Memories of Home

Based on John 14:23-29
First delivered May 26, 2019
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr


            What are your favorite memories of your childhood home? I remember the huge bonfires we would have in our backyard when my dad would burn up brush and branches that had fallen down over the past several months. He would get wood piled up, wad up a bunch of newspapers, douse it all with gasoline and throw a match on top. Poof! Instant blaze! And then in the evening we would roast hotdogs and marshmallows. And of course there was Christmas morning, when my sister and I would wake up while it was still dark and run down the stairs to mom and dad’s room to wake them up so that we could get to unwrapping those presents. Then there were the times where my sister and I would try to make each other laugh while drinking milk so that the milk would come out through our noses.

            What have you carried with you from your childhood home? What are the traditions, the routines, the things you do that turn a house into a home for you? For me it has always been having a big bookshelf full of books and a chair to sit in to read them. Our house had floor to ceiling shelves all along the south wall of the living room and it was stuffed with books. Every evening my dad sat in his green upholstered lazy boy with the built in heating pad and massage settings, reading the paper or reading a book. I don’t have the lazy boy yet, or the floor to ceiling book shelves. But I have the books. I don’t have the same size of garden that my mom maintained and I don’t have the asparagus bushes my mom grew. But I have a little patch in the backyard to grow some tomatoes and some peppers. It wouldn’t be home without at least a little garden.

            Memories of our childhood homes live with us. If I invited you to close your eyes and bring back those memories you would recall the smells, the creaky sounds, the laughter, the arguments, the adventures, that took place in your childhood home. Memories can be such a gift for us. They help us overcome geography and time, putting us back where we can re-live our experiences. I know not all memories are pleasant, nor should all memories be re-lived. Some need to be locked away. But the good memories, the ones that give us life and joy, what a treasure to bring those back up from the storehouse of memory. They help remind us where we came from, how our childhood homes helped to shape who we have become.

            My parents have been gone for many years. But I still sense their presence through memory. They rarely told me and my sister that they loved us, but we never doubted their love. I still feel their love for me. And I still embody how I was raised by my mom and dad. How we are raised sticks with us. Obviously we aren’t carbon copies of our parents. And not everything our parents did or raised us to believe do we want to emulate or carry forward. Nobody’s parents are perfect. But they leave a mark on us nonetheless. You and I will always be products of our childhood homes.

            All this talk about home and how home life shapes us into the people we become, I think, is something that Jesus is trying to tell his disciples as he prepares them for his departure. As I said last week, these next few sermons are coming from what is often called Jesus’ farewell discourse. The hour had come for Jesus to be betrayed, sentenced and crucified. This is his last chance to prepare his disciples for life without him. I know, Jesus will talk to his disciples off and on after his resurrection. For forty days he pops in and out of their lives until finally he ascends. But the way John has his gospel set up, he has Jesus giving the substance of his message to the disciples just before the betrayal in the garden. This is the meat of John’s gospel. So everything here is pointing to the future, what lies ahead for these disciples in a world that does not get Jesus and what he’s about.

            So Jesus says to his disciples that if they keep the words of the Father that Jesus has spoken to them, then he and the Father will make their home with them. Maybe another way to put it is if the disciples live together as a community in the ways that Jesus taught them to live, then it will feel like home to the Father and the Son. In a spiritual sense the Father and Son will know that they are home when they are with the disciples. And for the disciples, having the Father and the Son living with them will make their community feel like home. After all, they are a family, are they not? Jesus once said that those who do the will of the Father are his brother, sister and mother. So when the disciples live together as family, it will feel like home. And there is comfort in that. This home is not a physical structure. This home is not comprised of blood relation. This home is a band of people who love each other and who seek to live their lives in obedience to God’s will and with faith in God’s presence and power. This home that Jesus is talking about is church.

            What else does Jesus say? He says that the Spirit will remind them of the things that Jesus has said to them. This is where memory comes in. As the disciples live their life together, now and again they will say things like, “Hey, remember when Jesus said…” or “Hey, remember that one time when Jesus did…”. That’s the Spirit prompting those memories, bringing up their experiences of Jesus and the things he said. The Spirit helps keep those memories alive and effective in shaping their life together. Eventually some would get around to writing all that stuff down. But in the beginning it was friends sitting around the table swapping stories of their adventures with Jesus. I can imagine in the sharing of those stories there would have been some laughter. Maybe some feelings of regret, of wishing they would have had more faith or had responded to Jesus in a different way. There would be nodding in agreement and an appreciation for the wisdom that Jesus had given them. Maybe even a shed tear every now and then. It is in the telling of those stories, as the Spirit brings them to mind, that the disciples sense the presence of Jesus in their midst, as well as the Father who sent him and told him what to say and do. Sitting around and telling those stories…it would have felt like home.

            What else did Jesus say? He said, “My peace I give to you.” Another way to say “give” here is “bequeath” as in a will. Jesus is giving the disciples something of himself. It isn’t some general feeling or abstract concept. If peace was a substance, a part of Jesus’ heart, that’s what he is bequeathing to them. It is a possession that he wants them to have before he ascends back to his Father.

            Those of us who have lost our parents are recipients of our parent’s last will and testament. You may or may not have gotten money or a house or property. You likely got stuff. Maybe it was china, or jewelry, artwork, an angel collection, books. You received tangible things that belonged to your parents that you now have in your home. They are treasures. Priceless. You see these items and it brings back the memory of your mom and dad.

            Well, Jesus didn’t bequeath any objects to the disciples. It is possible that Jesus had nothing tangible to give them. The soldiers at the foot of the cross got his clothes. Other than that, we have no knowledge that Jesus had any earthly possessions. But Jesus did bequeath to the disciples his peace. He did not give them stuff, like how the world gives. He gave them a part of his heart. He gave them the capacity to be assured that no matter how crazy it got, no matter how uncertain and difficult, that the one who could still the stormy winds and waves is the one who walks with them no matter what. So do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid, Jesus says. The peace that stilled the storm he gives to them. What a precious gift, to make use of the peace of Jesus in the storms of life, to have the ability to be still and to know the presence of God just as the Son knows the presence of the Father. What a gift to know that our lives are held in the palm of God’s hand. What a sense of security and assurance in the midst of the stormy blast.

            The things that Jesus said to the disciples were meant for us as well. We are also a community of disciples of Jesus. We live our life together as church. And as we do, the Father and the Son are at home with us. Our life together as community is like home for God and Jesus. And the church, this community, is our spiritual home. God and Jesus really do live with us in a spiritual sense. When we are in church, in community, we are at home. As Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, there’s no place like home. How good it is for us to live together as a community of faith, where we are at home with each other.

            We live in times of uncertainty and change. The world has changed so much in just twenty years. When we look into the future, many of us worry about what our kids and grandkids may have to contend with: global terrorism, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, a warming planet and rising oceans, the potential for outbreaks of pandemics. What are the outcomes of the hyperconnected world we live in, where increasingly every part of our daily life requires interaction with computers and the internet? Will the United Methodist Church exist in fifty years? Or even ten years? What the future holds for us will certainly be a mix of amazing triumph and mind-blowing discovery along with unimaginable suffering and destruction, as it has always been.

            But whatever the future may bring us, this we know. We have a community that we can call home. Not a building. Not a piece of real estate. A community, where God and Jesus have taken residence. And our community is just one little room in a vast city, this city where God dwells. So let us remember that whenever we gather in the name of Jesus we are at home, among family. And with whatever we are going through, with this family, we will be ok.

Making Room for Love

Based on John 13:31-35
First delivered May 19, 2019
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr


            Today’s scripture passage is at the beginning of what is often called Jesus’ “farewell discourse.” Taking up a few chapters in the gospel of John, this is where we find the meat of John’s expression of what Jesus was all about. You can imagine. Jesus knew that his time with his disciples was drawing to a close. This was no time for frivolous chit chat. This was the time for Jesus to tell his disciples what they needed to know going forward. This is his chance to prepare them for the difficult road that lay ahead for them after he ascends back to heaven. So these chapters have added weight behind them.

            Now whether Jesus knew everything the disciples would face or if he had only a general idea, he knew that it would be challenging, that the disciples would be tested in ways they could not foresee. It already began with Judas slipping away to betray Jesus to the authorities. Judas won’t be the only one. Peter will deny Jesus publicly. The disciples will go underground to avoid detection out of fear that what happened to Jesus might happen to them too. They are all a part of the conspiracy. And as they hide out in that upper room to make sense of what has happened to Jesus, they will be wondering what should be their next step. Should they disband? Should someone be selected to be the leader? They will wonder if they did the right thing. With the raw emotions of grief, shame and fear, they may turn on each other. Confusion, hurt, uncertainty. The community of disciples will be fragile.

            Knowing that the community will be tested immediately and will experience strain in the days ahead, Jesus gives them a new commandment right off the bat. He doesn’t tell them what they can expect. He doesn’t give them a plan on how to move forward without him. He doesn’t tell them the process for how to select a leader or appoint someone to take charge. Instead, he gives them a commandment. Not a parable. Not a riddle. He doesn’t ask them a perplexing question. He gives them a clear and direct command. Not a suggestion. A command. It is the commandment to love one another.

            This makes sense. What good is it to strategize for the future or select a leader if you don’t have a community? Love is the glue that will hold them together as they face an uncertain future without Jesus being physically present with them to lead the way. When it comes to community life, if you don’t have healthy, loving relationships then you don’t have much. So Jesus first addresses the most immediate concern. Whatever they end up doing, their first priority is to love each other. In times of stress, uncertainty, confusion and fear, that’s a good commandment to follow.

            But what kind of love is Jesus talking about? Jesus doesn’t just tell them to love each other. He clarifies by telling them to love each other in the same way that Jesus loves them. In other words, they are to love each other relentlessly and unconditionally. A love that you can count on. A love that you can never doubt. We know that Jesus and the disciples had conflict along the way. There were times when the disciples got on Jesus’ nerve. I’m sure there were times that the disciples got annoyed with Jesus. They were all human beings after all. But there was never a doubt that Jesus loved them. No matter what they will face, they will be able to endure if they love each other relentlessly and unconditionally.

            Not only will this love hold the community together, it will also mark them as the disciples of Jesus. People will know that they are his disciples by their love for one another. This will be their evangelical witness. People will know they are disciples of Jesus, not because they talk about Jesus, but because they love like Jesus.

            So how does this apply to us? Let’s assume that when Jesus told his disciples to love one another as he loved them, that he meant that commandment for us as well. How can our love for one another keep us together when we live in times of great division? I’m not saying that there is great division among us as a congregation. We all get along pretty well, I have to say. But we all know we live in a time where there is a great deal of division in the larger church as well as in society. There are forces attempting to pull us apart. It seems harder and harder to maintain an “agree to disagree” attitude. We feel pressure to choose sides. We gather into our tribes and avoid relating to others who don’t share our views or convictions.

            A reminder that love is not only affection and intimacy. Sometimes love feels different. However love feels, what love is doesn’t change. To me, love means desiring the well-being of the other. And agapé love, the kind of love that Jesus has for us, is love for the well-being of others without limit, even if that means sacrificing self. Even if that means loving people who don’t love you back, people who disagree with you, people who disregard you or are out to get you. Agapé love is the highest form of love. And it is this kind of love that Jesus challenges us to live out in our day to day lives.

            To manifest agapé love asks for a creative response. In this moment, dealing with this person, what can I do or say that will provide for the well-being of that person? There’s no right or wrong answer. There could be a number of possibilities. And we can never know for sure if our response will be effective in providing for the well-being of the other person. And let’s be honest. Our responses to others are not always thought out. I think we all have said things we wish we could take back, or act in ways that, after some reflection, makes us wonder what we were thinking. We weren’t thinking! So that’s the other thing about living out agapé love: we may have to slow down when relating with people. Listen more and think before you say anything. Don’t necessarily do the first thing that pops in to your head. Think before you act. Be deliberate and reflective. And, of course, it’s not always clear what is the best thing to say or do.  To live this way is an art and it takes time.

            Growing up, my family took long road trips for vacation. We often drove out west to Colorado and New Mexico. In the back seat where my sister and I sat there was an invisible barrier between us established by my parents so that we would not touch, poke or pinch each other. We needed that invisible barrier for our own well-being as well as the well-being of our parents! That was a loving act of my parents to come up with a way to help all of us enjoy those hours and hours on the open road. We all needed a little space.

            God’s intention is for all people to gather together around one table. When we have communion together, you may remember that near the end of the Eucharistic prayer I say “until Christ comes back in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.” The idea there is that when we receive communion together we are experiencing a foretaste of a great banquet we will enjoy in heaven. And who will be at that great heavenly banquet? God’s intent is for everyone to be there. And what a gathering that will be! So much diversity, multiple languages spoken, skin complexions, and body shapes. A multitude of beliefs and opinions. All of humanity in one place. Our minds can’t fully comprehend this kind of gathering that God desires. Beloved community to the ultimate extreme.

            The challenge for us is to try to embody God’s dream now in this life. What would it take to make our metaphorical tables larger so that there is always room for more? I can imagine that as we make room for more people at God’s table of grace that we need to make sure there is some elbow room. People around this table need to have some space to be who they are without the need to conform to the beliefs and practices of others. For their well-being and the well-being of the whole, everyone around the table needs some space.

            And that’s ok to have some space, whatever that means for you: the space of separate churches and denominations, the space of maintaining separate relational networks, the space of sitting at opposite ends of the table. It’s ok to have some space when it is love for one another that brings us to the table in the first place. It is that love that is the glue that keeps us at the table even as we give each other some room, to have the space to be our unique, complex selves. Giving each other space is the loving thing to do. Why squeeze and press into a one size fits all table when we have the freedom to have a bigger table where people can spread out and be comfortable, sit by who they want to sit with while still being at the table? Giving each other space is an act of love.

            I want to invite you to spend a few moments in reflection. I have three questions I am going to ask that will prompt you to reflect on your relationships, with those who you care about and with those who you find to be very challenging to be around.



- in your relationships, where do you need to create some “elbow room” for the well being of yourself and the one you need to make room for?



- is there anyone in your life who you need to drop conditions so that you can love them unconditionally, even while maintaining space between you and them?



- how might the way you live your life change if your focus was always on what is needed in the moment for the well being of others?

Let Your Life Speak

Based on John 10:22-30
First delivered May 12, 2019
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr


            Actions speak louder than words. You know how hard that is for a preacher to say? The calling of a preacher is to speak words. To be honest, sometimes I’m tempted to think that my responsibility is to do the talking and let others do the stuff. I wonder if sometimes I focus on preparing my sermons in order to avoid the messy, sometimes sacrificial actions of living out what I talk about. But I don’t think this is only my issue. Don’t we all find it easier to talk about what we are going to do or ought to do, but then fall short on actually doing what we say we will do? As another well known phrase goes, talk is cheap. If you really want to know what someone is about, what they care about, what matters to them, watch what they do instead of paying a lot of attention to what they say. I know from personal experience when my actions fail to live up to what I preach. It isn’t pretty. I sometimes wonder if most of us, me included, would be a lot better off if we talked less and did more. Let our actions speak for themselves and maybe only speak if it’s absolutely necessary. But, then again, someone has to stand up and give the sermon. The gospel message, the things of God, they need to be spoken about. There is a place for speaking plainly about the things of God.

            That’s what Jesus’ detractors wanted him to do. They wanted Jesus to speak plainly, to tell them, yes or no, is he the messiah or not. They didn’t need a long speech. They didn’t need a detailed explanation or a bunch of stories and illustrations. They just wanted Jesus to say it, “I am the messiah” or “I am not the messiah.” Just four or five words was all that was necessary.

            Jesus was never good at doing what people told him to do, especially if they were not supportive of what he was doing. You ask him a question and he usually responded by asking you a question. You want an answer and he would likely tell you a riddle. When it came to speaking, Jesus would definitely do that, but rarely did he just say what he meant in plain, straightforward language. He often spoke in ways that caused listeners to have to stop and think about what he was trying to say. And there was often more than one way to understand what he said.

            His works, though, were pretty clear. They were works that brought healing, restoration, even new life. They were works that speak to what God is all about, the source of life who heals and restores, who mends what is broken. So Jesus told the detractors he didn’t need to tell them anything. Just look at what he does. His works speak for themselves who he is. And if you are open minded enough, clearly these works demonstrate that Jesus is the messiah of God. If you are close minded and so sure that it’s not possible that Jesus could be the messiah, then even what he does won’t convince you. That’s basically what he tells his detractors. If they can’t get it by seeing what he does, then no argument or even plain speaking will sway them. But for those who are open to the possibility, then the works speak loudly and clearly about who Jesus is, and what God is all about. Experiencing the things Jesus did make the case better than his stories and riddles.

            Cooking shows are great because you get to see how the food is prepared instead of just reading the recipe. Cookbooks with big, glossy pictures of each step in the process are nice but to get to watch someone make the dish from start to finish is even better. They make it look so easy! Even better are these cool videos that you may stumble upon on Facebook. In one minute you watch a speeded up version of two disembodied hands whipping up some amazing dish and you think to yourself, “I can do that!”

            Then again, how often do we take what we watch from the cooking show and actually do it? Just watching the food being prepared isn’t the same thing as the experience of actually preparing the food yourself. One thing you discover is that doing it yourself isn’t as easy as it is on TV or on those videos you see on Facebook. All the veggies were pealed and cut up and all the spices neatly measured and ready to go on the TV show. You have to do all that stuff yourself. It takes more effort to actually make the dish than it takes to watch someone else do it. But, if you put in the effort, following the directions and the guidance of the video, then when it comes out right, what a sense of accomplishment! It’s a fuller, richer experience when you do the work instead of watching someone else do it.

            Most of us have gone to seminars where topics are discussed that try to prepare us for dealing with various situations that we may face, either in the work environment or just in our lives. Say for example you have gone to a self-defense class or, what unfortunately has become more and more popular, an active shooter response training, where you learn to run, hide, and fight. When we go to these seminars, we have an instructor with their PowerPoint presentation discussing all kinds of possible scenarios. We may even do some role playing of different ways to respond to various situations. But those are just role plays. It’s surely a different thing all together when you have a real life experience, when the person has a real gun firing real bullets in your general direction. It’s not pretend anymore. You are called on to act in a real life situation, a real experience that has real life consequences.

            Once you have had that experience, then you know something. If you have had the misfortune of being in a situation where you had to put your active shooter training to use, then you know in a much deeper way what that’s about. You know what it’s like. No one has to explain it to you or argue with you about what it’s like. And you can’t erase it from your memory. That experience is ingrained in your mind and soul. It won’t ever leave you. No one will be able to take that experience away from you. That’s the power of experience over just talking about things. Actually experiencing it impacts you deeply. You know the truth of what it’s like because you have lived it.

            Many decades ago, when the communist revolution swept Russia, this young communist went to a small village and called all the people to gather in the community meeting house. Once they all had gathered, the communist spent a few hours using his best, most reasoned arguments for why communism was the best way for society to be ordered and how Christianity was oppressive. He made some good arguments. Many people listened intently and a few of the younger people nodded their heads sometimes in agreement. When he finally was finished there was a hush in the room. Then, an old man stood up to face the community. He was the priest of the parish church, the one who had baptized everyone gathered there, married many of them, and the one who had done funerals for their parents and some of their children. Looking at the faces of all those people who he knew and loved, demonstrated not just by his words but by the way he lived among them, he addressed them by saying only three words: Christ is risen! With one voice the community shouted back, “Truly, he is risen!” And with that, everyone filed out of the meeting house leaving the young communist speechless. The best arguments can rarely overcome lived experience.

            When the early Christians discovered that the Spirit could work through Gentiles as well as Jews, this was activity that caused them to have to re-evaluate their theology, their understanding of how God works in the world. The Spirit of God is only supposed to fall on Jews. That’s how it had always been. But now, the Spirit is working through Gentiles. Look what they are doing! They are working miracles too. They are also proclaiming the gospel. What does this mean? How to explain these works?

            Well, arguments were made to explain what was being witnessed. Some argued whether or not what the Gentiles were doing was the work of the Spirit of God. But Paul made no such arguments. He simply recounted what he had seen. He witnessed to what he had experienced. For whatever reason, the Spirit of God was now working through Gentiles. Paul had seen it with his own eyes. Because of what Paul had seen, and the witness he gave to what he had seen, the church came around to affirming that the Spirit of God is not limited to empowering only Jews. Gentiles are included. The church became more open and inclusive because they realized what God was already doing.

            The same dynamic has played out through the history of the church. It has become clear that the Spirit works through women, even calling women to preach and even become bishops. It has become clear that the Spirit works through non-white people who are not of European descent. There are other legitimate theologies and ways of being church that are not based on the experiences of European white men. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Spirit works through gay, lesbian and transgendered people. It appears that the Spirit of God is free to manifest her presence in the lives of all kinds of people, even those the church has historically pushed to the margins.

            Now people make all kinds of arguments to make the case that the Spirit of God can’t work through certain people. For example, the argument is still made in some quarters that the Scripture and church tradition is clear that women cannot be allowed to preach or take on certain leadership roles in the church, say bishop. But there have been too many women who clearly demonstrate through their lives that they are indeed called to preach and called to be bishops. Their actions speak for themselves. No matter how reasoned the argument, the works can’t be denied. The same is true for those who are gay, lesbian and transgendered. If the Spirit moves in anyone to be used of God and they demonstrate the work of the Spirit by what they do, then don’t the arguments that deny their ministry crumble in the face of lived experience? I think they do. Actions speak louder than words.

            Most of us learned the song, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” It’s true. The Bible does tell us so. We read in the Bible how much God loves creation, how much God loves each one of us, how each of us were lovingly knit together by God in our mother’s womb. We read of how God sent the Son, not to condemn the world but to save the world.

            But is that all it takes for you to know in your heart that Jesus loves you? If we just read John 3:16, is that enough to know deep in your heart that you are loved by God no matter what?

            It’s one thing to read about how God loves you and be told that God loves you. It’s a whole other thing to experience for yourself God’s love, to feel it in your heart, in your gut, in your bones, that you are loved by God and always will be. When you have experienced this love, when you know it in your soul to be true, then there’s nothing that can pry you away completely from God. Sure, we all have our doubts from time to time. We all go through periods where God seems very distant. Life throws things at us and we wonder if God really does have our backs. But I am convinced that if we have experienced God’s love then that experience is never completely lost. God’s love becomes imprinted on our hearts. We just know, no matter what happens in life, or what people tell us, that God will not let go of us, that God is always holding us in God’s powerful hand. When you have experienced God’s love, you don’t need to be told about it. You don’t need a preacher to tell you. You don’t need to try to argue with someone about it. You have experienced it. You know it to be true. And your life lived out of God’s love for you is the most powerful witness you can give to others about the reality of God, Jesus and the Spirit. As the old phrase goes, let your life speak.