Romans 8:22-27
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
On my count of 3, take a deep breath and hold it in for 3 seconds; then let it out slowly in the form of a sigh.
Again, on my count of 3, take in a deeper breath and hold it for 3 seconds; then let it out slowly in the form of a deeper sigh.
And a third time, on my count of 3, take in an even deeper breath and hold it for 3 seconds; then let it out slowly in the form of an even deeper sigh.
Now, are we all ready for our mid-morning nap? Do you feel calmer than you did 5 minutes ago? Is your mind clear? Are you more aware of what and who surrounds you, both what you can see and what you can sense?
Many Sundays when you arrive here, I have prepared for you what I hope is a sermon that makes you think about something a little differently than you had before or, perhaps, about something you’ve never before considered. Sometimes I feel a prophetic sort of call to share with you a word from God about how we should be living our faithful lives. Today, however, I’d like to share a pastoral word with you on loan from the apostle Paul.
It’s the end of spring and the beginning of summer. I don’t care what the calendar tells us; the first day of June is the default first day of summer. Children and youth are out of school now. Vacations are beginning. Gas prices are up. It’s starting to get hot outside, at least on the afternoons that it is not raining. And summer rain is here. All the signs are pointing to life slowing down and a few lazy days by the pool or in the shade.
Only there are those of us who no longer can see those kind of days on our calendars. While it is so much easier to hope for things that we are sure of or that we do know, many of us are left hoping for things we can’t see, don’t know, don’t really have any reason to actually believe will come to be. There are those of us suffering from diseases like cancer: even with the best treatments available, hope seems far, far away sometimes. There are those of us suffering from depression: even with medication and counseling and people around who really care, there just doesn’t always seem like there is a way out of the darkness. There are those of us who feel trapped by our life circumstances: a marriage that doesn’t work anymore; estranged relationships with children, parents, or friends; the complete inability to find a job even though you’ve been looking for years; the fear of losing your care, home, livelihood, or dignity the longer you look for work. Even with prayer there just doesn’t always seem like there is any reason to hope that things will get better. There are those among us facing death: the death of a loved one or even our own. And all the verses of scripture we can quote to each other or find for each other that talk about the resurrected life cannot ease the anxiety and pain we feel at the idea of an “end.”
No matter what breaks your heart today or causes you to feel desperate, we all know the feeling Paul is describing in the 8th chapter of Romans. The whole world groans in the pains of making new life. It hurts being made into something new. And that is often what is happening when we feel the pains of life setting in. When we are fighting disease or depression, when we are looking for a new vocation or career, when we are trying to find a way to let go of a loved one or of some way of life to which we’ve become attached, sometimes we are going through the pain of being made into something new—some kind of new creation. We may not always welcome change, but that’s what human being is about.
Several years ago, I sat with a family who was facing the loss of their husband and father to brain cancer. Steve’s cancer had set in quickly, and he was young. Not even 55, he started receiving radiation treatments for a brain tumor that quickly spread to his spine. When there was no more treatment and his body began to quickly deteriorate, the family had to make a decision about hospice care. They couldn’t agree on what to do, but Steve made his wishes clear, and it was not long until his body was unable to continue life. I gathered with the family around his bed as we felt that his last breath was close at hand. While I value the training I received in pastoral care at Candler, no book, role play, class discussion, or exam can prepare you for the moment of death until you have experienced it. When we all joined hands around the hospital bed, I suddenly felt the weight of the moment and the expectations of the family members standing with me. And so our prayer began: “O God, we don’t know the words to pray right now, but we need your presence among us and your hand upon your servant, Steve…” It was in the moments of prayer that we all uttered deep sighs, hoping for God to come and calm our spirits and ease the suffering of one whom we loved. Our weakness was the pain of impatiently waiting for God to “show up” (as *they* say) and do something in Steve’s body. The Spirit’s presence arrived for us in our sighs, too deep for words, to close to see, but interceding for us and bringing us the peace of Christ in our time of need.
Friends, no matter what troubles your heart today, no matter what it is that you don’t have the words for, that you dare not share in public, that you don’t even begin to know how to deal with, the Spirit is already there with you, praying for you and with you in sighs too deep for words. Think of it: that incredibly calming feeling of releasing tension through a deep sigh. That’s the presence of the Spirit.
Generations ago, people gathered from all over the known Jewish dispersed world. They came together for the holy day of Pentecost: the Festival of Weeks. It was the festival in which people brought the first fruits of their harvest to the Temple. It was also the remembrance of Moses receiving the commandments at Mt. Sinai. It was one of those big days in which everyone knew that their place, no matter what, was in the presence of all the others offering tithes and prayers of thanksgiving to God. They came no matter what. They came when their loves ones were dying. They came when there was hardly any fruit to consume, much less to give away. They came when their children were estranged, when they were angry with God, when they were worried about how they were going to make it. They came, and the prayed, especially when they didn’t have the words because the Spirit provided what they needed to hear: the story of God’s deeds of power that had taken place in the lives of the people—people just like them.
Friends, don’t leave here today without letting a deep sigh of prayer out and breathing in the Spirit of God. There are deeds of power to be done in your life, and when you don’t even know how to talk to God about your needs, that is when the gift of the Spirit—in words that may be unknown to you now but will become for you the most sacred utterance between you and God. The miracle of Pentecost was not in the speaking but in the hearing of God’s story, your story when you expected the status quo.
May that be for you, friends. When you cannot speak with God, may the Spirit allow you to hear from God, reminding you of what God has, can, and will do in your life. May it be.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Ascension
Acts of the Apostles 1.1-11
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
I don’t want to scare anyone, but Christmas Eve is 7 months away from today. I am acutely aware of this because I will have a 1-year-old this Christmas, and I’m told that she will be way more into the whole holiday season this time around than she was last year. There are 214 shopping days until Christmas Eve this year, so you’d better get cracking away at your wish lists. And since it is so early, you have time to really think about it. Could I make a few suggestions?
How about world peace? Yes, that’s a good start. Let’s add world peace to our list. That would rule out all the wars that we know of today and even the ones we don’t know about. And to accomplish that we’ll need some kind of extraordinary world leader who can tackle even the most dangerous and the deepest divisions, especially the conflict between Israel and Palestine. So, I’d guess we better add that to the list—someone to bring us world peace.
What else could we add to the list? How about the end to poverty and hunger? Yes—that’s a good one. That would mean that no woman, man, or child would ever die of starvation again. And while we’re at the poverty issue, let’s erase homelessness, too. So, we’ll just need someone that will find for us a permanent fix for the problem. Hmm…one more thing for the list, I suppose.
Anything else you’d like to throw in while we’re at it? I suppose we could consider adding a new revival of the Christian faith—churches unable to hold the crowds gathered for worship and study, and (especially important to our church and many others right now) there would be no more money problems in the church at all. Or, we could add economic recovery in this nation and around the world, but I am not sure that the ones currently working on this will be the ones to deliver. Then again, I am not sure that anything other than magic could really repair the damage that has been done. But Christmas is all about hope, right??
Ok, so today is not Christmas Eve. It’s May 24th, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend 2009. It’s the 4th Sunday in May, the 7th Sunday of Easter. It’s just like many other Sundays when we gather here for worship: we’ve all gotten up and dressed for church and assembled in this place that is so full of Spirit and meaning for us. We gaze at and through the windows; we hear the music that Kevin, Jonathan, and the choir provide for the glory of God; we listen to the reading of scripture; we pray. It’s just like any other Sunday, right?
If your answer to that question was yes, I invite you to hear the reading for today again:
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Did you hear it? Did you hear the question of the disciples of Jesus as he is leaving them and leaving the earth to return to heaven? It’s the last time they will be together, and he has given them some instructions about what he expects of them once he is back home with God. He has promised again the presence of the Spirit and wants them to be ready for what the Spirit will empower them to do and call them to do in his name. It will be a very important transition for them. This ministry, this life they’ve been living together is about to become something larger than any of them are ready for, but with the power of the Spirit, anything is possible. And so at this powerful climax in the story of salvation, as Jesus is preparing for his ultimate exit/entrance, the befuddled disciples we have come to know for their inability to understand what Jesus tells them about what is coming to pass don’t disappoint. Listen to their question: “Is this time you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Now, to be fair to these guys, they’ve been through a lot in these last 42 days. It is no wonder that they have questions. I imagine them standing there stunned, listening to Jesus and not really knowing what to do next and not really wanting to move because the next movement could be the cue that this moment—this time with the risen Christ—is over. It seems plausible that his resurrection would be the trigger of all the things that the Hebrews have been expecting from their Messiah to start happening. They were waiting for a great ruler to appear who would restore order and dignity and independence to the people of Israel. They had lived under Roman rule for quite some time; the days of the kingdom of Israel and the great kings of the Hebrews, like David and Solomon, were now over. And as great as those kings were, they were only a foretaste of what the kingdom of God would be like. Actually, truth be told, they weren’t really that great. Remember David? The one who had his girlfriend’s husband killed in battle so that she could be his girl? We only got those kings because we begged God for them. God was pretty sure we didn’t need an earthly king, but because we kept asking and because we rejected God’s reign over us, God gave us what we asked for all those generations ago. And just look where it has gotten us now!
So, generations later, the Messiah was expected to come and resume the rule of the beloved King David. He would accomplish things like world peace, the end of all war, and most importantly, the re-establishment of the kingdom of Israel—the place where all people of Hebrew origin would live freely and would prosper for ever. And then, there would be no more worries, no more war, no more poverty, etc. It would be like that feeling we have about the world on Christmas—like everything really will turn out ok because God loves us and sent us Jesus. The coming of the Messiah would make everyone feel like everything would turn out ok because God loves us and would send us a great warrior king to make everything go the way we and God wanted it to. And by we, I don’t mean us; I mean the Hebrews.
So, the world waiting for the Messiah was pretty disappointed with Jesus. The disciples were not part of that world; they saw glimpses from time to time of the messianic secret we see especially in Mark when Jesus lets on that there is something extraordinary about him and his ministry but tells his companions not to tell anyone what they know about him. Maybe now that he had been to the cross and had overcome death, it would be time for the messianic secret to come out in the open. This must be it—the time when all those things they hadn’t been able to tell about Jesus could be told. This must be it—the time when they would finally be rewarded for their devotion to a movement that was pretty good for a while but had recently seen some pretty hard times. This must be it—the time when not only the hurts of the world but the hurts of the people of God would all be healed and God would dry their tears, etc. This must be it—the time when the kingdom would be restored, Israel would be a powerful nation again, and the world would finally know and accept the Messiah. Isn’t this it, Jesus?
Maybe you are asking the same question. Is this the time, Jesus, when you’ll restore the kingdom of Israel to me, when you’ll make everything right again—the way it is supposed to be in my life? Isn’t it time that my investment in this movement of faith that at one time totally captivated my spirit and life finally paid off and showed some tangible fruit in my life? Isn’t time that my retirement account started to grow again? I’ve done what I was supposed to do; can I stop being punished, please? I’ve lived here for many years; isn’t it time that I got to live one summer free of crime and the fear of crime in my neighborhood? I’ve been giving to the church for a while; isn’t it time that a suitcase full of a million dollars fell in the road in front of me on the way home from worship? Today would be just fine. Isn’t it time that my life, my job, my family, my relationships, my children, my parents, my friends, my partner, my career path finally became what I am sure God has in mind for me?
If your answer to that question was yes, I invite you to hear a few verses again from our passage for today:
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
“Actually,” he says, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, in Summer Hill and Capitol View, in Peoplestown and Mechanicsville, in Grant Park and Ormewood Park, on Memorial Drive and on Cherokee Avenue, in Israel and Palestine, in Pakistan, North Korea, and Iraq. This is in your hands. It’s not a transaction; it is a gift. And the world needs to receive it now.”
So , actually, this day isn’t at all about what you or I want or even need. This day is about what the world needs and the fact that Christ has called us to get out there and see what we can do about it. This day is about school being out and youth having a lot of free time on their hands and us having a gym upstairs and many of us having the time to be here for a few hours here and there. This day is about being sure that we don’t’ forget that the children of God don’t just live in Jerusalem, or Israel, or nice houses, or in our “neighborhood.” This day is about the fact that our lives and very presence here provide witness to the love of God, especially for those to whom love is a stranger. So, we have to get to work. We’re not making our Christmas list anymore; we are taking God’s list to the rest of the elves where we will pray, and wait for the power to make it all come to be. It’s not up to someone else; it’s not some random date on a calendar way out in the future; it’s not at the random will of some crazy God but of the God who holds all things—time, space, our lives, your heart—in God’s hands.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come. And he has gone and has called us to recreate the body of love and grace he showed us. The Spirit will help us know what to do if we will just listen. The Spirit will guide and support us. Everything on our list is possible for God, even the things that seem completely impossible to us. That’s the point: the eternal presence of God prays with and for us and the world. And then the Spirit comes in, disrupts the way we may think it all ought to be, and then we begin to see the kingdom of God.
May it be, friends! May it be.
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
I don’t want to scare anyone, but Christmas Eve is 7 months away from today. I am acutely aware of this because I will have a 1-year-old this Christmas, and I’m told that she will be way more into the whole holiday season this time around than she was last year. There are 214 shopping days until Christmas Eve this year, so you’d better get cracking away at your wish lists. And since it is so early, you have time to really think about it. Could I make a few suggestions?
How about world peace? Yes, that’s a good start. Let’s add world peace to our list. That would rule out all the wars that we know of today and even the ones we don’t know about. And to accomplish that we’ll need some kind of extraordinary world leader who can tackle even the most dangerous and the deepest divisions, especially the conflict between Israel and Palestine. So, I’d guess we better add that to the list—someone to bring us world peace.
What else could we add to the list? How about the end to poverty and hunger? Yes—that’s a good one. That would mean that no woman, man, or child would ever die of starvation again. And while we’re at the poverty issue, let’s erase homelessness, too. So, we’ll just need someone that will find for us a permanent fix for the problem. Hmm…one more thing for the list, I suppose.
Anything else you’d like to throw in while we’re at it? I suppose we could consider adding a new revival of the Christian faith—churches unable to hold the crowds gathered for worship and study, and (especially important to our church and many others right now) there would be no more money problems in the church at all. Or, we could add economic recovery in this nation and around the world, but I am not sure that the ones currently working on this will be the ones to deliver. Then again, I am not sure that anything other than magic could really repair the damage that has been done. But Christmas is all about hope, right??
Ok, so today is not Christmas Eve. It’s May 24th, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend 2009. It’s the 4th Sunday in May, the 7th Sunday of Easter. It’s just like many other Sundays when we gather here for worship: we’ve all gotten up and dressed for church and assembled in this place that is so full of Spirit and meaning for us. We gaze at and through the windows; we hear the music that Kevin, Jonathan, and the choir provide for the glory of God; we listen to the reading of scripture; we pray. It’s just like any other Sunday, right?
If your answer to that question was yes, I invite you to hear the reading for today again:
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Did you hear it? Did you hear the question of the disciples of Jesus as he is leaving them and leaving the earth to return to heaven? It’s the last time they will be together, and he has given them some instructions about what he expects of them once he is back home with God. He has promised again the presence of the Spirit and wants them to be ready for what the Spirit will empower them to do and call them to do in his name. It will be a very important transition for them. This ministry, this life they’ve been living together is about to become something larger than any of them are ready for, but with the power of the Spirit, anything is possible. And so at this powerful climax in the story of salvation, as Jesus is preparing for his ultimate exit/entrance, the befuddled disciples we have come to know for their inability to understand what Jesus tells them about what is coming to pass don’t disappoint. Listen to their question: “Is this time you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Now, to be fair to these guys, they’ve been through a lot in these last 42 days. It is no wonder that they have questions. I imagine them standing there stunned, listening to Jesus and not really knowing what to do next and not really wanting to move because the next movement could be the cue that this moment—this time with the risen Christ—is over. It seems plausible that his resurrection would be the trigger of all the things that the Hebrews have been expecting from their Messiah to start happening. They were waiting for a great ruler to appear who would restore order and dignity and independence to the people of Israel. They had lived under Roman rule for quite some time; the days of the kingdom of Israel and the great kings of the Hebrews, like David and Solomon, were now over. And as great as those kings were, they were only a foretaste of what the kingdom of God would be like. Actually, truth be told, they weren’t really that great. Remember David? The one who had his girlfriend’s husband killed in battle so that she could be his girl? We only got those kings because we begged God for them. God was pretty sure we didn’t need an earthly king, but because we kept asking and because we rejected God’s reign over us, God gave us what we asked for all those generations ago. And just look where it has gotten us now!
So, generations later, the Messiah was expected to come and resume the rule of the beloved King David. He would accomplish things like world peace, the end of all war, and most importantly, the re-establishment of the kingdom of Israel—the place where all people of Hebrew origin would live freely and would prosper for ever. And then, there would be no more worries, no more war, no more poverty, etc. It would be like that feeling we have about the world on Christmas—like everything really will turn out ok because God loves us and sent us Jesus. The coming of the Messiah would make everyone feel like everything would turn out ok because God loves us and would send us a great warrior king to make everything go the way we and God wanted it to. And by we, I don’t mean us; I mean the Hebrews.
So, the world waiting for the Messiah was pretty disappointed with Jesus. The disciples were not part of that world; they saw glimpses from time to time of the messianic secret we see especially in Mark when Jesus lets on that there is something extraordinary about him and his ministry but tells his companions not to tell anyone what they know about him. Maybe now that he had been to the cross and had overcome death, it would be time for the messianic secret to come out in the open. This must be it—the time when all those things they hadn’t been able to tell about Jesus could be told. This must be it—the time when they would finally be rewarded for their devotion to a movement that was pretty good for a while but had recently seen some pretty hard times. This must be it—the time when not only the hurts of the world but the hurts of the people of God would all be healed and God would dry their tears, etc. This must be it—the time when the kingdom would be restored, Israel would be a powerful nation again, and the world would finally know and accept the Messiah. Isn’t this it, Jesus?
Maybe you are asking the same question. Is this the time, Jesus, when you’ll restore the kingdom of Israel to me, when you’ll make everything right again—the way it is supposed to be in my life? Isn’t it time that my investment in this movement of faith that at one time totally captivated my spirit and life finally paid off and showed some tangible fruit in my life? Isn’t time that my retirement account started to grow again? I’ve done what I was supposed to do; can I stop being punished, please? I’ve lived here for many years; isn’t it time that I got to live one summer free of crime and the fear of crime in my neighborhood? I’ve been giving to the church for a while; isn’t it time that a suitcase full of a million dollars fell in the road in front of me on the way home from worship? Today would be just fine. Isn’t it time that my life, my job, my family, my relationships, my children, my parents, my friends, my partner, my career path finally became what I am sure God has in mind for me?
If your answer to that question was yes, I invite you to hear a few verses again from our passage for today:
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
“Actually,” he says, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, in Summer Hill and Capitol View, in Peoplestown and Mechanicsville, in Grant Park and Ormewood Park, on Memorial Drive and on Cherokee Avenue, in Israel and Palestine, in Pakistan, North Korea, and Iraq. This is in your hands. It’s not a transaction; it is a gift. And the world needs to receive it now.”
So , actually, this day isn’t at all about what you or I want or even need. This day is about what the world needs and the fact that Christ has called us to get out there and see what we can do about it. This day is about school being out and youth having a lot of free time on their hands and us having a gym upstairs and many of us having the time to be here for a few hours here and there. This day is about being sure that we don’t’ forget that the children of God don’t just live in Jerusalem, or Israel, or nice houses, or in our “neighborhood.” This day is about the fact that our lives and very presence here provide witness to the love of God, especially for those to whom love is a stranger. So, we have to get to work. We’re not making our Christmas list anymore; we are taking God’s list to the rest of the elves where we will pray, and wait for the power to make it all come to be. It’s not up to someone else; it’s not some random date on a calendar way out in the future; it’s not at the random will of some crazy God but of the God who holds all things—time, space, our lives, your heart—in God’s hands.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come. And he has gone and has called us to recreate the body of love and grace he showed us. The Spirit will help us know what to do if we will just listen. The Spirit will guide and support us. Everything on our list is possible for God, even the things that seem completely impossible to us. That’s the point: the eternal presence of God prays with and for us and the world. And then the Spirit comes in, disrupts the way we may think it all ought to be, and then we begin to see the kingdom of God.
May it be, friends! May it be.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Easter 4: Mother's Day
1 John 4:7-21
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
On the second Sunday in May 1907 at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1907, the observation of Mother’s Day in the United States was born. The service was organized by a Methodist laywoman, Anna Jarvis, to honor her mother, who had died on May 9, 1905. By 1908 Anna Jarvis was advocating that all mothers be honored on the second Sunday in May, and in 1912 the Methodist Episcopal Church recognized the day and raised it to the national agenda.
So be proud of your church today: without the Methodist Church, there might not be a nation-wide celebration of Mother’s Day and we might not have a day on which we all take time to recognize the ones who have been our mothers and what they have given us. Good for Anna Jarvis for recognizing that mothers are essential to the health and stability of the family! With children everywhere today, we celebrate the ones who have given us birth, given us life, who have helped us find joy, who have taught us life lessons, and who have modeled for us the extravagant love of God—the kind of love that the writer of 1 John has so carefully described in the 4th chapter, our passage for today.
This text is so appropriate for Mother’s Day: a rich description of the love of God for us and how it is shown. In my discernment around the meaning of this text for us, I found my reflections pouring out in the form of a letter, my own kind of epistle. I would like to offer it today as a gift to mothers and those who have been mothered, especially to one of my own whom I have never seen but have come to know through the love that her life gave to others.
Dear Joy,
I write to wish you a happy Mother’s day, and it might be a little strange that since we have never met that I would be wishing you happiness on this day, but your mothering has had a profound influence in my life, and I’d like to take a few moments to thank you for the ways that your love has found its way into my own life and heart.
But before I get started, I’d like to assure you that Dave is doing just fine. He has turned out to be the kind of person of whom I am sure you would be very proud. He has answered God’s call into the life of ordained ministry, and he has opened his heart to people who are searching for their own calling, their own relationship with God. He is very good at what he does. He’s very smart and he’s good with people. His heart contains a vast amount of love, and he is more than willing to share it wherever he finds another heart in need, or just whenever he finds another heart.
Even though we never had the chance to meet in this life, I feel as though I know you. There are a few pictures around and many stories shared that have given me a bit of insight into who you were. From what I can tell, you were intelligent, confident, faithful, and deeply loving. All of these things I know, of course, because members of your family have been your witnesses to those of us who weren’t lucky enough to know you while you were alive. Not only has Dave told me about you but so has Lisa, and what an incredible aunt/second mom she has been for him. They are like 2 peas in a pod—just like your mother, our beloved Juggy, used to tell me! But I also know these things about you to be true because I see evidence of them in your child. Now that we have our own Joy, I am more aware than ever before how much the children in the world really do learn and are formed into the people they become by the world that surrounds them. What a good life you gave to Dave while you were with him!
You know, we have been married now for more than seven years, and there is so much I have learned about you in that time. I know that you valued education because I know the high value Dave places on it for himself and for others. I know you taught him to be confident in himself and that he must have had a good example of that in you because he understands how important it is to believe in yourself so that you can believe in others. I have heard the stories of how you held your family together, sometimes just on faith that you were doing the right thing and not much else, and I can certainly see that value alive and well in the way Dave lives his life. Family is so important to him, especially now that we have Joy—it must be for him like having a second chance at the kind of joy being part of a family can bring.
But I think the strongest lesson you passed on to your son was about love. You must have been a living example of the love of God—being one who clearly abided in God because of the great love you had and shared. And so God abided in you, too, and now you abide not only in God’s love but in God’s eternal presence that will now be forever unchanged for you. Even though we cannot see God, we can see evidence of God’s love all over the world. Even though I cannot see you, I can see evidence of you all over Dave’s life and who he is—especially in how he loves.
He loves completely. He loves people even when they mistreat him. He loves with a deep love that overcomes fear and hatred. He loves the way God intended us to love: without reserve and with justice and equality. And he loves in the model of Christ—the one who was sent in love, lived in love, died in love, and was raised from the tomb in love. He treats people with respect, and he works at making decisions that follow the way of Christ.
While he is not naïve to the ways people often take advantage of others’ love and trust, he continues to offer it. It’s like what I once heard Dr. Joseph Lowery say about all the fights that the church has started over issues of sexuality and the search for proof of one argument or another in the Bible or in church tradition: “If we’re going to err, I prefer that we err on the side of love.” You clearly gave him the example of striving to be the truest form of what God has made each of us to be, even when we fail. You showed him perfect love, the love that is shared between us as a result of the love we have received. You were, for him, the representation of what the perfect love of God is for us—a gift that cannot be earned but can be given over and over again.
And more than any other way that I have seen in our life together, I see the evidence of your presence in Dave’s life through the way he loves our new Joy. She has brought your presence to light in his life in a way nothing else has. We intentionally named her for you, you know. He chose the name because of his love for you; I chose it because of your love for him and how it has made him into the person I am proud to love and call my life’s partner.
I have gotten to know you through knowing and loving your son. And I will continue to get to know you by knowing and loving your granddaughter. I don’t think it is a coincidence that whenever we pass by your childhood portrait that now hangs in our house that Joy smiles and seems to want to linger an extra moment. She and her daddy are both are a living testimony of your love and your life through the way that they do and will give love to others—a love that can never and will never die.
So thank you, Joy. Thank you for giving Dave the example of the love of God that he could always rely on in his life no matter what comes to pass. Thank you for teaching him that reflecting God’s love in the world is about giving it away to others freely, with no strings attached. Thank you for teaching him all about love so that he could be the most loving parent I could ever imagine for my child and so that he can now teach others what real love is about. Thank you for loving him and continuing to watch over him and us now, too. And thank you for connecting with your granddaughter in a way that we can really see not with our eyes but with our hearts, across time and space in a way that only that great cloud of witnesses can do, so that she will have a personal experience of the hope of resurrection as she grows in faith and love with God. Thank you.
May God’s eternal light and rest be upon your soul, Joy. Happy Mother’s Day!
Love,
Susan
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
On the second Sunday in May 1907 at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1907, the observation of Mother’s Day in the United States was born. The service was organized by a Methodist laywoman, Anna Jarvis, to honor her mother, who had died on May 9, 1905. By 1908 Anna Jarvis was advocating that all mothers be honored on the second Sunday in May, and in 1912 the Methodist Episcopal Church recognized the day and raised it to the national agenda.
So be proud of your church today: without the Methodist Church, there might not be a nation-wide celebration of Mother’s Day and we might not have a day on which we all take time to recognize the ones who have been our mothers and what they have given us. Good for Anna Jarvis for recognizing that mothers are essential to the health and stability of the family! With children everywhere today, we celebrate the ones who have given us birth, given us life, who have helped us find joy, who have taught us life lessons, and who have modeled for us the extravagant love of God—the kind of love that the writer of 1 John has so carefully described in the 4th chapter, our passage for today.
This text is so appropriate for Mother’s Day: a rich description of the love of God for us and how it is shown. In my discernment around the meaning of this text for us, I found my reflections pouring out in the form of a letter, my own kind of epistle. I would like to offer it today as a gift to mothers and those who have been mothered, especially to one of my own whom I have never seen but have come to know through the love that her life gave to others.
Dear Joy,
I write to wish you a happy Mother’s day, and it might be a little strange that since we have never met that I would be wishing you happiness on this day, but your mothering has had a profound influence in my life, and I’d like to take a few moments to thank you for the ways that your love has found its way into my own life and heart.
But before I get started, I’d like to assure you that Dave is doing just fine. He has turned out to be the kind of person of whom I am sure you would be very proud. He has answered God’s call into the life of ordained ministry, and he has opened his heart to people who are searching for their own calling, their own relationship with God. He is very good at what he does. He’s very smart and he’s good with people. His heart contains a vast amount of love, and he is more than willing to share it wherever he finds another heart in need, or just whenever he finds another heart.
Even though we never had the chance to meet in this life, I feel as though I know you. There are a few pictures around and many stories shared that have given me a bit of insight into who you were. From what I can tell, you were intelligent, confident, faithful, and deeply loving. All of these things I know, of course, because members of your family have been your witnesses to those of us who weren’t lucky enough to know you while you were alive. Not only has Dave told me about you but so has Lisa, and what an incredible aunt/second mom she has been for him. They are like 2 peas in a pod—just like your mother, our beloved Juggy, used to tell me! But I also know these things about you to be true because I see evidence of them in your child. Now that we have our own Joy, I am more aware than ever before how much the children in the world really do learn and are formed into the people they become by the world that surrounds them. What a good life you gave to Dave while you were with him!
You know, we have been married now for more than seven years, and there is so much I have learned about you in that time. I know that you valued education because I know the high value Dave places on it for himself and for others. I know you taught him to be confident in himself and that he must have had a good example of that in you because he understands how important it is to believe in yourself so that you can believe in others. I have heard the stories of how you held your family together, sometimes just on faith that you were doing the right thing and not much else, and I can certainly see that value alive and well in the way Dave lives his life. Family is so important to him, especially now that we have Joy—it must be for him like having a second chance at the kind of joy being part of a family can bring.
But I think the strongest lesson you passed on to your son was about love. You must have been a living example of the love of God—being one who clearly abided in God because of the great love you had and shared. And so God abided in you, too, and now you abide not only in God’s love but in God’s eternal presence that will now be forever unchanged for you. Even though we cannot see God, we can see evidence of God’s love all over the world. Even though I cannot see you, I can see evidence of you all over Dave’s life and who he is—especially in how he loves.
He loves completely. He loves people even when they mistreat him. He loves with a deep love that overcomes fear and hatred. He loves the way God intended us to love: without reserve and with justice and equality. And he loves in the model of Christ—the one who was sent in love, lived in love, died in love, and was raised from the tomb in love. He treats people with respect, and he works at making decisions that follow the way of Christ.
While he is not naïve to the ways people often take advantage of others’ love and trust, he continues to offer it. It’s like what I once heard Dr. Joseph Lowery say about all the fights that the church has started over issues of sexuality and the search for proof of one argument or another in the Bible or in church tradition: “If we’re going to err, I prefer that we err on the side of love.” You clearly gave him the example of striving to be the truest form of what God has made each of us to be, even when we fail. You showed him perfect love, the love that is shared between us as a result of the love we have received. You were, for him, the representation of what the perfect love of God is for us—a gift that cannot be earned but can be given over and over again.
And more than any other way that I have seen in our life together, I see the evidence of your presence in Dave’s life through the way he loves our new Joy. She has brought your presence to light in his life in a way nothing else has. We intentionally named her for you, you know. He chose the name because of his love for you; I chose it because of your love for him and how it has made him into the person I am proud to love and call my life’s partner.
I have gotten to know you through knowing and loving your son. And I will continue to get to know you by knowing and loving your granddaughter. I don’t think it is a coincidence that whenever we pass by your childhood portrait that now hangs in our house that Joy smiles and seems to want to linger an extra moment. She and her daddy are both are a living testimony of your love and your life through the way that they do and will give love to others—a love that can never and will never die.
So thank you, Joy. Thank you for giving Dave the example of the love of God that he could always rely on in his life no matter what comes to pass. Thank you for teaching him that reflecting God’s love in the world is about giving it away to others freely, with no strings attached. Thank you for teaching him all about love so that he could be the most loving parent I could ever imagine for my child and so that he can now teach others what real love is about. Thank you for loving him and continuing to watch over him and us now, too. And thank you for connecting with your granddaughter in a way that we can really see not with our eyes but with our hearts, across time and space in a way that only that great cloud of witnesses can do, so that she will have a personal experience of the hope of resurrection as she grows in faith and love with God. Thank you.
May God’s eternal light and rest be upon your soul, Joy. Happy Mother’s Day!
Love,
Susan
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Easter 4: How to Be a Christian, 101
1 John 3:16-24
…We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
Welcome to How to Be a Christian, 101.
You didn’t know it when you walked in here today, but this lesson from the first letter of John to a broken community offers us a very succinct lesson on what this Trinitarian faith is all about.
A word of context about the original audience of this letter is important. 1 John, unlike the other 2 which you’ll find just after it, close to the end of the Bible, is less a letter and more a homily or essay. As with all epistles, there is an anticipated audience for it—likely a religious community that has experienced a kind of a split. There is evidence throughout the letter that there is deep antagonism between this community and the ones who have left. The writer often refers to anti-christs and spirits that must be tested for truth, leaving us to believe they may have split over disagreements on what constituted proper Christian belief and practice. Our passage for today contains a commentary on how to truly practice one’s individual and the community belief in the Holy Trinity: God the creator, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
First, you must understand that God is love and that to believe in God is to practice that love toward others. Apparently this has been a problem for the people in the community since the exodus of the others who had broken away and gone somewhere else. And so to be sure that the remnant here was continuing on in the proper worship of and faith in the true God and the true Christ and the true Spirit, the author wants the community to understand that the children of God who follow Christ must first and foremost love others.
Second, you must believe that Jesus was truly the Son of God, meaning that not only was he holy because he was of the same being as God and sent from God but he was also truly human, a real Son, who lived and breathed and died and rose from the dead among us. This had also been an issue in the newly formed and divided Christian community—that there were lots of groups and individuals running around at saying that Jesus was not actually human, that there was no way it could have been true that he was fully human and fully divine. This is the origin of the concern about anti-christ. The author likely meant to use that word to describe people who were against the true identity of Christ: Son of Man and Son of God. And belief in Jesus Christ meant abiding by his commandment to love one another. That meant that the kind of thing the community had been experiencing with people who once called each other brother and sister now calling each other anti-christ and bogus teachers and prophets, did not reflect the both human and divine person of Christ, his love, or his commandment to love.
Loving others was the way to know that Christ was present in your life, and that leads us to the third piece of commentary on how to be a practicing, Trinitarian Christian: recognizing the Spirit in your life through the commandment of Christ to love and be loved. The writer says that the way you’ll know that Christ is dwelling in you and in your life is by the Spirit—the Spirit that Christ has given us. When Jesus was with the disciples as they hid in a locked room, he gave them the Spirit, which he had promised to do before the crucifixion, and told them that the Spirit would be with them always. So how would they be assured of the Spirit’s presence? When they felt and gave love. And we can know the Spirit in the same way—that feeling of overwhelming love that we know can only come from God; the same feeling we are called to give away to others.
So, end of context lesson. Back to How to Be a Christian, 101. Take out your text books and turn to today’s lesson: 1 John 3:16-24. Here you will find the story of all of our Christian journeys:
1. how to respond to God’s love;
2. discovering the purpose of Jesus and what Jesus means for us;
3. letting the love of Jesus (both what he showed us and what he commanded us) show in what we do in the world, and that is our assurance that the Spirit is with us.
1. We cannot be in this world to which God’s love has been so freely given without feeling it for and sharing it with our neighbors, especially those who are in need. Did you hear the story this past week of a Dekalb County school child who took his own life as a result of bullying at school? Or how about the residents of Grant Park who don’t have life as good as most of us do? Or how about when one of our community of faith is facing a hard time? “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Reach out to children in every school, especially the ones where the kids have the roughest time and the smallest shot at making it. Lend a hand to your neighbors here, even the ones you wish didn’t live down the street. When you see a brother or sister shedding tears of pain, offer your shoulder and your heart. This is the most straightforward definition of who God is that we will find—God is the love that you feel and the love you give away. Only the hearts that feel or share no love are the ones that “condemn” us. But let God’s love live in you and through you in me.
2. Jesus came as an ultimate demonstration of that love. He was practically a broken record—“Love your neighbor,” “Love your enemies,” “Love one another,” “Abide in my love.” So understanding who Jesus was and is is knowing that he is nothing more or less than the love of God housed in flesh, blood, and now eternal presence, and making sure that others come to know that same love through how you treat them. And we’re not just talking about the people you already love here, or even the people you just like. We’re talking about the people that God loves—even the ones you don’t like very much.
3. The Spirit’s presence in our lives—that still, small voice; that feeling of someone always being there for you whom you cannot see—is the proof that Jesus’ commandment to love is the ultimate fulfilling of the love of God. Jesus did lay down his life for us—for those who went before us and for those who will come after us—and that proves God’s love toward us. We are reunited with the love of God in a way that cannot be changed now. The words of our prayers at the communion table say it best: “When we turned away and our love failed, God’s love remained steadfast.” And we have known that love through Jesus Christ, through the Spirit, and through one another.
So friends, there is only a short test for our class session today, and you can all answer at the same time:
a. Does God love us? [yes]
b. Does God want us to love others? [yes]
c. If we accept God’s love, should it be possible for us to withhold that love from other people? [no]
d. What characteristic of God did Jesus show us and command us to show others? [love]
e. What do we call that feeling of God’s presence we have when we follow Christ’s example, especially when we are loving each other? [the Spirit]
Last question: do you believe it?
…We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
Welcome to How to Be a Christian, 101.
You didn’t know it when you walked in here today, but this lesson from the first letter of John to a broken community offers us a very succinct lesson on what this Trinitarian faith is all about.
A word of context about the original audience of this letter is important. 1 John, unlike the other 2 which you’ll find just after it, close to the end of the Bible, is less a letter and more a homily or essay. As with all epistles, there is an anticipated audience for it—likely a religious community that has experienced a kind of a split. There is evidence throughout the letter that there is deep antagonism between this community and the ones who have left. The writer often refers to anti-christs and spirits that must be tested for truth, leaving us to believe they may have split over disagreements on what constituted proper Christian belief and practice. Our passage for today contains a commentary on how to truly practice one’s individual and the community belief in the Holy Trinity: God the creator, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
First, you must understand that God is love and that to believe in God is to practice that love toward others. Apparently this has been a problem for the people in the community since the exodus of the others who had broken away and gone somewhere else. And so to be sure that the remnant here was continuing on in the proper worship of and faith in the true God and the true Christ and the true Spirit, the author wants the community to understand that the children of God who follow Christ must first and foremost love others.
Second, you must believe that Jesus was truly the Son of God, meaning that not only was he holy because he was of the same being as God and sent from God but he was also truly human, a real Son, who lived and breathed and died and rose from the dead among us. This had also been an issue in the newly formed and divided Christian community—that there were lots of groups and individuals running around at saying that Jesus was not actually human, that there was no way it could have been true that he was fully human and fully divine. This is the origin of the concern about anti-christ. The author likely meant to use that word to describe people who were against the true identity of Christ: Son of Man and Son of God. And belief in Jesus Christ meant abiding by his commandment to love one another. That meant that the kind of thing the community had been experiencing with people who once called each other brother and sister now calling each other anti-christ and bogus teachers and prophets, did not reflect the both human and divine person of Christ, his love, or his commandment to love.
Loving others was the way to know that Christ was present in your life, and that leads us to the third piece of commentary on how to be a practicing, Trinitarian Christian: recognizing the Spirit in your life through the commandment of Christ to love and be loved. The writer says that the way you’ll know that Christ is dwelling in you and in your life is by the Spirit—the Spirit that Christ has given us. When Jesus was with the disciples as they hid in a locked room, he gave them the Spirit, which he had promised to do before the crucifixion, and told them that the Spirit would be with them always. So how would they be assured of the Spirit’s presence? When they felt and gave love. And we can know the Spirit in the same way—that feeling of overwhelming love that we know can only come from God; the same feeling we are called to give away to others.
So, end of context lesson. Back to How to Be a Christian, 101. Take out your text books and turn to today’s lesson: 1 John 3:16-24. Here you will find the story of all of our Christian journeys:
1. how to respond to God’s love;
2. discovering the purpose of Jesus and what Jesus means for us;
3. letting the love of Jesus (both what he showed us and what he commanded us) show in what we do in the world, and that is our assurance that the Spirit is with us.
1. We cannot be in this world to which God’s love has been so freely given without feeling it for and sharing it with our neighbors, especially those who are in need. Did you hear the story this past week of a Dekalb County school child who took his own life as a result of bullying at school? Or how about the residents of Grant Park who don’t have life as good as most of us do? Or how about when one of our community of faith is facing a hard time? “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Reach out to children in every school, especially the ones where the kids have the roughest time and the smallest shot at making it. Lend a hand to your neighbors here, even the ones you wish didn’t live down the street. When you see a brother or sister shedding tears of pain, offer your shoulder and your heart. This is the most straightforward definition of who God is that we will find—God is the love that you feel and the love you give away. Only the hearts that feel or share no love are the ones that “condemn” us. But let God’s love live in you and through you in me.
2. Jesus came as an ultimate demonstration of that love. He was practically a broken record—“Love your neighbor,” “Love your enemies,” “Love one another,” “Abide in my love.” So understanding who Jesus was and is is knowing that he is nothing more or less than the love of God housed in flesh, blood, and now eternal presence, and making sure that others come to know that same love through how you treat them. And we’re not just talking about the people you already love here, or even the people you just like. We’re talking about the people that God loves—even the ones you don’t like very much.
3. The Spirit’s presence in our lives—that still, small voice; that feeling of someone always being there for you whom you cannot see—is the proof that Jesus’ commandment to love is the ultimate fulfilling of the love of God. Jesus did lay down his life for us—for those who went before us and for those who will come after us—and that proves God’s love toward us. We are reunited with the love of God in a way that cannot be changed now. The words of our prayers at the communion table say it best: “When we turned away and our love failed, God’s love remained steadfast.” And we have known that love through Jesus Christ, through the Spirit, and through one another.
So friends, there is only a short test for our class session today, and you can all answer at the same time:
a. Does God love us? [yes]
b. Does God want us to love others? [yes]
c. If we accept God’s love, should it be possible for us to withhold that love from other people? [no]
d. What characteristic of God did Jesus show us and command us to show others? [love]
e. What do we call that feeling of God’s presence we have when we follow Christ’s example, especially when we are loving each other? [the Spirit]
Last question: do you believe it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
