Rev. Nick Cheek
Acts 2: 42-47 and Mark 3: 20-35
In our passage this morning, Jesus is teaching in a neighborhood house…. And the house is so packed with folks that people have begun spilling out into the streets. Suddenly, someone in the crowd interrupts Jesus and says, “Rabbi, your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” Now, let’s just think for a moment about what would happen here in the South if you didn’t stop and drop everything you were doing to respond to your mother’s call! I don’t care how old you are… 3 or 33, in Jesus’ case. If you didn’t address her, you’d get a talking-to! Can I get an Amen? Well, instead of getting up, Jesus looks around at the people sitting near him and asks, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Then he says, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
At first glance, it almost seems as though Jesus is rejecting his family here. But that is not what is happening. Instead of diminishing the meaning of family, Jesus was trying to expand it. He was widening the table…. past blood and kinship. He suggests that the people sitting beside you… the people striving together to do the will of God, they are family, too.
Jesus was setting the stage for what we call now, 2,000 years later, the church. Normal, broken, imperfect people striving to do life together.
Think about your own family for a moment…. Immediate and extended. Think about the times you’ve all gotten together for holidays or special occasions. When we ponder our families, we know not a single one is perfect… but at the same time, families are a necessary, beautiful part of our world. The family system is the most basic and central social unit in our society. Families are vital. In Scripture, God uses families of all kinds to further God’s story of hope. And for families to work… to grow… and thrive… they need certain ingredients. They need love. They need forgiveness; they need trust. They need patience, perseverance, and commitment. So it is with the church family. We need those same ingredients to remain healthy and strong.
Friends, on this Kick-off Sunday. As we begin another year together, I want to spend time encouraging you…. to embrace some important “ingredients” in addition to those I have just mentioned, that I believe are specific to Trinity during this time of Transition and change. Are you ready? I said… are you ready! Good. The first ingredient is probably the simplest, but also the most crucial: The first ingredient is YOU. Your presence and your gifts.
Trinity. I know some of you are tired. I know some of you have spent years on committees and in Session. I know some of you have felt the weight of serving a congregation through difficult and challenging seasons. I also understand that many of you, especially our young families, are stretched thin with so many responsibilities. Believe me, as a parent of two teens and a college student, married to another pastor, I get it. Life is wildly busy. But….your presence matters. Your smile matters. Your voice on a committee matters. Your musical talent in the choir matters. Your desire to teach our young people matters. The time you spend in fellowship within a small group or Sunday School class matters.
Your willingness to get your kids out of bed and bring them to church matters—because you are teaching your son or daughter the importance of being part of a community that seeks to follow Jesus. Your prayers… matter. Your love for this congregation and community matters. You… are a crucial ingredient to this Family of faith.
Folks, in the Narthex… we have 200 nametags hanging. When we come in these doors on Sunday, we are looking at the names of our family of faith. I want to speak frankly for a moment. There is no staff person we can hire who can magically fill these pews. No committee can manufacture authentic community. There is simply no substitute for a group of people who genuinely love being together, worshipping together, serving together, and following Jesus together. You…. my friends… are the heart and soul of Trinity… and when you show up, Trinity is alive. [pause] Something incredible happens when God’s people gather that simply cannot happen individually. When we come together, we realize we are not alone. When we come together, we call each other by name. We carry one another’s burdens. We welcome the stranger together. We brighten someone’s day. We encourage a child. We serve someone in need. We give someone who is struggling a little light and hope to keep going. And please hear me say… that showing up isn’t just another task on your to-do list. Showing up is a gift…. for you.
Showing up gives you a space where you don’t have to perform, where you can connect, learn, grow, be cared for, bring your joys and your sorrows… and be reminded that you are part of something so much larger than yourself. In our first passage this morning, Luke gives us one of the earliest pictures of the church. He tells us that the believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” The early church kept gathering together…and in that shared life, something began to happen. Their faith deepened. Needs were met. New people found belonging. They embraced a shared a vision…. They worked together… And “day by day”… the scripture says… “the Lord added to their number.” The first ingredient is you… and your presence. The second ingredient is the action of leaning in to what God is up to.
In seasons of transition, there’s a natural temptation to hang back a little and wait and see. Let’s see what happens with the Mission Study. Let’s see what happens with Way Forward. Let’s see who the next pastor is. Let’s see where all of this goes.
Trinity, this is not a season of waiting. This is a season of active participation in what God is doing right now. Author Diana Butler Bass spent years studying healthy and vital mainline congregations, many of them smaller churches, and one of the pieces of her research was this, “Congregations that intentionally engage in Christian practices are congregations that experience new vitality.”
Notice that word: intentionally. Vitality doesn’t happen to a church by accident. It grows as people choose to participate in the life God is creating among them. Additionally, Dr. Paul Nixon, in his research on church renewal, writes, “vitality is not a measure of how many people are in the building, but how much of the Spirit is moving through the people who are there.”
This is important for us to hear again, Trinity. We can spend a lot of time measuring ourselves by how many people are in the pews or comparing ourselves to larger churches around us. But size and vitality are not the same thing. A smaller church can have just as much vitality or more. In a smaller church… we can have deeper relationships, stronger faith, and laser-focused, meaningful ministry. In a small church, people know your name and notice when you’re missing. Trinity… you can be a smaller church… but with a big faith, a big heart, and a big purpose.
This is not a season to watch from the sidelines to see what Trinity becomes… because you are part of what it will become. So I implore you: lean in. Lean in toward our children and teenagers. Lean in toward new faces coming through our doors. Lean in to new ideas. Lean into worship. Lean into the conversations about our campus and our future. Lean into a small group or volunteering with a service partner. Lean into the beautiful, sacred business of what God is up to among us.
The first ingredient is you and your presence…. The second is to actively lean in to what God is up to…. And the third is to move forward together with faith.
Of all the questions I found in research on healthy congregations, there was one that I couldn’t stop thinking about: “How well do we value our past without letting it determine our present and future life together?” Trinity, you have a history worth celebrating. Generations before us worshiped here, raised their children here, built this campus, started ministries, and made decisions that helped create the church you inherited today….We honor that history… But you are not the same church you were forty years ago. And that is okay.
As we move forward, let us leave no more room for comparing ourselves to who we used to be or to the other churches around us. You don’t have to become them…. You get to be you. You get to be Trinity! You have extraordinary gifts. You are rich in relationships, welcome, love, and grace. You are open and affirming. You care about what’s happening outside of these walls. You care about your neighbors and about this community. When someone needs help, you respond. There is a missional spirit here…a desire to use what God has given you for the sake of others. And I believe you have great faith…. Faith to press on and discern how this campus can be transformed to support others. Faith to renovate our buildings so they can better serve the ministries happening here. Faith to imagine how this property might provide a safe and attainable place for some of our neighbors to live and belong. Faith to nurture and invest in our partnership with Philipa Academy and the Weekday School. Faith to create a lasting legacy so that the ministry of this congregation continues long after we are gone.
These are big things to consider… and they require courage, imagination, and resilience. But you have what it takes…. Trinity. Believe in yourselves. You should have every reason to trust that the God who has been faithful to this church in the past will continue to be faithful in whatever comes next.
Friends, we have an exciting year ahead of us! We have already welcomed Eric, our new Director of Children, Youth & Families, and in the coming year we will welcome a new Director of Operations and Communications Coordinator. We will also complete our Mission Study, form a Pastor Nominating Committee, and begin the search for your next Head Pastor. And we will press on with the Way Forward…. Taking it from vision to reality. A lot is taking shape at here, and I am excited about where God is leading us. As we kick off this season together, I want to encourage you to step off the bleachers and onto the field. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul reminds us that the church is one body with many members. Every part belongs. Every part has something to offer. And every part is held together by the grace of God. We need your gifts, your presence…… so lean in…. And have faith. God is up to something… and we are called to a part of it.