"Even Cars Can't Stay in the Garage!"

The January 3 issue of USA Today had an article titled “God, Religion, Atheism ‘So What?’ That’s what many say”.The article takes note of a trend in society away from all types of searches for meaning and truth and purpose. It is not just that people are turning from being “religious” to “spiritual”, or from “spiritual” to “atheist” – it is that more and more people just don’t care about any of it.

“God? Purpose? You don’t need an opinion on those things to function,” the article quotes one engineer as saying. Another, discounting the possibility of a spiritual component to our existence,  says, “we might as well be cars. That, to me, makes more sense than believing what you can’t see.”

I’m not so sure it was much different in the time of Jesus, either. I mean, if everyone was on the same page, why was Jesus going around saying to people “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news”? No, Jesus, fresh from his baptism, has what he believes is good news for people who had yet to hear it, and he wants to share that with them.

There is an old model of what we call “church” – a model that is still very much in existence in our world – which says that what we need to be about as church is to get people in the doors and into the pews – it is about membership. And there is something to this, because, after all, Jesus’ great commandment is to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them as I have commanded you.”  And so baptism is the rite by which you join the church.

The danger, of course, is that we leave it at that. With the idea that church is about what happens in here, that the purpose of the church is to support its members.

But look at Jesus and what happens after his baptism. Far from retreating to some sort of spiritual haven where he can be surrounded by like-minded and adoring folk, he goes off into the hustle and bustle of the world, in and among all the people who are spiritually adrift, apathetic, and just uninterested, who are all tied up in the minutia of doing things like they had always done them without remembering why.

And Jesus comes to them, and with his words, and with his teaching, and with his healing, he tells them and shows them that there is more to their world than appears on the surface, that the people are not just “cars”, but instead are beloved children of their Creator; that another kingdom, a kingdom greater than that of Rome or the petty governor ruling their corner of the world, has come near, breaking the power of injustice and tyranny; that there is something which you can’t see – to quote the USA Today article – something called “love”, which is stronger even than death.

Jesus says to them “repent”, which means, literally, “to turn around.” Turn yourself around, he say, turn your face to the warm rays of the rising Son and believe the good news and change your life, so that you might have abundant and eternal life starting today.

This is our mission, this is our task. We, who are in the church, we, who have like Jesus been baptized, we need to repent, to literally turn around, and march back out those doors that so warmly let us in. Our mission is not in here, it is out there, to be the church in the world. Even cars are supposed to be out on the road, not stuck in the garage!

St. Francis told his Friars, as he sent them out into the towns and villages among the poorest of the poor, “Preach the gospel always – if necessary, use words.” That is our mission, as well. We preach the good news as much by what we do as by what we say – as we practice love of neighbor not just by exhibiting a kind attitude to those we see on the street, but by reaching out to the world in acts of generosity and caring and seeking justice for those who are oppressed.

We do that as individuals: as one volunteers down at A Baby Center in Hyannis, an organization which helps lower income parents of newborns and infants with cribs, diapers, strollers, and clothes; as otherstake a few hours each week to be a Big Brother and a Big Sister to kids who lack an adult presence in their life. We each can do that in the individual things we do to share the love of God with others by caring for them.

But we also are called to do this as a church, as together we serve the world in a variety of ways: working together on a Habitat build, or serving a meal at the NOAH Shelter, or going on a mission trip to New Orleans, and so on.

Friends, let us remember our baptism, and how we are called into the church to be sent out into the world, blessed so that we, in our turn, can be a blessing.