Pastor Jane's August 7 sermon

This scripture was in the lectionary earlier this summer, right when we got back from Guatemala; we didn’t use it that Sunday but it’s been on my mind ever since…and I wanted to go back to it today. This story comes after a couple chapters that have been focused on discipleship…Jesus has called disciples…and then sent them out. To be noted is that one of the places they went was into Samaria where they were turned away.

Luke 10:25-37

I grew up in a small town. Actually it was one of the biggest towns for 100 miles. But it was still pretty small. Small enough that we knew most people…considered everyone to be a neighbor. At that time almost all those neighbors pretty much looked like me: very WASPy.

There was one Mexican family; for a year or so there was a Black family. In all my years there I only know of one Jewish family who lived just outside of town.

So I grew up thinking my neighbors were people who looked like me, prayed like me more or less. My little world first cracked open a bit in high school when I joined other United Methodist Youth from our district on a mission trip to Kansas City. We stayed at a church in the inner city and met and worked and played with kids from that neighborhood. They looked very different from me. And, as we got to know one another I learned that they’d had a very different sort of life than me. Lived in a whole different neighborhood than the safe protected one I’d grown up in.

My eyes were opened on that trip to a world much bigger than I had known existed. A world which included people very different from me…who I learned new things from, who were very welcoming of these sheltered kids from western Kansas….in fact looked after us.

Since that experience, my eyes have continued to be opened: often through similar experiences. In college I left another safe small Kansas town where I’d spent my first two years of college, in order to step into a whole ‘other world in southeastern Kentucky. I still remember winding my way through the mountains and, for the first time in my life seeing one cow grazing in a field. One cow. I’d never seen such a thing!

And yet there too, where people had had such a different experience of the world, I was welcomed and learned so much. And, time and again, was shown mercy…often by those I thought I was there to help.

I think those personal experiences are why one of the most meaningful pieces of my own ministry has been when I’ve accompanied church folks – youth and adults – on ventures that have taken us beyond the normal confines of our neighborhoods: those trips have sometimes been as close as the Salvation Army in downtown Louisville or as far away and as hard to get to as Panzos, Guatemala.

These have been meaningful personally because my own eyes and heart are always opened more fully and I am touched time and again by the mercy of others. But they’ve been meaningful pastorally as well as I see the affect others: both on those who have made the trip and those who have welcomed us and let us into their hearts.

As the PC(USA) makes clear: a mission trip isn’t an end in itself but “one step in a journey of deeper engagement” in the larger mission of the church, which is of course the mission of Jesus Christ who, if we sign up to follow him, will send us out to “cross cultural and spiritual boundaries.” (quotes from the pcusa.org world mission website)

It’s all just “one step in a journey of deeper engagement.” That one step might be just down the street to the UCHM food pantry where you actually come face to face with your neighbors who come for food but end up sharing their story and hope with you. That one step may be the one you take to come to the orientation meeting to find out how to be involved with the resettlement of the Mehe Aldeen family from Syria.

The point is that each step is a move toward “deeper engagement.”

Not just a dip in and out, a move to “help” and save. But, the first step in sticking around, developing relationships – not one-sided, “us” helping “them” – but mutual relationships that uncover the gifts that each has to share.

This concept of mission as partnership, rather than one-directional charity is what we as a

church are growing into. We’ve always had an idea of it though. It is why we haven’t just included Kentucky Refugee Ministries in our mission budget, sending a little money each year, but instead have, every few years, actually helped to re-settle a refugee family: giving us the chance to have our eyes opened, to learn about the struggles of leaving one’s home, fleeing violence and oppression; and to help with the resources we have…but also to be blessed by the gifts that new friends from new places with new perspectives bring to us.

Nine years ago, with some seed money from a Lily grant related to a sabbatical I had, a group of 19 people from this congregation made a trip to eastern Guatemala. On that trip we led a VBS, held workshops for women and church officers and youth, attended worship…we even mixed cement and laid a new floor for one of the pastor’s homes.

(Something, it should be noted, we’ve never been asked to do again!)

I remember on the bus, near the end of that trip, the mission co-worker who had been coordinating things for us down there, mentioned to me the idea that maybe this was just a first step. That maybe we should consider not just dipping into these people’s lives once and then going on our merry way.

A few weeks after we returned, some of the group who went gathered at Heine Bros on Chenoweth, a mural of a Central American site as a backdrop, and talked about how we might continue to be involved with these Presbyterians in another country. We had all kinds of ideas: all those sewing machines we saw – maybe we could teach them how to use them. Water: there’s an issue that needs to be dealt with. Or keeping kids in school past the 2nd grade – how could we help with that? Ideas flew around the room. Finally, Carlos Lara, the pastor from Guatemala who had been in our midst for a year or so by then, spoke up: “Maybe we should be asking these new friends what they would like.”

I thought of Carlos’ comment this week when I read an article in Presbyterian Outlook about the work of racial justice that many white congregations – including our own – are trying to figure out how to engage with. Shannon Craigo-Snell was quoted in that article talking about how “for white Christians, part of the work also is to listen and to not always try to lead.”

It is in our nature – as white, privileged, educated, able-bodied, well-off North Americans – to figure it is our place to be the helpers. And to figure we know what that means, what is needed. It is much harder for us to be the ones who don’t always know; to be the ones who need to learn, who are in need of someone showing mercy to us.

It is much easier to do mission simply as charity. And sometimes it’s necessary: so we bring food on communion Sundays so our neighbors don’t go hungry. Or buy school supplies for children we’ll never even meet but who might end up without a backpack and embarrassed the first day of school if we don’t give them one. But if that’s all we did – it simply lets us stay in a position of dominance, of the one with the resources to give – and to control.

Which is all a much easier place to be – at least more comfortable. Less messy. When, after a lot of conversation and prayer and another visit to Guatemala to talk to the folks of  Estoreño presbytery about it, we decided to enter into a partnership, none of us really knew what that would mean…or call forth from us. There have been many times when I figured it would be much easier – and maybe even more helpful – if we just supported them with money. And, at first at least, I think that’s what our partners thought. It has taken a lot more effort and vulnerability and even money to put the emphasis instead on relationship. Mutual relationship. Because as each of you know because you are in relationships with actual people, relationships are inevitably difficult. Add in starkly different cultures and three different languages and differing expectations and ways of doing things, and well…

But we decided we’re in this. And now after 8 years we realize we wouldn’t back out if we could. These folks are family. We are important to them – you are important to them even if you’ve never been to Estoreño, even if you didn’t get to meet and talk with the folks from there who came here. They know that we – this church – is here and cares for them and prays for them. And it means a lot. When we show up it seems to be a huge encouragement. Which it is for us too. Personally this last trip was especially touching; our partners planned our time completely – which included a lot of connecting – with as many churches as possible, with the children and youth, with the women. This is what is important to them – not that we help them use those sewing machines some church gave them without asking if they wanted them. They want to connect at the level of faith and the joy of spreading the Gospel of Love. So, the relatively small financial gifts we send to them are used to help with that – providing theological education for church leaders, helping the women get together from all around the presbytery to support one another in their growing ministry. Come to lunch today to hear more stories about what that looks like for all of us.

This partnership relationship could have been anywhere; this is just the place that opened up for us. It doesn’t matter so much where. But I think it does matter that we have this commitment: to not just dip in and out of a place, but to stick around: learn from and be blessed by and become connected to Christians in a beautiful and isolated corner of Guatemala….which affects how we think about mission anywhere, including right here at home.

It has led to other ministries such as the English Language Learners. When we looked around this neighborhood we saw lots of Guatemalans among us here. In conversation with the Hispanic/Latino Task Force of the presbytery we learned that learning English is a high need for immigrants to this country. So, we began offering classes…the students who came were mostly Hispanics at first, but now: we have students from China, Japan, Egypt, Pakistan, Congo.

I’m pretty sure some people have learned some English. But, the relationships that have developed over time have been the real blessing. Folks sit around tables for class and learn how to order food or fill out a job application. But before class begins, we sit at other tables to share a meal that one of you prepares and serves and that we all sit down and eat together. All of these experiences help us know that it is not just in theory that we share this communion Table with neighbors near and far. When we actually cross cultural boundaries to sit at table with neighbors out there, then we come to this Table more conscious of the great company that is also welcomed by Christ and where we all meet in our common need for grace…and our common call to show mercy to one another.