Be Dulin Church

Hi, friends, and welcome to the Weekly Dulin Podcast, a brief weekly reflection from Dulin United Methodist Church in Falls Church. Here, we take time to think together about faith, community, and what it means to live as disciples of Jesus in today's world.

Well, hello, Dulin Church. It's me, Henry, your pastor, and I'm here for another Weekly Moment, Dulin Weekly Podcast. It's good to be with you. And I call you Dulin Church on Purpose. And I wanted to talk just a little bit about that today because I think when we think of church, we often think of the building.

When I even quite frankly, when I think of Dulin Church, I think of that beautiful, historic building that is just down the hill from my parsonage, your parsonage where I live, and where I'm recording this message. And so I picture building in my mind. But the truth is Dulin Church is you. You are the ones who make Dulin Church what it is, who it is. And so I thought today I might talk just a little bit about Dulin Church as a living system because that's what it is.

There are all sorts of folks who are a part of making Dulin be what it is. There are people who are involved in teaching our Sunday school on Sundays, volunteers who take turns on the two Sundays a month that we offer Sunday school for our children that take turns going in to teach about varying topics. There are folks who are in our nursery who make our children of nursery age feel welcome and connected. And there are teams of people who volunteer to do things like provide us food after worship every Sunday. In what we call coffee talk, a time to have some coffee and talk.

There are people who sing in the choir. There are people who play bells. There are people who run our tech system so that you can actually see on a Sunday morning or any time that we broadcast. So you can see all those things that are happening. There are people on staff.

Roxana who does an amazing job of keeping our building spic and span. I can't go into my office at any time without smelling the freshness as if it's just been cleaned. And all the rest of the building as well. And then Donna who provides music for us on the organ and the piano and draws other talent in, our volunteer musicians like the people who play bells or who sing in the choir. Recently, she's been bringing some of her students in to play for us on the piano or even to substitute in our bells.

All of you who come to worship with us in person and online, who watch live or later in the week, who watch these moments, who donate to help support the work of Dulin Church. And the work of Dulin Church is more than the staff, it's more than the building, It is touching the lives of organizations like Homestretch and LARSH and others. And if you don't know what all those are, over time we hope to help you understand all the ways you make it possible for us to be engaged because you are Dulin Church. But I also want you to know that being Dulin Church is more than just what you do, we might say, on behalf of Dulin. Whether you serve on a committee, whether you come to one of our cleanup days, or one of the volunteers who lays mulch out in the among all of our flower beds or weed in our memorial garden.

All of those are ways that you are acting on behalf of the rest of the church. You're being the church in those moments. But you're also being the church when you're at home being a parent or out in public being a parent. You're part of the church when you are in school, when you are being a student. Wherever you are and whenever you are, you are part of us.

You are a part of this body of Christ that's represented at Dulin Church, and you get to be that. It's like a special gift. It's an ecosystem that brings us all together. There are moments when we can feel it. It might be a Christmas Eve service when we're all gathered and the room is packed and there's lots of singing and musical instruments and the power of a Christmas service, the scripture lessons that remind us of the birth of Jesus, or it might be an Easter morning when we're thinking about resurrection and new life and new possibility.

But it's also when you go to work. It's also when you go on vacation. It's also when you're being you wherever you are. Because being the body of Christ isn't something that just happens when the body is gathered. Being a part of the kingdom of God is something much larger than even Dulin Church.

You are out in the world making a difference. When you are kind, when you are loving, when you step in for people who need help, when you open your door or share a kind word. Sometimes even when you just smile at someone who might need an uplifting moment, all of those are opportunities and expressions of what it is to be Dulin Church, for you to be you. Because you see, God drew us together in this community. The divine makes us what we are.

The spirit binds us together. And that binding is not limited by when we are gathered in a particular space in the sanctuary for worship or some other experience or in the library for the United Women of Faith, in faith, or the youth group in the youth room. No matter where you gather, what you're doing in our building, what you do out in the world also matters. Let's be honest with each other. You spend a lot more time out there in the world being the church than you do inside the building.

There aren't a whole lot of us who spend a whole, even me, as your pastor, I spend a fair amount of time in that building, in Dulin United Methodist Church building. I spend a lot of time there. But a lot of time my being the church, yes, it involves answering the phone and returning emails, writing sermons and things like that. But I'm being the church on your behalf and with you when I'm out in the community. When I walk down to the four provinces for lunch or dinner.

I'm going pop in on Lucky Thai for dinner or get coffee at Cafe Kindred or Paris Baguette or perhaps the Happy Tart when I'm getting something gluten free. And so many more places than that. When I am being out in the community, when I am being a representative of the one who sent me, of Christ, as a part of the Dulin community. So I wanted to invite you to think about that because you're out in the world most of the time. Whether in being out in the world means being in your home, being out in the workplace, in your commute to and from school, the workplace, wherever you're going on vacation, every place you find yourself, you are a part of a larger connection.

We are connected to each other. We are embodying what it looks like to be love in the world. And that is the invitation of following Jesus. So I want to challenge you and challenge me to be Dulin Church. And begin to think, maybe even ask yourself the question, it's a way to measure I suppose, don't.

This is not a way to beat yourself up. I'm not measuring up or I am measuring up whatever it may be. But when you're out in the world, reflect on your day. Maybe when you listen to this or watch this on our YouTube channel, when you're watching this video of the weekly moment, listening to the Dulin Weekly Podcast, ask yourself, where was I the church today? Where did I get to be church?

And if you're questioning whether you really were the church in various places, ask yourself why you feel like you weren't the church. Weren't you kind to the checkout person at Harris Teeter or Aldi or Whole Foods or wherever you shop? Weren't you kind to your neighbor as you went out to check your mailbox? Weren't you attentive to significant people in your life by listening to what they had to say? How is that any less being the church than gathering for worship on a Sunday morning?

I want to invite you to see yourself, to understand yourself as part of us, and think of yourself as, you know, ambassador for Christ, an ambassador for Dulin, if you will, as you are Dulin Church wherever you go. Let that be your commitment. I'm going to be Dulin Church. When you get up in the morning, I'm going to be Dulin Church wherever I go. You don't have to stand on your desk at work and preach or at school or wherever you find yourself.

But you can be Dulin Church just by expressing the love that shines through you that illumines the neighborhood in which you find yourself. You're a part of a vast connectedness that begins probably more immediately in your life, but certainly as a part of the community of faith that we know as Dulin United Methodist Church or sometimes just Dulin Church for short. Go and be Dulin Church. I'm going to do the same. Thanks for joining me and until the next time.

All the best to you.