It is routine for us to encounter problems that are bigger than us in our work at the church. People often come to the church in search of resources to help with their problems. Some need gas for transportation, some need money for rent, some need assistance with health care bills. The list of needs is far beyond our means. For the most part, we have tried to be an effective referral agency. When we are able to help, we do. What we don’t do much of is making the systematic changes that provide long-term solutions.

That is not to say that we don’t make a difference. Each Habitat for Humanity home brings us one step closer to eliminating substandard housing in our community. Programs like the Life INC, administered by Love INC provide tools for long-term life changes for those who participate. Our church participates in many projects through Church World Service that engage in long-term development and create systematic changes.

But some of the things we do provide only temporary relief. I might buy a tank of gas for a family so that they can attend a funeral. I don’t solve their problems. I don’t help them create reserves for emergencies. I just get them one step farther in the direction they seem to be heading. I might help with groceries for a family that needs food today. I don’t address their overall financial situation. I don’t help them prioritize spending. I just get a little food for today and don’t know what they will do tomorrow.

Some of our genuine attempts to help have resulted in forming unhealthy relationships. When we reach into our wallets to make a gift, we can create dependencies. Just this week a woman who has received help from our congregation on multiple occasions called to ask for a ride. We didn’t have anyone who was able to give her a ride at the moment, so we suggested other ways she could get to her destination. There was a public transportation option. None of our suggestions pleased her. She wanted someone to come and give her a ride. She ended up hanging up on us in frustration.

We didn’t mean to make her frustrated. And it would be easy to blame her for her attitude. But we had helped create that attitude by the way we had helped her in the past. It wasn’t a major incident, and perhaps it will be good for her in the long-run. Sometimes getting frustrated, or even angry, can provide an opportunity for learning.

But some days it feels like we work and work and the problems remain just is big and the solutions just as elusive as they were the day before.

Once, in a conversation with colleagues about how best to help people in need, I remarked that I don’t spend much time or effort in investigating whether the person before me is being truthful or telling me a story. “After all,” I said, “I pay good money for fiction in the bookstore. Why not pay for fiction in my office? If they’ve got a good story, sometimes I just make a gift.”

I don’t mean to be flippant, but I know that we can’t be a loan agency - we have no time or energy in trying to collect debts. We can’t be an investigative agency - we’re no good at sleuthing out the truth behind the stories people tell us. We can just be compassionate caring people. And sometimes others will take advantage of us. As long as we don’t give more than we are able, we suffer no harm from generosity. No where are we commanded to be efficient or only be generous to those who most deserve it. We simply are asked to give what we are able.

Fiction often gives me insight on my life.

In “Through the Looking Glass,” Lewis Carroll’ reported a conversation between Alice and the Queen:

“Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'
I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”


Sometimes we have to be able to believe in impossible things. Just because something’s impossible doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.

Maybe it is impossible to eliminate poverty in South Dakota. Maybe it is impossible to undo the injustices of the past. Maybe it is impossible to help every person who comes into our church asking for a hand out. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep listening to the stories and trying to help when we are able. It doesn’t mean that we should stop trying to discover and invest in long-term solutions to systematic problems.

One of the things I treasure most about working in a church is that we are able to engage in things that are much bigger than ourselves. A church, after all, isn’t a single generation enterprise. I’m not the first person to be pastor in this congregation. And i’m not the last either. Some of the work I have done has involved making changes that my predecessors would never have imagined. Some of the work of those who come after me will be making corrections for the mistakes I have made. In each generation we add to a venture of faith in our community that stretches even beyond the work we do in this place. We are a part of a church that stretches around the globe and our place in that church throughout all of history is very small.

What is impossible for us may be easy for the church.

And we remember that “nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)

So the next time someone comes into my office with a problem that I have no clue how to solve, I hope that I can remember to offer a short prayer of thanks for the challenge.

Believing in the impossible forces me to reach beyond myself. Believing in the impossible requires me to reach out for God’s help.

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