Open Minds Open Hearts

For the last decade we as a church have used this slogan. “Open Hearts, Open minds, open doors.” We’ve even made it a little easier to say by changing it into a sentence, “Our hearts, our minds and our doors are always open.” You may have heard that during our commercial runs these last few weeks even.  It’s a great slogan and a great message, who can argue with it, in fact who would want to argue with it.

Many times the church has responded to this slogan by doing the easiest of the 3, opening the doors… and that’s a good thing.  Our doors should always be open to everyone and they are.  But one of the things anyone can quickly discover is that just because the doors are open, doesn’t mean that someone is going to come in. Further, just because the doors are open and someone comes in, doesn’t mean they will stay.  Luke 24 vs. 36 to the end of the Gospel, talks about a syndrome the disciples had immediately after the resurrection and how it prevented them from moving on to the next phase.

As the 11 along with the women and other disciples, were gathered in what we suppose was the upper room, Luke tells us that Jesus appeared among them, but lets set the scene again for how that happened.  Jesus had been crucified, he had been raised, and in Luke’s account of the story, the women had been to the tomb saw the angels who told them of the resurrection.  So they ran back and told the 11.  But they didn’t believe them.  Peter went to see for himself and still wondered what happened.  The two other disciples encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and then they ran back and told the 11 but they did not believe them.  Jesus himself then appears to them, greets them with peace, and now they are totally confused with joy and amazement we are told whatever that means, so then he eats something so that they might believe.

Now here is the problem, the disciples who have been repeatedly told that if Jesus was killed, he would be raised, forgot that very basic thing.  So instead they made 3 key mistakes, they closed off their hearts out of fear, they closed off their minds out of fear, and they closed their doors, hiding and afraid to share in the good news.

Jesus finally appears to them in the upper room and opens their minds. when their minds are finally opened eventually great things begin to happen.

They begin to think of what is possible. They select a new witness to replace Judas.  They begin to talk about  what may be possible,  then the day of Pentecost comes and they open their hearts and look out the church is born.

With open minds Peter and John heal a man who could not walk and the people marvel and Peter, now boldly speaks in Acts chapter 3 which we read earlier and says why are you wondering about this.  This was not me or John who did this.  It’s not our power, it’s not our piety that did this, but it is our belief and faith in the risen Jesus. Verse 16 says:

And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

Today’s church may have it’s doors open, but we have to ask: “who’s coming in?” But maybe even more importantly we have to ask: “who’s going out?” Who is bursting the doors wide open to a community that needs this healing and opening peoples minds to what God can do with and through us, by opening our hearts to care for the community we find ourselves in.  When Jesus opened their minds to the scriptures, and the apostles hearts were opened with the Holy Spirit.

I have and many other have been guilty of sitting inside and holding up just like the first disciples, and I can think of a few times when Jesus was in our midst and I didn’t believe it was him until later on. None of these can be excuses for in action. We must continue to adapt and change and dream what is possible, and that means approaching change with an open mind, which in turn can open our hearts.

If we truly are a people who have faith in a resurrected Jesus, we too can open our minds and open our hearts so that we can have open doors not just for all to come into, but so that we can be sent out. In the coming month’s I along with the Staff Parish Relations Committee in consultation with the Ad. Council will be doing exactly that.  We will be clarifying our mission as a congregation, analyzing our church structure, dreaming what is possible, and calling upon all of us to own that mission and orient our ministries around the mission, to reach those who we are not reaching. There is world outside our door that is waiting to hear the good news of the resurrection, and we need to bring it to them. But first we must open our minds to something new, we must open our hearts to let the Holy Spirit guide us, and we must open our doors to receive Jesus but also to share Jesus.