Rummaging

By Bromleigh McCleneghan

With the coming of spring, as we throw open church doors and windows to allow fresh air into our buildings and lives, we arrive once more in the season most likely to create distress and conflict: Rummage Sale Season.

Our church basement is full of junk, rummage that began accumulating several years ago (before my arrival, thank you) in closets and back hallways, but has now taken on one of a scientific property of a liquid: filling any space not already filled with something else.

We have a few folks, I call them the Rummage Bearers, who are perpetually concerned that our small congregation will not be able to produce sufficient amounts of rummage. They take responsibility for bringing in stuff they’ve acquired at flea markets and other second-hand venues throughout the year.
Complicating matters is the fact that real treasures are buried in the midst of this stuff: some antique furniture and glass, collectibles and vintage clothing: gems for the discerning shopper.

On the other side are the Junk Removers, who are mortified that our church building (“God’s house!”) should be so cluttered. They take a garbage bag and start pitching, or call and personally pay for junk removal people to come. Clutter is a sign of neglect and disorder. Our church—our home, they say, ought to be neat and clean and orderly, or people in the community will not want to be a part of our life here.

I do my best to arbitrate, to insist on the rules of fair play and understanding, to help outline some guidelines for future sales. But my effectiveness is limited by my own deep ambivalence about the whole mess.

I was raised with the understanding that the church building was a dwelling place for God—and that part of its holiness was its ability to welcome all people. Part of what makes us holy as a people of God is our ability to see things in others that the world tends to miss, to see the value that is hidden. The Rummage Bearers’ love of hidden treasures is love of the diamond in the rough, a hope in the promise that things of value will emerge from unexpected places.

On top of that, those who gather our rummage proclaim the gospel of environmental stewardship: are we not called to cast off the sins of our culture of conspicuous consumption and waste production? To embrace the mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle?

Junk Removers counter with words reminiscent of John the Baptist: Must our church basement atone for the sins of all Americans by housing our collective castoffs? Any tree that doesn’t bear good fruit is cast off and thrown into the flame, right? New life in Christ requires that we foster growth of the fruits of the Spirit—not mold. Yes, we are called to be a sanctuary to the least of these, but must we welcome mice into the fold? Their enthusiasm in clearing away the dead wood indicates a hope for a future open to God’s transforming work.

Both groups are prophetic in a sense—but both tend toward extremism. As we move forward into rummage season, then, I think I’ll be preaching the best gospel I have on hand: that our lives are full of tension—between old and new, tradition and transformation.

Bromleigh McCleneghan is pastor of Riverside United Methodist Church in Riverside, Illinois.

Comments

[Douglasah]

I suppose a second-hand shop (in a donated space) could be a revenue source for the Church... It would bring money to the church from outside the church - which could beat looking around during a service and guessing who (if not us) is going to come up with the money for the programs...

It certainly seems there are a lot of passions on either side of the rummage pile - perhaps there is a way to direct the passions to a mutual benefit...

[RevJeanne]

A major issue I have with outside sources of income for any church: Why should outsiders support a church if/when its own members prove unwilling or unable to? Rummage sales, building rentals, carnivals, chicken or chili or pancake suppers--they all say, "We don't pay enough to operate this church's ministries. Come on in and help us pay."

Harsh? A church in Wichita, KS which is doing marvelous ministry got its major boost when the leadership decided, "No more chicken dinners! Our members will tithe (or move toward tithing)." And they have stuck with it.

Rick Warren at Saddleback Church promotes "Faith Raising, Not Fund Raising". I think that's the right way to go.