Pentecost 11
26 July 2026
Vineville Baptist Church
Macon, Georgia
Gregory Pope
HOW TO LOVE YOUR CHURCH
Romans 12.9-18. Ephesians 2.11-22
There is so much to love about this church: This beautiful house in which we worship, learn, pray, and fellowship. The diversity of people economically, theologically, politically. The way we care for one another in times of need. The dear friends who have carried us through hard times. The experiences we’ve had here that have changed our lives for the better.
This house is our home, a household of faith, where we live together as children of God, brothers and sisters to each other. Together we are the bride of Christ, married to Christ and to each other. The book of Hebrews tells us that Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. So we must not be ashamed to call one another brother and sister, no matter how different we may be from one another.
And just as our biological families are not limited to those who share one roof, so our church families are not limited to those who meet in one sanctuary. God’s family does not live and worship under one roof in one house. Sometimes the family grows too large to stay under one house. My two daughters live in different houses, in different cities, but we are still family. We all belong to one family but we have different names: not just the Pope family in Macon, but the Mathis family in Rome, and the Gross family now in Cartersville as of this weekend.
It’s happened here, and so in 1998 we started Vineville North which became Northway. We also helped start Ingleside Baptist and Highland Hills Baptist where our brothers and sisters in Christ worship along with our brothers and sisters at Northway, Vineville Methodist, First Presbyterian, and all other faith communities who follow Jesus as Lord. We pray for their well-being and partner with them in ministry when we can.
And while it is true that we are part of the worldwide Body of Christ, it is also important to be a part of a specific family of faith – a community of people we can count on to be there for us and who can count on us to be there for them – a church family who can love us and who we can love.
I have been with you now for some 20 months and I hear so many of you express often how much you love this church. I not only hear it in your voices, I see it on your faces.
What does it mean to love your church? I asked myself that question this week and I thought of the similarities between loving our biological families and loving our church family. I want to share a few of those similarities with you this morning.
The first thing that came to mind when I thought about love requires is commitment. A willingness to say: This is my church family. This is where I belong. I will prioritize its well-being. I will take care of the people in my family. And I will allow them to take care of me.
We commit ourselves to being here on a regular basis because our presence encourages others and our gifts are needed in order for us to be the Body of Christ. It’s not about being here every week. Many of us travel for vacations and to visit family. But it is about making our regular presence in this place a priority. Can we all renew our commitment to being here with our church family as often as possible?
Commitment to a church family is also a commitment to spiritual formation, to always growing in Christlikeness. In the waters of baptism we make a commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. And as the months and years go by it is our aim to act and speak increasingly like our older brother Jesus.
Love and commitment in our families and in our church families calls for sacrifice. Putting the needs of others and the church before our own. Loving our church family calls for sacrifice of our time and our resources so that we can fulfill our mission of service in our community and throughout the world. Your generous giving is crucial to our church family life – to its present ministries and so our mission can grow in scale to help our neighbors around us.
I am amazed and inspired by the number of unpaid hours some of you spend here doing and serving, not for power or recognition, but because you care about this building, you care about the children who walk through these doors, you love Jesus and his church. We need more members of our family to give of their time as we seek to carry out our ministry. There is a great strain in our church family at the moment in caring for children. We are blessed with a lot of children for a church our size. We need people who will hold babies, stack blocks, and read books to toddlers during worship. Who doesn’t want to hold babies or listen to toddlers as they learn to talk? If Chuck Whitehead and Len Hindsman can get on the floor with children, so can you. We can help you get back up!
Loving our church family calls for commitment and sacrifice. One of the easier ways to love our church family is to tell others about it. When you love something or someone you tell others about it.
I promised myself that when I had grandchildren I would not be one of those grandfathers that threw the pictures of their grandchildren in front of everyone I met. And I’ve not thrown their picture in front of EVERYONE I’ve met, but at least 50% of the people I meet I give them a look at my grandchildren. And I really don’t care if they want to see the pictures are not.
My poor colleagues with whom I serve on this church staff, they’ve seen more pictures of my grandchildren than they have cared to see by text. I am a little surprised that I haven’t seen pictures of my grandchildren as their screen saver, but . . . maybe in time. The beautiful thing about texting pictures to others is that you don’t have to see them roll their eyes. They could send a rolling eye emoji, but they haven’t so far. My fourth grandchild is scheduled to be delivered this Wednesday, if he doesn’t come before then, so the pictures are only going to get worse for those who know me.
I share a text thread with my longtime friends Rob Nash and Greg DeLoach. We had children around the same time in the 1990’s and we became grandfathers around the same time, so we send pictures of our grandchildren to each other.
But you know, this week as I was putting this sermon together, I asked myself how often I shared news about my church family that I love. And I was disappointed in the answer.
What about you? How many people do you invite to be a part of our church family? It’s exciting to watch our church family grow, but that work starts with you and me. There are many people in our city who do not have a church family who are likely waiting to be invited. And though we may not all be as extroverted as Charlie Jay, like Charlie, we could all be more intentional in telling others about the Vineville Baptist Family. You don’t have to be around Charlie long before he will tell you how important you are (perhaps with a little exaggeration about your royal roots) and how much he loves his church. And rarely will you part his presence without him telling you that he loves you.
We love our church family with our commitment, our sacrifice, our presence, our participation, the support of our prayers, gifts, and resources. And we share our love for our church family by telling others about it.
Now once you’re part of a biological family, other than choosing your spouse or choosing to adopt children, you don’t get to choose the members of your family. And the thing about a church family is if you’re going to faithfully follow Jesus you don’t get to choose who joins your family. Some church families practice exclusion, and you can do that if you want to make Jesus cry. But true Christlike families welcome all people.
Paul was quite clear in his letter to the Ephesians, reminding the Gentiles that they were at one time “strangers to the covenant of promise without hope, without Christ.” But now we “have been brought near.” Christ has broken down every wall that divides us from one another and has created one new humanity of peace. We are no longer strangers but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
Paul instructed the Romans that as members of the household of God we are called to Love one another with mutual affection and outdo one another in showing honor. Contribute to the needs of the saints and pursue hospitality to strangers. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Don’t be arrogant, but associate with the lowly and do not claim to be wiser than you are. And so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
We love who is here as part of God’s family. And we allow ourselves to be loved by God’s family.
There was once a famous monastery that fell on hard times. Its buildings were once filled with spirited young monks and its sanctuary resounded with singing. But then it became almost deserted. People stopped coming to pray. A handful of old monks shuffled through the cloisters and praised God with heavy hearts.
On the edge of the woods surrounding the monastery an old rabbi had built a hut. He would come from time to time to fast and pray. No one ever talked to him, but whenever he appeared, the word passed from monk to monk: “The rabbi walks in the woods.” And for as long as he was there the monks felt sustained by his powerful presence.
One day the abbot decided to visit the rabbi and open his heart to him. As he approached the hut, the abbot saw the rabbi standing in the doorway, his arms outstretched in welcome, as though he had been waiting for him. The two embraced like long lost brothers. Then they stepped back and stood there with smiles their faces could hardly contain. Then the rabbi began to cry. The abbot couldn’t contain himself either. He covered his face with his hands and for the first time in his life, he cried his heart out.
After the tears had stopped and everything was quiet, the rabbi lifted his head and said: “You and your brothers are serving God with heavy hearts. You have come to ask me for a word of hope. I will speak the word, but you can only repeat it once. After that, no one must say it aloud again.” The rabbi looked straight at the abbot and said, “The Messiah is among you.” For a while, everything was silent. Then the rabbi said, “Now you must go.”
The next morning, the abbot called the monks together and told them he had received a word from “the rabbi who walks in the woods” and that this word was never to be spoken aloud again. Then he looked at each one of his brothers and said, “The rabbi said that the Messiah is among us.”
The monks were startled. “What could it mean? Is Brother John the Messiah? Or Father Matthew? Or Brother Thomas? Am I the Messiah? What could it mean?” They were all deeply puzzled by the rabbi’s teaching, but no one ever mentioned it again.
From that day forward, the monks began to treat one another with a special reverence. There was a gentle, wholehearted, human quality about them now which was hard to describe but easy to notice. They lived with one another as people who had finally learned to love. Visitors found themselves deeply moved by the way the monks cared for one another. Before long, people were coming from far and wide to be nourished by the prayers of the monks. Young men were asking once again, to become part of the community.
In those days, the rabbi no longer walked in the woods. His hut had fallen into ruins. But somehow or other, the old monks who had taken his teaching to heart still felt sustained by his powerful presence.1
The Messiah is among us. In every smile on the face of a child. In every watery eye of one whose life is broken. In every wounded soul. In every ancient face weathered by deep pain and great joy. In every newborn face in whose fresh eyes we see the face of God. The Messiah is among us. And we called to take care of each other, to be priests to each other. A holy priesthood of compassion and grace broken wide open for the sake of the world.
To live for one another that deeply is how we love Jesus and his church.
May it be so among us.
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- William Bausch, Storytelling: Imagination and Faith, Twenty-third Publications, 1989, 138-140