“Faith on Target” – Mark 12:28-34 – November 1, 2009

On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea and with no thought for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little lifesaving station grew.

As time went on some members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they used it as sort of a club.

Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in this club’s decorations, and there was a miniature lifeboat in the room where the club initiations were held.

About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick, and some of them had black skin and some had yellow skin. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities, since they were unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast. And so they did.

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea coast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.

This story has been around for quite some time, but for me it illustrates the conversation that Jesus had with the scribe. The scribe acknowledged that loving God and neighbor fulfills God’s will for us instead of religion. Unfortunately our faith takes the path of loving our religious “system” more than we do God or our neighbors.

The scribe had not arrived yet, but he was close. He till had some distance to travel. Step one was to understand. Next, he had to apply that understanding to his daily life. We have some distance to travel too. No one has arrived. We can however stay on course. Jesus has plotted our GPS destination with two coordinates: love of God and love of neighbor.

I believe most everyone is sincere about their faith. We know that loving God and loving neighbor is the basic tenet to our faith. Nevertheless, we still live in a world which influences us and shapes us. Like the folks in the lifesaving station we work toward making things more comfortable. We also appreciate beautiful things and we like to be with a group of folks where we can be sociable. We also make rules to maintain order and we create policies and systems to keep our identity.

Eventually there becomes a point where we lose sight of what we are about. Our mission gets lost in the milieu of cultural norms and expectations. Love of God and love of neighbor gets pushed aside and our faith is no longer on target.

How can we prevent our faith from missing the mark? How can we continue to save lives and keep our faith on target?

There is a new WII video game called Sports Resort that includes the sport of shooting arrows at a target. I had the opportunity to play the game at WalMart. I tried to hit the target but my arrows kept missing. I was either too high or too low. Finally, after several tries an arrow caught the edge of the target. But, I was still far from hitting the bulls’ eye.

My wife said, “Perhaps you need to read the instructions.” This was just a demo and you had to purchase the game in order to have access to the rules of the game. The scribe knew the rules of the game. He asked Jesus which commandment was the most important. Jesus narrowed it down to two. He wasn’t trying to simplify what it means to be a person of faith. He was encouraging the scribe to lift “love” over the “law.” These instructions would help him keep his faith on target.

Notice however that when the scribe responded back to Jesus with the love commandment he conveniently left out the word, “soul.” He was willing to love God with his mind, his strength and even his heart, but he omitted “soul.” One definition of soul is “the inspirer or moving spirit of some action.” (The American College Dictionary)

For me, this means passion. To love God with our soul is to be passionate about our faith. Our culture has so influenced us that it is no longer fashionable, popular, let alone comfortable, to be people of faith. Since the need to be successful, self reliant and to fit in demands so much of our energy and resources we no longer have the zeal to keep our faith on target.

Every Sunday for nearly three years Walter had a routine. Just before 10:00 a.m. he would open the doors to Epworth and prepare the church for worship. If the weather was cold, he would build a fire in the old wood stove. If it was hot, he would open all the windows and distribute the hand fans with a picture of Jesus on one side and an ad for a local funeral home on the other. Next, Walter would open the Bible located on top of the wooden pulpit and read the selected Scripture for that week. Then it would be time for prayer. Often there were folks in the community included on Walter's list. The latest national and world news would be mentioned. But always, Walter ended every prayer with a plea for God to remember and bless his beloved church.

Every Sunday, Walter had a routine, but what makes this story so unique is that with very few exceptions, Walter began and ended the Sunday morning worship service alone. Alone? Why? Many years ago, Epworth church was built on land donated by a neighboring farmer, but if for any reason they stopped meeting regularly, if Walter stopped opening the church doors every Sunday, the property would revert to the original owners, therefore Epworth church would cease to exist. For Walter, it was his mission to keep the church open. God had a divine purpose for his life and for the church he loved. But for moment, Walter had to be patient, be faithful and wait.

One Sunday morning a young family, new to the area, visited Epworth and after meeting Walter joined him in worship. They found something unique about this little church nestled among the trees and the old man who faithfully opened her doors. On the following Sunday they came back and within a few weeks the children were bringing friends. At year's end a minister was hired.

Today, Epworth is a small family church situated between several farms and hidden among the trees. Every summer they offer Vacation Bible School for the neighborhood and each Christmas is celebrated with a pageant performed by the children. Many of the original family have died and some of the children have moved away, but the miracle of Epworth has never been forgotten. On the first Sunday of August, people come from across the United States to visit the church of their youth and relive the miracle of the old man who refused to let his beloved church die. The worship service is followed by a picnic on the church grounds. While the children are playing and the adults are eating, you may notice a family wandering over to the nearby cemetery. If you listen carefully, you'll hear a parent telling her child, "Let me tell you a story about Walter." (from: Larry Davies, "Turning Points: A Church, the Messiah... Wait! Why?" Dec., 1999).

What do you want people to say about you? Will they say your faith was on target? That your love for God and neighbor was passionate? Or, will they say you have arrived? God wants us to remember that love is more important following rules. God wants us to be willing to go the distance and have faith through our life’s journey. And God wants us to be passionate people, loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul's UCC, Sidney, Ohio