Last week, my sister Jo and her children were visiting us from Chicago.  Before they left on Monday afternoon, I took my 7-year-old nephew Roman to Pinehurst Country Club to putt on the Thistle Dhu.  We had a good time challenging each other and I must admit, he has some real skills.  We stopped by my house to drop off golf clubs before taking his family to the airport and as I jumped back in the car, he sighed and said, “Uncle Homer, I wish I lived in North Carolina on a golf course like you do.”  I smiled and told Roman that he could come and live here in Pinehurst with us anytime. 

We live amongst one of the highest concentrations of golf holes in the world.  It can be easy to forget how privileged we are to be surrounded by the beauty created by the abundance of courses nestled so uniquely amongst the tall pines of the Sandhills.  Fourteen years ago, in a depressed housing market, my wife and I purchased a distressed Pinehurst house, located on a golf course, from the bank.  It became our home, and five children later, it bustles with life.  

One of the benefits of living on a golf course, especially near the typical landing area of a tee shot, is that I have not had to buy golf balls in fourteen years.  I just pick up the ones that are hit in my yard.  I can report that most who have a tendency to hook their tee shot into my yard are value-minded ball aficionados.  But since I have a never-ending bounty of golf balls, I can be selective, and for years I used to just throw the ones I didn’t want away. 

A few weeks ago, somewhere in my effort to maintain sanity, I started to play a bit of a game with the unsuspecting golfers that came down the fairway near my house.  It all started when I was mowing the grass near the creek and pond that separates my yard from the golf course.  I stopped the mower to pick up a golf ball and instead of putting it in my pocket, I threw it over the pond and back onto the golf course.  About twenty minutes later, I saw a ball land on the fairway, and a few minutes afterwards, a woman appeared in her golf cart to hit her next shot towards the green.  I noticed that she next stopped her cart at the ball I had tossed back onto the fairway.  She looked at it and then did a funny thing.  She pulled out her range finder, retrieved a golf club, addressed the ball, swung, and landed it on the green.  I was fascinated. 

Now, I have withheld an important detail about the golf hole I live on.  It is part of a three-hole practice course, and it is commonplace for golfers to play multiple balls and hit multiple shots as they practice their game.  After the experience of that initial ball return, I began a little observational game with the golfers that came by my house.  If I was outside and noted that no one was on the golf course, I would toss an unwanted ball out onto the fairway and then wait to see what happened. 

The result was always one of three outcomes.  Least frequently, the golfer would see the ball and leave it in place, maybe even picking it up to see what brand of ball it might be, before dropping it back to the ground.  Sometimes a golfer would pick up the ball, look around to see if there was anyone else around, and then take it for themselves.  Most often though, the golfer would play the newly found ball, as some kind of bonus!  At first, my little game was a curious experiment in human behavior, but after a while, I realized that what I was really doing, was creating an invitation.  The golf ball, just by being there, was an invitation.  It was up to the golfer whether he or she wanted to engage with it or not. 

I couldn’t help but laugh to myself and wonder if Jesus had been a golfer, would he have told golf-themed parables.  I believe the answer is yes.  Truly I tell you, the invitation, in whatever form, is a powerful thing.  For the child, a set of swings or a slide on a playground, is an invitation.  The aroma of cooking food from a restaurant, is an invitation.  The bell that swings from our tower, creates an invitation.  A church steeple lit in the night, is an invitation. 

For the church, there are many ways that we can toss out that metaphorical golf ball.  Our Bach’s Lunch Recital Series, Evensongs, and other concert offerings, are all invitations.  Our Emmanuel Thrift Shop, busy at work in raising money for outreach missions, is, at its core and essence, an invitation.  The Episcopal Day School, engaging the mind, body, and spirit of its students, is an invitation.  Our online video offerings are invitations.  The art, stained glass windows, and beautiful liturgical furnishings of a church, are invitations.  The gardens and shady trees on our campus, are invitations.  The keyboards of the organ, piano, and harpsichord, are invitations.

Stephanie Hillard and I met for lunch on Thursday.  During our conversation, the topic of invitation came up.  When I remarked that, as it happened, this week’s E-mmanuel was centered on the idea of invitation, she shared that invitation was the first of four key actions of Jesus.  He invited.  He included.  He instructed.  He inducted. 

I never heard the movements of Christ listed so succinctly. 

Jesus invited us into relationship: “Come to me,” “Come and see,” Come and dine/rest.”

Jesus included in the mission the overlooked and the ordinary: “Come and follow me.”

Jesus instructed in truth, emphasizing that his teachings are not his own, but from God: “Take my yoke…learn from me…love one another as I have loved you.”

Jesus inducted his people into a new, transformed life, moving away from selfish living and towards service to God: “Go and make disciples.”

Shouldn’t every action of the church be informed by these principles?  Shouldn’t every action of an individual be formed by this elemental model?

It certainly gave me something to ponder this week.  Invite, include, instruct, induct.

This Friday, May 1st, the New Horizons Band, Swing Band, and Red Door Ringers will perform a concert celebrating 250 years of America.  The four elements of Jesus’s ministry are inherent, too, in the founding principles of our country.  Come and hear the beautiful patriotic music that will be offered Friday at 12 Noon.  Invite your neighbor to enter our sacred space.  Take the time to reflect on how all of us can form our lives in the ways of Jesus.