Based
on 1 Kings 19:1-15a and Luke 8:26-39
First
delivered June 23, 2019
Rev.
Dr. Kevin Orr
Elijah had just been a hero. If we
looked back to 1 Kings 18, we would have heard the story of how Elijah mocked
the god Baal and his prophets. He concocted a showdown between God and Baal. He
told the prophets to build an altar, put wood on it, and then call on Baal to
send down fire to light up the wood. They prayed, cried out, cut themselves,
and just carried on while Elijah trash talked. “Maybe Baal is busy! Maybe he is
asleep!” Finally, all the prophets gave up. It was Elijah’s turn. He built the
altar, piled wood on it, and dug a trench around the altar. Then he had the
prophets of Baal pour water on the wood and keep pouring until the trench was
overflowing with water. Then, with one simple prayer, he asked God to send down
fire and instantly flames fell down from heaven, turning the soaked wood into a
raging inferno. Having mocked Baal and his prophets, Elijah then had executed all
450 prophets of Baal. A grisly scene to be sure. And a humiliating spectacle
for worshippers of Baal. Elijah surely stood tall and proud.
The word, of course, got back to
Queen Jezebel. She did not receive the news well. Instead, she made it clear
that she wanted Elijah hunted down, seized, and treated just like he had the
prophets of Baal. He was a wanted man set for execution.
All of a sudden, Elijah the brave
became Elijah the fearful. In a panic, he fled from the land of the Queen,
getting himself as far away from her as possible. He feared for his life. But
not just that, he fears for God. What I mean is, Elijah had it in his head that
he was the last of the prophets of God. And if he was killed, there would no
longer be any prophet God could work through. God’s purposes would be
permanently frustrated. God, in a way, would be powerless. Elijah thought he
was indispensable. So he ran, not only for his own sake, but for God’s sake.
Before we break down what was in
Elijah’s head, let us consider this: if Elijah had known in advance what the
consequences would be for his brave actions against Baal, would he have done
it? Surely Elijah would have known that not everyone would have been happy
about what he did or suddenly given up on Baal and converted to worshiping God.
But perhaps it didn’t cross his mind that his brave deed would give him a death
sentence. If he had known what he was risking beforehand, I am not sure if he
would have done what he did. I don’t think Elijah meant to put his life on the
line and, as he sees it, put the fulfillment of God’s purposes on the line. He
thought he was too indispensable to take such a risk. What he experienced was
unintended consequences of his actions.
We all know what it is like to
experience unintended consequences. This common experience has even been turned
into a proverb: no good deed goes unpunished. You thought you were helping
someone out and then find out you have gotten way over your head. The person
you are helping has needs way beyond what you can manage. The sacrifice is too
great. Your intentions were good but then in the process of helping out you get
in trouble or someone chastises you. You choose to do the right thing, to take
a stand for justice, and lose friends because they don’t understand or they
disagree with your position. And you didn’t see that coming. How many times
have we asked ourselves, “If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done
that, even though my intentions were good.” Sometimes people have been burned
so bad by unintended consequences that they become hesitant to ever get
involved in helping others or really doing anything until they are convinced
they know how things will turn out before starting. They don’t want any
surprises. They want to know exactly how everything is going to go, a
guaranteed result, fool proof. And if there is no guarantee that everything
will go according to plan then they will not even try. Unintended consequences
can really set us back. It’s much harder to be brave and daring when you have
been burned in the past. Playing it safe becomes much more appealing.
In his fear, Elijah runs away. But,
of course, he can’t run away from God. Look at how God is there for him in his
running. God sends an angel to provide food for Elijah to sustain him in his flight.
God even tells him where he can go to hide out. Elijah is told to go to Mount
Horeb, which is where Moses received the Ten Commandments, and to hide in a
cave there. No matter what God may think about Elijah’s perceived
indispensability, God knows the state that Elijah is in. God acknowledges his
fear, even his panic. So God’s grace kicks in, providing Elijah what he needs
while he is in his panicked state.
How great is God’s grace. I suspect
all of us have gone through times of running. Maybe we are running from doing
something we know we should do, or making a decision we know we need to make.
We find ourselves running from responsibilities. Sometimes we have even been
running from God. Whenever this happens in our lives, the good news is that in fact
we can’t run from God. And that is a good thing. God is always at work in our
lives, doing everything God can to provide for our well-being. Of course, that
doesn’t mean bad things don’t happen to us. But God does provide the means to
keep us going. God responds to whatever state we are in. God responds in a
number of ways. Maybe God puts certain people in our lives that can support us
in our struggle and fears. Or God gives us inner prompts to remind us that we
are still loved, that no matter what happens things will be ok. Maybe God will
lead us to a place where we do check out for a while, to go on retreat or to
talk to a therapist, whatever we need to overcome our fears and do what we know
we need to do. Whatever is going on in our lives, God is still present and at
work to provide for us what we need. God’s grace is sufficient.
Once Elijah arrives at his hideout,
his place of retreat, God asks him an excellent question. “What are you doing
here?” Mind you, this is the place where God instructed him to go. But I don’t
think the question is about geography. The question God is asking Elijah has to
do with why Elijah was running in the first place. It is sort of like the
question that any of us who have seen a counselor have had to answer: “What
brings you here to see me?”. God wants Elijah to name the state of his mind,
what has motivated him to run away.
This is a great question to sit with
whenever you have an opportunity to go to your hideout, to a place of retreat.
You can call it retreat, or vacation, or taking a mental health day, whatever
you want to call it. We all need times where we can step away from our daily
lives, to go on retreat, so we can breathe, so we can be still for a minute, so
we can reflect on our lives. And to start that time of reflection God has given
us a great prompt: “What are you doing here?” Once again, God provides Elijah
and us just what we need. God’s grace is sufficient.
Elijah’s answer reveals the state of
his mind. He talks of how he fears for his life, that he is the only prophet
left, and if he is killed, it’s all over. There is no hope. He identifies
himself as indispensable. Without him, God’s project will all fall apart. We
may laugh at Elijah’s sense of self importance, that everything depends on him.
But let’s not be too hard on him. Haven’t we all been there? I know I have. I
have worried that if I’m not around, if I’m not in charge, then it’s all going
to fall apart. I have sometimes felt indispensable. Have you? I think all of us
have been in Elijah’s state of mind from time to time. I humbly suggest that
when we have felt indispensable it reveals a lack of trust in the power of God.
Elijah had slipped into thinking that God could not accomplish God’s purposes
without him. He lacked trust in God’s ability to make adjustments and find
other people to get the job done. I think that in most situations when we are
tempted to feel like we are indispensable, it reveals a lack of trust, trust in
the capacity of others and even a lack of trust in God to see things through.
At the same time, let’s be honest.
Elijah is a big deal. He is an amazing prophet. We saw what God could do
through him when he alone faced down 450 prophets of Baal. He worked miracles.
God even used him to bring a young boy back to life. I mean Elijah is one of
the greatest prophets of all time. The loss of his life really would be a big
deal. Yes, how he responds to God’s question does seem a bit overblown, the
notion that everything depends on him. Still, Elijah’s loss would leave a huge
hole to fill. So it is certainly reasonable for Elijah to fear for his life and
not be cavalier about that. It is reasonable for him to recognize the risk that
he is under and how that would affect God’s purposes from being fulfilled.
That said, and how it appears Elijah
has some doubts about God’s power, God doesn’t let Elijah stay on retreat for
long. He gives Elijah an assignment. In spite of his fears and uncertainties,
Elijah still has work to do. He still has responsibilities. He is still God’s
prophet. He can’t stay in his hideout forever. He must go to the wilderness of
Damascus to anoint someone to be a king. Duty calls.
And so, Elijah goes. And as he heads
out to the wilderness of Damascus, let me first note that this task continues
to keep him far away from Jezebel. So it’s not like God is sending Elijah back
to where he came from. He has work to do but he will remain in a safe location.
God knows the risks to Elijah’s life as well! But also, Elijah does not yet
know what else God has planned. He does not know how God will arrange for
Jezebel to die before she can get to Elijah. And he doesn’t know how God will
set it up for Elijah to literally pass his mantle to Elisha who will continue
the prophetic work. Without knowing how God is going to make everything work
out, Elijah goes forth, leaving his place of retreat, to continue the work.
Even though we find ourselves in
fearful times, and are sometimes uncertain of God’s power, God still has an
assignment for us. I am not just thinking about this time of transition for us
as a church with me leaving and another pastor coming. And I certainly don’t
see myself as indispensable! Under the new pastor’s leadership, and with God’s
help, this church will be fine. But I know there is some anxiety. And it’s not just
St. Luke’s but we fret about the future of the United Methodist Church. And we
fret about the United States, especially now that we are moving into election
season. There are plenty of things to fret and worry about. Still, God has an
assignment for each of us. We all still have good work to do, people to help,
encouraging words to share, love and support to demonstrate. We don’t know how
God is going to make everything work out, just like Elijah didn’t know when he
left his cave. But we can trust that somehow God’s purposes will be achieved:
God’s purposes for St. Luke’s, God’s purposes for the United Methodist Church,
God’s purposes for the United States, God’s purposes for anything. My mom used
to say, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Sorry to all you cat lovers.
God has more than one way to achieve God’s purposes, of that we can be sure.
And we still have something to contribute to the fulfilment of those purposes,
in spite of our anxiety and uncertainty.
And it can be messy. We all know we have
to keep on keeping on in our discipleship. We still have to help people, act
out of love, do what we can for the well-being of others even as we pray and
read our Bibles and come to worship. But just because we keep focused on living
a Christian life doesn’t mean everything is going to be just fine. A great
example is what we heard in the gospel reading this morning. What Jesus did was
a great thing. He cast a legion of demons out of that man. But there was
collateral damage. Those swineherds lost all their hogs. And that was their
livelihood. What are they going to do now? This man’s healing from demon
possession also caused real hardship for those swineherds. The good news of
this man’s healing wasn’t good news for everyone. It was messy.
Not only can things get messy when
we do good work, we also don’t always get what we want. It is interesting in
this story of the healing of this man. When Jesus comes up to him, the demons
already know who Jesus is. They beg Jesus to send them into the herd of pigs instead
of sending them to the abyss. Amazingly, Jesus grants their request. On the
other hand, the man who was healed asked to continue on with Jesus as he went
on his journey, but Jesus turned him down. The demons got what they wanted but
not the man who was healed. That doesn’t seem fair.
I wonder why the man wanted to
follow Jesus. Maybe he wanted to be his disciple, to learn from Jesus. Or maybe
he wanted to stay by Jesus in case the demons came back. It would be comforting
to know that if the demon possession happened again that his savior would be by
his side to cast them out again. At any rate, the man had his reasons for
following Jesus. It doesn’t seem much to ask. Surely Jesus wouldn’t have a
problem having him come along.
But if he had followed Jesus, the
people in the town would not have had to deal with him and come to terms with
the fact that this man was healed. Everyone in the town came out to see for
themselves what the swineherds had told them about what Jesus had done. It was
right there before their eyes. And they got scared. There is a lot of fear in
the stories we have heard today, isn’t there. Their response is to tell Jesus
to move on. He has caused enough ruckus, in spite of the fact that this man who
had lived naked in the tombs as a raving lunatic was now clothed and in his
right mind. They probably would have been fine if the man went with Jesus too
so they could just move on as a community and forget that any of this happened.
Easier to return to status quo that way. But with the man staying in their
community, a continuous reminder that he had been healed by Jesus, well they
couldn’t go back to the way things were. They would be regularly reminded of
what Jesus had done for him. They would remember all those pigs that died in the
process and the hardship that created for the community. They would be reminded
of the messy situation that was this man’s healing. And they would have to come
to terms with it, to come to realize this man was no longer who he had been. He
deserved his rightful place in the community. As long as this man lived among
them their community would be unsettled until they made peace with what had
happened and incorporated him fully into their life together. Only then would
the community be made whole. The man needed to stay in the town for their own
good. Even though he wanted to leave that town behind and go with Jesus, he
needed to stay for their sake.
Elijah was told to go. The man was
told to stay. Both had to contend with their own fears and find their ways
through messy situations. Elijah feared for his life and lived as a wanted man
as a consequence of facing off against 450 prophets of Baal. The man was afraid
the demons might come back and instead had to remain in a town that partially
blamed him for the loss of a herd of pigs as a consequence of his healing. They
were messy situations. But they understood what their task was before them. And
they faithfully followed through with their assignments. The same can be true
for us in our own messy situations, contending with unforeseen consequences as
a result of doing ministry, with our own fears and uncertainties. We all still
have tasks to complete, good works to perform, ministry to be done, stories of
God’s healing and grace to be shared.
So this is our challenge as we
continue forward in the weeks, months and years ahead. Our challenge is to
trust God, to trust that there is more than one way for God to achieve God’s
purposes, to trust that what God directs us to do is part of the achieving of
God’s purposes, to trust that somehow God’s going to make sure that things work
out even though we may not get what we want. Our challenge is to remain
attentive to God, to be open to what God is directing us to do, the tasks that
God places before us. And as we become clear on what our task is, we do the
work of following through in spite of our fears and uncertainties. Elijah was
brave when he faced down those 450 prophets. Perhaps he was even more brave to
leave the cave and go on with the work in spite of his fears and uncertainties.
It is in our faithfulness to the work that God places before us in spite of our
fears and uncertainties that is the bravest thing any of us can do.
Based
on Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 and John 16:12-15
First
delivered June 16, 2019
Rev.
Dr. Kevin Orr
Today in the Christian calendar is
Trinity Sunday. It has been a long standing practice in the church to dedicate
the first Sunday after Pentecost to the doctrine of the Trinity. A lot can be
said about the Trinity. Indeed, thousands and thousands of books have been
written on the subject. It is a doctrine that pushes the extremes of logic. How
does 1+1+1=1? How can we say that we worship one god instead of three? Trying
to explain this conundrum has been attempted in a number of ways. St. Patrick
famously pointed to a three leaf clover. Another old image is that of fire: the
fire itself is the Father, the light of the fire is the Son and the heat that
emits from the fire is the Holy Spirit. This Christian comedian I used to
listen to as a kid, Mike Warnke, used to explain the Trinity by pointing to a
cherry pie. Take the pie and cut it into three pieces. You have the three
separate pieces but the cherry filling can’t be divided up. In the same way the
Trinity is three Persons but one Substance.
Today I want to focus our attention
on how our understanding of God as Three in One captures a key aspect of who
God is, which is that God is relational. Whatever it means to say that the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three separate Persons, these Persons
are so totally interrelated that all three work together. None of them work
independently of the other. They are totally interdependent, a harmonious
community of three. This total interdependence reflects the relational nature
of God. God is a relational God. That’s our focus.
First, let’s look at this amazing
portrayal of Wisdom we find in Proverbs. In this poetic passage, Wisdom, or
Sophia in Greek, is personified. She is portrayed as having been born from God
as the first created being. She is by God’s side through the whole creation
process. And she continually rejoices in God, delighting in the world that God
made and in the human race.
In all these ways, Wisdom is related
to the Creator God. From the beginning, before anything else was created, God
gave birth to Wisdom to be in relation with all throughout the creation
process. God did not want to be alone. We have come to understand this
portrayal of Wisdom as referring to the Holy Spirit. Like we read in Gen. 1:2,
the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. That Spirit, according to
Proverbs 8, was Sophia, Wisdom.
Now let’s look at what Jesus says
about the Spirit. Jesus identifies this as the Spirit of truth. Jesus says that
the Spirit declares what he hears from the Father. He does not speak on his
own. In the same way Jesus has told his disciples that he does not speak on his
own but only what he hears from the Father. So what Jesus is saying is that the
Spirit who will come after he returns to the Father will continue doing what
Jesus has been doing with them, which is teaching them what the Father wants
taught. Jesus also says that the Spirit will lead the disciples into all truth.
What does this mean? Does this mean that there is more revelation from God than
what Jesus was able to tell the disciples? Perhaps it does mean that. But it
could also mean that what the Spirit will do is to help the disciples more
fully understand who Jesus is and what Jesus taught. When the disciples faced
new situations, the Spirit would reveal to them new insights into Jesus’
teachings. The stories he taught would take on deeper meanings. The Spirit
would help the disciples answer the clichéd question that was very popular
several years ago: “what would Jesus do?”. So this was the role of the Holy
Spirit, to continue the teaching ministry of Jesus after he left the disciples
and returned to the Father. It is the Spirit that keeps the disciples connected
with the Father and the Son. The Spirit makes relationship with God possible.
So let me try to bring all this back
down to earth, past the theological musings, and ground all this in our life
together as a community. What can the Trinity reveal to us about God and our
relationship with God?
If the Trinity means anything, it
means that God is inherently relational. God is not a single entity in a far
distant heaven. No, God is three Persons working together in a perfect,
interdependent relationship. In God’s essence there is interdependent
relationship. The Father reveals truth through the Son by the Holy Spirit. None
of them go rogue. All three work together in every situation. They are a team
to the maximum level.
We, who have been made in the image
of God, are made to be in relationship. We are relational creatures. We all
need to belong somewhere. We need a family, whether blood relation or not. We
need a group to run around with. We need friends. We need to be a part of
something bigger than ourselves. We need community. As an aside, this is why
solitary confinement is so punishing and, in fact, can cause deep mental and
emotional trauma. Studies have shown how children who are isolated from human
touch have profound effects on their emotional development. To thrive as human
beings we need community.
So when it comes to understanding
the things of God and the way of Jesus, the Spirit teaches us these things in
community. It is true that you can read the Bible for yourself and interpret it
on your own. But let’s face it, there is a lot of the Bible that is really hard
to understand. Most of us need some help from others who have dedicated their
lives to interpreting the Bible to share their insights. Trust me, I don’t come
up with these sermons all by myself. I read a number of Bible interpreters,
letting their insights guide my own thinking as I craft these sermons. I have
found it much more fruitful to study the Bible with others. The study of
Galatians we had a few weeks back was wonderful because we were provided
excellent discussion questions and had great conversations. We all got much
more out of Galatians than if we had just read it on our own or answered the
reflection questions by ourselves. The Bible has always been meant to be read and
studied in community.
Also, understanding where God is
working in our lives is discovered in conversation. My family lived about
twelve miles away from church. When it was time for youth group on Sunday
evening, the youth pastor would drive a van out to Edmond where me and a few
other kids in the youth group lived. When we got in the van he would ask each
of us, “Where have you seen Jesus this week?” That was our conversation for the
15-20 minute drive to church. Sure, I could have sat there in the silence of my
own space and contemplated where I had recently seen Jesus. But in the
conversation, as people told their stories, it prompted my own observations. Or
maybe I had something to share first which got others talking. It was easier to
name where we saw God working in our lives when we had a conversation about it.
And certainly when it comes to discerning what your purpose in life is, what
your vocation is, that takes a lot of conversation with a lot of people. I know
some people have a dream or have some powerful spiritual experience that makes
them believe they have been called into the ministry. I had one of those
powerful experiences myself. But just claiming that experience isn’t going to
get you a preachers license. There is a long discernment process done in
community to confirm that call. And that’s true for any vocation, not just
being a preacher. Whatever God has called you to do with your life, you
discover it and are affirmed in that call by others. It is in community that we
get clear how God is working in our lives.
Whenever a church is trying to
discover what their next faithful step will be, the Spirit is the one who will
reveal the possibilities. But this is not done with just the pastor or a couple
of people. The whole church has to discern the next faithful step together. It
is prayerful conversations of the church, not just one or two people, that
guide a church into the future faithfully. We saw that here at St. Luke’s when
we came together to discern whether or not our next faithful step should have
been to become a second location of King Avenue. It seemed clear to us that now
was not the time. As the United Methodist Church looks into a murky future, in
which division is likely, our faithful future will not be decided by a couple of
folks. It will take many conversations from a huge swath of people to discern
what our next faithful step will be. In fact, there are a couple of
conversations being planned right now in which you can come and be a part. One
will be held in late July at Worthington UMC by a group called UMC Next.
Another one being organized by some of us in the Reconciling Ministries Network
is being organized for later this year to talk through how we will respond when
the new Book of Discipline goes into effect in January. Look for detailed
information about how you can be a part of those conversations. It takes these
ongoing conversations for the Spirit to guide us a church and denomination
faithfully into the future.
The last thing I want to say about
the Trinity is to express gratitude for the Spirit. As you know, last week we
celebrated Pentecost, when the Spirit fell down on the disciples, propelling
them outside the four walls of their safe house and on to the streets to
proclaim the mighty acts of God. That same Spirit continues to be poured on us
day by day. It is the Holy Spirit that connects us with God, so that God is not
remote and distant but as near as our breath. Being the temples of the Holy
Spirit that we are, in some mysterious way God is present within each of us,
which is one reason why every single one of us is precious. It is the Spirit
that makes that connection real. But the Spirit doesn’t only connect us with
God. The Spirit connects us with each other. Each of us share in this same
Spirit. If the Spirit was the internet we would all be online, linked to each
other. The Spirit is like wi-fi that connects us all together. And just as you
can Facetime with someone right now who is living in Japan, geography does not
matter in our Spirit connection with each other. No matter where you and I are
at any given moment we are connected as many parts of one body, the body of
Christ. And not only is geography not a limit to our connection but neither is
time. When our loved ones die, we are still connected to them. And we have the
promise that one day we will be with them again. It is the Spirit that connects
us with our ancestors. And it is the Spirit that will connect us with those who
will come after us, even to the thousandth generation, if you can even imagine
that. The Spirit of God connects us beyond space and time. The community that
you and I belong to, made possible by the Spirit, truly is incomprehensibly
huge. We all belong in a way that none of us fully comprehend or appreciate.
The web of relationships made possible by the Spirit is unfathomable. At the
bare minimum I can tell you that although in a few weeks I will no longer be
your pastor we will remain connected in a spiritual sense. And this cord will
not be broken. So I give gratitude to the Spirit who makes possible our
relationship with God and with each other, a relationship that by God’s grace
will never be lost.
Based
on Acts 2:1-21
First
preached Pentecost 2019
Rev.
Dr. Kevin Orr
This morning’s scripture reading is,
of course, the story of what happened the first Pentecost after Jesus’
resurrection and ascension. Pentecost marks the 50th day after
Passover, a festival called Shavuot, which celebrated the wheat harvest and
also the time when Moses received the Ten Commandments. Jews from all across
the world would go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for this festival. This sets the
table nicely for the gospel to be proclaimed to all the nations of the world
from the beginning, when you have Jews that represent every nation present in
Jerusalem for the festival.
The first thing that stuck out for
me as I reflected on this passage is that the disciples were all together in
one place. The disciples were not scattered about in their own homes. And by
disciples we aren’t just talking about the twelve disciples. There were 120
disciples gathered in this house. Before Jesus ascended to heaven he told the
disciples to go to Jerusalem and to wait for the Holy Spirit to come down upon
them, so that they would have power from on high. And so, here they were,
talking, praying and waiting for the coming of the promised Holy Spirit.
Now just because they were all
together in one place doesn’t mean that they were all of one mind. We shouldn’t
be surprised if there were some personality conflicts. After all, with 120
people in one place there was bound to be some people that didn’t really like
each other. Some people probably got on other people’s nerves. We know in the
gospels that the disciples didn’t always get along. Aside from that, everyone
is just kind of waiting around to see what the next faithful step will be for
them. They are waiting for the Spirit. But when the Spirit does come, what
then? Maybe there was some strategizing already taking place about what the
next move would be once the Spirit arrived to give them the power they needed.
Or maybe some cautioned that they shouldn’t be making any decisions until the
Spirit arrived. Then maybe the Spirit would reveal to all of them what they
should do. The bottom line, you had in this house 120 people who were waiting
around, not sure what the next move would be, and maybe not all on the same
page.
As I thought about what it must have
been in that house, it reminded me a little of Annual Conference. Clergy and
lay people from all across West Ohio are gathered together in one place. It’s
not a house, it’s Hoover Auditorium. And there are over 2000 of us. And we are
certainly not all of one mind. Not everyone there gets along. There is talk
about where we are as a church and what the next faithful step ought to be.
There is some tension. A little uncertainty. A longing for the Holy Spirit to
come down and fill us, empower us and guide us. We aren’t all on the same page.
But at least we are all together in one place, and that’s something.
And of course we are all here
together this morning and that’s a good thing. We aren’t all of the same mind
on everything. I wouldn’t say we have the same level of anxiety and tension
that I felt at Annual Conference this week. But we are waiting for the Spirit
to lead us into the next step as a congregation, as I prepare to leave you and
the next pastor comes in to travel with you the next leg of this journey of St.
Luke’s. It’s good that we are here together as we wait on the Spirit to guide
us forward.
The second thing that struck me is
how the Holy Spirit fell on every person present. The Spirit didn’t just come
down on Peter and the other eleven disciples. No, the Spirit came down on
everyone gathered together in the house. It was an inclusive outpouring of the
Spirit. No one was left out. Each person had what appeared to be a flame of
fire appear over their heads. Each person was moved to proclaim the mighty
works of God. Each person participated in the move of the Spirit in their
midst. No one sat by or got passed over.
Now we carry on this understanding
that no one gets passed over because we believe that when a person is baptized
they receive the Holy Spirit as a part of that sacramental act. After I baptize
someone I pray that the Holy Spirit come upon the person to empower them to
become a faithful disciple. With holy oil I mark that person with the sign of
the cross on their foreheads as an act of sealing them with the Holy Spirit.
For us as United Methodists, people who are baptized don’t wait until some
later time when the Spirit falls on them. Some churches do believe that later
in a believer’s life they receive Spirit baptism which is accompanied by signs,
often speaking in tongues. But for us and many other churches the Spirit fills
us at the moment of our baptism. It is part of one sacramental act. Whether you
are baptized as a baby or well along in life, when the baptism happens you
receive the Holy Spirit. No one is passed over. And the Spirit doesn’t come and
go. The Spirit abides within us. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. We have
received what we need to be empowered to live the life of discipleship we have
been baptized in to. All there is for us to do is to be open to the leading and
empowerment of the Spirit, to tap into the Spirit rather than block it off.
Here’s the third thing that struck
me about this story from Acts: when the disciples were filled with the Holy
Spirit they rushed out of the house and into the streets to proclaim the mighty
acts of God. They didn’t just stay inside and bask in the presence of the
Spirit. No, they were compelled to get out of the house so that they could tell
others how awesome God is and what are the awesome things God has done. It
seems that no one stayed behind in the house. Everyone went out together into
the streets so that those outside the four walls of the house could find out
what God is doing.
Have you ever experienced something
in which every part of your being cried out for you to tell somebody? Maybe you
learned you were pregnant. Or you got the promotion you have been waiting for.
Or some other great thing just happened in your life. Maybe you rushed to post
your good news on Facebook. Or you called a friend. Or you find a way to steer
the conversation toward your good news. However you do it, the news is so hot,
so exciting, you just have to get it out. You have to tell someone your good
news. This seems to be what it was like for those disciples when the Spirit
promised by Jesus came down upon them. They had to get out there and tell
others, even complete strangers, their good news.
From time to time we have had good
news to tell. But when was the last time you felt compelled to proclaim the
mighty acts of God? When was the last time you had an experience with God that
was so powerful, so exciting and uplifting, that you just had to share that
experience with others? I would hope that for all of us this would be a regular
occurrence. But I can honestly tell you that it has been awhile since I have
felt compelled to share my experience of God with others. It’s not that I have
something against it. If someone was to ask me I would surely tell them about
how I have experienced God in my life. But it’s not something I lead with. It’s
not something I am so excited about that I am compelled to steer conversations
toward talking about how I have experienced God in my life. Hopefully I am the
only one here for whom this is the case. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I am
the only one. I think it’s pretty common that, over time, our relationship with
God becomes so much a part of our life that it loses its wonder and excitement.
God becomes so familiar. Our experience of God is as common as breathing. It
doesn’t have the same excitement as when we first experienced God in a deep
way. Our experience of God has become so common and normal that it doesn’t feel
like we have much of anything to share. I’m not saying this is good or bad.
It’s just the way it is. In any relationship, after a while, the excitement
levels off. We are simply doing life together, in our human relationships as
well as our relationship with God. And let’s be honest, our lives often are not
very exciting.
Still, every now and then, something
might happen. We might experience God in a different way, in a way that
genuinely moves us. And we feel compelled to testify. It’s just that this
doesn’t happen on a daily basis for most of us. Maybe that is something we all
could work on, to try to be more aware day by day where God is working in our
lives. Maybe we can work on being more attentive, to be more aware of our
experience of God in our daily lives. If we did, maybe we would feel like we
have more to share. But that takes intentionality. And we all go through dry
periods where we don’t sense God’s presence. It is those times that our faith
is tested. We know God is with us but we don’t always sense it. So we have to
trust that God is still with us and have hope that the spiritual dry spell will
give way to a more vital spirituality some time in the future. And when that
happens it is much easier for us to tell our story to others.
The disciples, of course,
experienced God in an extremely powerful way. They were compelled by the
awesomeness of the experience to go out into the streets to tell their
experience. But the miracle in this story is how every person could understand
what the disciples were saying in their own native language. Any communication
barrier was removed. The people in the street didn’t have to translate the
Aramaic they heard from the Galileans. They heard of the mighty works of God in
the language they understood best. This really is amazing. We aren’t told
exactly how this worked. Did the disciple know what language to use when they
were talking to someone? Or were they all speaking in Aramaic and the Spirit
interceded by filtering the language through some kind of divine translator so
that the other person heard it in their own language? However it worked, the
miracle is that barriers to understanding what the disciples were saying was
removed. The crowds may not have understood what the disciples were saying
meant. But they didn’t have to translate their words. What they said could be
understood even if what they were hearing needed further explanation, which is
what Peter does when he gives his first sermon.
Like I said, we all find it
challenging often to witness to our experiences of God with others. We don’t
feel compelled to talk about our experiences. There is no burning need to
express ourselves about our experiences. Maybe when we first came to believe in
Jesus, but unless something extraordinary has happened recently we just don’t
feel like we have anything interesting to say. But maybe even more challenging
is to share our witness in ways people can understand.
The longer you have been in the
church the more you become accustomed to “Christianeze.” We talk about
salvation, grace, and maybe even throw around words like justification and
sanctification. Any word that has five syllables may not be a familiar word to
everyone. We just pick up church language. And people who don’t know anything
about Jesus or think anything about salvation may not know what we are talking
about. Or maybe they have picked up little bits of information here and there
and don’t share the same understanding about what salvation means, or grace, or
sin, or any other God language we use. The challenge is: how do we share our
experiences of God without using religious jargon? How do we tell others about
salvation without using the word saved or salvation?
This past week at Annual Conference
the theme was, “Be Not Afraid…Hope.” To accentuate this theme, we had people
who gave brief witnesses to how they experienced hope in their lives. A few of
those witnesses were particularly powerful. I remember this one man who had
lived a life of addiction to drugs that had taken him to a low place in his
life. But through a friend he got connected to a pastor who invested in him. He
came into the church and over time decided to be baptized. He said that when he
came out of the water it felt like all the dirt, the slime, and the filth that
had clung to him because of the stuff he had done was washed off and sunk to
the bottom of the water. He didn’t talk about being saved but he did talk about
feeling like he had been given a fresh start. And I remember this woman whose
addiction to alcohol had left her homeless and penniless on the streets of
Detroit. She had burned a lot of bridges. And in one last desperate attempt,
she reached out on Facebook posting about the situation she was in, asking if
anyone could help her, and that she was scared. Well, one of her friends read
that post and contacted their pastor. That night, they drove from Toledo to
Detroit to pick her up. As they drove back to Toledo she kept saying over and
over how grateful she was, and the pastor and her friend kept saying over and
over, “This is what we do.” She was welcomed into the church community without
judgment. She was loved on, even when she didn’t act very loving. They didn’t
give up on her. As she told us her story she emphasized over and over how she
was loved and included, that she had a new family. She didn’t talk about
salvation or sin, grace or atonement. She talked about being included. She
talked about being loved. She talked about having a new family. Both of these
people spoke from their heart and simply told their story and how their
relationship with Christians made a difference in their lives, giving them
hope. They were stories that inspired all of us. And I am confident that if
they had shared their story with someone who was not a Christian there would be
a good chance that they would have been moved and maybe even wishing that they
could be a part of that kind of community as well.
The Holy Spirit is with us. We carry
the Spirit in our bodies. And we all have stories to share of our own
experiences of God. Likely those experiences manifested themselves through the
presence and loving actions of others. I wouldn’t be surprised that for some of
you looking around in this room you see people who you have experienced God
through. They were there for you when you needed support. They loved on you
when you weren’t always very lovable. They included you when you didn’t feel
like you fit in. All of our stories are different, they are personal, they are
uniquely ours to tell. And with the Spirit in us we have all we need to tell
our stories. So I challenge all of us to be ready to share our story with
others. I’m not saying let’s all rush out and walk up and down Fifth Avenue
telling random people our experience of the mighty works of God. But we can be
ready, when the time is right, to share our experiences, not with religious
language but in ways that people can relate to. We can talk about how with God
and with God’s people we have experienced love, belonging, and hope. And I
believe that when those opportunities come, as the Spirit prompts us, and we
share from the heart, that those who hear our stories will be moved to ask the
question, “Can I experience this love too?” And then we will have the joy by
our words and actions to respond with a firm “Yes.”
Based
on John 17:20-26
First
delivered June 2, 2019
Rev.
Dr. Kevin Orr
Today we come to the end of Jesus’
farewell discourse to his disciples. He is preparing them for the time when he
will ascend back to the Father and leave them behind. For Jesus, it is
important that the disciples hear from him what they need to focus on as a
community going forward. He doesn’t want them to hug each other, say their
good-byes and scatter to the winds! He intends them to stay together and to
continue his work of revealing to the world that he was sent by God to express
the love of God. So Jesus needs them to stick together. He tells them to love
one another just as he has loved them. He tells them that he is giving them his
peace. He lets them know that they will face hardship and struggle, but not to
be afraid because Jesus has overcome the world. Everything will be ok. And one
day they will see him again, for he will return to bring them to himself.
Now the part we hear this morning is
where Jesus has shifted from talking to his disciples to praying to his Father.
We don’t know if the disciples were listening in to his prayer or if we are in
the privileged position of hearing what Jesus was saying about the disciples.
At any rate, it’s here for us. And it continues the theme of Jesus making the
preparations necessary for his departure. It was not enough to give the
disciples some instruction and a word of encouragement. Jesus also needed to
pray for them. And so he does.
In a dense and repetitive way, Jesus
basically affirms that he and the Father are one, joined together in a
relationship of total unity. They are on the same page. They can complete each
other’s sentences. They have the same motives, the same goals, the same
thoughts and feelings. When you see Jesus you see God. The two are that united.
Jesus also expresses in his prayer a
yearning for those who believe in Jesus to be one with them so that there will
be unity. Jesus yearns for his disciples to be of the same mind, to complete
Jesus’ sentences, to have the same motives, the same goals, the same thoughts
and feelings. He yearns for it to be so that when people see his disciples they
see Jesus. And if all the disciples could be unified in this way, then what God
desires will be accomplished. The world will come to know through the disciples
that Jesus was sent from God and that God loves the world and desires to redeem
it. The whole world will be a beloved community as God has desired all along.
It would be like the whole world is brand new.
Now all this discourse of Jesus,
both the talking to the disciples and the prayer to God, has a general focus on
community. Jesus isn’t singling people out. He isn’t thinking in
individualistic terms. For example, look at the love commandment. He didn’t
say, “I want each of you to work on loving others.” No, he simply said, “Love
one another.” He’s not in an individualist mind of thinking. When Jesus is
looking out at his disciples, he isn’t seeing a collection of individuals. He
sees a community, a collective, or, in the words of Paul, one body with many
parts. I want to stress this point because we live in an individualistic
society. There is a lot of emphasis on self-improvement, of being a better
“you”, of individual responsibility, of being a self-made person. There is so
much focus on the self in our society. But that’s not the way things were back
in Jesus’ time. Society was much more a collective. The individual was less
important than the community. It is a shift in focus for us, from the
individual to the communal. That’s something we need to keep in mind in order
to get a sense of where Jesus is coming from and what he is praying for. The
focus is not on the individual believer but on the community of believers.
So I want to step back for a minute
and talk about what community is and how it is formed. Community is a
collection of relationships held together by a common bond. That bond could be
geography, a common interest or goal, anything that brings people together in a
shared relationship with or to that common bond. For Christians, of course, our
common bond is Jesus Christ who we seek to follow and whose gospel we proclaim.
Here is a Methodist Episcopal Church
Discipline from 1884. This small book contains the Discipline, resolutions
passed at General Conference, and liturgical resources. This is the most recent
Book of Discipline. As you see, it’s bigger than the older one. Plus, this does
not include any resolutions. The book of resolutions is larger than the
Discipline. And there is a separate Book of Worship. Needless to say, the
Discipline has evolved over the years. When new situations arose, we have had
the practice of expanding the Discipline to be more precise and to deal with
new problems. I will say there has been an effort over the past several General
Conferences to make our Discipline more permission giving and streamlined. The
Discipline is shorter than it used to be. But there is no doubt a lot more
structure and rules are in this Discipline than this one from many generations
ago.
So my question to you is, which came
first? Was it a community of Methodist Christians or the Book of Discipline?
Communities come together based on some common bond. Once they have been
together long enough, it begins to become evident that some policies and
procedures should be written down to keep things organized. Rules and
regulations emerge from a gathered community.
The Discipline is a great resource
to have, especially when there is conflict. When there are disagreements, or
there has been bad behavior, it is necessary to have written down what is the
process to deal with these problems so that there is a sense of fairness. Due
process is critical when working through conflict. But the Discipline also
serves as a teaching function. It reminds us what it means to be a United
Methodist. It contains language that communicates our values, our way of doing
things, and why we exist. It isn’t only rules and regulations. It is a tool
that provides for structures and processes that hold us together as a
denomination.
But community at its best doesn’t
need to rely on the Discipline for guidance. Community at its best is bound
together by love instead of being bound by rules. I’ve seen it. I have been at
church meetings where, if you see people coming in with a Book of Discipline in
their hands, there must be an issue. Most of the time, we can be church
together without any need for the Book of Discipline. It’s nice to have when
necessary. But what really binds us together is not the Discipline. It is our
love for Jesus and for each other, our commitment to grow in discipleship, this
is the common bond that holds us together as community.
Jesus did not pray for his disciples
to receive divine by-laws. You could say that Moses got divine by-laws when God
gave him the Ten Commandments and then all those other laws we read in
Leviticus. But that’s not what Jesus was about. Jesus didn’t give out rules and
regulations and did not pray for God to give the disciples rules and
regulations. Instead, Jesus prayed for his disciples to receive the love that
the Father and the Son have for each other. This is one of the main themes of
Jesus’ ministry: that love is the fulfillment of the rules and regulations.
Following the rules isn’t enough for Jesus. Rule following without love falls
short. What matters is love and that’s what Jesus longs for his disciples to have
for him, for God, for each other, and for the world.
John Wesley’s reform efforts of the
Anglican church began when a few young people came to him asking for help in
their struggle against sin. He invited them to meet with him on a regular basis
for conversation and prayer. Essentially, John started an accountability small
group. From that seed emerged a movement that has, over the past few hundred
years, given birth to a number of denominations, from the United Methodist
Church, to the Church of the Nazarene, to the Salvation Army. We have seen the
creation of universities, hospitals and children’s homes. The impact on the
world of Christians who follow the Wesleyan tradition is immeasurable. And with
all the evolution and expansion over the centuries has been produced a massive
amount of rules, policies, procedures and Books of Discipline.
This gets me to wondering a few
things. I wonder if all these rules and policies that we have created as a
community are sometimes used to harm relationships and break down community
instead of maintaining it. It seems to me that in fact there are parts of our
rules as United Methodists that continue to cause harm and are threatening to
break us apart. Of course, I’m talking about
the specific rejection of non-straight people from full inclusion in the life
and ministry of the church. What do you do when the rules created by the
community contain the seeds of destruction to that community?
I wonder if the moment we find
ourselves in as a church is a time to get back to what originally bound us
together. Not rules, not processes, not the Book of Discipline, but the bond of
love. I don’t think rules and policies will save our denomination. Instead, it
will require experiencing anew what Jesus prayed for his disciples, and prayed
for us. It is a common experience of the same love that the Father and the Son
have for each other. Our unity, which is a gift from God, must be claimed and
experienced as mutual love to God and to one another. Rules and policies can’t
do that for us.
So here’s some good news. When Jesus
finishes talking to his disciples, he goes to God in prayer. And what Jesus is
doing is praying that the community of disciples be kept in God’s care. He is
not leaving the disciples to fend for themselves. He prays for God to watch
over them, to dwell with them, to be present. Not only that, coming next Sunday
we will celebrate the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst. The good news
is that we are not left to fend for ourselves. We are not the only actors in
this struggle to maintain the spirit of unity in the bond of peace. God is with
us! The community of Christ followers, of which we are one small part, will always remain, regardless of what
polity, format, or name it is given. The church, the body of Christ, is in
God’s hands. In spite of ourselves, the church will always be in this world
until Christ comes back in final victory.
I know many of us are anxious about
the future of the United Methodist Church. As we gather for Annual Conference
this week and elect delegates to the 2020 General Conference, there is a sense
that the stakes are high. For some, it feels like a pitched battle for the soul
of the United Methodist Church. Emotions are high and uncertainty hangs like a
cloud over everything. What gives me hope is that the community we have is
bigger and more durable than any human creation. Whether or not the United
Methodist Church survives in its current form, you and I are still believers of
Jesus Christ, bound together in love, and protected by the grace of God. So, in
the words of Jesus, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be
afraid.”
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.
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?
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.
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