Preached at Canadochly and York on May 26, 2019
Preaching Text:
It seems I have about a million different things rattling around inside my head this week. I’m eagerly looking forward to my move and to the new chapter of my life that’s about to begin on Tuesday. I’m enjoying my Memorial Day Weekend, even if I’m spending most of it packing. There’s also a solemnity to this time, as I remember the family tradition of tending to the graves each year on these weekend and, in particular, I remember my late grandfathers who both served this country during WWII.
I’m also wrestling with what to preach today. Thinking about Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit in our Gospel lesson, but also thinking about Jan’s challenge from last week. After the sermon last Sunday, a sermon on embracing love regardless of the consequences, she came up to me and said, “Great sermon. I agree with everything, but HOW do we do that?” Of course, it’s the Holy Spirit that helps to inform the answer to that question. The Advocate acts as our guide through life and learning to tune in to its prompts and urges is an important part of our faith journey.
All of this is jumbled up inside my head and yet there’s a way in which I feel they’re all pieces of the same puzzle. The Holy Spirit, Memorial Day, the question of how to love, all come together somehow.
Well, when you are putting together a jigsaw puzzle, you have to start with the picture. What does the completed puzzle look like? In our case, we must ask ourselves what sort of world does God want? One can assume that our acts of love are part and parcel of helping Him create that world. But what is that world?
To answer that, we must turn to the Scriptures and, in particular, to Christ himself. Who is Jesus? What is Jesus? What does he do in his life to show us that world? This is, as Jesus himself, says a fundamental purpose of the Holy Spirit, to remind us of Christ and his work and his teachings. He is, again, our guide to the person of Christ himself.
What do we find in those stories? Kindness, compassion. Welcome to the outcast and stranger. Health to the sick and infirm. Restoration to the lost. Lifting up of the lowly and rejected. If that’s who Jesus is, then it follows that is also who I am to be, at least as much as I can. If Jesus wants a world where such behavior is commonplace, how do I make that happen?
I think there are two very important steps that we can all take to do that very thing. The first is to resist. Now I know that’s a loaded term in these times, but I am not referring to resisting a political order. I am saying to resist the spirit of these times. This impulse to fear, hate, and mistrust. I am saying to reject those impulses in ourselves. I am saying to give no heed to the voices in media and society who encourage those impulses. Ask yourself when you hear such a voice if it sounds anything like Jesus? If not, reject it. Unsure of what Jesus might sound like? Turn to the Gospels and read again who he is.
The second thing I feel we should do is go deeper. Evil is never more insidious than when it looks like good, and that’s a clever trick that is often played in these times. Take the culture war for instance. People talk all the time about how we’re supposed to be a Christian nation, but what do they mean by that? Do they truly want this country to reflect Christ or do they only want the appearance of some sort of cultural Christianity that bears little to no resemblance to Jesus’ teachings? Forcing children to pray or posting the Ten Commandments on walls in public buildings sounds nice, but does it really accomplish anything that he who knows are inmost hearts would truly want? Or is it just trickery and appearances?
Saving babies by passing abortion restrictions sounds good, but if we do nothing for those children and mothers afterwards, what good is it? Who will care for those children? Who will aid those mothers? Are we willing to do that work? Are we willing to pay for it? We must go deeper. We must go further. If we want to love as Christ loves, then there are no half measures.
No tricks. No gimmicks that sound good, but in the end accomplish little to nothing. God will not be fooled and neither will the world. Our love must be real and it must be total. And again, if we are uncertain of what that love should look like, look again to Christ. Read the Gospels and see him anew.
I do believe this country was founded on Christian principles, but not in the way most people think of it. This was meant to be a place where people were valued, respected, and would have the freedom to be who they are and believe what they wished. Jesus values every person he encounters, even his opponents and enemies. He loves everyone, regardless of whether they follow him or not. He forgives sin; he does not reject people because of it. A world where those things are true and people practice that same sort of compassion and mercy is one I want to live in. It’s one I want to help create. And to be honest, as we remember the sacrifices of those who fought and died in wars past and present, I believe that’s what they fought and died for. It was not for a flag or the personality of a President, but for a vision, an ideal. A dream of America as the herald of a better world that what had been before.
We all want that better world. We here gathered, I presume, all want to follow Jesus as best they can. Those two things work in parallel and what unites them is love. How do we love? Jesus shows us how. How does Jesus love? The Spirit reminds us again and again of his unconditional compassion and kindness, his welcome to all, his aid to those in need. As a Christian, I am to strive to live like Jesus and love as he did. I never going to match his standard, I get that. But I want to try, because I’ve been a recipient of that love. He’s embraced me despite my sin and failings. He’s loved me enough to endure the cross. And so too you. And if we all strive to be like him, what sort of world will we create? I’m curious to see and I suspect God is too. Amen.
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