Donald Luzzatto

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This is who we aspire to be: The meek, the merciful, the activist, the pure in heart, the peacemakers.
But this -- too often -- is who we think we are: The poor.

We're reading the book of Acts these days. We¹re talking about the great things the apostles did. And about our passion, our spirituality. Some of us worry that we're poor of passion. Poor of spirit.

We worry that our church isn't growing. That we're losing relevance.

That we're not spreading the word, as God commands us.

We're worrying, I think, for good reason. But we’re worrying about the wrong things.

The reason my family, and many others, were attracted to West End is because this church is so different. I still remember something that Skip said in the first sermon we heard here. He talked about being intolerant about intolerance. Of rejecting bigotry. He talked about the sin of prejudice against people because of their race, their religion, their sexual orientation. Caroline and I actually stopped and looked at each other. Those weren’t the words we expected to hear in a Southern Baptist church. They were both surprising, and -- I suspect -- challenging.

So we came back. We were welcomed warmly every time we stepped through that side door. And challenged intellectually and spiritually in conversations and in Skip¹s sermons. And by this congregation's deeds, like dropping out of the Southern Baptist Convention....

But none of that kept us coming back. It was the warmth of the people that made us return. And it helped us become comfortable here long enough to hear the message.

That this church's love for its members and community is rivaled only by its rejection of pat answers, easy platitudes, and blind belief.

It's easy to create a community of common cause. What we've done here is harder, and more important. And, I think, at its heart, it sets up West End for a bright future.

Catholics, Methodists, Pentecostals, even agnostics can find a home here. Southerners and Northerners can find a home here. Those who believe and those who doubt can find a home here.

We start in very different places. But we're all on a journey that takes us, ultimately, to a profession of faith. Beyond that, though, you'll find disagreement on just about everything. Rather than a weakness, I think that's our greatest strength.

It's easy to feel at home in homogeneity. Embracing diversity -- of origin, of opinion -- is hard. But we've done that.

West End considers itself, in many ways, a church of ideas. We talk about ideas. We argue about ideas. We're tolerant of ideas.

Our preacher doesn't step up to the pulpit and shout at us about right and wrong, fire and brimstone. About so much in this world, the choices are much more complicated than right and wrong, black and white. West End is a church that recognizes that. Further, we're a church that's comfortable with that.

All of which worries some of us. We're so tolerant of ideas, as a group, that we sometimes hesitate to share -- some would say impose -- our ideas, our testimony on our neighbors.

We'll get better.

God implores us to share our beliefs with non-believers. We could all learn from Bill Ashley, who first invited me here. We could learn from Bill, and beyond that, we should.

The most important thing we can do is invite people through those doors. Once they're greeted at the threshold. Once they see the give and take in Sunday school. Once they take a seat in those pews and look around at those smiles. Once they realize that this is a church that welcomes differences, that embraces the notion that the path to becoming born again in Jesus isn't as simple as following a set of directions handed down from the pulpit, or from a deacon. Once they realize all of that, they'll also realize that West End is home. And that home is filled with hope and kindness and faith. And lit by passion.

"People don't light a candle and put it under a bushel. They put it on a candlestick, and the flame gives light to everyone in the house."

Our light has been hidden under a bushel. We've let ourselves be outshone by churches filled with followers of cant and convention. We've allowed ourselves to be obscured by a culture in which Truth has to be easy and quick and prepackaged.

We've been outshone by other churches. But we all know that the brightest lights burn out quickly.

There is greatness at West End. There is passion in our belief that faith can and often is a struggle, in the notion that the struggle sometimes makes that faith stronger. There is a future in a church that values ideas and values community and values questions.

"People don't light a candle and put it under a bushel. They put it on a candlestick, and the flame gives light to everyone in the house."

Together -- as a church, as a community -- we can -- we will -- lift that bushel, and let our light shine.