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Twelve-year old Zach Bonner is making news these days, as he endures the summer’s heat and deserts of Arizona on his walk from Tampa, Florida, to the Pacific Coast. Unlike Forrest Gump, his 1,950-mile walk has a mission: raising money and awareness for homeless children. Though Zach Bonner is a mere twelve years old, he has already claimed his passion: he is dedicated to his homeless neighbors.

Moreover, Zach is already a veteran walker. This current trip is his third fundraising journey. In 2007, then only ten, Zach called his walk, “My House to the White House.” That 1,225-mile trip was a success, raising tens of thousands of dollars, including a $25,000 check from Elton John. This passion of Zach’s started early: When Hurricane Charley hit near his Florida home in 2004, Zach, just 6, used his own little red wagon to collect 27 pickup loads of water for affected families. A year later, then seven, Zach established a non-profit charity, The Little Red Wagon Foundation. Since then, The Little Red Wagon has had many projects, including collecting and distributing backpacks of supplies for homeless children. Filled with donated snacks, toys, and toiletries, the backpacks are known as “Zachpacks.”

On his current trip to California, Zach talks to reporters along the way, and still covers about 20 miles a day. He also meets with homeless children and youth, and often hands them prepaid charge cards with which they buy school supplies.

Along his route, Zach keeps up with his own middle school studies via the internet. When he’s older, Zach hopes to attend Harvard University, and then go to Yale Law School. His hope is to become a prosecutor, so that he may continue his quest to for help others. Still,Zach sees himself as fairly typical for his age. “Some kids are really into baseball, and that is what they do seven days a week,” Zach told a reporter while taking a break from the Arizona heat last week. Then he continued: “This is what I enjoy doing.”

By the way, his supporters are loyal to him, and to the homeless children he supports. When he finishes his trek to the Pacific, Elton John has promised to have another check waiting for him, twice as big as before: $50,000. Zach is making quite an impact, for a twelve-year-old. And yes, there is a movie about him in the works.[a]

In today’s lesson from the gospel of Luke, Jesus invites his followers to invest themselves in the work of God’s kingdom with a passion like that Zach Bonner has for the homeless: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell you possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.”[b] Jesus’ message is about living your life with faith, which is trust. Fear not. Trust. Trust God. Trust that God is with you when you invest yourself fully in the life God opens to you beginning with the gift that is today.

Of course, Luke is also describing the life of the church, in a sense, that he shows us in more detail in the book of Acts. That early church sold all that they had, lived collectively, and trusted that God was with them in every endeavor. They gave themselves to God and to their neighbors fully, freely, and without reservation. Therefore, they lived lives that were free, full, and passionate.

I suppose we notice people like Zach Bonner because they give themselves fully and freely, to the life that stirs their hearts. I’d call that a response to God’s holy and unique calling. And I think we all have such a calling. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was noticed in his day, too, because of his passion for the gospel and for others. Like Zach Bonner, Wesley committed himself fully, holding nothing back, for the good of the people of England whom he loved. He lived this bit of advice he’s remembered as giving to the people called “Methodist:”

Wesley lived the advice, too. He opened his heart to the poor, he gave his scholar’s mind to the thousands who listened to his sermons, and he poured his own money into charities that supported the needy of his time. Like Jesus’ disciples before him and like Zach Bonner in our time, Wesley knew that people noticed his own passion for life. So when a journalist asked him how he could explain the phenomenon that so many people came to hear him preach in open fields and town squares, Wesley replied, “I set myself on fire, and they come to watch me burn.”[d]

Since the time of Jesus, his followers have been at their best when they have lived their lives with abandon, fully trusting God in all things. We Christians are always our most faithful when we honor and obey our Lord’s instruction, and trust its implicit blessing: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God gives us all things, not merely for our enjoyment, but for our mutual support. We are blessed, in the church, to be a blessing. We are given material support, that we might support others. We are given hope that we might share hope with a desperate world.

And we are given life that we might live. The church, at a very early stage, began to misunderstand Christ’s words, and to become more interested in our survival than in our faithfulness. But some clearly understood the implication of Jesus’ call to abundant life. In the second century, the message about Jesus had spread across the Roman world, and a leader in what is now France, Irenaeus of Lyon, famously called Christians to a life of passionate trust in Christ: “The glory of God,” Irenaeus said, “is a human person fully alive.”[e]

Are you ready to invest yourself in life that fully, that freely, and without reservation? If so, you just might find that your journey is no less exciting, and every bit as fulfilling, as that of Zach Bonner’s walk from Tampa to California. If not, well, what are you waiting for? After all, God has already given us the kingdom – a realm of love, life, and hope. It’s time to get in the game. Irenaeus noted an important core value of the Christian life. I invite you to remember his wisdom this week. “The glory of God IS a human being fully alive.”

[a] “Founding a Charity at 6, and Walking Across the Country for It at 12,” NY Times, July 27, 2010; “Tampa Bay’s Zach Bonner, 12-years-old, treks cross country for homeless youth, stops for Elton John, Tampa Headlines Examiner, July 29, 2010; and “Zach Bonner,” from Wikipedia. Also see ABCNews.com.

[b] Luke 12:32-34, New Revised Standard Version.

[c] See “Philanthropy Quotes,” at http//www.nptrust.org/philanthropy/philanthropy_quotes.asp.

[d] See, among other references, a blog by Bill Easum: http://www.billeasum.com/?p=319. Easum makes the point that churches today are floundering precisely because they have lost their passion for the lost.

[e] Irenaeus of Lyon (ca. 115-202), quoted in Diana Butler Bass, A People’s History of Christianity, Harper One: New York, NY, page 36.

[1] “Founding a Charity at 6, and Walking Across the Country for It at 12,” NY Times, July 27, 2010; “Tampa Bay’s Zach Bonner, 12-years-old, treks cross country for homeless youth, stops for Elton John, Tampa Headlines Examiner, July 29, 2010; and “Zach Bonner,” from Wikipedia. Also see ABCNews.com.

[1] See “Philanthropy Quotes,” at http//www.nptrust.org/philanthropy/philanthropy_quotes.asp.

[1] See, among other references, a blog by Bill Easum: http://www.billeasum.com/?p=319. Easum makes the point that churches today are floundering precisely because they have lost their passion for the lost.