Hey, Cobblestone,
Mercy works. Mercy gets stuff done. While judgment is holding
forefinger-to-chin, pondering the ethical ins and outs from a safe distance,
mercy gets smack in the middle of whatever the heck is going on. Mercy is
powerful. So powerful that the apostle James says, Mercy triumphs over judgment (2:13). If you ever see mercy and
judgment in a tug of war, put your money on mercy.
In our church, there’s a whole category of ministry called
Mercy Works. It’s a handy term. It’s also a complete sentence – subject and
verb only – and sentences don’t get any simpler than that. And that’s how we
try to keep the work: simple.
About two years ago I taught a series of classes to some
Cobblestone folks who were interested in becoming Mercy Work-ers, whether
through the church or wherever their travels would take them. At one point I
asked the class why Christians in particular should be doing works of mercy,
rather than leaving those works to better-staffed and better-funded government
agencies. One dear friend piped up right away, “It’s impersonal – through the
government, it can’t be personal.” Exactly – that, plus, Christians have the
indwelling Holy Spirit, a necessary condition for doing mercy right. As
personal as God gets by dwelling in his people, they also are called to get
eye-to-eye and heart-to-heart with whoever they serve.
So… Cobblestone, it’s time you meet The Crew – in particular,
the Saturday morning men’s group crew. As often as we can, we visit orphans and widows in their affliction
(James 1:27). Those visits almost always involve tools and materials –
whatever it takes to undo some of the affliction. We sweat, we get tired, we
strain muscles – and gain satisfaction in our work. There’s no substitute for
being right-the-heck there, where
mercy happens. And when it comes to simple… well, they don’t come any simpler
than us.
These brothers are my pride and joy at Cobblestone, and some
of my very favorite people to hang out and work with. They naturally get one of
the core aspects of mercy: Mercy separates the effect from the cause, for an
appropriate amount of time. They don’t get paralyzed in philosophizing: “Well,
(so-and-so) shoulda done (this or that),” or “Why doesn’t (somebody) do
(something)?” They understand that if a particular person is going to be warmed and filled (James 2:16) rather
than being left poorly clothed and
lacking in daily food (verse 15), they’re going to have to invest some of
their own energy. And so we work. With trucks and trailers and hammers and saws
we hack away at the wilderness, hoping, in the Lord’s strength, to make a way
where there was no way.
But we’re old. Really old. The median age of The Crew is well
north of sixty, which doesn’t sound so old if you spend a lot of time hanging
out at Social Security offices. But typically, people half our age do the stuff
we do. During a household move back in September, we were taking a refrigerator
up a flight of stairs (because UP is the only direction refrigerators go!) when
I noticed that the four of us on the appliance had a combined life experience
of over 250 years. “Oh, Lord,” I prayed, “that’s way too much!” Now,
accumulated skills (tricks, actually) help us accomplish the improbable with
great regularity, and I love when people come around and see the old guys
killin’ it – but on some jobs, I’m not quite sure who’s killing who.
So this week’s letter from your
pastor/carpenter/landscaper/roofer/furniture mover is an unabashed recruiting
effort. We need muscle, flexibility, stamina – in a word: youth. I’d like to
not have to take a defibrillator to the jobsites with us. (I don’t, actually…
but, um… hmm.) I’m looking to add a few to the crew. Not a lot – I’m no good at
leading a lot – but a few.
The qualified applicant will have the first inkling of an
idea what James was talking about when he said mercy wins over judgment.
Benefits include: learning some skills from the old far… um, fellows; tips on
how to survive and eventually succeed in jobsite humor; time-and-a-half on
Saturdays (1.5 x 0 is still 0); and a bottle of Gatorade from the cooler if
Rich doesn’t get it first. The greatest benefit, of course, is making it
personal, and being precisely at the point where mercy works.
Since so much of our work is outdoors, we’re going into the
slow season. This is the time of year I ask the other elders at Cobblestone to
keep an ear to the ground, seeking out needs in our church so I can get work
onto a schedule that makes sense. Over the winter we’ll spend more Saturday
mornings dropping donut glaze onto our open Bibles, so you have some time to
ask the Lord if this is something he wants you to do. This past
spring-summer-fall, there were Saturdays when we split the crew across two, or
even three, jobsites; when the weather breaks in Spring ’23, I’d love to do
that even more.
In case I haven’t mentioned it, the work is not limited to
men. Women have joined us on several projects, and if some dads were to bring a
kid or two, I would respectfully ask the men to dial the humor back from PG to
a G rating. For anybody – and I mean anybody – who wants more info on what The
Crew does, please/pretty-please email me at john@cobblestonechurch.com. You can offer to help; you can request a job to be
done for you; you can recommend a job to be done for someone else; you can let
me know you’re praying for us! Or, you could simply drop into Room 112 at the
church around 8am some Saturday and see if there’s a spare donut lying around.
As I mentioned in a previous letter, the Bible book of James
is perfectly positioned, just after Hebrews. Hebrews tells us what faith is;
James tells us what faith does. We don’t have to wait around very long to see
if the faith in us is the saving kind – James gives us some solid metrics. It
takes a firm and flourishing faith to believe that mercy triumphs over judgment.
This week’s letter from me wraps up the four-part “Faith
Does” series; next week we’ll start ramping up into Christmas with a couple
letters I’m planning to have a bunch of fun with – hope you do, too. So now
that you know what faith does…
Go and Do, in Jesus’ name. Amen!
Grace and Peace (in your doing),
John
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