks to do. It’s something each of us is called and commissioned by the Lord himself to do in one-on-one conversations with our neighbors, co-workers, fellow students, friends, and acquaintances.

If the sermon had gone as planned it would have dealt with changing paradigms, post-modernism, and church transformation. Statistics showing the various failures of mainline churches in terms of evangelism, church growth, and there’s that word again, transformation would have been cited. Glaring examples of church failures to address mission and evangelism gleaned from my 30+ years of ordained ministry history would have been shared.

But at a one day evangelism conference on April 26^th I had an experience that changed all that. I went to that conference overwhelmed by books, articles, and experts telling me that the ministry I do best is outdated, doesn’t fit the new paradigm, and isn’t, so they say, transformational enough. Up to a point the conference just piled more of that grief. I was weighed down with self-doubt, questioning my own sense of vision for Grace Church, and trying to sort through all the various schools of thought regarding future church, emergent church, redeveloping church, and transforming church. I was beating myself up and stressing myself out over what I ought to be doing and how I ought to be doing it.

And then came the transitional moment. As I listened to a colleague discuss his bout with cancer and the role stress had played in lowering his immune system in such a way as to make him vulnerable to it, I realized that there is stress enough in my life already, the stress that comes to all of us as we try to make our way living in a sinful world, and that I didn’t need to add anymore to my load. Nor did I need to dump it on you.

I don’t need to overly burden myself with a bunch of shoulds and oughts and my failures in carrying them out; and neither do you. Could we be more intentional in our evangelism and disciple-making, more faithful in our financial stewardship, and clearer about our vision of future ministry at Grace? Sure we could. And we will if, when, and as those things are of God. Meanwhile, as we watch and pray for a Spirit-given and driven vision maybe we need to take a moment to celebrate the good witness that we are already doing here and other places.

We do feed the hungry and house the homeless. What are Community Café and Warm Nights if not mission carried out in the name of Jesus Christ? Financially and sometimes personally we support local agencies and ministries. We fund and carry out mission trips. We just finished our “Support the Troops” ministry, a ministry that undoubtedly planted gospel seeds in the hearts of young soldiers during their time in Afghanistan.

And if people are to know that we are Christians by our love, specifically our love of one another, this church displays examples of loving care and mutuality in abundance. It says something about this congregation that you were able to work through your worship wars several years ago and come together around a blended service. It says something about this congregation that it has opened its doors and its hearts to fellow Christians from the Philippines, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Cameroon, and that African-Americans were welcomed here, probably before it was ever the politically correct thing to do. Our children’s lessons during worship are a living testament to the fact, that through Jesus, we really do love all the little children of the world, that red, yellow, black, white, or whatever any child is precious in the eyes of Grace Presbyterian Church. If that’s not a powerful Christian witness, then I don’t know what is.

In terms of my own life and ministry it is nothing short of a miracle that I, who grew up in a town and a family where racial segregation was rigidly accepted and enforced, and where saying the “n” word came as naturally as breathing, could shake off and move beyond the prejudices of my childhood. Nothing less than Christ in me could have ever brought me to a multicultural congregation. Nothing less than Christ in me could have enabled me to not only thrive in such a ministry, but to fall in love with this church and all of you. You want transformation; that’s transformation the way God always brings about transformation: one heart, one soul, one person at a time. And that transformation of my life is probably the greatest witness to the love of Christ I have ever made.

In today’s text Jesus tells his disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Not long after that the miracle we call Pentecost Sunday occurred. We call that the birthday of the church, but as with any birth there had to be labor and labor pains.

Those disciples gathered in the Upper Room on Pentecost Sunday had followed, watched, and learned from Jesus for three years. They had seen him die and joyfully celebrated his resurrection. They had spent time with their resurrected Lord, and as instructed had prayerfully and patiently awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit. The transformation that was Pentecost may have come in an instant, but their hearts were being prepared for that coming for a long, long time. Only when God thought them ready to receive him did the Holy Spirit come. Only as they received the Spirit were they transformed. The miraculously transforming moment that was Pentecost occurred only when and as it was of God, and only by way of God’s providential power and grace.

We are called to be our Lord’s witnesses. We are commissioned to be his missionaries and evangelists. But no witness, mission, or evangelism ever occurs outside of God’s providential power and grace. It happens in God’s time. If, when, and as such things are meant by God for Grace Church they will happen. They’re probably happening right now, and if not the foundations of their happening are being laid by the Holy Spirit working in and through the life of our particular community of Christians.

Meanwhile we are to work together as pastor and people to prayerfully seek God’s will. We need to be fed on his Word and at his Table. We need to accept his grace, and part of that acceptance is the intentional act of being gracious toward and gentle with ourselves. We cannot give grace that we do not have. That means that we, as pastor and people, need to stop beating up on ourselves, that we need to stop stressing ourselves out over all those shoulds and oughts that we haven’t quite gotten around to yet. Stressed out Christians are unhealthy Christians. Unhealthy Christians do not make for a fruitful witness.

Paradigms will always be changing, as will the strategies for and phraseologies of church transformation. Church growth gurus with all their books and programs will come and go. Meanwhile what do I do? I heed the advice that a very wise spiritual director gave one of my closest colleagues. What was that advice? “Feed the sheep.” In other words, be a faithful shepherd, a faithful pastor. Faithfully preaching and teaching God’s Word while living it with integrity. Planning and leading worship and administering the Sacraments with energy, imagination, intelligence, and above all, love. Saying the hard things that sometimes must be said, but always in love. Modeling God’s grace not only by giving it but also by accepting it. Prayerfully seeking to discern God’s vision for this church rather than frantically trying to manufacture it. No longer beating up on myself and speaking critical words to you. Above all celebrating and enjoying my ministry with and among you for as long as God’s allows it to be.

That will be my witness to and with you, and as we join together in such witness it will bloom into our mutual witness to the world, maybe, probably including that part of the world we call our back yard. Amen.