Romans 13:8-14 - Urgent Notice

Rally Sunday, Sept. 7th, 2014

Urgent Notice

Pr. Paul Cannon

Grace and Peace, Bethany Lutheran Church, from God our creator, the Holy Spirit, and our Lord Jesus Christ,

I am very excited to be with you all right now on this very important day in the year.  I know that many of us have been waiting, anticipating and preparing for this day to get here, and for most of us, it didn’t come soon enough.

We’ve got flags up, you’ll see some special decorations, and most importantly, we have our favorite snacks ready.

Hallelujah, the day has finally come! It is ... FOOTBALL season.  It starts today.  Well technically, if you’re a Packer’s fan, the season started on Thursday (I’m sorry to bring that up), but if you’re a fan of the Bears or any other team, the season starts today.

I have the unfortunate distinction of being a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals – a team that hasn’t won a playoff game in over 20 years.  And yet, like many fans out there, when the clock hits 12 on Sunday, I’m usually itching to get home (I’m in the wrong line of work, by the way) – just so I can be there for the most boring play in all sports – the kickoff.

After all, there’s only 16 games in a season, so I better catch every second of it! I joke, but the NFL is certainly America’s sport.  And one of the reasons I think it’s become so popular for many of us fans, is because every game feels significant.  

Even more than that, it passes the two tests for something to feel urgent -  that feeling where something not only has to get done, but it has to get done right now.

1. Test one: Is it important? If it’s not important, it’s not urgent right? Judging by the number of jersey’s I see on Sundays, I know football is important to a lot of you! So it passes test one of being urgent.

2. Test two: Is there time?  If have too much time, there’s no urgency. The fact that NFL teams play only 16 games, gives them a condensed time frame to work with.  So it passes test two for being urgent.  

You put those two things together, and you get folks like me who get antsy at 12pm on Sundays.  

The same principal is true for almost all aspects of our lives.  The more important the matter, and the shorter the time frame, the more urgent the need for action.  

It’s why advertisements on TV tell you to call in the next 10 minutes for a very special offer!   It’s why boxes of old junk end up getting piled up in our basements and garages - because you feel like you can always get to them later. It’s why when we’re late for work, we drive faster than normal.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome today, we hear that same sense of urgency in his voice.  What he’s about to say can’t wait. It’s urgent - so not only is it important, but it also needs to start immediately.

He begins with the most important commandment, urging his church to love one another.  “Love” he says, “Because love does no wrong.”

It’s the most important thing you can do.  Love is what brought Christ to the cross.  Love fulfills the entire law - all the commandments. It changes lives - its presence or its absence shapes who we are and who we become.  

I don’t think I can overstate how important it is for us to love one another. But does it merit the urgency in Paul’s voice? Does it pass test number two? We have a lifetime to do this right?  There’s time, isn’t there?

He writes to the Romans, “You know what time it is, how it is now - it is now - the moment for you to wake from sleep.”  

The moment is now, Paul says. He doesn’t even give us 10 minutes like the advertisers on TV do.  Now is the moment for us to wake up.  Now is the moment for us to get our act together.  

But if you are a procrastinator like myself, you read this and say, “Whoa Whoa Whoa. Slow down Paul. I’ve got plenty of time here...no rush...what’s the hurry?”

Good Question!  Why does all this have to happen immediately?  Why the urgency?

Paul continues, “For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone and the day is near.”  Wait a second?  Salvation is near to us?  I thought that was a long ways off.  I thought salvation was what happened to us when we died!

Not so for Paul.  “The night is far gone,” he writes, “and the day is near.”  It’s an interesting way to put it.  You see, for Paul, the moment that God breaks into our lives isn’t some far off distant point on the horizon. It’s in baptism.  It’s here!  It’s now!  We’ve been baptized.  We’ve already been saved. “Where two or three are gathered in my name,” Jesus says, “I am there.”

The night is over. The dawn is coming!  Time’s up.  And so Paul’s conclusion to this is that we ought to start living like it.  “Let us live honorably” he writes, “as in the day.”

Our Gospel today echoes those sentiments.  Jesus tells his followers, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out their fault.”  Don’t wait for it to blow over.  Go and seek healing and forgiveness. This is important, so go work it out!

Stop quarrelling with one another (Paul says).  Let’s not waste this precious gift of Christ by being jealous of what the guy across the street has. And of course, Jesus reminds us that when we do screw up - when relationships break down, don’t waste time stewing in your anger.  Go find healing and forgiveness if not with your neighbor, then with God.

Of course, this urgency isn’t just for when you’re mad at somebody though.  Living Christ-like lives is always urgent.

On Wednesday, we had our orientation meeting for Confirmation. And I asked them, “Why is this important to you?  Why are you here tonight? Why show up?”  It’s a good question for Rally Day right? The parents and students talked it over at their tables and they came up with some really great answers.

One table said, “Because I want my kids to be able to connect faith in their daily lives.”  Another table spoke up saying, “Because I want these traditions to be passed on to the next generation.” Another added, “Because I want them to have space to ask questions about their faith.”  And yet another said, “Because I want them to be surrounded by a community that loves them.”

These are more than just important things.  They are urgent matters of God.  

Salvation is near, Paul tells us. The dawn is is coming. In baptism, God has made us a part of his family.  He’s already saved us, and so the only thing left to do is live for the people around you.

All that’s left for us to do is to love one another.  That’s the work of the people of God every day.  

That is what is so urgent.  

Thanks be to God,  

Amen

Maundy Thursday 2014

Maundy Thursday Sermon 2014

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

PREACHER: Pr. Carrie Smith

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sometimes a thing is said that could be taken as a compliment…or it could be the exact opposite.

For example, the other day I heard this said about someone: “He’s always the person in the room with the highest opinion of himself.”

Ouch, right? Of course, then there was yesterday, when I was trying to politely leave a pastoral home visit, and mentioned I still needed to finish this sermon. The church member I was visiting said, “Well, you’ve never seemed short on words, so that shouldn’t be any trouble.”

Whether you call it sarcasm or a backhanded compliment or just Midwestern indirect communication, you know it when you hear it! And it often stings with a strong hint of truth.

Very often, it’s when reading or watching the news that I find myself thinking: “Ah, look—the Christians. See how they love each other.”  

 “Westboro Baptist Church says God hates NativeAlaskan peoples.”

“PopeFrancis washes feet, arguments follow”

“Blood Moonsets off apocalyptic debate among Christians”

Ah, the Christians. See how they love each other?

Sarcasm intended.

But today, Maundy Thursday, Christians across the world gather in the name of love, hearing again the new mandate, the new command, Jesus gave us—that we should love one another. On the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus told his friends that when he’s gone, this is how people will know they belong to him. It won’t be about a uniform, or a nametag, or a secret handshake. Jesus says: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” This is who you are. This is how you will be known. This is who I’m sending you out to be.

It could be said, therefore, that this one day in the Christian year, above all others, is about identity: Who are we? Who are the Christians? Christians love God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their strength, and with all their mind. Christians love their neighbors as themselves. Christians are people who love one another as Jesus loved them. We know this stuff by heart, right? Love one another. It’s such a simple command, yet clearly so difficult to obey.

There’s a story told about St. John the Evangelist, that when he was old and frail, and no longer able to preach long sermons, his disciples would carry him to the crowd with great difficulty. And when he got there, every time, he would just repeat this same phrase over and over: “My dear children, love one another.  My dear children, love one another. My dear children, love one another.” When the crowd, tired of hearing the same old thing, asked why he kept repeating it, he answered: "Because it is the precept of the Lord, and if you comply with it, you do enough.” If I were to say that in my mom voice, it would sound like this: “Why do I keep saying it? Because I can’t tell if you’ve heard me yet!”

Jesus said: This is how they will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. This is our identity. This is who we are! We are people of love. But here we are, 2014 years after that last supper, and if you didn’t know anything about Christians, you might not guess LOVE to be our greatest achievement. You could peg us as star debaters. After all, we’re always arguing about something: sex, welfare, and guns; hymns versus praise bands, screens versus no screens, and late service versus early service; whose theology is more systematic or more emergent, and especially who gets to set the rules for everyone else’s behavior. You could safely assume that all Christians are master architects, experts at putting up walls—some designed to keep people out, others reinforced to keep people in. The best guess might be that we’re some a club for archaeology or museum studies, for the way we put so much effort into preserving the past.

Not many people, I’m afraid, would take a look at the church today and say “Ah, look at the Christians! See how they love one another!”

Dear friends, I say we are victims of identity theft! 

Somehow, along the way, we’ve misplaced our ID cards and lost our passports. Our names have even been changed. We’ve forgotten who (and whose) we are! In baptism, we were called beloved children of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. From the mountain, Jesus taught us to love even our enemies. At the Last Supper, Jesus sent us out to be people who loved as he loved—all the way to the cross. But even in a supposedly Christian culture, we’ve struggled to be who Jesus says we are. We’ve been photoshopped, airbrushed, cropped and filtered into more acceptable, more marketable, and less controversial versions of ourselves.

One could say that in light of this massive identity theft, what we’re doing here tonight is a bit sad. What’s the point in gathering to remember a commandment we clearly cannot or will not follow? What use are these prayers, these words, this table? Why bother with washing feet? Why gather to reenact what we can’t seem to accomplish as a community, even after 2,000 years?

To this, I would say: What we are doing here tonight is no memorial to who we thought we would be. This isn’t funereal, this is prophetic. We gather today not only in hope, but in defiance. We gather to reclaim our identity as people who love one another because Jesus loved us to the end. This is who we are—the beloved. 

We may not look like ourselves, but nothing changes the fact that love is in our DNA. And so we gather again on this Maundy Thursday, to ask for forgiveness, to gather at the table, to wash feet, and to hear again the words of our Lord Jesus, who said: This is how they will know you are my disciples…if you have love for one another.

These aren’t dramas, reenactments, or remembrances of things long past. This is prophecy!  This is us defying gravity. This is us, not just recalling a dangerous memory, but becoming part of God’s vision of the future. When we forgive one another in this space, we gain the courage to forgive even our enemies. When we receive the body and blood of Christ at this table, we become that same body, given for others. And when we wash feet—and perhaps especially when we allow ours to be washed—what looks like a symbolic act is in reality a sacrament, a place where our great need meets God’s great love for us. For Jesus, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end. Jesus loved us all the way to the cross. For this reason, and for his sake, they will know we are Christians by our love.  

Dear friends, love one another. Dear friends, love one another. Dear friends…love one another!