Pentecost Sunday
8 June 2025
Vineville Baptist Church
Macon, Georgia
Gregory Pope
GATHERING THE FAMILY OF GOD
1 Corinthians 12.4-12. Luke 15.1-10
Today we take a brief hiatus from our journey through the Biblical Story. We will pick up next week with the reign of King David and the rise and fall of the kingdom of Israel. This morning I want us turn our focus toward Vineville Baptist Church and what I am calling “Gathering the Family of God.”
One of the many images Scripture employs when speaking of the church is “the family of God.” We are brothers and sisters in Christ. To add to that image Moses says we are God’s peculiar treasure, God’s covenant people. We are the covenant family of God.
There is a myriad of ways in which the church functions as a family: We love one another. We sometimes disagree with one another. On our good days we know we could not make it without each other. On our bad days we still refuse to give up on each other. This church family has a remarkable history of standing up against racism, embarking on risky adventures, welcoming people into the Vineville family, and seeking to be a family home for those without a family or a home.
In many ways, we are a healthy family. Not a perfect family. There’s no such thing where humans are involved. But we do rather well at accepting one another as we are. Like healthy families, healthy churches love each other in the midst of differences because we know there is something greater binding us together. That “something greater” is a mission to share the love of God in and through this place with the aim to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and embody the kingdom of God.
There are many ways around this house that we seek to carry out that mission. We have a family budget that needs the contribution of us all to help make the mission a reality. A mission that calls for everyone to pitch in and help – like the many names you see on the nominating report, people serving in various capacities throughout our church family.
Like most churches, we function as something of a handicapped community. Because not everyone in the family participates and contributes. Like most churches, there is a small number of family members who do the lion’s share of the work. To use another of Paul’s images – the church as the “body of Christ” – we could say the body is often missing some fingers and toes. Or to use another analogy I heard someone offer recently: we’re like a jigsaw puzzle missing a few pieces. I would like for us to see what we can do to correct that.
The deacons take on an important ministry in our church as they each have 9 or 10 families, families to contact once a quarter, people to whom they minister in times of need, church family members to check in with, to see how you and your family are doing.
This morning I want to take a few moments to share with you some ways each of us can help in regathering and expanding the Vineville Baptist family. Pay close and prayerful attention because there is an assignment at the end.
I want to begin by asking us to remember those brothers and sisters in the Vineville branch of God’s family who are no longer physically with us, those described by the writer of Hebrews as part of “the great cloud of witnesses” many of whom have crossed over to another shore but continue to cheer us on by their examples of faithfulness, service, and generosity. Or it could be a former church family members who has moved away. It is important to remember our saintly ancestors. Families who do not know their history do not know who they are.
So I want to commission you with a task: I would like for each of you to write down one story of someone (or more than one person, if you want) who has been meaningful to you from our church’s history who used to be a part of this place but have either passed away or moved away. These are people who do not need to be forgotten. And as you write the stories I want you to send them into the church office so we can collect them. Because it is important to our life as a church family to remember the love and example of our spiritual ancestors.
A second group within our church family that we need to make sure we treasure are those we see on an almost weekly basis here in this place: They’re in your Sunday School class. They teach your Sunday School class. In worship they sit beside you or perhaps on the other side of the sanctuary. They help in the spiritual formation of your children. They share life with you. They rejoice when you rejoice. They weep when you weep. They sing and pray with you and for you, especially when you cannot sing or pray for yourself. Just the gift of their presence in this place week after week brings comfort and assurance to you that you’re not alone. So take the time to express your thanks to them and to God: Write them a note. Send them a text. Give them a call. Thank them face to face.
A third group within our church family we need to reclaim are those who haven’t been here in awhile. They’ve been away from “home.” Most of us can think of people in our biological families – we’re not exactly sure where they are or perhaps we haven’t seen them in years. Church families are like that too. We have somewhere in the ballpark of 300 members in this church family. Some of them are what we call “non-resident” members, meaning, they live in another city or state and as far as we know they’ve have not joined another church. In any given month we see about 200 of our 300 church family members. There are many regular participants here who aren’t members but we would love to adopt them and claim them as Vineville family members!
People stop coming to church for a variety of reasons. Of course, COVID changed the makeup of churches in radical ways, not all of which are bad. But many just got out of the habit of gathering with God’s people for worship and fellowship.
Some people stop coming because something took place within the church years ago that either hurt them or they disagreed with and they never came back and never joined another church.
Some of them have joined what one writer calls “The Church Alumni Association.” They feel they can be Christian apart from the Body of Christ. And while true to American individualism it’s not very true to Sacred Scripture, but it is a club of very fine people that exists nevertheless, with a membership that is growing.
And then there are those who for whatever reason just got out of the habit of gathering with a church family.
In the weeks and months ahead, I want us to make a renewed attempt to reclaim those lost or distant family members. We want them home not to occupy a space on a pew or fill a committee position or add their money to the family budget. We want them home because we love them and we want to be family with them. We want them home in order to help us grow into the people God created us to be. We need them home because their presence encourages us and their gifts enable us to more faithfully do God’s work in and through this place.
How might we go about this? Well, we don’t want to irritate them. Very few people are inspired to come home because you pester them to death. We want to find out why they don’t come any more. Perhaps they’re having to work on Sundays. Perhaps they’re taking care of sick or aging relatives. And if that is the case, we can offer to help them.
If something did happen in the past that hurt them it may be that we need to apologize, ask forgiveness, and seek reconciliation. No family I know exists without inflicting harmful actions or experiencing hurt feelings along the way. And no family can survive without the grace of apologies and forgiveness.
Whatever the reason for their absence: hurt feelings or different habits – they need to know they are missed and we need to let them know we would love to have them back with us.
In the three parables Jesus told recorded for us in Luke chapter 15 we find some guidance on how to welcome people home. These parables give us insights into how God feels toward those who have wandered from their family of faith.
The first parable tells us that sometimes God is like a shepherd who when one sheep wanders off, leaves the larger flock and goes off into the dark and dangerous night to search for that one lost sheep.
The second parable says that sometimes God is like the woman of the house who will turn everything upside down in order to find one lost coin. The lost one is that important to God.
The third parable is a little different. We call it “The Parable of the Prodigal Son.” But the parable is actually more about God’s prodigal love. What we are told about God in this parable
is that sometimes God is like a father who sits on the front porch with a broken heart of love looking anxiously down the road, waiting for his lost child to return home to the family.
Together these three parables tell us that when precious things are lost we sometimes have to go searching for them. Like the woman who had lost her coin, she turned her house upside down until she found it. I want us to be that diligent and that determined in our search for lost family members.
At other times we may have a pretty good idea where the lost sheep are located. And so we have to be like the shepherd in the parable and leave the flock for a while and go out and get them.
And then there are those whom we can call and visit until we are blue in the face and for whatever reason they just will not come home. So we have to take the approach of the loving parent and wait with open arms and prayerful hearts for those we love to return.
It’s not about choosing one approach to the exclusion of the other. With all the different kinds of lost sheep and precious coins and isolated wanderers in our church family, all three approaches will be required.
I would, however, like to offer a word of guidance about their possible homecoming. If and when they come back home to Vineville, if only for a visit to test the waters, we need to be very gracious and express our genuine pleasure about their return. That means there are a few things we Southerners like to say jokingly but should not say like: “Where have you been?” or “Look what the cat drug in!” Nor do we want to take a step back from them and express our fear that lightning will strike. Such misguided attempts at humor only embarrass people and will send them back out of the house very quickly.
Think about it: What would you want to hear if you had been gone a while and returned home for a visit? Think about how much courage it may have taken for them to return. Perhaps the best thing to do, depending on how well you know them, is to either put your arms around their neck or shake their hand and say, “It’s so good to see you. Tell me how you’ve been. How’s your family?”
It will be important that we not act like the elder brother in Jesus’ parable who feels self-righteous about having stayed at home and worked in the family house for all these years and now refuses to join in the joy of the welcome home party.
We are called to imitate God’s behavior and act with a gracious joy toward those who’ve been away but have come back home. When the precious coin has been recovered, when the lost sheep has been gathered, when the isolated wanderer has come home, we celebrate and throw a party because a family member who was lost has been found.
So I’m asking you beginning today to help in the search for the lost or distant members of our church family. Let’s try to find out where they are now and reach out to them either through a phone call, a letter, an email, a visit, a chat over lunch, a dinner at your house. Names and faces, no doubt, have already come to mind in the past few moments. Will you reach out and invite them home?
Before we go out searching, there’s one final group we also need to reach. It is actually the most important group according to Jesus. They are those beyond our family walls, those without a church family to call their home, those who do not know Christ as Savior and Lord, brother and friend. There are members of God’s larger family beyond this place, and we are called to adopt them as brothers and sisters into this family. And we need to be willing to go wherever we have to go and do whatever we have to do to express our love and extend God’s welcome to them.
So I would issue this challenge: That each one of us make it our aim to add one member to the Vineville family over the next calendar year. Not stealing them from another congregation, but each one of us spending the next twelve months building a relationship with someone without a church home and doing all we can to help them find a home in this place. Can you imagine if each of us did that how different this room would look on Pentecost Sunday morning a year from now? Are you willing to give it a shot?
As the peculiar covenant family of God it is our calling (1) to remember those of our church family no longer with us, (2) to be grateful for those within our church family who are always with us, (3) to gather up those of our church family who have wandered away, and (4) to reach out to the whole human family in our community and throughout the world and invite them home to God’s love and ours. I am committing myself to that task today. And I ask you to join me. Who are the names and faces God is placing before you now?