In the name of God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
I’m
going to start this sermon with a story that might seem more like a
presentation on sales and marketing than it does the Gospel, but we’ll get
there. If you’re like me and like spicy food, then you’ve heard of Sriracha.
It’s a hot sauce that was created by David Tran 33 years ago after he moved to
Los Angeles from Vietnam, and was craving the kind of hot sauce he remembered
back home. But he couldn’t quite find anything that suited his palate, so he
decided to make his own. The Sriracha brand has become synonymous with the word
“hot sauce” in many places, and you can buy t-shirts and iPhone covers with the
logo, there are cookbooks based entirely on this ingredient, and Frito Lay now
sells Sriracha flavored potato chips. In 2012, Sriracha sold over 20 million
bottles for a profit of over $60 million. So you’d expect that David Tran
started with a great business model and has worked hard to build his hot sauce
empire.
So
if you’ve heard of Sriracha, perhaps you even have some at home, I bet you
can’t recall ever seeing a commercial for it. That’s because in the 33 years
that Tran has been selling Sriracha, the company hasn’t even spent one penny on
advertising or marketing. They don’t have a Twitter account, and you won’t find
them on Facebook. They employ zero sales people, and yet, they experience
double digit growth each year. This defies all wisdom. This isn’t how the
experts at Harvard Business School would tell you how to run a business.
But
the reason why it has worked is Tran’s philosophy. He never set out to be a
billionaire, he just wanted some hot sauce that reminded him of home. He has
always placed the product above the profits. Most hot sauce companies use dried
chili peppers, but Tran insists that only fresh chilies are used. And this
makes doing business a lot harder. The harvest season is only 10 weeks long,
and in order to process them while they’re fresh, they must be grown close to
the plant that produces Sriracha sauce. The commitment to their product has
forced them to change the way they do business. They don’t focus on efficiency,
or profit and loss spreadsheets. Instead, they focus on the product, starting
with fresh chilies. What Tran has done with Sriracha defies all odds and
reason, yet it is a resounding success.
Perhaps
you see where I’m going with this. I’ll give you a hint- this is a sermon about
evangelism. Continuing my Fall focus on the epistle readings, let’s turn to 2
Thessalonians. Paul had written one letter already to the church in
Thessalonica, urging them to stay on the right path. But it seems that things
have been getting out of hand, so Paul, or one of his disciples, writes them
again to say “you remember what I said in the first letter? I meant it. Settle
down.” 2 Thessalonians urges the reader to act mature in their faith as they
wait for Christ’s return. Focus on doing the work of the Gospel, and don’t get
out of order.
Today’s
passage begins with “Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not
according to the tradition that they received from us.” Idleness is a bad
translation; it really should be something more like disorderly or disruptive.
They were being disruptive to the tradition, to the soil in which their faith
was planted. And the work of evangelism is about cultivating and planting seeds
in this soil of tradition, allowing it to grow in our own time.
Ours
is a world of distractions and choices. There are so many things that compete
for our attention, for our money, for our vote. Just as the original audience
of 2 Thessalonians knew, it is easy to lose our focus, to get caught up in
life, forgetting about our tradition, forgetting about God. A few months ago I
formed as task force on evangelism at St. Francis to consider this dilemma. How
can we go deeper into our tradition? How can we better know our story? How can
we have the courage and confidence to share the Good News? I’ll go into more
details later about what we came up with, but today we’ll begin the enrollment
phase of a new evangelism initiative at St. Francis that is intended to answer
those questions- to further ground us in the tradition so that the redeeming
and transforming love of God might take deeper root in us and in our world.
And
I firmly believe that this depth is what we need more of in the Church and in
our lives. Christian Century magazine
recently reported on a survey of young adults and church affiliation. What they
found was that young adults are much more interested in spiritual depth than
church programs. The authors of the report said “young adults are more
attracted to congregations with spiritual vitality than ones with programs for
their age.” How many of you have ever said “weekends are so dull; I can never
find anything to do”? People aren’t looking for programs; they’re already busy
enough. Young adults, or for that matter, any child or adult, aren’t interested
in one more meeting, one more thing to add to the schedule. Instead, this
study, and many like it, shows that people are looking for the redemption of a
broken world, healing in the midst of unemployment, grief, wars, and
dysfunctional politics. People are looking for a solid rock upon which to build
their lives. They long for spiritual depth. They are looking for God.
But
we’ve gotten things out of order, we’ve lost sight of the tradition. We’ve
disfigured Sunday morning into a series of programs, as opposed to the primary
function of Sunday, which is worship. And I really mean worship. I mean worship
in the sense that a high school lover worships the ground that their beloved
walks on. I mean adoration. I mean throwing ourselves at the feet of our Maker,
praising God for God’s very being. But we’ve gotten things out of order.
Sundays
have turned into another place where we act like consumers. Which church has
the best Sunday School program? Which church has the easiest parking? Which
church makes me feel good and never rocks the boat? Who cares! Sunday worship
isn’t about us. It’s about God. Sunday is a time to remember our place in the cosmos.
Sunday reminds us that it isn’t all about us. A great preacher I know often
says “God loves each of us as if there were no one else to love, and all of us
as if we were one.” That is what Sunday is about. Sunday is a time to come
together and praise God as if we were all one, while knowing that God so deeply
loves us, as if there was no one else to love.
Now
programs, sure, they’re important and good to have. But they aren’t why we
gather. Sunday isn’t about healing, or singing your favorite hymns, or
community, or even a good sermon. Sunday is about remembering our tradition,
about having our life in the right order- that is, Sunday is about praising
God. And if we do this, we will have great spiritual depth. And out of that
depth, programs will arise as the Spirit moves us. But too often, churches
start programs, trying to attract the Spirit. And when we try to trap the
Spirit, when we try to lure people here with programs, we’ll fail every time.
Because Sunday, and even more than Sunday, all of the Christian life, isn’t
about programs, it’s about God.
If
we can get that right, the rest will fall into place, just as it did for David
Tran and his Sriracha hot sauce. He didn’t focus on advertising to the right
audience. He wasn’t concerned about bank accounts. Instead, he just wanted to
make the best and freshest hot sauce that he could. And it ended up being so
good, he just had to share it, he couldn’t keep it to himself. This is the work
of evangelism. Evangelism begins with tradition, with worshiping our Lord and
Creator. And it ends with sharing the Good News with others.
Today,
we are introducing Listening Groups at St. Francis. These Listening Groups are
the fruit of the labors of the evangelism task force. I’d like to thank Betty
Barry, Jane Anne Hayber, Bill Rogers, Nancy Stiefel, and Geoff Wehe for their
support, ideas, guidance, and faithfulness in planning these Listening Groups.
The
months of November and December will be a time of information and discernment.
We know that this time of year isn’t the best to start a new initiative, so
we’re going to form the groups in January, but we ask that between now and
then, you prayerfully consider your faith journey. We ask that you learn about
these Listening Groups, and that if it seems that taking part in one would
allow you to deepen your faith, that you sign up for them. In the pew in front
of you, you’ll find a green piece of paper with information about these groups,
and the back is a signup sheet. If you’re interested in the Listening Groups, please
fill it out, tear off that half of the sheet and place it in the box in the
narthex.
We
have identified four steps to evangelism, which are outlined in the green handout.
If we are to share the Good News, if we are to rightly order our lives and
ground ourselves in the tradition, we must know what the tradition is. So the
first step of evangelism is to know God’s story. You might do this through
attending the forum, reading books, or reading the Bible.
The
next step is one that we often neglect, because we are so busy and distracted.
But it is crucial for each of us to be able to articulate our own story of
faith. Why do you believe? What does faith mean to you? Who is Jesus in your
life? These are important questions, but we rarely take the time to ponder
them. These Listening Groups will provide the holy space to work on becoming more
articulate about our faith.
The
groups will then discern together the places of intersection and dissonance
between God’s story and our individual stories. Where have we wander from
the path? What lighthouses can we use to right the ship? Where are the fruits
of the Spirit evident in our lives?
And
then, once we have worked through these steps, we can then share this Good
News, both the story of God, but also the grace that we have found in our own
lives through the intersection of God’s story and ours. Now this evangelism
isn’t about bringing new members to St. Francis, it isn’t about converting
anyone; but rather, is simply the natural outgrowth of having God’s story
deeply embedded in our soul. Just like Sriracha sauce, our goal isn’t gains or
prestige; it’s the product. And if you hear nothing else about these Listening
Groups, hear this: God deeply loves you, and when we work to put God more at
the center of our lives, our lives will be transformed. That yearning that you have is the same
yearning that God has. Jesus said “I came that they might have life, and have
it abundantly.” A wise person once said “you can never get enough of the things
that you don’t really need.” You’ll never be able to save enough money, you’re
never going to get enough power, you won’t ever accumulate enough of whatever
it is that you collect- technology, art, kitchen gadgets. But in God, there is
enough, not only enough, but an abundance. There is enough grace, there is
enough healing, enough love, enough life. And evangelism is simply the process
of paying attention to this; it is about learning this Good News, letting it
take root in your soul, and then sharing the abundance of the Spirit that will
grow out of you.
Now
some logistics, because inquiring minds want to know. Our goal is not to
mandate how each Listening Group will function. We are happy to offer guidance
and support, but these are your Listening Groups. You will be able to indicate
your preferences for the type of group that you’ll be put in. Do you want to
meet with people who are in the same age bracket as you, a men’s only or
women’s only group, is the time of the meeting the most important thing to you,
or would you like to meet around a meal? You can indicate these preferences on
the back of the green sheet. We’ll then put you in a group, to begin meeting
sometime in January.
Each
Listening Group will work through the four steps of evangelism, paying
particular focus to articulating our stories and discerning the places of
intersection and dissonance. Group size will be determined based on how many
people sign up, but we anticipate that this process will take 6-10 months. We
suggest, but not mandate, that you meet every 3 weeks or so to keep the
momentum going.
Then
at the end of that process of listening, we invite each group to take on a new
life. Some groups may decide that to disband, other groups will stay together
as a Bible study group, others might become a prayer group, the decision will
be yours. Once groups start meeting, we will publicize some more concrete
suggestions on how to have these conversations and do the work of telling our
stories.
Now
I realize that this is a big step for St. Francis. To my knowledge, there
hasn’t been an initiative like this in quite a while. I know that it can seem
like a daunting task to meet with others to talk about such deeply personal
stories. But remember, though you might be the main character in the story of
your life, it is not your story. It is a part of God’s story. And in listening
to the stories of others, you will see God’s grace working in new and inspiring
ways. Joining a Listening Group will take some courage, and some commitment. I
know that life is busy. But I also firmly believe that this sort of good and
holy work will lead to a richer vitality in your own life and in our parish.
You might wonder if you can just do this on your own? No, you cannot. You need
fellow pilgrims to keep you accountable. Others will sometimes see God’s hand
moving in your life in ways that you can’t.
As
we head into the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, I invite you to consider
what matters the most. As Paul suggests in 2 Thessalonians, the importance of
tradition is central to the life of faith; and tradition is about focusing more
on God and less on the distractions of life. I invite you to focus on the
product, not the programs of faith, because if we focus on having a fresh, not
stale faith, just like Sriracha sauce, we will find new spice and vigor in our
spiritual lives. And I invite you to join a Listening Group to listen to God’s
story, to more deeply know your own story, to more fully experience the Good
News of God in Christ, and be so transformed by God’s love and grace that it
exudes from all of your life, bringing the Good News to everyone you meet.
Amen.
