The Fourth Leg of the Stool
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
written by Rev. Erik Khoobyarian
When I was in high school, our youth group had a midweek Bible study gathering. I’ll never forget one evening when we were reading the letter of James and came upon these words: “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:17). I was actually stunned a little bit by the bluntness of the writer. But, really, he is summarizing what he writes through much of the first two chapters of this letter. He writes about what he terms “hearers” and “doers” of God’s word. As you might imagine, he emphasizes that we must be both – people who not only learn about God, but then, respond by putting our faith into action.
One of my favorite quotes is “preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words.” While this has traditionally been attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, there’s no evidence that he actually said it, but we do know that he lived a life that embodied this quote by caring for the lowest and least, including the poor and animals, too.
There is no shortage of cliches around serving others. We hear that helping others helps us more than it helps those whom we serve. Or that it is in giving that we receive. (This is actually also attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, although there’s also no record to support him saying it!) Sometimes, though, cliches exist for a reason – they convey, in a pithy way, some reality that resonates with us but also bears repeating.
I often share the story from several years ago where a young person in the church I was serving was bringing some of his books to donate to a book drive at the church. The problem was that he didn’t know he was parting with his books. He was so upset. I actually don’t remember if they ended up leaving the books that morning, but I do remember the tears! But a few days later, the boy and his sister returned with their mother and an even larger stack of books. They boldly walked up to me and said, “these are some books we wanted to donate for kids who don’t have books to read.” They placed the books in the bin, and he looked at me and said “don’t worry, we have enough books at home still” and he smiled and left.
This was a defining moment in the life of these two siblings and their family. Their mother had the choice of how she would articulate the need to help and serve others. It is one thing to learn about God’s love and God’s commandments that we care for our neighbors, but until we do it – until we put our faith into action – we won’t truly understand what it means to have a living faith.
Serving others isn’t just about feeling good about ourselves, it is about growing and deepening our faith and our understanding about who God is and who God calls us to be. This is why I’ve added serving others as the fourth leg of the faith formation stool that I’m using as I seek to live my own life of faith and to encourage others along the way. Together with prayer, reading scripture, and sharing our lives and stories with one another, this fourth leg of serving others will help us each grow closer to God and deeper in our life-giving faith.
During Lent (which begins on Ash Wednesday, March 5, and concludes on Easter Sunday, April 20), Pinnacle is engaging in a “40x24 Lenten Challenge” where our congregation will serve at least 960 hours (40 days multiplied by 24 hours) of service to others. Candidly, I think we can well-exceed this number. Everyone can participate, whether it is devoting time to sort or distribute food at a pantry or prepare and serve a meal, or writing letters of encouragement from home. Truly there is room for each of us to put our faith into action this Lent (and beyond)!
Learn more about the 40x24 Lenten Challenge at www.pinnaclepres.org/serve.