Getting It Done
Stories
Object:
Contents
"Getting It Done" by C. David McKirachan
* * * * * * *
Getting It Done
by C. David McKirachan
Romans 5:1-11
I was reading about the Tammany Hall era in New York politics. It was infamous for its control of the city and eventually the state. What I got from this book is a sense that it wasn't all terrible. Some of these guys were really interested in helping the common person to have a crack at the American Dream. This included immigrants, minorities, and the poor. One of the bosses of the political machine was accosted about setting up a safety net for the hungry. He was asked if he wasn't worried that people who weren't "good people" would be among those he was trying to help. He responded that he never asked a person who came to him for help if he was good. He asked him if he was hungry.
The whole idea of justification by faith is very messy. It is no way to run a railway. It is no way to keep the riffraff in their place. But Paul was pretty firm about this and he was quoted by others down through the messy history of Christianity. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly" is downright ridiculous. If you want a tidy, punctual, and slick operation, don't look toward a church that actually preaches, teaches, and practices a gospel of grace. You can't keep track of who's on first, or who the important people are, or who really deserves to be touched by the ministry of the Body of Christ. The Lord had this bad habit of associating with the ones that no self-respecting citizen of an organization or a town or a nation would have anything to do with. What kind of results can you expect when the raw material you're feeding into the sausage maker is low class?
I was meeting with a veteran whose life had been torn apart by disaster. Post-traumatic stress syndrome had left him with a lifestyle based on terror. After one of our sessions he was exiting through the church office and ran into the chaos of six people crowded into that cramped space, all there for different reasons. There was a homeless guy who hung out at the church and sometimes slept there, and the abused mom who was getting a law degree and came in for help with her food budget, and the widower who was lonely and stopped by for a cup of coffee, and a member of session who was waiting to talk to me about the stewardship committee. The phone was ringing and there was a lot of laughter. The vet stopped and said, "This is great. I feel safe here." He asked me how we managed to pull this off. I took him out the office door and pointed up at a sign that hangs above it. I found it in a rummage sale and hung it up. The sign says, "Love one another."
The church is not only a place that does nice things for poor people, it's an environment of acceptance on a level to which everyone can have access. We're not here to be pure. We're here to offer kinship in the family of God. Come on in. You've got a place at the table. And sometimes we actually get stuff done. We put the vet to work folding Sunday bulletins.
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 23, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Getting It Done" by C. David McKirachan
* * * * * * *
Getting It Done
by C. David McKirachan
Romans 5:1-11
I was reading about the Tammany Hall era in New York politics. It was infamous for its control of the city and eventually the state. What I got from this book is a sense that it wasn't all terrible. Some of these guys were really interested in helping the common person to have a crack at the American Dream. This included immigrants, minorities, and the poor. One of the bosses of the political machine was accosted about setting up a safety net for the hungry. He was asked if he wasn't worried that people who weren't "good people" would be among those he was trying to help. He responded that he never asked a person who came to him for help if he was good. He asked him if he was hungry.
The whole idea of justification by faith is very messy. It is no way to run a railway. It is no way to keep the riffraff in their place. But Paul was pretty firm about this and he was quoted by others down through the messy history of Christianity. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly" is downright ridiculous. If you want a tidy, punctual, and slick operation, don't look toward a church that actually preaches, teaches, and practices a gospel of grace. You can't keep track of who's on first, or who the important people are, or who really deserves to be touched by the ministry of the Body of Christ. The Lord had this bad habit of associating with the ones that no self-respecting citizen of an organization or a town or a nation would have anything to do with. What kind of results can you expect when the raw material you're feeding into the sausage maker is low class?
I was meeting with a veteran whose life had been torn apart by disaster. Post-traumatic stress syndrome had left him with a lifestyle based on terror. After one of our sessions he was exiting through the church office and ran into the chaos of six people crowded into that cramped space, all there for different reasons. There was a homeless guy who hung out at the church and sometimes slept there, and the abused mom who was getting a law degree and came in for help with her food budget, and the widower who was lonely and stopped by for a cup of coffee, and a member of session who was waiting to talk to me about the stewardship committee. The phone was ringing and there was a lot of laughter. The vet stopped and said, "This is great. I feel safe here." He asked me how we managed to pull this off. I took him out the office door and pointed up at a sign that hangs above it. I found it in a rummage sale and hung it up. The sign says, "Love one another."
The church is not only a place that does nice things for poor people, it's an environment of acceptance on a level to which everyone can have access. We're not here to be pure. We're here to offer kinship in the family of God. Come on in. You've got a place at the table. And sometimes we actually get stuff done. We put the vet to work folding Sunday bulletins.
C. David McKirachan is pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Shrewsbury in central New Jersey. He also teaches at Monmouth University. McKirachan is the author of I Happened Upon a Miracle and A Year of Wonder (Westminster John Knox).
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 23, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
