Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22

 Are you listening, are you acting?

The challenging words above from Jesus’ brother are unequivocal. They call for us not only to open our ears and pay attention to the preacher or teacher, but to absorb the Word into our deepest being so we are marinaded in it to the extent it breaks forth in action out of love for God and our neighbour.

So, are you serving or are you being served? Hopefully both. But so many in our congregations are consumers and not contributors. Excuses, excuses, excuses; too busy with work, family, health, wealth issues. Busy, busy, busy. Really?

The importance of being Ernest (or Tom or Dick or Harry)

I responded to a message such as this 20-odd years ago when my children were very young. Sunday School teachers were, and sadly still are, in short supply.

What are your memories of Sunday School?

Carly Fiorina (erstwhile CEO of Hewlett Packard) in her interesting autobiography Tough Choices recounts how she was given a coaster at Sunday School that read;

“What you are is God’s gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God.”

Clearly these words are foundational for her and gave her direction. My own memories are less inspirational and are more along the lines of being inoculated against organised religion! Fortunately that immunisation has long since worn off and I have found enormous reward in teaching Sunday School, even now as an empty nester.

I teach 11-13 year olds in a wonderful team that consists of two couples and a young man. This means our pre-teens have four men in their class at different times throughout the course of the year. This is unique in my experience and so valuable as the children, particularly the boys, see male role models in a predominantly female preserve. Hopefully this gives the boys, at least, some incentive to explore their own faith at a key moment in their physical, emotional and spiritual development.

For me, the empty nesting season in my life has led to less busyness and allows me more time to plan, to teach, to lead; although I miss my own children’s help in finding the cultural references!

As the academic year comes to a close we face the perennial problem of staffing for the forthcoming year. How is that? With 25 children registered in my class that means there must be close to 50 potential teachers; how light the load would be if they all stepped up next year!

Are you listening, are you acting?

S0 where does that leave you? If not here, Sunday School, where? If not now, when? If not you, who?

Are you being served or are you serving?

“ … whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Matthew 25:40

If you want to walk on water you’ve got to get out of the boat!
John Ortberg

Don’t we just love to stay within our comfort zones, hiding behind our busyness and (over) commitments. I know I do.

Late last year, however, my wife and I stepped out of our boat (a comfortable life as expats in The Hague) and worked in a trash belt near Cluj-Napoca, Romania amongst the Roma gypsies for a week. We went with more than 60 members of our church (The American Protestant Church of The Hague (APCH)) via Dortmund and Wizz Air (!) to Cluj. Our home was a diaconal centre and although basic, seemed like a 5-star hotel after a day at the dump; however 2 days without water gave us a taste of what the Roma lived with daily.

We divided into teams: house building, house renovation, food distribution, medical and children’s work. I was in the 2-man renovation team which mended windows, fixed doors and patched walls of the small dilapidated shacks which the Roma families know as home. Through the day, as we worked, I could “zone out” the incredible poverty – the scantily clad children, bare foot in the rubbish and the mud; the filth, the dogs, the rats and the cockroaches but in the evenings back at the centre (and now as I write) the faces of the children came back to me and my eyes filled with tears at the recollection of the plight of these families. How can this be possible and in a European country?

Wisely we were instructed at the outset that we would be frustrated and saddened by our seemingly meagre efforts in light of so much need.

Indeed it was so. We could do little to change their lives but many of our lives would be changed by them.

The rubbish dump itself was like a scene from a post-nuclear strike: apocalyptic. The children cling to the garbage trucks as they enter the site so they might have first pickings from the truck’s load.

As the temperatures drop in the northern winter and the snows fall, I can’t help but wonder how they forage for food and recyclable goods in such conditions.

Yes, I have seen the BBC documentary of the organised Romanian gangs descending on our shopping streets; yes, I haven’t heard a good word said about the Roma and yes, maybe some of the criticism is well-founded but surely no matter what your political persuasion, social prejudices or knowledge about these people: it is a fundamental human right to have access freely to sanitation, education and medical attention?

If you’ve been thinking but hesitating about going on a mission trip, hesitate no longer; get out of your boat and pray that Jesus would be your guide and strength as you step out on the water and make mission possible.

www.proromi.nl
www.apch.nl/missiontrip