what we do together matters

Twenty-third Sunday After Pentecost ● October 27, 2024

Rev. Jeff Wells © 2024

You can view the full worship video recording at:

https://youtu.be/GaXXPTteiYg

Scripture Readings: 

1 Corinthians 3:5-9 (Inclusive Bible)

The texts of the readings are in the worship bulletin linked here.

I want to share with you a quote I came across in preparing this message. It is from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who wrote: “To mend the world, God needs us to be [Their] partners in the work of creation. We are not just objects of divine love; we are its agents.” We know that God invites and persuades us to act in ways large and small, but does not control us. So we need to revise the apostle Paul 1st century portrayal of our collaboration with God. Paul states that he and Apollos planted and watered seeds of faith, but neither of them mattered because it is only God who makes things grow. But that’s not quite right, is it? God has the greatest influence and God’s love is at work in everything at all times, but God cannot do anything alone. God needs us – and the seeds, the soil, the Sun, and the rain to make things grow. So, we are indeed coworkers with God, as Paul wrote. But we are more than God’s farm and building, which would make us passive objects of God’s will. We are God’ farmers and builders. What we do together with God and with one another matters. 

Our thoughts, words, and all that we do matters to each other, to our community of seekers, to the world, and to God. How we choose to act can help move us, our community, and the world in positive or negative directions.

I am so deeply grateful for our new V&M Statement, for the process of doing this together as a community, and for everyone who contributed. This was a very open, relational, and inclusive process. Everyone in our congregation was invited to participate and many did so, which makes this statement all the more impactful. I am particularly grateful to Rev. Lea Matthews for designing our process and providing wise leadership and guidance. She also wrote a first draft of our statement, received feedback from our leadership team, and then thoughtfully and creatively incorporated our responses into a final version approved by the COTV Vision & Ministry Council. We all worked hard for several weeks to make this happen.

Our new statement captures very well who we seek to be and how we try to go about it. And it is so important to recognize that “what we do” is not limited to overt, outwardly focused action in the world. What we “do” includes what we think, conversations we have with one another, the ways we organically and intentionally build relationships with one another. It includes how we show kindness to one another, how we support and care for one another, how we love one another. “What we do” encompasses how we love God too, how we think and talk about God’s inspiration and leading of our individual and communal lives, how we worship this uncontrolling, all-loving God. 

I have been corresponding recently with Rev. Chris Baker, a pastor in Wisconsin, because he edited my submission to a new book coming out next year. Chris also contributed a sermon to the book I co-edited titled, Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God. In his sermon, Chris makes this powerful statement about why what we do matters. He wrote:

“Our negative choices have long-lasting ripple effects, but so do our good choices. Because of that, every positive act is significant, regardless of whether we think of it as a big or small act. Every act of love matters. Every tree planted matters. Every mouth fed matters. Every park cleaned, every hug given, every animal cared for, every single act of love has ripple effects far beyond anything we can imagine.”[1]

I see this theme throughout our new vision and mission statement. The very first sentence says, we swing our doors “wide open to embrace spiritual seekers within and beyond Christianity.” Among those, for the Church of the Village, are many who feel or felt lost, rejected, or harmed by previous religious experiences, alienation from family, or struggle with trauma and its psychological and physical effects. This includes also many who have not felt welcomed or fulfilled in other spaces. It includes those who have not formed important relationships or felt deep community in other churches. In this beautiful community we call the Church of the Village, we seek to act in ways that demonstrate to people that they are welcomed and valued here for just who they are and for who they are becoming. 

Further, our community acts to “dismantle oppressive systems, build kin-dom justice, and actively work toward the creative transformation of ourselves and the world.” Most of that action happens inside our community and affects people in our community. Yet, the Church of the Village has an outsized reputation within the United Methodist Church and, more recently, within open, relational, and process theology circles. So, we impact and influence people who observe what we stand for, who we are, how we behave, and what we do.

We practice courageous vulnerability and act to build deep and meaningful relationships that cross boundaries of race, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, and more. This is borne out in the things people say and how they feel about being part of this community. For example, one member has said repeatedly, “I never had a white friend before I came to the Church of the Village.” I have often heard COTV folk voice the sentiment, “I feel so welcome and loved in this place.” New persons who become part of this community often express how they have grown in courage and confidence in themselves. They find a measure of healing from previous harmful experiences. They are encouraged to offer their gifts and talents to the community and benefit from the gifts and talents of others. Sometimes they are even helped to discover or develop gifts within themselves they did not realize they had. 

In our community, we seek to grow in our love of God and to listen deeply for God’s invitation and inspiration to grow and to act together for our common well-being. Our Church of the Village community is always evolving and changing under God’s lure and leadings. The things we do and the actions we take together do not always bring the results we hope for, but God inspires us to always keep trying, thinking, collaborating, and working together for our common flourishing.

Sometimes, it can feel like our small acts of love, kindness, support, encouragement, resistance, and the like do not have much impact on the world. It is tempting to think that what we do doesn’t matter much – that only really big visible actions transform the world in positive ways. But I want to challenge that view. 

When I was in my 20s and 30s, I thought that the only actions that really mattered were those that brought about big radical social transformation. And those are important and we have to keep struggling for social change. Yet, when we think of the Civil Rights Movement, or the LGBTQ+ and women’s liberation movement, and many others, we hear most often about the famous leaders or big events and accomplishments. But, the reality is that all of these movements were a coming together of many small choices and actions – conversations, collaborations, persuasions, and actions by hundreds of thousands of people and millions of acts of love, support, kindness, and courage. These mostly unseen and unrecorded small, cumulative, and collective actions led to big changes in attitudes, policies, and systems.

When I was 12 years old, I felt God’s call to do something to make the world a better place. I imagined that I might play a dramatic and visible role in big changes. So there were times when I was younger that I felt bad that I had not accomplished more or had more influence. But my experience of life has taught me that some of the most important things I have done result from seemingly small acts that have big impacts over time. Things like sitting with couples through weeks of pre-marital counseling. Or providing care for families after the loss of a loved one. Or offering pastoral care to persons dealing with the myriad difficult issues of our lives. 

God is at work in all of that, inviting us to choose the best possibilities for moving into a flourishing future. God calls and inspires us, individually and communally, to continue to act, in large and small ways for the common good and the greatest possible goodness, beauty, and love  in the world. When we listen well to God’s leading, the ripple effects of how we create community, how we speak, and how we act together have big impacts, especially within, but also outside of our community, and often far beyond what we can imagine or know. So, I encourage you to hold onto the truth that what we do together matters. And, together, let’s live into our loving vision for the future of our own community and the wider world.

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[1] Chris Baker, “A Different Kind of Revelation,” in Jeffry Wells, et al., Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God: Sermons, Essays, and Worship Elements from the Perspective of Open, Relational, and Process Theology. SacraSage Press, 2024.