Online Archives

BY MANDY SAYERS

On Oct. 8-10, all United Methodist churches in the Conference are being asked to participate in something called "Change the World Weekend." When I heard about it, I was a little reluctant because some weekends, it's all I can do to change the paraments at the church or the sheets and towels at home. And isn't "world changing" supposed to be God's business anyway? Hasn't the world already changed since that first Easter, freeing us well-meaning United Methodists up to have worship once a week and call it "good?"

Then I was reminded, as I looked at the faces of the people in my neighborhood (the single mother balancing a baby on her hip, the teen texting on the corner, the kids playing in the park) that the Church is called to be the body of Christ in the world.

A living body, to be healthy, needs to be growing and loving, building up and working. Yes, God has already changed the world, but we get to be a part of making that change real for people, visiting them in the graveyards of their lives with an Easter proclamation: "He's not here, he's RISEN!" Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we could provide a landmark or a monument. Instead, Jesus died and was raised in order to love, save, heal and free all creation.

How exciting would it be if we could be known as the church who visited a sick or lonely person, or the church who tutored a child who couldn't write, or the church who fed Mr. Jones when he was hungry and out of work? If Easter has, in fact, made a difference in the world, we who call ourselves Easter people should be about our Master's business, making a difference in the neighborhoods God has called us to serve.

How is God already at work in your neighborhood and how can you be a part of it? Where are the pockets of despair and darkness that could use a little of Christ's light? Sure, it's a little step, like a little boy who gave his flimsy saltines and fish sticks to Jesus on a crowded hillside, like a little pinch of Communion bread and a swallow of juice. What could happen?

Wonder what Jesus will do with a little church willing to make a few sandwiches for a homeless shelter? Wonder what would happen if 15,000 harmless little Christians decided to give Jesus a weekend, to do their part in feeding the hungry, visiting the prisoner and loving the lonely?

It's dangerous business because the first thing God might change on the way to "changing the world" is YOU, your family and your church. In fact, if we will but show up, God will do the changing — from water into wine, from despair into hope. I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend.

Amanda Sayers is pastor of Covenant Point-Lakeside Cooperative Parish in Waldorf.