Sermon for Global Church Sunday: October 6, 2013

 Sermon for Global Church Sunday

October 6, 2013

PREACHER: The Rev. Dr. Robert Smith from ELCA Global Mission

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ!

It is a pleasure to be with you today to celebrate Global Church Sunday. As Christians in the United States, we are strengthened by our engagement with sisters and brothers in Christ around the globe. Since its beginning 25 years ago, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has constantly sought to answer God’s call to participate in God’s mission of reconciliation and to touch people’s lives to promote the flourishing of human community.

With the 10,000 congregations in the ELCA, Bethany Lutheran has been responding to that call. 2013 marks the tenth anniversary of Bethany's relationship with the Kiutu Parish in Tanzania. This relationship has deeply enriched the lives of both communities, mutually building our capacities to participate in God’s mission of reconciliation.

 

Pastors from the ELCT prepare for the worship service honoring the 50th anniversary of the church. Photo by H. Martinussen, LWF Learn more here: 50th anniversary

I am privileged to serve in the Global Mission unit of the ELCA’s churchwide organization. Part of our responsibility is to maintain the church-to-church relationship between the ELCA and Christian companion churches throughout the world. Another focus is to build the capacities of congregations and synods to best accompany parishes and churches outside the United States.

So what is this all about then? Why do we work so hard to establish and maintain relationships with congregations and churches across time zones and continents? Is it all about charity and sharing the best of what we have with less fortunate people? And if that’s the point, don’t we have enough to do here at home?

For me and for the ELCA as a whole, the answer is simple: the God we are called to serve is a God of relationships. The Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is a God of everlasting and essential relationships. Through the Good News of Jesus Christ, this God calls us into relationship with the very being of God, catching us up into divine reality. But it is not just for us alone. Our divine parent calls the entire world into loving and reconciling relationship, making all of us into sisters and brothers. The God we serve is a God of relationships.

The Bible uses several images to describe our relationship with other believers. Hebrews says that we are connected with all saints past and present in a “great cloud of witnesses.” Paul makes it even more intimate, saying that we are all part of the same body, the Body of Christ. Just as God exists in intimately connected relationship, Paul reminds us that “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Cor. 12.26).

Our bond is most apparent in Holy Baptism. Today [at the 10:45 service], Oliver and Jordyn are being baptized. In this sacrament, Oliver and Jordyn will be joined both to the death and resurrection of Jesus and to the global Body of Christ. Our God is a God of relationships!

Most of you probably know me as Pastor Carrie’s Husband. You may not know what I do outside the home. I’m a pastor in the ELCA serving in ELCA Global Mission as Area Secretary for the Middle East and North Africa. You might want to know what in the world that means! In short, it means I am responsible for maintaining ELCA relationships in the Middle East as well as supervising our mission personnel serving in the region, including Danae and Steve Hudson in Jerusalem, who are sponsored by this congregation.

In addition to that primary role, I work closely with colleagues in the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches. All of this means I have become intimately involved in the lives of Arab and Middle Eastern Christians, especially in recent years as they have experienced the deep optimism and deep disappointments of the so-called Arab Spring.

But I am not the only member of this congregation involved in our denomination’s global work. We are blessed to have Bishop Emeritus Rafael Malpica Padilla, Executive Director for ELCA Global Mission, along with the entire Malpica family, as long-term members of Bethany. The global reach of Bethany Lutheran is extended and deepened through Rafael’s life and work.

All of this is important for you to know since your offering dollars directly support the work Rafael and I do on your behalf. When Rafael is hosting international guests for yesterday’s installation of PresidingBishop Elizabeth Eaton or visiting church leaders in Papua New Guinea with our colleague Franklin Ishida, or when I am in Geneva meeting with Christian leaders from Iraq, Bethany Lutheran Church is present. Our God is a God of relationships!

 

Rafael and Franklin on their most recent trip to Papua New Guinea

Now, through the 25^th Anniversary Campaign of the ELCA, congregations have the opportunity to participate even more directly in global work. In the Global Church section of the campaign, we have the opportunity to identify and support women leaders around the world, to help establish a new Lutheran church in the new country of South Sudan, and (my personal favorite!) help build the capacity for religious education among Protestant Christians throughout the Middle East.

Our God is a God of relationships. Ideally, our global relationships are informed by the call to shared suffering and rejoicing with fellow members of the Body of Christ. As we experience together the radical hospitality of Jesus, we accompany one another in the journey of discipleship. While our communities may experience different needs in different ways, we are not defined by what we lack but by the riches we have in Christ Jesus. In my work with Christians around the world, I have found tremendous riches in the midst of what most of us would describe as profound need.

In Russia, I have sat with Lutheran Christians still struggling to overcome the effects of Communism. The Cathedral in St. Petersburg was converted into a competition diving pool, but the community is persevering throughout Russia’s vast land.

Slovak and Hungarian Lutherans experienced Communism as well, but remember just as well the difficulties of the counter-Reformation and Ottoman occupation. Today, they are joining efforts throughout Europe to stand up for the civil rights of their Roma neighbors, a persecuted group still known by some as Gypsies. Remembering their own experiences of oppression, they are lending their voice to those who have no voice. Our God is a God of relationships!

In Palestine, I have seen how the Evangelical Lutheran Churchin Jordan and the Holy Land—by their own admission a poor church, a small church—provides a powerful witness for the wellbeing of all communities trapped by political conflicts. I have seen Palestinian Lutherans proclaim that creativity will overcome destruction, that relationships will overcome political divides. Our God is a God of relationships!

Our relationships are not only with Lutherans. I am still amazed at the relationship I have developed with His Eminence Jean Kawak, Archbishop for the Syriac Orthodox Church in Damascus. Because of the civil war now tearing the fabric of his country, this church is for the first time in the position of seeking assistance from others. The ELCA has responded to the needs of Syrians with over one million dollars in assistance. But remember what I said about churches possessing profound riches in the midst of great need: the Syriac Church is intensely proud that it is the bearer of one of the most ancient forms of Christian worship: the Liturgy of St. James, the brother of Jesus, chanted in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. In that liturgy, which is very similar to our own, we are joined to all centuries of Christian life. Our God is a God of relationships!

And of course our relationships are not with just Christians alone. In Senegal, the far western tip of Africa, I was privileged to accompany Senegalese Lutherans to a meeting with a Sufi Muslim leader. The Sufi Caliph closed our meeting by saying, “I would love for you to become good Sufi Muslims like us. But since that is not likely to happen, I pray that we will live as cousins every day” and then smiled broadly when the invitation was returned that he could also become a good Lutheran Christian. In a world where US military might is used every day to secure oil to support our lifestyles of excess, we have much to learn from a context where a profound lack of natural resources has led to strong relationships between Muslims and Christians. Our God is a God of relationships!

And then finally, during a conference this past week inWashington, DC, I encountered the strangest Other of them all: the pastoral staff of Willow Creek. Even in my deep suspicion and (I must admit) my envy of mega-church success, I was humbled and inspired by how these faithful leaders were supplementing their traditional pro-Israel commitments with genuine love for followers of Jesus in both Israel and Palestine and committing to political action for peace with justice. We will continue working together. Our God is a God of relationships!

As the prophet Habakkuk saw, “destruction and violence are before” us and our companions. The law has become slack “and justice never prevails.” Our call as members of the Body of Christ is to carry one another’s burdens, so that “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” In this suffering and rejoicing, the ELCA is a global church committed to global relationships since our God is a God of relationships. Amen!