Gloria Dei Lutheran Church

Mark 8: 31-38

This week, we get a strong word from Jesus about losing and saving our lives. Those who want to save their life will lose it. And those who lose their lives for the sake of the Gospel will find it. Man, we give our lives away in all sorts of ways. To work that doesn’t love us back, to our ego or stubborn nature, to alcohol.

Honestly, I think Jesus might have disappointed his followers with his words. They were perhaps hoping for a trajectory of control, domination and power—things we humans tend to love. But instead, Jesus says clearly and simply, following me is going to be challenging. It’s not about control, domination and power…it’s about service. Which is a pretty big ask. It reminds us that following Jesus isn’t a lifestyle choice or a brand. Following Jesus is a vocation into the deep end of the pool of loving our neighbors.

I have a tendency to first hear the Gospel as an individual. This is absolutely a word for us as individuals. When my newborn baby was placed in my arms, it took about six seconds to realize I was going to lose in order to find.

But losing and finding life is also communal. What does it mean for a whole community to lose their life for the sake of the Gospel? If you have spent a summer working on a summer Bible camp staff you know. Bible camp staff means giving away three months to work together toward a common purpose, providing care and fun and opportunities for growth for kids. All over this country, our camp directors in outdoor ministry are interviewing and inviting teens and young adults right now to give away a summer in order to find life.

In my previous call to a beautiful new church, sometimes it seemed about 40% of my time was spent writing grants so that we could do all that God was calling us to do. One year, we wrote and received a grant to build a community garden. We had the people and the master gardener and willingness and the funds to build community raised beds, but we didn’t have any land. We did not own a church building. So we worked with our local school to build it into an after school program, which meant we could use part of their green space. Win win win. But that fell through when they entered into a major construction project. We ran into so many dead ends that I thought we might have to return the grant money. But then a neighbor said, “Build them in our yard. You can all come and go and use our water.”

We did. Our whole neighborhood came out for build day. It was early May, after a hard and long winter. All ages spent an entire Saturday together, measuring out the beds, hammering them together, taking trips to the city compost site to get loads of dirt, planting our first seeds. We took a break for lunch from Rooster’s Chicken down the street. One little girl was dressed as WonderWoman. People who had been shut up behind closed doors all winter reconnected. The garden got built and planted and everyone got a little sunburned. We lost our Saturday in order to find life.

I have heard stories and met with some of the people here at Gloria Dei who helped make Project Home happen. Project Home provides emergency shelter inside church buildings for a month at a time. Picture Sunday School rooms becoming temporary bedrooms and volunteers staying overnight to help host and provide for our guests. For those new here, Project Home is something that Gloria Dei hosted in the past. It meant setting aside other plans to volunteer to sleep here overnight, it meant taking some risks, agreeing to a bit of discomfort and doing a world of good

for people experiencing unimaginable disruption in their lives. It took this entire church saying we will lose our building in order to find life.

This week during my early morning walks with my dog, I’ve been listening to a podcast called I am Story. It’s the story of how in 1968, sanitation workers in Memphis took a stand against degrading and deadly working conditions. They declared a strike that would lead to a movement that would shake our nation. Of course it isn’t too long before Dr Martin Luther King, Jr lends his support. I know this part of our history. But this week while I was listening to interviews with these sanitation workers, I was reminded that we can tell this part of our history in a sentence or two. “The working conditions of those who collected garbage in Memphis were so bad that the people rose up and it sparked the civil rights movement.” But that one sentence represents 1300 initial workers who said enough. And of course it asked something of each of their households and relationships. It represents the thousands of people who said enough and marched and organized and fed and prayed and discerned and told the stories. It’s losing in order for an entire nation to find its life.

About a month ago, Netflix dropped a documentary that I have now watched 3 times. I never get tired of talking about it so if you bring it up, watch out. It’s called the Greatest Night in Pop, a behind the scenes look at the making of the hit song from 1985, We Are the World. Which was a song that was amazing the year it came out and then you, like me, have probably made fun of it ever since. The first time I watched this documentary, I spent the first hour with my mouth open in wonder. This time capsule is catnip for Gen X. It’s wild to witness Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson in 1985. They are fresh faced and so young and at the top of their popularity. Because of Harry Belefonte’s justice work, these stars were inspired to come together to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. In today’s music scene, that would be Taylor Swift, Beyonce. Usher. Noah Kahan. Billie Eilish. Jellie Roll. Dolly all in a room together. Can you imagine? In 1985 45 pop stars gave up their night in order to find life.

Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie wrote the song We Are the World and the others spent an entire night recording it. One night. Before you think your new preacher has gone off the Gospel deep end, hear me out. When I watched that documentary, I thought oh I know this dynamic. They are describing church work. This is every committee that’s ever existed. It’s people who have said yes to being a room together to try and do some good. Some have to be convinced. Some are all in. A few wear the dorky event sweatshirt with pride. Everyone’s a little nervous. And it’s joyful but also challenging. One person has too much to drink and the rest of the group has to deal with it. One goes off on a creative tangent that holds the whole process up a bit. Which leads to one leaving in the middle of it because he can’t handle it. And one is so filled with imposter syndrome that he needs Stevie Wonder’s ease to bring him around.

It also means that before anyone gets in the room, someone is thinking strategically about group dynamics and how best to welcome these humans and think through what they will need. And perhaps most critically, before all those stars arrived to record, Quincy Jones put a hand written sign  above the door that said, “Check your ego at the door.” It’s setting aside your ego and agenda for the sake of the whole. This is committee work. Council work. Team work. Church work.

Jesus calls us to lose. Lose your yard, your Saturday, your Sound School rooms, your building, your job security, your life as a megahit pop star, your sense of control, lose your ego. Lose it all.

And in exchange, find. Find healing, love, mercy, new garden beds, solutions to hunger, a place for the most vulnerable to find safety and rest. We will find community and a new song to sing.