By Our Love

Hey, we get to sing, “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love!"

That’s a nice song, we feel pretty good when we sing it. In fact, we do those things we sing about all the time! Who needs a sermon, let’s just sing that song. That’ll be awesome!

Jesus told his disciples to love one another in that upper room at the meal we often call the last supper. Jesus took his greatest friends, served them a meal, and told them to love one another. After all, they were friends, so except for a few squabbles here and there, that should be pretty simple. Ah, love one another.

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

And Jesus in today’s gospel gave us the perfect example, sharing a meal with his friends, those who loved and cared for him the most. Sure, we can do that! And then Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. Well, not the most pleasant thing, but among friends, why not!

It sounds like a great party, a really great time! Until we remember that Judas Iscariot was there: The one who would turn Jesus over to the authorities, unleashing a chain of horrible events that would lead to Jesus’ death. Jesus shared the meal with him too, even though Jesus knew he really didn’t have his best interests at heart. Jesus even washed his feet, even though he knew that Judas would kick start his final walk to the cross that very night.

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love. How? Not by our niceness. Not by our love only to those who we know will love us back. Not by those who we have something to gain from by loving them. This love Jesus speaks of is selfless, without prejudice.

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love. Suddenly this doesn’t sound quite so simple. Because we all have those people who know exactly how to push our buttons, get under our skin. Being truly honest, we can all name a few people who we would really just never see again for whatever reason. Judas was certainly that person to Jesus. And Jesus simply loved him, dined with him, washed his feet. And right after Jesus gives the new commandment, Peter lavishly and loudly promises never to betray him, then does so three times. And Jesus simply loved him.

They’ll know we are Christians by our love. Not by our beautiful building, not by great sermons (now that’s good news!), not by our family values or upstanding citizenship, but by our love. And you know, that sounds nearly impossible.

We hear the words “love one another” and often imagine we need to be like Mother Teresa, as if loving one another is some unreachable goal that only the most holy can ever even come close to achieving. Because sometimes it’s just really hard to love.

But sometimes it’s not.

Because indeed we actually can and often DO love one another.  Now we won’t and frankly can’t love perfectly, but we do love. And often we do it without even thinking about it.

So let me invite you to think back on your week. Consider a time when you showed love in some way big or small. Perhaps you had someone’s back when there were lies and misinformation rumored about her. Or maybe a friend slighted you and you chose to simply overlook it. Possibly you put aside your own goals for a time to help someone else achieve theirs. Or maybe it wasn’t that monumental: holding the door for someone whose arms were loaded. Being cut off in traffic by someone lost in thought and not honking the horn. Someone needing some encouragement and you giving it. Someone needing another to just listen and you sitting by their side and listening. Get that moment in your mind.

And now think of a moment in the recent past when you found it very difficult to love one another. Maybe it’s hard to forgive someone who hurt you or a loved one deeply. Maybe you can’t get past the disappointment caused by someone close by what they did or didn’t do.

And now realize that indeed we do love one another all the time. And we also fail at loving one another probably just as much. And so here you are, at the very place where it’s possible to give thanks for loving while also praying about the failure.

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love…

Jesus doesn’t just command us to love one another, he actually shows us what it is to love one another. He talks the talk and walks the walk. Walks straight to the cross to show us that “God so loves the world.”

Jesus did not go to the cross to make God loving, or to satisfy God’s justice, or to take on our punishment. Jesus went to the cross to show in word and deed that God is love and that we, as God’s children, are loved. So whether we succeed or fail in our attempts to love one another this week, God in Jesus loves us more than we can possibly imagine. And in hearing of this love we then are set free and sent forth, once again, to love another.

So simply put, God is love. Thanks be to God.

Please pray with me: Loving God, help us to reflect your love so that they’ll know we are Christians by our love. Amen.

What in the World Are We Doing Here

John 10:22-30, Revelation 7:9-17

The Fourth Sunday of Easter: April 21, 2013

Blessing and honor and glory and might be to God forever and ever! Amen!

The trends are disturbing.

If things remain as they are, most of the kids in Sunday school and youth group today will not continue participating in church when they are adults. Many who are in the pews today will marry a spouse of a different or no faith and have to negotiate church participation and whether or not they will bring up their children in the faith. Pretty much all of us have friends and colleagues of another or no faith.

Thinking of those people adds a bit of sting to these words of Jesus: “You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.” Ouch. It’s hard to get past this. But what about those of us who do believe, who are among the sheep? What is Jesus saying to us today? How do we nurture faith that we might attract or bring back a few more sheep along the way?

Conventional wisdom tells us that belief shapes behavior, that our actions are guided by our convictions. But look around: the opposite seems to be far truer. Because our behavior shapes our beliefs. Ask people to put a small political sign in their yard and their support for that candidate rises dramatically. Get folks to recycle for a month and their commitment to the environment goes well beyond what it was before.  

In short, we tend to justify our actions by shaping our convictions and even identity – often unconsciously – to explain and support those actions. If we do things enough, we begin to buy into the premise and conviction behind it. So instead of saying, “I’ll believe it when I see it;” we should probably be saying “I’ll believe it when I do it.”

In today’s gospel Jesus talks about believing and following in the same breath. We often try to separate these out, but it seems that these two things are actually interwoven together; one doesn’t successfully exist without the other.

This is huge: because in this we see that it is nearly impossible to be an armchair Christian. We know plenty of people who try, but their journey usually comes up incomplete, unfulfilling, and even empty. So maybe volunteering isn’t about keeping the church going because, in fact, God does a pretty good job of taking of God’s church. Volunteering and participating—DOING—is the very nutrient that nourishes our lives of faith. So being a person of action in God’s church is not just good for the church but also good for an individual’s faith as well.

This isn’t easy. The great ordeal that the elder speaks of in the revelation to John is what we are living in now. So we then too will share in the same promise that all those in that great multitude are living beyond the grave, that magnificent place where ones from every nation continuously worship God in thanksgiving for being made perfect, hungering no more, thirsting no more, crying no more, anguishing no more.

But this doesn’t have to be a promise of things to come. It’s a promise for today as well. Of course you would have every reason to throw me out of here if I led you to believe that all your earthly pains and struggles and disappointments would suddenly vanish. We live in the world and know that it is impossible not to gain a few scars and wounds as we navigate this life.

Even in the struggle there is promise. Being guided to the springs of water of life, you were found there at your baptism, and each day we wake we are born anew, drowned to our sin and coming forth as new life. Our robes are also made white by the blood of the Lamb, through the resurrection our sins are taken away. We celebrate receiving Christ’s body and blood every time we come to Jesus’ table.

And these are promises that lead us to do more than believe. We really can follow Jesus by feeding the poor, caring for the sick, accompanying the lonely, and loving one another. And we don’t do these things because they somehow buy us frequent flyer miles to get to heaven, instead we serve each other as our act of worship, our way of saying thanks to God, our method of being in community with God and God’s people.

So what are these things we do? Let me bring back the second most feared word in the Lutheran world today: stewardship. (Just so you know, the scariest word is evangelism, but we’ll get to that later.) Now stewardship; I’m not afraid of this word at all. In fact, I rather enjoy the subject. Why? Because it’s a great way to keep our lives in order. You see, stewardship isn’t just writing a check and tossing it in the plate or signing up for automatic giving. Rather, it’s the way we share all of God’s gifts to us to nurture our faith as well as the faith of others.

Stewardship is the thoughtful and appropriate usage of not just our dollars, but even more importantly our time and talent, those precious minutes in each day and skills and talents God has given us to share in that time. This type of stewardship runs the gamut from sitting with someone who feels alone to helping build a house for the homeless. Some organize and plan while others work those plans to completion. Some speak before crowds while others chat with their neighbors.

Stewardship seems to be a strength here at Christ the King. There are many who give of themselves for God’s church and God’s people. It’s one of the big things that attracted me here to be your servant leader. Can we do better? Of course, and I look forward to working with you all on making this an even stronger attribute of Christ the King-Sherwood through prayer, encouragement, and even a little prodding at times!

I look forward to learning with you new ways to unleash the Holy Spirit, new opportunities to unbind the gospel of Christ, and new ways to serve the Lord with gladness. Because while someday we’ll join that countless multitude journeying down the golden avenue, crossing the Jordan, and standing on the other side, why wait? Let’s celebrate God’s love by creating a little heaven on earth in the days ahead as we work, play, and worship.

What gift has God given you to share? Let’s use these gifts to bring a little heaven on earth.

John 20:19-31

The Second Sunday of Easter, April 7, 2013

Today we find ourselves at the very end of John’s gospel. OK, if you looked in your Bible this morning you would be right in correcting me by saying that there is one more chapter. But the last verses of our reading this morning certainly SOUND like an ending. Many believe the next chapter was written later and perhaps not by the same author. But for today humor me and we’ll call verses 30 and 31 the ending and save the other argument for later.

And the best part of this ending is the fact that John doesn’t end the story in the first century. In these verses the gospel writer is writing directly to us.

“These are written that YOU may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and through believing YOU may have life in his name.”

YOU! That’s all of us here, and those beyond these walls who share in the promise of Jesus’ resurrection.

In these two short verses we are named as actors in the story, as in it we have followed Jesus beyond miracles and to the cross and then even further. But this isn’t the first time John places in the middle of the narrative. We’ve all heard Jesus’ words in John 17:

“I ask not only on behalf of those who have followed me, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

This isn’t just a prayer for the people of 2000 years ago; this is a prayer for the world today and tomorrow, a prayer for you and me in this time and forever more! So hear this gospel with new ears, knowing that the words and actions of Christ are for you. You have been baptized just like Christ with the Holy Spirit and for forgiveness of sins. Today, you are welcome at the Lord’s Table.  It’s all God’s gift for us.

And what are we to do? It doesn’t help to try getting a little further up the ladder than our neighbor. In fact, the further we think we have climbed the further we are from the truth! Because only in Christ do we find eternal life; not by our own merit as we could never climb high enough!

No, in all things all we are really asked to do is serve the Lord with gladness. Not that our works will ever earn us anything meaningful, but instead that our works will bring honor and light to the God of our salvation so that others will see the glory of God in this world and know the promise that is ours beyond this world.

And even though we know all that, something inside us brings us to our own doubts. Much like Thomas, we too feel that it would be so much easier to believe if we could just see God. And the funny thing is that we can, we just keep looking in the wrong places.

Because we really want to see is God sitting on a throne surrounded by pillars of fire with angels flying about caring for God’s every need. Or we might imagine seeing God beyond the pearly gates with Peter standing at the entrance with his book of who has been naughty or nice. And while these are great images are certainly helpful to some, they still leave us searching, waiting, and wondering.

Because to really see God, to see Jesus here on earth, we just have to keep our eyes open. When we keep Jesus at the front of our minds we suddenly see God everywhere:

We see God in the meetings where community comes together to enhance our life here in things such as the new library, the fire company, and even our pavilion across the street.

We see God in the neighbor who shovels our driveway without expecting anything in return.

We see God in the smiles of the people who find just what they need at our clothing drive.

We hear God in the squeals of laughter and screams of delight as children play at Ray’s Malarkey Park.

We taste God in the food we share both at the cake walks and the potlucks.

We smell God as we walk through Hickory Run State Park as the Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron blooms.

We feel God as someone offers a hug in the midst of an extremely difficult time.

And those are the images we all need to carry forward as I step away from being your pastoral leader. Because all of you have gifts of ministry within you. Some are already in full bloom while others are still waiting to be discovered and celebrated. So as the offering plate comes by this morning, don’t simply drop in your envelope and wave goodbye. Instead, also consider the other gifts God has given you that you can share either more freely than you have in the past or maybe even for the first time.

Because that is how God’s word and God’s love will flourish here in God’s church. No, not the physical building but instead a different sort of building blocks. With God as the foundation, your talents, skills, and gifts will continue to grow as you continue to share them with all those around you.

Once again, I remind you that the church is NOT this building. If a tornado came tomorrow and wiped this building out, I know the church would still exist. Because the church is all of us, both collectively and individually loving God and loving God’s people.

So as Betsy, Karl, and Olivia, and I leave, in many ways we take St. Paul’s with us. Our ministry that began here will continue several hundred miles to the west, in a colder where people find it fashionable to wear cheese on their heads, growing and advancing by the power of the Holy Spirit. And our ministry stays with you as well, the miracles we have worked together by the power of God will continue to grow and multiply as you remain faithful to the word and obey Christ’s commandments to love God and to love one another.

Remember to see God everywhere you look. Because when you do, you find just a little heaven on earth. And there is no better way to be the church.

As we are given the gift of faith that allows us to believe in things we cannot see, I leave you with my love and hope and prayers, starting with this one.

The peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, now and forever. Amen and Amen.

Christ is risen!