Being church

(Get greedy.)

Proper 9C (Track 1) - 2 Kings 5:1-14, Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16, Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Photo by Derick McKinney on Unsplash

This Sunday’s gospel says that Jesus sent 70 disciples out on their own — two-by-two but without him. Imagine their alarm. As the king in the first reading said, “You want me to heal someone?”

Jesus didn’t seem worried. He told the disciples to go be with the people in other towns and announce that the reign of God was near.

In the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of visiting different churches. I saw the care and effort that went into helping church-goers feel seen, comfortable and welcome. Whether it was about buildings or culture, I saw communities “being church.” They had noticed where there were needs, responded to the needs and were celebrating the experience and presence of God.

Even when our buildings and culture are accessible and welcoming, lots of people won’t be in church. The presence of God is with those people where they are. God’s mission doesn’t begin or end in a church. God is busy inside and outside of churches.¹

So, when we are thinking about what “being church” means, maybe it’s ok if we let ourselves get greedy for the experiences of God we might find with the people out there. Perhaps we can let ourselves be sent out, the way Jesus’ disciples were. Sent out to get to know our neighbors, discover “what God might be up to in (their) lives . . . and identify an invitation to join God’s movement there.”²

When Jesus sent his disciples out, some of them may have been worried. But I think Jesus knew they would be fine. He knew that God was way ahead of them. And already out there.

1. “God has a mission in the world in which the church (merely) participates…” Dwight J. Zscheile & Blair A. Pogue, Embracing the Mixed Ecology: Inherited and New Forms of Christian Community Flourishing Together, (Seabury Books, N.Y., 2025) at 53. I love this book.

2. Zscheile & Pogue, Embracing the Mixed Ecology at 140.