When I was a very young child, Lego building blocks were a novelty. They came in a box with bunches of pieces that could be used to build whatever a child (or their parents) imagined. There were a few pictures on the box, suggesting some possibilities, but that was about it. The Legos were sorted by color, placed in different bins inside a plastic container. That helped to decide how the pieces could fit together, but my sister and I still had to figure out how to build the house on the cover by trial and error.
By the time I was a teenager, Lego sets began to appear. I believe the first ones I saw were Construction themes, followed by Space and then Star Wars. Each set was more complex, and though I never purchased one, I know they came with a set of instructions. It is probably not easy to put together over 3000 Legos without some kind of guide.
After I accompanied Terrance to New York to drop him off at college, I went to the Lego Store at Rockefeller Center. It is an amazing place. There were life sized displays of Batman, the Seven Dwarfs, and even a six-foot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty. And there were also tubs of Lego pieces in all shapes and sizes. Customers were invited to create something they could purchase, build their own sets or follow an instruction manual to take home a featured model of the day or week.
Although Legos are not jigsaw puzzles, it was still fun to spend time in the store, creating a couple different models, and looking at all the sets which were available. Still, I am not as creative as Lego Masters, who can create any structure without following a picture on a box or what may be outlined in the Instruction Manual.
Sometimes, I feel like church is like that, especially as we begin a new appointment. The Great Commission (Matthew 28) invites us to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. But there is no Instruction Manual, no template to follow as we continue our journeys with the people we serve.
There are so many pieces that fit together in numerous ways. Some of our congregants have identified their gifts and are already fitting in a variety of places. Others are still in the sorting bins, hoping to be invited to be part of a new or existing mission. What we can create is only limited by what we can imagine or the issues and struggles we are willing to address.
Even though we are all United Methodists, each faith community responds to God’s call upon our lives in different ways. The Bible provides the foundation for what we do. The people we meet inspire us to offer food, shelter, clothing, prayer, comfort and space for others to learn what it means to be the children of a God who loves us so much and so deeply.
I am glad there is no single response to the Great Commission. God shines in and through each of us in ways too numerous to count. We are threads in our Lord’s tapestry, pieces of his puzzle and the building blocks of the church and its mission. May we be blessed by all we do in our Lord’s holy name. And Amen.