September 22, 2024
• Rev. Rob Fuquay
St. Luke’s UMC
September 22, 2024
Capital Campaign
Making Room
“A Connecting Place”
Luke 14:12-14
This is the final Sunday of our Making Room campaign in which we are upgrades security and appearance of children’s and youth areas and adding educational and missional space to our building. If you are on our mailing list you have hopefully received a packet of information about this campaign. If not, you can pick up information…As well, after the service you can attend an info session with…
We are making room for others. That thought reminds me of a classic scene from the life of the great theologian…Forest Gump. Take a look…
That scene makes me think of flying Southwest Airlines. Southwest, of course, doesn’t have reserved seats. They do open seating so you board in three groups A, B, or C. Anyone ever been in the C group? You walk down the aisle and everyone is either sitting by the window or on the aisle. And they look at you like the kids on that bus! “This seat’s taken.” Or they put stuff in the seat as if the middle seat is saved. Because we don’t want to be inconvenienced! But how many of you have been in that C group and someone looks at you like, “Want to sit here?” And you want to respond like, “May the angels of heaven pour mercy upon your children to the third and fourth generation.”
Making room is an act of grace.
That’s what Jesus said. The word grace means gift. Making room for others, especially others we don’t know, others simply needing room to be made for them, is a gift. Jesus said this act of grace is like inviting people to a meal and making room for them at the table. Jesus must have witnessed something that concerned him: people turning a gesture of grace into a reciprocity. People inviting those who would in turn invite them back. Such practices kept the size of one’s community from expanding. It even allowed their circle of friends to shrink over time.
Instead, Jesus said, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.” (Luke 14:12) Jesus says that like it would be a terrible thing, and maybe it could be. Maybe inviting just the people who invite you back could be a potentially bad thing, like a bacteria that spreads. Do it enough and you can start evaluating everything you do for others with an expectation of getting something in return. You can begin keeping score on whether they repaid the gift, which is actually a contradiction. If something has to be repaid was it ever a gift?
You can start to find yourself saying, “I did this for them but they haven’t returned the favor…I gave them this but all they ever gave me was this.” You can find that you never really give anymore, you just lend. Such reciprocity can kill grace.
Instead, Jesus recommends that “when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” (Luke 14:13) When you know the gift can’t be repaid, you let go of expectation of return. You discover the joy of giving. And what does this do? As Jesus said, “You will be blessed because they can’t repay you.” (14:14)
In other words, making room makes room for us to receive blessing.
I discovered this many years ago. I was flying to Chicago to attend a conference. My flight was delayed so I pulled out my computer to get some work done. Also, I was calling the hotel where I was staying because my reservation didn’t start until the next night and I needed to begin it that night. They said they didn’t have any rooms available but to keep calling back.
Well, there was a man sitting beside me in a very nice suit and he wanted to strike up a conversation. I tried every way I knew to communicate I needed to work and had a few things on my mind but he didn’t take these cues. He kept leaning over to interrupt me and talk. Finally, I thought, just give up and chat with the guy. So I did. For some reason I mentioned my hotel dilemma. He said, “Where are you staying?” I said it was called Extended Stay America. He said, “Call back and tell them George D Johnson said to give you one of their reserve rooms. They always keep a room free. I am Mr Johnson’s attorney. You tell them George D Johnson said that.”
About that moment the announcement was made that our flight was further delayed. So I went to call the hotel again. A woman answered. I explained what I needed, she checked and said, “I’m sorry, we still have no availability tonight.” So I paused and then said, “I have been instructed to tell you that George D. Johnson has requested your special reserve room for me.” She said, “Please hold.” A moment later she came back and said “We just had a room become available.”
My flight eventually left. I got to the hotel around midnight. Checked in. And as I turned to go to my room the woman at the desk asked, “So do you really know Mr. Johnson?” I said, “Indirectly.”
Because I just made a little room to have a conversation with a stranger I was greatly blessed. This is why we are doing the YELLOW BENCH CHALLENGE…
But here is where my illustration breaks down a bit. The blessing I got was very tangible, a room for the night. This is not what Jesus is talking about. He said, “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Lk 14:14) Don’t look for your reward now. Don’t expect a return favor. It will come later. One day you will see the difference you made.
That’s the important thing to remember in a campaign like this. Making room for others is about others. And at the same time its about us. Because when we create ministries and make space for others to enter in, that in turn enriches our lives. Our community gets stronger which makes us stronger and better. You don’t always see that in real time but one you will. One day you will see that the contributions you made, made a difference.
Right now I want you to take out the campaign information in your bulletin. And as you do, look at this video that reminds us how this campaign is about building the community of St. Luke’s (video) …
This card/letter is how you can participate. The commitment to Making Room is a 3-year commitment. You don’t have to give all at one time. What do you have that is beyond your giving to the church right now, and beyond your other benevolence giving? Just multiply that by three if you would like to help St. Luke’s make room.
I hope everyone will participate. And yet I know there are some who don’t have it to give. You just don’t. And things like this make you feel inadequate. Please don’t. Because you can pray. You can pray for the church and you can help create the spirit of making room for others. Folks without that all the money in the world is no good. You could just write on your form, “I will pray and love and welcome others.” Honestly that’s my real goal for this campaign, that it helps think about what we each one can do to help us make room in our hearts, our minds, and souls. How we can be even more intentional about loving and welcoming everyone.
You may say, if I gave anything it would be one dollar. Okay, put that down. One dollar a year is a three commitment.
But some, if you look at what you have and pray about it, may find you can give quite a bit. Many of you have been doing that. I have been floored by the response of so many folks. Right now we have received over $5M! We are 78% to the goal. Just 1.4M to go now, and we want to have 100% pledged, so every gift matters. Just fill out your card and mail to the office, or drop it by the office this morning…
I always believe if what we are doing is led by God and we pray about what we can do, I don’t have to badger. My job is just to make the opportunity known and welcome you to share. But what a powerful thing when everyone in the church shares together. Regardless of what the amount is. Regardless! What a powerful thing when everyone gives their best.
What we are doing is like widening our table as a church. Did any of you grow up in a family where you sometimes had to make room for guests at meal time? You pulled in extra chairs and scooted over. You made room for others.
My wife Susan grew up with three siblings. Sometimes on a Sunday there were people at church who would join them for dinner, so her mom had this expression for the family, FHB. It stood for Family Hold Back. Everyone knew they were to take a little less food so others would have some. And everyone always had enough, and you sat a little closer and you made guests feel like family.
I believe that’s what church is meant to be like.
I mentioned two weeks ago about visiting my friend Stan Copeland at the end of my sabbatical. He is pastor of Lover’s Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas. Several years ago I told the story about how that church came to be. It was started by a man named Tom Shipp. When Tom was a boy in the 1920’s his mother died and his father had to take a job with the railroad, so the children were sent to live with different families. Tom went to live with a German farming family. On his first day, after completing all the chores, he joined the family at the dinner table. The father said, “Boy there’s no room for you here. You’ll eat on the porch and your bed is in the barn.”
He did this for a whole year until he couldn’t take it anymore, so arrangements were made for him to live with another farming family. Only this family welcomed him to the table and gave him his own room. On Sunday he went with them to a Methodist Church. It was a communion Sunday. The family he was with insisted that he go with them to take communion. When he knelt down the father was on his left, and then wouldn’t you know it, on his right side, the father of the former family knelt beside him.
When the pastor brought the communion elements by the father on his right side, the one he previously worked for, grabbed his arm just as he reached up to take the bread.
This is what Tom Shipp later wrote about that experience:
I can still feel the tension. The man to my left was a German, and his face turned bright red. I can still hear the words that he said as he leaned forward, the preacher still holding the elements, not moving. He said to the man, “It’s not your table! There was a hush over the whole sanctuary. “It’s not your table! It’s not your table!”
Finally, before matters came to blows, the man released his grip and I was allowed to take Holy Communion for the first time.
Years later Tom Shipp, through the help of church people who became his family, he went to college and felt a call to ministry. When he started Lovers Lane in Dallas he wanted it to be a church that welcomed all people, alcoholics, addicts, divorced persons, people who had given up on church or on the possibility of a God who cares about them. He died while serving the church, literally while attending a Building Committee meeting! He died while making sure the church was well resourced for the future. Because that’s how he lived.
That’s a pretty good way to live, serving a church that makes room at the table.