Healthy Church: Finding Comfort Outside Your Comfort Zone

Every home has a sacred object in it.  Like a tree a life I the Garden of Eden, each home has an area which is forbidden.  As a kid, you touch it at your own peril.  When I was in Middle School, I had a friend named Jerry.  Jerry’s house was a fun place to hang out.  His parents were pretty laid back compared to those of everyone else (they had HBO).  Except for one unbreakable rule.  When we were in Jerry’s den, no one was allowed to sit in his father’s reclining chair.  If any of us, or even Jerry sat in it, his mother would come running in, almost in a panic, “Don’t sit in your father’s chair!  Don’t sit in your father’s chair!” Even worse than sitting there, was moving the TV Guide that was strategically placed on the side table next to the Lay-Z-Boy.

At the time, having such devotion to a particular piece of furniture seemed silly.  It reminded me of Archie Bunker, and his now Smithsonian-enshrined chair. However, as I got older, I too fell victim to the lure of the comfy chair.  In our home, there once was a big green chair that I loved.  It was where I wrote all my papers when I was in seminary.  It was where I used to sit with the kids when they were little.  It was where I was sitting when I received the phone call that my father had died.  For a decade, that chair was a place of great comfort for me.   It was my comfort zone.  Eventually there came a day when Pam had to break some bad news to me.  After enduring the punctures and fluids of three kids and two dogs, the green chair would have to go.  But, I loved that chair.  It fit me perfectly. I was losing my comfort zone.

We all want to have a nice comfy place where we can retreat from the troubles of the world, rest and feel better.  So at first reading, the apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1 seem reassuring.  After all, hearing that when we suffer, it is so that God will comfort us and we in turn can be a source of comfort for others.  It all sounds so - well, comfortable. 

Ideally, of course, that is what a church should be.  A place where all of us can come, no matter how much pain we are in, and be comforted.  The world can be a painful place.  We all experience human suffering from things like illness, losing jobs, the deaths of those we love, and broken relationships. 

It is true, God provides comfort for us when we suffer that kind of pain.  Sometimes it is through reading the Bible.  God’s Spirit may open up a particular passage or story for us in a new way. Or it may be through people in our church.  In the past few years, I have seen so many times how this congregation cares for one another and comforts people, often people who are new to our faith community, and guides them through difficult circumstances.  Sometimes God’s comfort can be more direct, a sense of peace and reassurance that may come to us in a time of prayer or worship.

As wonderful as those things are, and as grateful as we are for them, if our journey with Christ is limited to them, that comfort becomes dangerous.  Ridiculous as it sounds to be attached to a comfortable chair, too often we become too comfortable in our Christianity. A pastor friend of mine is always annoyed when his congregation tells him they what they really want from worship is to be comforted and fed.   “So in other words, “ he tells them, “You want to be infants.” 

We become comfortable and so we stop growing in Christ and stop being challenged by his message.  It’s easy to tell if you are too comfortable in your Christianity ask yourself, when was the last time you joined a new ministry at church? When was the last time you served someone? When was the last time you saw Christ in the face of the other? When was the last time you read a book about our faith that challenged what you already thought?  Do you believe your relationship with Christ is growing and deepening?  Or has it plateaued?

One reason our journey loses steam is that we make our faith too easy.  Let’s face it, sometimes we more readily accept the demands that our kid’s sports team or choirs put on us than we do the demands of following Jesus.  As an adult, President Jimmy Carter came to greater commitment as a Christian when he heard a sermon.  He says he doesn’t remember any of the content that was preached that Sunday morning.  All he remembers is the title of the sermon, “If being a Christian as a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

Christianity isn’t supposed to be comfortable.  Think about it, nothing Jesus commands us to do is comfortable; loving your enemies, serving the poor, giving away your money, controlling your lusts, welcoming the outcast or stranger, or seeking the Kingdom of God above everything else.  All of those things bring us outside our comfort zone.  They force us to leave our comfy chair behind.

This is precisely what Paul was talking about in his letter to the Corinthians.  The sufferings in which God comforts us, are not just the normal everyday sufferings of life.  Paul is not talking about the sufferings we bear simply because we are human.  Instead, Paul is specifically talking about the sufferings we endure because we are Christian.  As we read on, Paul describes suffering he encountered while preaching in Asia.  Specifically, persecution he endured for preaching the Gospel.  He says he almost died but that God amazingly comforted him in his afflictions and brought him through them.

Being persecuted for one’s faith may seem like a relic from the past.  This weekend, we remember that this country was founded on the idea of religious freedom.  While that is a source of deep gratitude for us, it can also be a source of complacency. But in Paul’s day, as well as throughout history and even in some places today, following Jesus can cost you your life, and be very uncomfortable. 

It is unlikely you or I will ever be persecuted for merely saying we are Christians, or going to church or participating in church in any perfunctory way.  However if we follow Christ fully and authentically, we will encounter resistance and even suffering. Following Jesus will lead us to interact with people who are on the margins of our community, and even cause us to be labeled outcasts.   To authentically follow Christ leads us to stand with those whom others, even religious people, condemn.  It will lead us to questioning our long-held assumptions about the world, the Bible, even God.

It leads us to ask, what have we gotten ourselves into?  Within our own church, we ask you not only to show up on Sunday but to actually follow Jesus the other six days of the week.  We challenge you to join a Vision group, to participate in the life of the church, to serve both here and in the community, go on mission trips, and to support the church financially.  It can all seem so challenging and daunting.  What have we gotten ourselves into?

It’s not so much what we have gotten ourselves into as what we have gotten ourselves out of.  We have gotten ourselves out of our comfort zone and that can be scary.  It can even hurt and seem like suffering.  Paul said that when we suffer because of following Jesus, God comforts us and that we in turn become a source of comfort for others who suffer as well. 

The good news is that when following Jesus leads us outside our comfort zone, we can still find comfort. 

We find it right here, among our fellow believers, among those who are also outside their comfort zone.  When following Jesus is hard and challenging, look around at other Christians, the one’s whose faithfulness you admire.  Draw inspiration from those, right here at Vision, who are stepping outside their comfort zones and serving Christ.  And if you look around and see someone struggling with their faith, reach out and encourage them.  If they look like they’re settling in and getting too comfortable, challenge them to leave their comfy chair behind and join you outside the comfort zone. 

Following Jesus is hard.  If the journey gets hard for you, well that’s a sure sign you’re doing it right. But as a church, we are committed, not only to Christ, but to one another.  None of us is on this journey alone.  We are here to comfort one another, encourage one another, and even to challenge one another when we get too comfortable.

 

Comments

[Phyllis Miller]

Thanks, Complacency is a word that God does not like. Like the comfy chair I have a tendency to just sit back and let others. I have entered a resting zone and feel uncomfortable here. I do need to reach out and get off my duff and meet the people at church and find those in need and those who have a heavy load and need some rest too. It is difficult to get others to work and support but even more difficult to run from projects that need to be done. The comfy chair looks good from here but evenually you could get chair sores.
Thanks Don for posting these as I am traveling and miss attending church with everyone.
God Bless, and make a list, a small one at first of the things that I might be able to do to help out whether it is a meal for a family or what ever please let me know so I too can become a part of the "family"
Phyllis

[Don Heatley]

Thanks for your comments Phyllis. We definitely will have ways you can serve.