MINISTER'S MOMENT
"Sponge, absorb, squeeze out"
CHARLOTTE AUSTIN

Charlotte Austin McCary's Chapel United Methodist Church

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." (Hebrews 12:1 NIV)

Imagine a church with very limited access to Scripture, no Sunday school curriculum, no multimedia aids, and very limited communication with other churches. You have imagined the first Christians! They were utterly dependent upon person-to-person awareness of the gospel. The gospel was heard proclaimed, enacted in the gestures and symbols of the worship experience, and learned from living and sharing the Christian life in community. How did this intimate beginning grow into the church that exists in all the world?

There are several ways to describe the growth and perseverance of the church. One image is that of the sponge that absorbs and squeezes out. We are made to "soak up---absorb," so to speak, that which comes to our senses. It stays within us unless it has a means to be released. The Christian hears, sees, experiences. The believer stores what has been received. Then, in both the community of faith and the world, it is "squeezed out" by the constant contact with the people around us.

What is absorbed cannot remain within. In fact, it is squeezed out by the very act of worship, wherein the community of the faithful responds to God in word and deed. Worship celebrates and actually enacts what it says it believes---that is, what it has absorbed!

The church can exist without the latest educational techniques and communication inventions. If they are available, that's great, but if they are absent, remember that the church will always, "sponge, absorb, squeeze out."