Tom Bandy, a church development guru and ecumenical pastor tells a story that is relevant to all believers:
The retreat was being held in a lodge beside a lake. During the break, we all gathered on the beach to watch the kids play. One child was dressed in swimsuit, bathing hat, plastic flotation “duck”, and snorkel. She kept running down to the edge of the water, dipping her feet into the lake, yelping, and running back to her towel. All the observers laughed heartily. Later during dinner at the lodge, I overheard someone ask the little girl what she did that afternoon. “I went swimming,” she proudly declared.
The retreat participants were less amused, however, when I pointed out that this was a parable of their church. The church is on the edge of the great sea of God’s mission. They are dressed in swimsuits. They have all the resources for swimming. Yet they spend all their time running down to the water’s edge, wading in the shallows, yelping, and running back to the comfort of the sanctuary and boardroom. . . The most amazing thing is that when a sociologist asks them how they spent the previous year, congregational leaders declare, “We went swimming!”
So What?
Yesterday, I used Bandy’s story as sermon illustration for the Epistle lesson: (James 1:22-25 – NRSV: But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.) Consider
- Do you consider yourself a part of the body of Christ and proudly don your swimming attire with regularity yet never actually go swimming?
- Are there times when you stand before a mirror and see your hair out of place and your clothing unbuttoned and walk away and do nothing?
- Is it within your comfort zone to learn, but beyond it to put that knowledge into action?
- How are you living as a doer of the word this week?
- In your congregation, are there safeguards in place to ensure that knowledge is never an end, but always a means to empower disciples to do the word?
Read the full article by Tom Bandy here
Read my sermon manuscript here