Matthew 22:34-40

Broadway Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Columbia, MO

Jennie and I lost a dear friend three months ago. The Rev. Dr. Bill Curwood served First Christian in Sedalia alongside his wife Linda until retiring in 2001 and moving to Lexington, KY, where they graced our church, blessed our lives, and Bill delighted us with his New Zealand accent. I taught a class on the Psalms a few years ago and asked Bill to read Psalm 18:19. He read, “The Lord has set me down in a brrroad place.” I said, “Oh Bill, say that again!” And he did. “The Lord has set me down in a brrroad place.” To which I say Amen! because this morning I’m here to testify the Lord has set Jennie and me down in a brrroad place, a spacious, gracious place for several months of ministry– Brrroadway Christian Church – and we couldn’t be more grateful. 

Here’s why we’re grateful. You’re dear people (There is a Broadway Spirit!). You have a wonderful history (Broadway and I are nearly the same age). I’m blessed to claim many of your past pastors as friends and colleagues (Rick Frost and Kim Ryan are here in person; I know Jacob Thorne and Nick Larson. Tim Carson and Mark Briley have sent me gracious texts). I look forward to serving alongside your current staff (I really do.) I arrived just in time for Vacation Bible School (Kate, Sarah and 48 volunteers – Thank you in advance). I’ve been on the receiving end of more food than my metabolism can handle (Kathryn Day – that trough of baked ziti you and your dad brought could have fed the 5,000. Martha Jolly – that was some zesty gazpacho! David and Lysa Holmes – thanks for introducing us to your friend Andy’s place. John, Terry, Jennie and I got snow cones served in something the size of a small bucket while admiring the summer program for at-risk youth and children Julian Jackman and his colleagues run and you support). I’ve received invitations to small groups, Sunday School classes, Bible studies, care groups … and meetings (sigh ). I’ve have had drop-bys in my office, emails, texts, and a series of zoom calls with two dozen of you (Dan Day saw me online last week and when he met me Thursday, he said, “You look taller in person than you do on Zoom”). Do you see why I’m grateful to have been set down in this broad place called Broadway?

But I am grateful above all else to be here because you are a church who, though 65 years old, is far from retiring! Far be it from you to put your ministry feet up and take a nap or coast on your past laurels, content with the same old, same old. No, you believe God isn’t done with Broadway yet and you’ve determined to be the kind of church our Lord can work through in these post-COVID years to fulfill the Great Commandment – loving God and loving neighbors near and far. You want to advance your Mission Statement – Embody God’s Love in an Ever-Changing Society ­­– by living out your core values in new ways for new times. Those core values I love and I quote: Broad Hearts. Broad Minds. Broad Reach. So it is in these first three weeks I’d like to focus on them one by one, beginning with Broad Hearts.   

It says on your website under Broad Hearts: We embrace God’s radical love for all people. That’s what it says on your website and hey, if it’s on the internet it must be true, right? Is it? Are you a bunch of radicals who welcome and ‘love on’ all? Radical comes from the Latin radix from which we get our word radish which means root. We think of radicals as being out on the lunatic fringe, but that’s not the word’s original meaning. Radicals, and in your case radical Christians, are people who take their marching orders and welcoming orders from being rooted in the very center, the heart and depths of Jesus’ welcome, he who lived and died with his arms outstretched as if trying to embrace the whole world. So, as disciples of Jesus Christ, you embrace God’s radical love for all people and claim it as a core value. Who You Are is Who We Love you say. (Love me “just as I am,” huh? I heard Kristi play that in the Prelude. I see we’re going to sing that.) And you print for all to see, The congregation of Broadway Christian Church proclaims that we are a place of welcome to all, regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, marital status, physical or mental ability, political stance, socioeconomic background, criminal history, or theological perspective. We welcome all to this congregation, to Christ's table, and to service within the church. That’s what having Broad Hearts is all about. You’re a bunch of radicals in your welcome, indeed.

To which I hasten add (with all due respect to Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick): What the world needs now is love, sweet love, broad and welcoming like that. Because all of us yearn for a place on earth where we’re welcomed. Valued. Loved. Beloved. Raymond Carver was a brilliant writer. He died at age 50 of cancer. After his death, a book of his writings was published that concludes with his last poem titled "Late Fragment." The words, his last, are:

            And did you get what
            you wanted from this life, even so?
            I did.
            And what did you want?
            To call myself beloved, to feel myself
            beloved on the earth.[1]

What was true for Raymond Carver is true for us all: There’s a not a one of us that doesn’t yearn to know there’s a place for us on the face of this earth where we’re welcomed and beloved. Do you remember the TV show Cheers? The theme song included the lyrics "Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name/ and they're always glad you came./  You wanna be where you can see/ our troubles are all the same./ You wanna go where everybody knows your name.[2]"  What’s it say that for millions of TV viewers the place where people know your name, share your troubles, and are glad you came is a bar rather than a church? 

The church ought to be a place where all are welcome, but let’s be honest, it isn’t always. And that pains me. I come across people time and again who, when they learn I’m a Christian or a Minister, wince. When I ask, Why that reaction?, they tell me how they were stung by one of the church bees. They were burned, bruised, badgered, bewildered, or bored by the church and once you’ve been stung, you never want to go near the hive (a church) again.

Which makes me grateful to be called to serve at a church that desires, God help us, to be a healing balm for church bee stings. A place of radical welcome. A people of Broad Hearts. 

Which raises a couple questions in my mind, one that looks back and one that looks ahead.

The question that looks back is, Has your heart been broadened as a result of following Jesus and being part of this congregation? You see, I’m all about truth in advertising. You say Core Value: Broad Hearts. So, has your heart been broadened as a result of being part of Broadway?  Have you in fact become more loving of God and more loving and welcoming of neighbor as a result of this congregation’s ministry? How so? Be specific. Give examples. You can answer that question with someone over lunch.

My question that looks ahead, asks, What might we do in the months ahead to broaden our hearts still more? Bob Goff, author of our summer one read book Everybody, Always, writes about “becoming love.” Are there things we can do, specific acts of loving God and neighbor, that will broaden our hearts even more? I’ll name a few and you can add to them.

Silas House, a Kentucky novelist, says when he hears the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor he hears “love those who aren’t being loved.” Hmm. Who isn’t being loved these days? Taylor Swift was at Arrowhead last night over in Kansas City.  Criticized by someone years ago, she brushed it off, saying, “Haters gonna hate.” Who are haters hating these days? Loving those people would broaden a heart.

Or how about this? I remember someone pointing out to me that Jesus says we’re to “love our neighbors as ourselves.” They said, “That means we should want for our neighbors near and far what we want for ourselves.” So, what do you want for yourself?  Healthcare?  Education? Food and shelter? Safety? Dignity? If those things represent love for you and yours, then yearn for, advocate, vote, and work for those things for neighbors near and far and their children, too. That would broaden your heart and theirs.

Or, do you know someone who was stung by one of the church bees? What if you invited them to come with you to Broadway some time?  Because they know and trust you, they may accept your invitation if you say, “I really believe you’d find that my church is a safe place. Come with me and sit with me. I think you’ll see a different face of Christianity than the one that hurt you.” Offering that kind of invitation would broaden your heart and maybe heal someone else’s.

Here’s one more way our hearts could be broadened. I’m aware you began a great experiment a couple months ago of unified worship – bringing together congregations from three different times and styles of worship into one place for one service. Easy peasy, right? No? I get it. I understand. I have a personal preference, a style of worship with which I’m most comfortable and engaged and uplifted. We all do. And I’ve never forgotten what someone said once as I expressed my preference in what must have been an unhelpful tone of voice and demeanor: “David, love your neighbor enough to sing their songs.” And I have. And my heart has been broadened.                  

I could go on, but I’ve gone from preachin’ to meddlin’ and I don’t want to wear out my welcome. But is that even possible – wear out this church’s welcome ­– rooted as it is in the depths of Jesus’ welcome? 

Bill Curwood, my brother in Christ, is singing who-knows-what with that great cloud of witnesses on high this morning who are loving God with heart, soul, mind, and might by day and by night. Say a prayer of thanksgiving for me this morning, Bill, because look: the Lord had set me down in a brrroad place at Brrroadway. Did I hear the music team sing “Who Am I” at the beginning of the service? Who am I to be so blessed?  

Let all God’s people of Broad Hearts say, AMEN 

[1] From Raymond Carver, A New Path to the Waterfall, Atlantic Monthly Press

[2]Theme from Cheers (Where Everybody Knows Your Name).  Words and Music by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo