Not One Is Missing

Image Source

February 8, 2015

Luke 15:1-7

15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Isaiah 40:21-31

²¹  Have you not known? Have you not heard? 
          

Has it not been told you from the beginning? 
          

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 


²²  It is God who sits above the circle of the earth, 
          

and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; 
     

who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, 
          

and spreads them like a tent to live in; 


²³  who brings princes to naught, 
         

 and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

²⁴  Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, 
          

scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, 
    

 when he blows upon them, and they wither, 
        

  and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

²⁵  To whom then will you compare me, 
         

 or who is my equal? says the Holy One.

 
²⁶  Lift up your eyes on high and see: 
         

 Who created these? 
    

God who brings out their host and numbers them, 
  

        calling them all by name; 
     

because God is great in strength, 
        

  mighty in power, 
        

  not one is missing.

²⁷  Why do you say, O Jacob, 
         

 and speak, O Israel, 
    

 “My way is hidden from the LORD, 
          

and my right is disregarded by my God”? 


²⁸  Have you not known? Have you not heard? 
     

The LORD is the everlasting God, 
          

the Creator of the ends of the earth. 
    

 He does not faint or grow weary; 
          

his understanding is unsearchable. 


²⁹  He gives power to the faint, 
          

and strengthens the powerless. 


³⁰  Even youths will faint and be weary, 
          

and the young will fall exhausted; 


³¹  but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, 
       

they shall mount up with wings like eagles, 
     

they shall run and not be weary, 
          

they shall walk and not faint.

Sermon: “Not One Is Missing”

Not one is missing.

Our Creator brings out great hosts and numbers them, 
calling them all by name; 
because God is great in strength, 
 mighty in power, 
not one is missing.

Our Savior seeks out the lost sheep, leaving those who have community to find those who are alone and bring them home, and not one is missing.

But that’s not exactly true, is it?  In the church, many are missing.  It often seems an entire, young generation is missing.

When I was a mission worker in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the church I served recognized the need to be present among young adults.  They saw that hundreds of young adults, college students, lived in the neighborhood around the church.  They were mostly Catholic, but many only went to church when they were home in the country and not when they were away at school in Belfast.

The church heard from other local residents that these students were actually a bit of a problem.  The students would come home from pubs in the wee hours of the morning and make all sorts of noise in their intoxicated state.  Some were even causing damage.  Thursday night seemed to be the worst.

So they decided to do something.  A couple of church leaders set up a table outside the church from midnight to 2:30 a.m. one Thursday night, serving tea, coffee and cookies to the students to sober them up a bit, show them some love, and get them home safely.

When I arrived, this operation had developed into bacon sandwiches as well (there is nothing quite like the smell of bacon to get young adults coming in droves).  Every Thursday night, we shivered together in the cold and served those students.  They told us their deepest struggles (freed up by a spirit of the non-holy variety) and we even would pray with them sometimes.  We served in a powerful way, showing that generation that they mattered to us, and to God.

Do you know how many of those students came to worship, or our other activities?  How many joined our church?  None.  We did get one new member, a 60-year-old recovering alcoholic artist who decided to go on the other side of the table one night and start serving people with us, and never stopped.  But that was all.  No missing generation filling our pews.  No big bump in numbers. 

Here’s the question: was it worth it?  Yes.  Even though we didn’t get those young adults to come to our church?  Yes.  Because we did something even more powerful than getting them to come to church: we took church to them.  That is how we really gather in those who are missing from our churches.

There are a lot of reasons why this generation is missing from our pews. 

Sometimes, people are missing because we don’t really know what we’re inviting them to be a part of.    The truth is, we Presbyterians are really, really good at casseroles, and not that good at explaining the difference God has made in our lives through our church.

Some people are missing because they’ve just given up on church, or prefer to find God in service to others or to find community in friendships. 

There are many reasons why young people are missing from church.  But that might be approaching the question from the wrong direction.  What if they’re not the missing ones?  What if we as the church are who’s missing?

Missing from meaningful discussions of public policy and education for all.

Missing from Carolina Lakes trailer park right up the road, where kids’ parents have to work late and they’re left to their own devices, without guidance, or someone to help them with homework.

Missing from communities plagued by gun violence and gang activity.

Missing from social media where young people are not wasting time, but forming essential community in ways we may not understand.

They’re not missing – this lost generation of the church.  We know exactly where they are – so does God.  It’s just that perhaps we’re not prepared to go there.

You see, going there requires admitting that sometimes, “we’ve always done it this way” doesn’t cut it.

It requires knowing WHY we happen to be a part of church and why that makes life better for us, and communicating this with authenticity and joy.

It requires an end to labeling an entire generation as selfish or lazy or distracted and seeing them as perhaps the most creative, innovative, passionate generation there’s ever been.

It requires recognizing that the missing young people from our church are not our salvation – God is.  Those young people need to know that this God loves and accepts them, and if we don’t bother to show them, who will?

I’ve been here at this wonderful church for 3 years now, and from day one I have heard a constant refrain:  “I just wish we had more young people.”

Here’s the harsh reality: wishing won’t make it so.  We can’t wish an entire generation into being a part of this place.  When church has lost its center of power in society and moved now to a marginal place (which, by the way, isn’t something to fear, because that’s where church started in the first place), we must follow the God who calls everyone by name, seeking them out. 

It’s not enough to “wish” for young people.  Young people in our society, like Isaiah alluded to, are faint and weary with the sorts of pressures many of us can’t even imagine.  They are exhausted by the constant demand to perform better, reform better, conform better.  God wants to gather them home.  God wants us to be a part of that.

Here’s the difficult truth in that gathering: gathering young people home might not mean they come into our pews, like it didn’t mean that for us in Belfast.  It might not mean that, if they were never raised going to church, they’ll find comfort here and join us.  We have to stop treating the missing generation of the church as warm bodies to fill our aging churches.  We have to start treating them like the creative prophets they are, and go to where they are, and then, by the grace of God, let them change us.

Do we “want” more youth?

Then we need to first of all support those we have.  22 young people under the age of 25 are members of this church.  An additional 6 were baptized here and haven’t yet been confirmed as members.  That is about ¼ of our congregation!  Some are children and teenagers, busy with basketball, karate, scouts and dance and other activities.  They might not be in church every Sunday.  But have we taken church to them?  Have we filled a car with people and been to a basketball game to support them?  Have we been to a concert or a dance recital to show we care?

Some are young adults, here and away at school, working and learning and needing to know they are still a part of this family, especially in a time when they’re figuring out who they are and who they want to be.  The PW Valentine’s gift cards are a wonderful step in showing them our love, but we can do even more.

If we feel young people are missing, and God’s vision is for no one to be missing, we need to first seek out our own who might feel disconnected and forgotten.

Then, we need to get outside of our set ways of doing things, and get outside our walls.

This might look like mentoring a young person who needs a positive role model.  This might look like speaking of church not as an obligation or something they “should be” going to, but as a powerful, intergenerational community where they are wanted, not just needed.  This might look like asking a young person for their opinion long before we ever give ours.  This might look like volunteering at Cameron Elementary School to show those kids they are worth our time.  It might look like praying for those in Carolina Lakes trailer park, and then getting to know them.

This might not look like families pouring into our pews: like I said, church is at a marginal place in society now.  But all powerful movements begin at the margins.  Do you think the church isn’t taken seriously today? Ask a young person what that feels like.  Do you think the church is mocked by society as being unintelligent or frivolous or too simplistic?  Ask a young person what that feels like.  They know.  Adults often treat them that way.

Christ showed us that one lost sheep is worth leaving all the rest to go and find.  If we are to follow that Christ, we must be willing to leave behind all the non-essentials and find the lost generation of the church.  If we are to follow that Christ, we must admit to them that, though we adults seem to have it all together, we’re all lost in our own ways, too.  If we are to follow that Christ, then we can begin the process of finding each other, and being found by God.  This might not happen within these walls.  In fact, if we’re doing it right, it probably won’t.

In God’s compassion, no one is meant to be missing.  So let’s do something about it – not so we can survive as a church.  Christianity has never been about survival – the cross showed us that.  At our best, Christianity is about resurrection, where stones are rolled out of the way so new life can begin.  

We are only the church when we get outside of ourselves.   

We are only the church when no one is left out.  

We are only the church when we are sent by the Spirit, and go.  Amen.