Walking the Talk

Walking the talk is what really wakes people up. You can’t sleep when you’re plotting your next rally or food drive.  Doing something because you follow Jesus to serve human needs, or to respect people, or the planet, or to make beauty.  Doing it out of devotion, not obligation.  Can you feel the difference?  And it might turn out to be a whole lot of fun.  

Walking the talk can mean doing what you love, what brings you alive and makes you say, wow, God put me on this planet to do this!  Notice: the walk, AND the talk. Both are important.  Your body language can tell people that you love what you’re doing.  But when you acknowledge that there is something sacred about it, however you say that, you are honoring the Source, the living Spirit who invites each of us to join the dance of co-creation. Let others in on the secret of where your inspiration comes from.

****

Brea Congregational United Church of Christ

June 3, 2018

Waking Up

Acts 20:7-12   On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight.  8 There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were meeting.  9 A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, began to sink off into a deep sleep while Paul talked still longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell to the ground three floors below and was picked up dead.  10 But Paul went down, and bending over him took him in his arms, and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.”  11 Then Paul went upstairs, and after he had broken bread and eaten, he continued to converse with them until dawn; then he left.  12 Meanwhile they had taken the boy away alive and were not a little comforted.

Our reading from Acts of the Apostles, did not make the lectionary.  It is nowhere in the assigned bible readings.  Paul preaching all night and some young man falling asleep and falling out of a third story window didn't make the cut, perhaps for obvious reasons.  The conventional interpretation of this story is that it shows Paul's power in reviving Eutychus from death, the same way the prophet Elijah was said to have done.  

I get quite a different message from this story.  I remember when I read it for the first time, when I was in a cover-to-cover Bible study.  I couldn't stop laughing.  By that point in my life I had sat through my share of sleep-inducing sermons.  It tickled me to know that the great preacher Paul sometimes put people to sleep too.  The youth’s name, Eutychus, means lucky in Greek.  That had me confused until my husband Scott explained it to me.  Eutychus was lucky to fall out a third story window and almost die so that he didn't have to listen to Paul keep preaching until dawn.

The next time I read this story, however, I had a different emotion.  By that time I aspired to be a preacher, and I dreaded the thought of doing it poorly, of not connecting with people.  At that point had a lot more sympathy for Paul.  Although one sermon sleeper of my acquaintance has assured me that it is the most holy rest of his week.

Falling out the window.  We hate to lose people from church.  There are no third-story windows here to hurt people on their way out.  We don’t fear losing people to eternal damnation, do we?  That is a serious amount of pressure I don’t want and I don’t need.  Do we need to keep our head count up?  That approach gets us nowhere.  If we happen to scare someone away because we stand for something, I suspect that’s better than putting everyone to sleep because we stand for nothing.

Some people who have left this church used it as a way station, a refuge.  You welcomed them when they didn't know where else to go with their unconventional beliefs, or their unconventional loves.  Here they were encouraged and strengthened, and then they moved on, to a church closer to home, or closer to their preferred style of music or theology or smells and bells… and perhaps that is as it should be, even if you do miss them. 

After church, I’ll walk you through a conversation that’s important for this church’s future.  Now I’m going to walk you through another conversation, about how we can be welcoming to young adults. Many of these things you are already doing.  By lifting them up, I hope to support you in doing them even better.

Who went to church as a kid?  Did you have Sunday School, or did you have to sit through the service?  Do you remember being incredibly bored for long periods of time?  Who went to youth group instead of the worship service?  In addition?  Youth group, I am told by a colleague who’s a faith formation expert, is a failed experiment. It graduates kids right out the window.  Even Southern Baptists, I am told, lose between 70 and 90% of their teens. My colleague had some intriguing ideas of how to connect kids to faith, and so hopefully to church.  Help them find an adult faith partner.  Help them find a real and meaningful ministry to do.  Talk them through what you really believe.  Help them know why your faith matters to you, and why your church matters to you.

And then a few of them come back eventually.  Here we have maybe four younger adults here on a typical Sunday.  Thirty years ago, when I got done with my nine-year vacation from church, I became one of two young adults in my congregation.  Maybe this is not a new trend.

Younger adults in Southern California are mostly living without church.  Some are SBNR: “spiritual but not religious.” That could mean, “Church is too judgmental and mean; I’ll get my spiritual nurture on the internet”, or it could mean, “I prioritize sleeping in my bed over sleeping in church.”  Younger adults who do go looking for a spiritual community, what do they want?    Well, we should ask them, but here are some things I’ve heard.

Non-judgment.  Young people have been judged and labeled and graded from the minute they entered preschool.  They’ve been told in so many ways what’s wrong with them, how they don’t measure up.  Let’s never do this.  Nothing shuts people down like being judged.  In a generation that got labeled and diagnosed for every behavioral quirk and just generally not being perfect, non-judgment could be such a blessing.  And didn’t Jesus say something about “do not judge”?   

Let’s just admit that not judging is hard.  Our culture is pervaded with judgment, we all get taught to judge ourselves and others early on.  Even if I can manage not to say something judgmental, my body language can still speak volumes. So here we get to practice not judging.  We may fail regularly.  Please don’t judge us for it!  It is my prayer that when anyone walks through our door, this is safe space, free of judgment.

Authenticity.  Be real.  If we could just trust enough that we’d be accepted and not judged, we might risk be real! Don’t pretend to be all put together when you’re not. Don’t we all want to be real?

I’ve heard people talk about “comparing my insides to your outsides and coming up short”—judging themselves failures, because the rest of us look like we have it together.  When we’ve most of us been a mess at times, and some of us are right now.  Perfect people are so annoying.  Just be real.

How do we invite authenticity?  Listen well to each other.  Don’t judge, even with body language.  And be real ourselves: vulnerable; let the broken bits show.  In our family, we like to be proudly off the bell curve.  Any other ideas on how not to judge?

Freedom.  To believe and to doubt, to explore practices of other faiths, to be their authentic selves, to speak their minds.  Do we have that here?  We almost take our freedom here for granted.  I wonder how we could advertise it.

Walking the talk. Walking the talk is what really wakes people up. You can’t sleep when you’re plotting your next rally or food drive.  Doing something because you follow Jesus to serve human needs, or to respect people, or the planet, or to make beauty.  Doing it out of devotion, not obligation.  Can you feel the difference?  And it might turn out to be a whole lot of fun.  Cooking for the shelter and eating with the guests has been that for some of you.

Walking the talk can mean doing what you love, what brings you alive and makes you say, wow, God put me on this planet to do this!  Notice: the walk, AND the talk. Both are important.  Your body language can tell people that you love what you’re doing.  But when you acknowledge that there is something sacred about it, however you say that, you are honoring the Source, the living Spirit who invites each of us to join the dance of co-creation. Let others in on the secret of where your inspiration comes from.

Walking the talk. Please don’t add it this to your to do list.  Don’t make it a burden.  Just make some space and see where your heart calls you.  Let your church friends invite you and let it be challenge and joy.  Or if the spirit is willing but the body is not able, cheer your church friends on, pray for them, and give them your love.

Passion.  Devotion.  Celebration.  Some of you make music.  Some make art.  Teach kids.  Love babies.  Some host fun events.  Some host justice events.  Some of you are so good at lifting up other peoples’ gifts and thanking them.  I see you, and all the things you do to show your love for people, and the planet, and God.  Thank you for walking the talk.  I don’t mind doing a lot of the talking, but I cannot do all the walking.  So thank you.

If Eutychus had been invited to walk the talk instead of being bored by Paul’s talk, he wouldn’t have fallen out of that window.  So how to keep young people awake and engaged?  Let’s listen to them, and follow them when they want to lead.  Let’s help them find their passions, and live them out.  And that applies to the rest of us too. When you catch the Spirit, and I see the delight on your face, that’s how I want to do church.  Amen.