Acts 16. 9-15
GoodWorks don’t create gospel; gospel creates goodWorks!
We’ve been through a lot, over the last twenty years, you and I. Two days after I was installed as pastor here at Midland Lutheran, the towers collapsed in New York City. That should have been a warning. After that, there was the Enron scandal. The bursting of the dot-com bubble. There were a couple of oil booms and the obligatory busts that followed. Two wars. A great recession. An extreme drought. A global pandemic. And it all ended with a political system that acts more like a congregation-in-conflict than a congregation-in-conflict. And that’s, probably, not even half of it. Like I said, we’ve been through a lot.
And all the while, as a congregation, trying to figure out how to grow. How to survive. How to get more people on the rolls. How to get more people in the pews. For that matter, how to get pews. Over the years, with the rest of the church, we’ve chased one shiny object after another. And we’ve gone down our fair share of rabbit holes. Transformational Ministries. Book of Faith. Making Disciples. One program after another. Each offering hope. Each holding out promise. But when we didn’t get the results we expected in a timely fashion, we’d be off chasing after the next wild goose. Searching for that surefire cure, that foolproof panacea, that would, finally, make all our dreams come true. Unfortunately, the search persists. And the numbers, all the while, continue to go down … and down … and down …
There, for a few years, it was the book of Acts that seemed to hold out the greatest potential. The thinking was that if we went back to the beginning and did what those first believers did, we’d get the same results. Day by day, god would add to our numbers, as well. All we had to do was say our prayers and sing our songs and read our bibles. Service projects. Mission trips. Tithing. One small problem …
That’s not how it works! That’s not how any of this works! Not us! Not god! Not church! God doesn’t wait. There are no unlesses. No untils. Something we have to do in order to grow. We don’t act; god does! We react! We respond! We don’t get bigger, we don’t grow, because of anything we do! Just as we don’t get smaller, because of anything we aren’t doing! Like I said, there are no magic bullets! Growing isn’t good; shrinking isn’t bad. Getting larger isn’t right; getting smaller isn’t wrong. It’s simply the way things are, at the moment.
To be honest, as an institutionalist, I have a vested interest in things we can count and measure and weigh. Things like membership and attendance and offering. That’s how I make my living. But as church, as god’s own, we have only one concern … the gospel of JesusChrist! “In the mercy of almighty God, JesusChrist was given to die for us and for his sake God forgives us …. all!” That’s something we can believe in! Sink our teeth into! Stake our lives on!
This morning, we read the story of Paul’s call to Macedonia. He had a vision. Of a man pleading. Begging him, beseeching him, to come and help. Anyway, the institutionalist in me sees the vision as a call to mission! To do something! Go into all the world! Make disciples! Grow the church! When numbers wane … When numbers ebb … that’s the time we go to Macedonia – metaphorically speaking! To family and friends! To coworkers and classmates! To neighbors and to complete strangers! Invite them to come! Invite them to join! Of course, it isn’t so much a desire to help, as it is a yearning to grow! And people are smarter than we give them credit. They understand our ulterior motives, our hidden agenda.
But Paul wasn’t an institutionalist. So, when he sees the vision and when he hears the cry, he understands it for what it is … god’s call to proclaim gospel! God’s commission to preach goodNews! And as heirs to Luther’s reform, that’s something we should appreciate.
Five hundred years ago, before the reform began, the church didn’t have a problem of not doing – of NOT doing – goodWorks. The church was overflowing with goodWorks. They said their prayers … just like us! They sang their songs … just like us! They read their bibles! They fed the hungry! And gave the thirsty something to drink! And clothed the naked and welcomed the stranger and visited the homebound and imprisoned! They took care of the sick! They loved god with all their heart and all their soul! But the one thing they didn’t do was love one another! Enemies as well as friends!
GoodWorks, back in the day, acted as a sort of currency that passed as love. GoodWorks were bartered, traded, one thing for another. And simply going through the motions didn’t guarantee that it was grace, that it was charity, that it was love. To be sure, there was a church. And that church did goodWorks. But those goodWorks were just that. Works. Without compassion. Without mercy. Without love. Bottomline – they weren’t good, at all!
So, Luther took his cue from Paul. He preached the gospel. Proclaimed goodNews! Start to finish! Beginning to end! You see, the only thing that creates love is love! The only thing that inspires love is love! “We love” John writes, “because Jesus first loved us!” Because Jesus first loves us! And that’s why there’s a church! That’s why we do what we do! It’s god loving us! God so loving us! God first loving us! Through gospel proclaimed! Through goodNews administered! Sermon and song! Water and word! Bread and wine! Gospel spoken and heard! GoodNews given and received! And everything … everything we are … everything we become … comes from that!
It’s not our goodWorks that confirm the gospel; it’s the gospel that confirms our works! It’s not our actions that validate, that justify, the goodNews; the goodNews validates and justifies itself! All we do is speak and show, like god asks us to do! All we do is speak and show, like god calls us to do! All we do is speak and show, like god tells us to do! Not so that we get bigger. Not so that we grow. But because that’s why we’re here! That’s what we do!
Even now … after all this time … the Macedonian is still pleading! Metaphorically speaking! Pleading not with Paul, but with us! Begging us to come and help! And like Paul before us, we’re convinced it’s god pleading! God begging us to proclaim! Beseeching us to preach! Because “in the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us!” And in the same mercy … in the same mercy, my friends, Jesus Christ was given to die for them, as well!