June 28, 2009
Rev. Wendy Miller Olapade
joint service at Central Congregational Church

FLEX CHURCH

Prayer: O Generous Giver, you who are also the Great Gift, you who fills each of your creatures with grace and glory so that we may serve as channels of plenitude to all people: Lead us today to the perfect balance, the fulcrum where your power and love are able to flow through us unimpeded, that state wherein we give with the same abundance with which we receive. Amen.

Monica Belmonte is anti-car. Doesn’t own one, doesn’t want one.  But that doesn’t mean she never drives.  Like most of us, she has found that there are some everyday errands that simply cannot be performed using buses, subways, taxis or a metal shopping cart.

In those situations, she uses a Flexcar or as they are known here in Boston, a Zip Car.  Actually Flex Car and Zip Car merged back in 2007, but Zip Car doesn’t support my illustration as well, so bear with me…

Here’s how it works: It’s a Saturday at 8 a.m.  Belmonte walks into a garage in Washington, D.C., and slips into Flexcar 791 — an immaculate forest-green Honda Civic Hybrid.  This Flexcar is shared by a couple of dozen people for a $25 lifetime fee and a monthly charge, such as five hours for $35.  Belmonte has booked it for two hours.

She adjusts her seat and swipes her “zip card” which allows her access to the ignition key for the car she has booked.  Firing up the engine, she’s off: first to a nearby drop-box for used clothing, then to the grocery store.  She returns to the car with bags of food, loads them in and then zips off to another store for olive oil and wine.  Then it’s home to unload and back to the Flexcar lot, racing against the clock.

She makes it, five minutes before her time is up.

Burt Ulrich arrives a bit after 10, and repeats this ritual.  He takes the car and makes his way downtown to drop off two photographs for a competition, then continues on to the grocery store, and finally to a party store to pick up smiley-face balloons for his son’s first birthday party.  And so it goes throughout the day.

Flexcar.  For many city dwellers, this sharing of an automobile is the perfect way to keep their abundance and their needs in balance.  Tell me – do we have any Zipsters here today?

The Flexcar concept of “Car Sharing” is similar to what the apostle is talking about in his letter to the Corinthians — only he is talking about a FlexChurch, a community of believers, so flexible, so sharing that the needs of both the church and its members are routinely taken care of.

He challenges the church in Corinth to “excel in everything” — in faith, in speech, in knowledge and in utmost eagerness (2 Corinthians 8:7).  But at this particular point in time, he wants them to excel in one additional way, in what he describes as a “generous undertaking”: a collection for the Christians of Jerusalem.

Corinth at this time is a booming economic center, prosperous and highly competitive, and the Christian church contains a broad cross-section of the city’s economy, with laborers and slaves sitting side by side with people of leisure, wealth and social influence.  

Paul makes an appeal to this community, asking them to contribute to a collection for “the poor among the saints at Jerusalem” (Romans 15:26).  He believes that need and abundance should always be kept in equilibrium within the larger Christian community, and that those who have wealth are obligated to assist those who are in need.

This is not about welfare policy, however — it’s about balance.  Paul takes a surprising and unexpected stand when he suggests that the rich Corinthian Christians are indebted to the poor Jerusalem Christians — no misprint—the rich are indebted to the poor, since the Jerusalem believers preceded the Corinthians in the faith (Romans 15:27).  Because the Jerusalem crowd has sent spiritual wealth to the Corinthians, Paul believes that it’s only fair for the Corinthians to respond with a gift of material wealth.

Call it FlexChurch: the free and flexible sharing of spiritual and material resources.  It’s the perfect way to keep a community’s abundance and needs in balance.

This is not to say that the Corinthians are anxious to pony up and put their hard-earned cash in the collection plate.  Although it appears that they responded enthusiastically to Paul’s appeal at first, they then began to hit the brakes, and so the apostle has to put some pedal to the metal by saying, “now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means” (v. 11).

But talk of money aside, Paul challenges us to strive for balance.  He wants us to be as fair and free and flexible as a Flexcar program, making sure that there are always resources and support available for members of the Christian community.  It is a question of “a fair balance,” says Paul, “a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance” (vv. 13-14).

Fair balance is the engine that drives a FlexChurch.  

In day-to-day life, this means simply sharing what you have.  “For example, you have five apples, so you give away three.”  And why not?  “They were going to go bad before you ate them anyway.”

Once you begin to behave in this way, you discover that the first step in ministry is simply sharing what you have in abundance.

It may be apples, or computers — or even Apple computers.

It may be carpentry skills or child-care abilities or an interest in teaching English as a Second Language.

This kind of work turns into ministry when you begin to see that it is a way of achieving balance — balance between your own personal abundance and the world’s pressing needs.

In time, predicts one pastor, you may start to care about other people above yourself. “In this case, you find yourself buying five apples (or approaching a store and asking them to contribute them) and giving them away, because you know that there is a family in need and they really need fresh fruit.”  Your focus shifts from acquiring apples for yourself to sharing apples with others, so that both you and the people around you gain all the nourishment that is needed for a healthy life.

This seems so simple ... and it is.  So why is it easier said than done?

Part of the problem is that we like to consume.  Whether we are talking apples or automobiles, we enjoy the process of going out and buying the shiniest model and then taking it home and putting it to use.  It doesn’t matter whether it is a Red Delicious apple or an “Arrest-Me Red” Audi.  Either way, we want it for ourselves.  All this talk of sharing — which is really what Christian stewardship is all about — runs counter to our consumer-driven culture.

We also like to control our possessions.  If we buy an immaculate forest-green Honda Civic Hybrid and lock it in our garage, then we know that it is going to stand a chance of remaining immaculate.  But if we rent such a vehicle through Flexcar, then we lose control of its cleanliness and its overall condition.  We don’t know what kind of mess the previous driver will leave behind, or what kind of accident the next driver will get into.

Worst of all, we’re reluctant to commit.  Jumping into a Flexcar or a FlexChurch requires a tremendous amount of faith.

• Faith that the Flexcar will be waiting for us when we arrive at the garage to drive it.
• Faith that the car will remain in decent working order.
• Faith that a FlexChurch will meet our needs, as well as the needs of others.
• Faith that our gifts of food to the hungry will be put to proper use.
• Faith that our contributions of time and effort will bear good fruit in the community.
• Faith that our monetary offerings to the church will truly support God’s work in the world.

And toughest of all:

• Faith that what we give away will not diminish us, but will give us greater balance and peace and purpose in life.

Being a FlexChurch is all about balance.  It’s not going to put more apples in our fruit bowls or autos in our driveways, but it is going to give us the deep satisfaction of using our abundant gifts to meet the most pressing needs of people around us.

Pastor Wesley Taylor of the Tualatin United Methodist Church in Tualatin, Oregon, tells the story of a 13-year-old Joe, who had been run over by a tractor and left almost completely paralyzed.  He could use only one arm.  The accident left him blind and without speech and in such a deep depression that no one could reach him or help him.  After some time in the Center for Attitudinal Healing, he was transferred to a hospital close to his home in the Midwest.  And there he lay, immobile and unresponsive.

A few beds away, in the same pediatric ward, there was a 2-year-old boy suffering from a brain inflammation and whimpering pitifully hour after hour.  Joe’s mother, remembering what they had learned at the center — that if you can help somebody else you’re not disabled — went over to the little boy’s bed and, with the permission of the child’s mother, picked him up and carried him to her son’s bed.

Then she laid the child on top of Joe — just laid him there.  Joe stiffened with surprise at first, but then he took his good arm and began to slowly caress the baby.

They laid there together, Joe stroking the crying baby.  And the whimpers stopped.  In the days that followed, the two spent a lot of time together and both began to improve and recover.  Joe began to talk again, to leave his crippling depression, and started therapy to learn to walk again.  

Friends, if you can help somebody else, you are not disabled.  Neither of our two churches  have all that we need, but we can help others.

We have gathered together today to get to know one another so that we might think about the ways each of these two very blessed communities might support God’s work in the world --together.

We have gathered together today to continue wondering about the question—can we bear more good fruit together than we can alone?  

We have gathered together today to ask ourselves if what we might each give away in this collaboration will not diminish us, but will give us greater balance and peace and purpose as a combined congregation.

Friends, each of these two congregations comes to this discernment from a place of abundance.  Each comes with great gifts and great strengths. Central Congregational brings history and heritage, a ministry of presence in the community that serves as our mutual mission field; a ministry of a meeting house where children learn, new congregations nest, the arts blossom, commuters save the planet by parking here and using the T; and twelve step, yoga and Buddist groups meet and grow in faith.   Central brings experience as a church and a love for her elders and stewardship of an institution that represents what we both stand for—a progressive, open and affirming, protestant presence that cares for the community in which she sits.  Let’s face it, Central Congregational brings the gift of time and foundation and duration

Hope Church brings a ministry of extravagant welcome to the believer, the non-beliver and the questioning believer as well.  She brings a lot of energy and a new perspective on worship that delights young and old alike—marrying a prophetic, progressive theology with an expressive and evocative faith which calls for action, and action and more action.  She loves to sing and move and knows what she stands for, where she is called to serve and how she needs to stay out there—in the community, sharing the good news of God’s love with others.  She brings an openness to try new things and adjust when they don’t work, comfort with the chaos of change and stewardship of a people who represent what we both stand for—a progressive, protestant presence that cares for the “least of these” in her midst.  Hope Church brings the gift of hip and edgy and fresh and new.

Each of these churches might be considered the rich of the two and each might be considered the poor of the two.  Each has something great to bring to the table – and each is in need.  Think about what would happen were we to bring all of these gifts together.

Central is rich in faith and history and a plant that serves the community.  Hope is rich in energy and passion and a vision for the church at worship and in mission that attracts the seeker and the young.  Paul believes that need and abundance should always be kept in equilibrium within the larger Christian community, and that those who have wealth are obligated to assist those who are in need.  Each brings a wealth, each brings her gifts and in the combination—there is the presence of the Holy Spirit making balance, making something new, making something more than each is alone.

Beloved, participating in FlexChurch means sharing spiritual and material resources so that together we can do God’s will, and be a creative and committed community in an individualistic world.  And in this case it means being an agent for transformation, a prophetic voice for progressive theology, an open and affirming community of love that goes out from here to carry the message of God’s grace and goodness to those who have no church home.  Sharing spiritual and material resources to change the world.

Jesus himself, Paul says was the Prototypical Sharer: “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ,” says, Paul, “that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (v. 9).

An ad for Flexcar reads “Join our club and we’ll give you a car.”

We Christians make an even more attractive offer:  “Join our church and we’ll give you a life.”  So the question for us together is this, “If we join our churches, will we glorify God?

I pray that it is so.

Sources: Axe. Kevin. “Finding a ministry that’s right for you.” Faithlinks. February 4, 2002. Faithlinks.org.; Kleiner, Carolyn. “Go cars.” The Washington Post Magazine, September 15, 2002, 7.