Last Sunday we become Church Beyond the Building. Though not a big church, we were CHURCH BIG: 4 apartments cleaned, 8 bingo players at Simon Seniors'; 700 sorted pairs of shoes at Redeeming Soles; 75 chairs, 4 sofas cleansed, 1 huge mess sorted at New Horizons Ministries; 8+ pizzas consumed - all with only 23 people!
Does the Emmaus Road Church Council get any work done? Appearances can be misleading; the October 4 meeting in the back room at Bedlam Coffee in Belltown was productive. See meeting notes here....
One of our youths invited two friends along a few Wednesdays ago, introducing them to the work of New Horizons Ministries, as well as to the reality of homeless teens in Seattle. They had fun together while serving dinner to street-involved youth. When your small group has a turn serving dinner on the 1st Wednesday, consider inviting a friend along.
Jesus spoke many comforting, now popular words: “Blessed are the poor…”; “Let the little children come to me….”; “He who hath no sin, let him cast the first stone…”; “Today you will be with me in paradise…”; “Love one another…” These are words we like. They inspire and make us feel good.
How many of us like his story about the landowner,
from Matthew 20:1-16?
What is this story about? Since Jesus begins, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner…”, it’s safe to say this story is about the kingdom, God’s kingdom. By association, it is about the king himself, here portrayed as a landowner. Right away, this landowner stands out as peculiar: his concern for profit seems marginal. His bottom line is unconventional. He is obsessed with gathering, employing, and paying, as many workers as possible. He violates worldly wisdom regarding efficiency, merit pay, and seniority. Furthermore, he pays the workers in a backward, vexing manner. As we consider how odd this landowner is, how unrealistic his behavior, we realize there is something familiar about him. Remember the character of the master from the parable of the Unmerciful Servant? He was similarly outstanding in his extreme generosity, completely canceling a servant’s massive debt. Another example is the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son/Forgiving Father, who also behaves in an abnormally forgiving and generous manner. According to Jesus, God is extraordinarily, even scandalously, generous and forgiving.
Scandal is the appropriate term, for when God behaves this way, observe people’s response! While some are blessed, others are greatly upset. The early workers grumble about how unfairly the landowner treats them. They resent his same-wages-for-all policy. These Johnny-come-lately drifters do not deserve equal pay! While it is sometimes nice to be gracious and generous, this is insulting! We have seen this attitude elsewhere, this scorn for God’s grace. Remember the end of the story about Jonah? Jonah criticizes God for being such “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” This prophet did all he could to avoid preaching repentance to the wicked people of Nineveh, craving their destruction. God’s patience and generosity disappointed and angered him. Remember, also, how the father of the prodigal son is begrudged by his older, responsible son, who is resentful of the father’s unconditional love and acceptance of his screwed up younger brother.
Naturally speaking, these people of the bible should be upset with God. As an Israelite, Jonah may have feared, perhaps even suffered, at the hands of people from Nineveh. At the very least, he was likely an upstanding Jew, a careful follower of the Law, in contrast to these violent barbarians. God’s love should be reserved for people like him. In the Prodigal Son story, the older brother/son had every reason to be upset; his father had depended on him to be the responsible one after his younger brother rebelled and squandered a small fortune. Are not the responsible, righteous people of this world entitled to greater reward than lowlifes who have done nothing to earn God’s favor? God could be cast as an enabler of the weak and morally lax. By blessing both as if they are the same, he devalues the work of the faithful. What about the vineyard workers’ rights, those who bore the bulk of the burden through the heat of the day?
“Right” is an interesting word in this story. When the landowner hired his second round of workers, he said, “I will pay you whatever is right.” Later responding to the protest of an early worker, the landowner says, “I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?” In Jesus’ story, what is right is determined by the landowner, as opposed to tradition, economic convention, or anything else. Over the spiteful worker’s feelings of entitlement, the landowner reminds him that the vineyard and the opportunity to work there belong to the landowner, and he has decided to be exceptionally generous. He reminds the man that their agreement about the days wages have been honored. The man’s real problem is not that his rights have been violated; rather, he is jealous of the landowner’s generosity. Though he saw himself as first, he is paid last; though he saw himself as more, he is shown to be less. At the end of the story, Jesus’ prophetic words, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last,” reveal the reversal some will experience at the coming of God’s kingdom.
Does this story speak to us? Yes. It speaks to our confusion, when our walk with God has been supplanted by a loveless, joyless set of rituals and moral battles, bearing a burden of obedience through the “heat of the day.” Working for God is something we HAVE TO do; having worked for so long, we feel entitled to special treatment and status. Faith has been usurped by zeal for achievement in a spiritual meritocracy or search for status. We resent the church’s extension of God’s generous hospitality; we are cold to “eleventh hour” newcomers who have not proven themselves. We are jealous of God’s grace. When we no longer enjoy the Good News, that joining God’s kingdom work is something we GET TO do, because he has called, liberated, and forgiven us, this parable has a way of stirring, even stinging, us awake. If we have fully received and experienced God’s generous grace beyond measure, can we honestly be jealous to see him bestow it on others, as he sees fit? Are we the first who will be last? Let us enjoy fellowship with God, and with each other, whether early or late-comers to the vineyard.
While there are some ministry settings in which it is difficult, even inappropriate, to include little kids, we have experienced a few success stories recently. This is important for us to acknowledge, for we have been blessed with families, yet located to serve a neighborhood largely bereft of children, or kid friendly places and spaces.
This Sunday May 29 we will be Church Beyond the Building together in Belltown. When churches venture into new territory, an inevitable question arises: "What about the children!?" Last Groundworks Sunday, one of our moms, Beth, organized a task for kids, along the lines of previous efforts to create kid-friendly, adult supervised volunteer work. Recently, Beth shared with me that her daughter Quinn asked, "Mom, when am I going to get to go out and pick up trash with you and Dad again?" It dawned on Beth that what Quinn most enjoyed about Groundworks Sundays was working side by side with the adults; the event had a special energy and excitement that Quinn was able to catch. She drew this picture after going along with her parents to work along 2nd Avenue. Beth shared with me how her daughter's question resulted in an epiphany for her as a parent, about what a great opportunity this is to disciple our children, let them experience Church Beyond the Building as a normative part of their faith family, see another form of love of neighbor, and see the needs of our city up close. This Sunday, rather than organize a special activity for kids, I encourage parents to find and choose something to do with your child(ren). I acknowledge, and know from personal experience, the challenge this is for parents of toddlers, but I have taken a long view: as our children grow and Emmaus Road continues to honor this opportunity, they are shaped by what they see and hear around them. Even if all you can realistically manage is a little cleaning or straightening up inside New Horizons or around the parking lot, they benefit from the joy and enthusiasm they see among the crowd (not to mention the 11:45am pizza). Kids who are a little older can come along with parents who venture further out from Third/Cedar to clean and landscape around the 'hood.
This comes directly from Central Seattle News, Seattle Dept. of Neighborhoods and an Article from Seattle PI Blog
A BELLTOWN BLOCK IS HOSTING A MASSTIVE FOOD DRIVE
Belltown’s 2nd Ave is known as a street that has many nightlife options. Now, parts of 2nd Ave may be soon known for its generosity. Businesses on the 2200 block of 2nd Ave (between Bell and Blanchard) are hosting a mas- sive food drive that will send all collected items to North- west Harvest. Stop by one of the locations before May 14th and donate (see the recommended items below):
Concept One Apartments 2219 2nd Ave
Cafe Casbah 2219 2nd Ave
Belltown Barber 2219 2nd Ave
Bedlam Coffee 2231 2nd Avenue
Clever Bottle 2222 2nd Avenue
Pintxo 2207 2nd Ave
The Senior Center 2208 2nd Avenue
The Humphrey Apartments 2205 2nd Ave
Recommended items:
Infant and baby items - Baby formula, Canned milk, Infant cereal, Jars of baby food, Powdered or canned milk, and baby diapers.
General food items - Oatmeal, Whole grain pastas, Brown rice, Tomato products, Canned vegetables, Canned fruit (especially with low sugar, but not artificial sweeten- ers), Canned fish or meat, Shelf-stable milk, Beef stew, chili and similar meals with low sugar and saturated fats.
