Living an Integrated Life (my sermon from July 10, 2016)

Scripture James 2:14-26

A blogger I used to follow name Jon Acuff coined this phrase “Booty, God, Booty.” He was living in Atlanta at the time and he used this phrase to talk about this rap station that he listened to that had an “inspirational vitamin” every morning at a specific time. And he said these inspirational vitamins were often quite powerful, and included a scripture and a gospel song, but something he noticed was that they didn’t change their regular music around this time. So they would play a song like “In love with a stripper” followed by their inspirational vitamin and then go right back into a similar song. Booty. God. Booty. He talked about how this was obvious and weird on the radio station, but we also often live that way. We come to church on Sunday, but what are we doing on Saturday night? And Monday morning?

This summer we have been talking about the Marks of a Meaningful Life, and one mark of a meaningful life is an integrated life. Living our faith in the day to day. Faith that is shown through our works.

The first step to living an integrated life is paying attention to our own lives. I once heard a sermon about the story of Mary and Martha where Martha is worried about all the little details, and Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus and the pastor said something that has stuck with me. He said, “Too often we miss the important because we are so focused on the urgent.” Part of the reason our lives become segmented is because we are so busy that we don’t take time to pay attention to the ways we can live our faith in our everyday life. There are opportunities every day to act on our faith – noticing when someone’s hands are full and holding a door for them. Talking about people in a manner that is respectful and loving. Being patient with someone who is not doing something the way we would do it. Listening to a friend who has had a rough day. Sending a text to someone we know is struggling. There are always opportunities to live our faith. But we need to pay attention or the time will get away from us. Before we got to work in Milwaukee we took time to pay attention by taking a driving tour of the city. Milwaukee is the 4th poorest city in the United States and it is the most segregated city in the country. When you drive through, you can see it. In some places, you could see the different economic levels just by looking at both sides of the street. The truth is, for me, driving through Milwaukee wasn’t that different from driving through Columbus. There were areas that reminded me of the Hilltop. Areas that reminded me of Upper Arlington. An area that reminded me of the Short North. But I am usually so focused on where I am going when I drive through these areas that I don’t pay attention to what’s really there. In Milwaukee, I noticed areas where people were waiting for the bus and areas where people were out just enjoying a Monday morning in June. I noticed areas where the yards were well-maintained and the areas where they weren’t. I noticed how long it took me to see a grocery store in certain communities, and how many convenience stores I saw before I saw a grocery store. Because I was looking. But too often we don’t notice because we don’t pay attention.

So my question is, what would you notice if you started paying attention to these things? If you intentionally saw the people you pass on your route to work or school? If you looked at the full demographics of where you live, and work, and spend your time. And how many opportunities to live our faith are we missing because we aren’t paying attention?

It’s not comfortable to notice these things. The truth is all of us become pretty comfortable in our routines. We know what to expect and we feel at least superficially in control. We each have our comfort zones and for the most part, we’re pretty happy there. But God doesn’t call us to live comfortable lives. In truth, most of the things God calls us to do are outside our comfort zones because those are the places we can’t do things on our own. When we get out of our comfort zones, we need to rely on God to lead us. Jesus told the disciples to leave their comfort zones and follow him. He tells story after story about reaching out to those who are different– breaking down that which divides us and loving each other, and he lived this example as well. On the other hand, our comfort zones often include primarily people like us in one way or another – whether they look like us, think like us, or are in the same socioeconomic bracket, we tend to congregate with those who are similar to us. But Jesus calls us out of that.

Sometimes it happens in big ways, like it did for Steve. Steve is the founder of Adullum Outreach, one of the organizations that Next Step partners with in Milwaukee. Steve told us the story of how Adullum started and it is definitely one of stepping out of one’s comfort zone. Steve was working in a high paying job, but he felt God calling him to serve the people of Milwaukee. He looked for old warehouses in the city that he might be able to purchase, but when it finally seemed that he would be taking the step of buying a building, God told him to quit his job. So he did, but that left him no way to pay for the building he was planning to buy. So when he told the people he was going to buy the building from that he no longer could pay for it because he no longer had income, he fully expected them to take the other offer they had on the table for the warehouse. Instead, they came back to Steve and told him that what he wanted to do with the building was needed in Milwaukee, and they wanted to lease him the building… for $1 a month for the first year. So that’s what he did.

Of course, God doesn’t always call us out of our comfort zones in these huge ways. Even Steve’s story isn’t only this huge step out of his comfort zone. There are also lots of small steps. Like the fact that as he started Adullum, he would go to Dunkin Donuts, buy a dozen donuts, then take 2 chairs and put them in front of his building. Then when people would pass he would ask people if they wanted to sit down and have a donut and a conversation with him. And that’s how Adullum started. An act of someone stepping outside of their comfort zone in big ways and small. And step by step the ministry has grown. One crew from our church was able to be part of the series of people who have stepped out of their comfort zones to serve God’s mission of Adullum Outreach.

They were helping in the early process of renovating the 3rd floor of the Adullum warehouse, and their primary job was hanging drywall. The challenge was that many of the team members were afraid of heights and not comfortable and ladders, and much of the drywall needed to be hung on the ceiling or high on the walls. But through the week, each member of the team got out of their comfort zone to do what needed to be done. And some pretty cool things happened. For one, as each person took that step, it encouraged others to do the same. It also gave each person more confidence to do things they were not comfortable with.

Living an integrated life is not always comfortable. It requires us to try new things. Sometimes they are big things – like it was for Steve. But more often it is smaller things, like reaching out to people and connecting in new ways. Putting ourselves aside and serving. Through these things our lives develop meaning that is only possible in an integrated life.

Steve’s story is great right? But the truth is, most of us won’t live a story like Steve’s. And we aren’t called to. We are called to be faithful, to love God and love people within the context of our lives and where God has called us.

Sometimes we think a meaningful life is going to be glamorous. We think we will get to do great things for God and that people will see God working through us in big and exciting ways. But the truth is that at a glance, an integrated life might not look much different than a segmented life. Because it still requires the day to day mundane tasks. A story we used to tell when I worked at camp talked about what it looked like to “pray without ceasing” as Paul tells the Thessalonians to do in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Three men were trying to live into that command for a week – the first spending all his time in a monastery on his hands and knees, the second going from church to church lighting candles, and the third who looked like he was just living his daily life. When asked about how he spent his time, the third man says that he didn’t have time to spend all his time at a monastery or going from church to church, so instead he did the tasks that were on his agenda for the week, and left room in his heart for God as he did so. At the end of the story each of the men are asked a question they didn’t anticipate: “Whose life is different because of your prayers?” The first 2 men have no idea how to respond, but before the 3rd man can even answer, people are testifying to the difference he has made in their lives.

An integrated life doesn’t always look vastly different, and it isn’t always exciting. You have heard about the first crew on our trip who got out of their comfort zone. Our other crew was on a job that was more on this tedious side.

This was my job site and we had 3 tasks. First, we needed to paint and give a fresh look to the storefront where we working. We were able to get 2.5 rooms completely painted. Second, we were closing up a doorway, creating a new one, and framing a new wall. And finally, we were tearing up old flooring to prepare to lay new floors. We thought this last task would be fairly simple, and in the first room it only took about 15 minutes. And then we realized the floor had been tarred down in the other room. Getting these tiles up required hammers and paint scrapers used like chisels as we scraped up quarter-sized pieces of tile. We worked on this task all week, and didn’t finish. It was frustrating and tedious. But the joy on the owner’s face seeing the storefront being transformed did give us encouragement.

Living our faith in the everyday is sometimes like getting that sticky floor up on mission trip – it’s tedious and frustrating and doesn’t seem like we’re getting anywhere. It may not seem like it makes any difference in the world around us. We sometimes wonder if it’s really worth it and we want to give up. Especially in weeks like this past one, where we see so much violence.

The first night on mission trip during our church time devotions we talked about the boxes that we use to label people. Gay. Straight. Black. White. Police officer. Latino. Immigrant. Poor. Republican. Democrat. Christian. Muslim. These labels can help us interpret the world around us, but they are also problematic when we limit people to these boxes. As I prepared our church time devotions, it was right after the shooting in Orlando. And after the events of this week I have many of the same feelings. Our boxes are killing people.

Many of us feel helpless, and as people of faith we wonder what we can do. We can pay attention. We can get out of our comfort zones. We can continue being the change we want to see in the world despite the world that continues to beat us down. But most importantly we can love.

The final box we talked about that first night on mission trip is the one box that everyone fits in. Imago Dei. Imago Dei is Latin for “the image of God.” Genesis says that humans were created in the image of God. One of the most profound ways to lead an integrated life is also the simplest and the hardest – to treat everyone as an imago dei, a child of God.

When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus said first Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then he said the second is like it – love your neighbor as yourself, all the laws and commandments and based on these two commands. But loving people requires us first to pay attention. We have to notice people in order to love them. It requires getting out of our comfort zone – especially if they don’t have the same labels we do. Sometimes it requires getting out of our routines and other times it can occur in the everyday. Sometimes we don’t know what good it even does and whether it’s worth it. But love is always worth it.

Throughout the week we had opportunities to spend time with members of the community. This happened on the job sites, as well as at a cookout at the Woodlands, an area apartment complex Next Step partners with, and at a cookout at the Adullum Outreach warehouse.

The Woodlands is in an area with a lot of violence. In fact, the location of our cookout had recently been the site of gun violence. But as the kids from the community joined us for a cookout, the kids immediately connected with the youth from our team. There were many piggy back rides, games, and just playing together, and it was a great opportunity to love people where they are, despite the fact that we will likely never see them again.

Everyday there are opportunities to love. So pay attention. Notice the opportunities around you to live your faith. When you notice those opportunities, take them. Fully integrating our faith into our lives requires getting out of our comfort zones and trying something new. Live your faith in the mundane everyday as well as the exciting opportunities. Don’t give up. And above all else, love God and love people, wherever life may take you.