Draw the Circle Wider

An adventure seeker decided to try sky diving. Halfway down, he forgot how to operate the parachute. Luckily, he saw someone coming up toward him from the ground. “Excuse me, do you happen to know how to open a parachute?”

“No,” said the man coming up. “Do you know how to safely light a gas stove?”

Big thanks to church member Win Garrett for that joke. She told me that as I was visiting her this past Wednesday, a beautiful spring day in the upper 70s. I do a lot of visits to senior living homes. We talk about all sorts of things. I love hearing how things used to be, and what people remember. How the East Room used to have three private rooms for Bible study. How there was a fountain instead of a gazebo on the square.

I seem to be caught between two worlds. I was raised with the old ways. We didn’t have cell phones or computers. I remember rotary phones and having to pay cash for everything. Yet I also remember the advent of cell phones, personal computers, smart phones, and social media. Having these two minds helps me talk to both young and old.

A friend recently was complaining about another friend’s Instagram photo. It was a lovely shot of a beach in Fiji. “I’m so jealous,” he said. “I want to go there.”

I said, “No. You want to BE there. Going there is an 18-hour plane ride. And you hate flying. You complain how you don’t want to fly until your kids get a little older. You’re tall like me, so it’s not the most comfortable thing and 18 hours crammed in a flying tin tube… Nah man. You want to BE there, not go there.”

“Yeah, I guess I should just be thankful for where I’m at.”

That’s the problem with social media. We can miss the backstory. We’re so motivated by likes and going viral that we can miss what we’re about. Maybe our story is not made to go viral on social media. Maybe our story won’t fit as a shallow segment on cable news. Maybe our work is a long discipline in the same direction.

Viral videos are those funny short films like they used to show on America’s Funniest Home Videos. There are lots of cat and puppy videos. There’s one with a woman who bought a Chewbacca mask and just laughs at herself for 3 minutes. There are plenty of “dank memes” as the kids say.

Maybe your work isn’t built for that. It’s more important than 30 seconds or less. Here are videos that would never go viral: someone delivering a meal to CUPS Café. Or someone visiting someone in senior living. This part’s the best, they’re going to hold hands and pray. Or someone saying a kind word to someone who’s having a really crappy day.

This is how the world changes. Not through the cat who jumps into a wall chasing a laser. Granted we all get a laugh out of it, but it’s not going to change the world.

Today in Acts, Peter talks about the Gentiles. Those weirdos who oppress Jewish people. Who are very different—different diets, different customs, different cultural touchstones, different gods, different behavior… Instead of ostracizing them, Peter welcomes them in. This is a big break in Jewish custom! Sometimes we forget Jesus was Jewish, and so were the 12 disciples, including Peter. Yet the Gentiles are included fully in the Beloved Community. Inclusion is a massive part of the gospel. The Good News of Jesus Christ isn’t that you’re going to Heaven, it’s that heaven is coming here. And that all our boundary lines are going to be erased. As Paul writes, “There is no male or female, Jew nor Greek, slave or free. All are one in Christ Jesus.” Jesus is always drawing the circle wider, including women, gentiles, sinners, lepers, prostitutes, fishermen, tax collectors, Pharisees, and more! Always including, always drawing the circle wider, always pushing the boundaries further.

Are we including our confirmands in the Beloved Community? Are we drawing them and our older youth into the circle? When we are looking to staff our committees, are we looking toward them? Are we encouraging them to vote at the annual meeting? Are we seeing a whole lot of projects from them that council has to vote on? Are we listening to their vision and leadership? Or are we content to give them cake today so they’ll leave us alone?

The ironic thing about confirmation is in many churches we confirm young men and women,  they become full members, they get voting power and the ability to enact change and make church life better….. and we don’t see them again.  Just when things get interesting, they split. So how are we doing in including them?

They are on the way up from the ground! They are looking for someone to show them how to light their fire. To mentor them. To help them discover their purpose and identity. To help them find themselves and do something to put a dent in the universe! And we on our way down, those of us looking for a safe landing, we need some hope for the future.

If you’re feeling down, if you’re wondering about this next generation, don’t. The confirmands are amazing. Each and every one. This particular group is so different. Each one is their own person. It was a quiet group. In my 10 confirmation classes, this one was the most silent when it came to answering questions… yet they had something you can’t teach or fake. They formed community. They were together. At the confirmation retreat at Templed Hills, Stacie and I decided to give them 40 minutes or so of free time to just go wherever. They had to be with a buddy and on camp grounds, but other than that they could do whatever for 40 minutes.

They stayed together. A roving wild pack, all together, including one another, and laughing. Lots of laughs with this group.

I remember looking out at them from the window thinking, “That should be church all the time.” There is joy in inclusion. There is joy in running around. There is joy in being together.

So here’s the thing. If you’re worried about the future, get with the youth. If anyone thinks that church is boring, or could be better, or you don’t like the paint color… it’s your job to fix it. It’ll never be a FAIL video, but we can always improve. If you’re feeling small and like you want to be somewhere else, find your peeps and run around with them. Cheer yourself up with a cat video, and then find a cat shelter to work at. Or start a cat ministry here… or at least a blessing of the animals. Someone should organize that.

Peter included the Gentiles on an exciting mission, and it’s gone viral. Yet it’s nothing that can be filmed in 30 seconds, you can’t snap it, you can’t post it on Instagram, or fight about it on Facebook because it’s bigger than all of these things. Each of us finds life and purpose in Christ, but it’s the small things, the long discipline in the same direction that will take a lifetime to play out.

May each of us find purpose. Find identity.  Find life. That you find yourself, find our neighbor, and find the God that thought it was such a good idea that we should meet in the air.

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