CHURCH IN THE MARKETPLACE

Matthew 14:13-21; I Corinthians 9:19-23

June 29, 2008 – Rev. Jerry Duggins

 

I don’t get these kind of calls too much anymore. They used to come frequently, usually about the time we’d sit down to eat. You know the ones I mean: telephone solicitations, sometimes from a “worthy” charity, but more often from a company trying to sell you something you don’t want. They usually began with something like: “How’d you like to save money on your phone bill, or your car insurance, or your mortgage payment or ….” You fill in the blank.

 

The “do not call list” has helped reduced the number we get now and I’m sure many companies have gotten away from the telephone, preferring instead to send you some spam. Caller ID has helped somewhat as well.  Just last week someone was at the house when the phone rang. I looked over at the LED and saw “Gallup” come up and knew I didn’t have to answer that one. They didn’t bother leaving a message either.

 

I don’t know how you feel about it, but I’ve always felt that the home served as a retreat from these little unwanted intrusions into my life. Don’t get me wrong here. If you’ve got something to tell me or have a need, you call me at home. I have a relationship with you and you’re in my thoughts and on my heart even at home. But I want to decide for myself when it’s time to reevaluate my phone service. Telephone solicitation is just rude and that’s before they even get into the obnoxious hard-sell that leaves me feeling rude as I hang up on the caller.

 

This is unlike the advertising on television which has at least earned the right to speak at you by sponsoring the program which presumably you consider worth watching. But the solicitor on the telephone, whom I admit is just trying to do his or job, has no business being in my living room.

 

Now here’s an interesting irony:  When I walk into a store, I often can’t find a soul to answer my questions. And sometimes, when I do, they can’t answer my question. They’re just the Pepsi vendor and don’t know where to find the cat litter. I remember a few years ago walking into Best Buy and having trouble finding something.  There were plenty of salespeople, but they were all intensely engaged in conversation with each other about plans for the weekend. Perhaps you’ve had a better experience there but I don’t shop there anymore if I can avoid it.  I don’t think I have high expectations when I walk into a store, but I do expect that someone ought to be interested in selling me something, and I’m mentally prepared for the sales pitch.

 

You may find this surprising, but I actually like to shop. I just like to do it on my own terms, at a time of my choosing, and when needed with a knowledgeable salesperson. Not in my home, unless it’s on-line or from a catalogue, at my own initiative, but in a store. I’m definitely a consumer, but I’ve got a good bit of ambivalence about it.  Many of us do.

 

So when the church starting using this consumer metaphor a few years back, most mainline congregations were suspicious. The idea of “marketing the church” to the community was caricatured as a kind of telemarketing ministry. Many churches said “We don’t knock on doors… end of discussion.”

 

But I want us to consider the enormous difference between picking up the phone to an unsolicited sales pitch and receiving good service when walking into a store; between the knock on the door and the welcome offered to a guest who walks through our door.

 

We may not be selling something in the church, but we do have something to offer. And people who walk into a church for the first time may not be looking to buy a product, but they’re looking for something. Our marketing people have something to teach us about this kind of encounter. But first let me set the context with a comment.

 

There have been times and will be again I expect when I describe the church as a home, but today I want us to hear that there is a sense in which this not your home. Yes you may rest here from the weary world. Yes you may unburden yourself in this place and refreshment for the week ahead. But for the Christian, this is not ultimately your home. That place is off somewhere in the perhaps distant future where we will “sit at table in the kingdom of God” as we say around the communion table. Not some pie in the sky place, but a time and place where God’s peace is fully realized among us. Until then we are travelers in this world, whether at work, in our houses, or in this building we call a church. We are on a  journey all the time.

 

Jesus was looking for a quiet place, perhaps to restore himself, but the crowds came looking for him, and they found him. He didn’t tell them, “Look can’t you see I’m tired. Come back in an hour.” He didn’t say, “Let’s have worship now. We’ll talk later.” No, he saw their need and immediately felt compassion for them and he began to heal them.

 

Jesus was in a deserted place, but he did not mistake it for his home, where he could rest and forget the trials of the day. It may have been quiet for a while, but as soon as the people showed up, it became a marketplace -  people were looking for something and they knew Jesus had it to offer. And Jesus makes the connection right away. Making the connection and meeting the need was his first priority.

 

Now I don’t know what people are looking for the first time they walk through our doors. I imagine everyone’s a little different.   They may not all be actively  looking for a relationship with God or wanting to learn how to be a better disciple of Jesus. But more than likely, they want you to know why they came. Before we get caught up in talking about the great weekend we just had, maybe we should find out. I don’t mean interrogate our guests, I mean say hello, be friendly. Ask if you can help them find something or introduce them to someone else. Ask them what brings them out today.

 

Make a connection. We’ve got some great people in sales here and I’ve heard them use this kind of language. Don’t shove the product down their throat. You may not even tell them what you’re selling on the first visit. You want to know them, create a positive experience with them; not because you want to sell them something they can’t use; but so that when their need matches what you can offer, you’re prepared to help them out.

 

This is the church in the marketplace, making connections with people, creating positive experiences, not so they can help you meet the budget or fill a space on the mission team. We have good news to share in the church; good news to offer, not goods to sell.   And it comes free, but unless we connect with the need, unless that good news is placed into the context of what people are looking for, it will never do them any good.

 

They came looking for physical health and Jesus healed them. It wasn’t the best thing Jesus had to offer them but it was what they were looking for and Jesus had it to give.

 

The church is in some ways, quite a wealthy place. And I suspect that when people walk into a church for the first time looking for something, the church does in fact have it to give. The tragedy: we are too busy enjoying the community that we have made with each other, so we often fail to connect with the newcomer’s need. We need to meet people where they are at. This is not selling out the gospel. It is merely the first sentence in the proclamation of the good news. It is what we must do to earn the right to be in people’s lives.

 

Part two of sales 101. After making the connection, we need to continue to communicate caring.   I don’t remember how many times I’ve heard Don Meldrum describe his approach to conversation with a customer:  He always says, “I’ll take care of you.”   Personal, direct, reassuring, good news at a deeper level.   Even when everything’s not quite right, I’ll continue “taking care of you.”

 

It’s getting late, the crowd is getting hungry. There’d be just enough time for them to return to the villages for food. Jesus says to the disciples, to us, “No, you feed them. You take care of them.” This is where the miracle happens, where the crowd gets more than they could have anticipated. Five loaves of bread and two fish feeding probably 20,000 people once you add the women and children to the 5000 men.

 

People have offered all kinds of explanations for the miracle, but you really need to let go of being the historian to get the message of this story. It is the only story appearing in all four gospels, so we know that it was very important to the early church. A large crowd gathered in a deserted place with too few resources to sustain them. The church has looked at this kind of world again and again over the centuries and when it has been faithful and followed Jesus instruction, “You feed them,” it is enough. We look on a world of scarcity, but God has made a world that sustains itself. Some look on the miracle as a demonstration of God’s abundance, but consider that twelve baskets after feeding 20,000 isn’t really that much as a percentage of the food that must have been consumed.  Not really much waste here, but certainly enough. The miracle of enough.

 

In theological terms, we might say that the good news is that God provides, a theme repeated throughout scripture. We believe in a God who sees us through the toughest times imaginable. We have experienced this and have this good news to share.

 

The church is a marketplace, not where goods are bought and sold, but where good news is freely exchanged. The church is a marketplace not where vast amounts of wealth are accumulated in a few hands, but where one person’s need is met by another’s abundance. The church is a marketplace not where goods go only to those who can afford them, but where all have enough to supply the need. The church is a marketplace not where vendors and buyers come to exchange goods but where people connect to people and share stories of God’s grace and goodness.

 

The church ought to take more seriously it responsibility of connecting to those who walk through its doors and those who might yet walk through. And we, as followers of Jesus Christ, need to hear our call and with courage live it out. We need to say to one another and to the world, “I’ll take care of you,” understanding of course that this miracle is only possible because of the love of God in Jesus Christ that has taken over our lives. May God give us eyes to see the need, hearts to respond with compassion and courage to spread the good news of God’s love, sufficient for every need.   Amen.