Let Love be Genuine

 Sermon Romans 12:9-21 August 30, 2020 Ordinary Time

Let Love be Genuine

The words of our opening hymn this morning; “Though I may speak with bravest fire, and have the gift to all inspire, and have not love, my words are vain; as sounding brass, and hopeless gain”, are taken from the love chapter written by Paul to the Corinthian church. It is found again in this chapter to the Roman church as we just heard it.

What’s the big deal about love? 

It’s mushy, 

it’s emotional, 

it’s embarrassing, 

it’s scary, 

it’s elusive, 

it’s too hard, 

it has no place in real life.  or does it? 

Yet, in our Bible from Genesis to Revelation the Judeo Christian premise for life is love. It shows up in our creation the, ten commandments, the shema Deuteronomy 6:5 , in Micah 6:8, in the words of the prophets, and in the incarnation of the greatest love of all in Jesus Christ.

So what’s the big deal about humans not being able to really live a life of love for one another? 

It seems as long as God has been calling us to love one another, we have been at war with one another. 

You know the drill, parents are constantly trying to teach the kids to be kind:

‘please don’t beat up your brother, 

he’s got to have a clean face for school pictures.’ 

‘please stop taking the heads of your sister’s Barbie dolls, 

she really likes to have them in one piece.’ 

Teaching love, living love, and being an example of love is one of our greatest challenges. Trying to be loving to the person who just took your parking space in the rush to get toilet paper these past few months has been an impossible task.

But, Paul isn’t joking here. 

He is trying to build up the congregation with hope and wonder and sheer courage. 

Because it’s in the most difficult times when genuine love is put to the test. 

I’m not talking about our personal battles and hardships. 

I’m talking about our collective challenges as a church 

to work together in love and together demonstrate love 

to those beyond the circle of the church.

 

Because how we live our lives individually 

is how we are looked upon collectively.

We all have meltdowns and anger outbursts, but those are the exceptions. Our calling according to Paul is our overall example of faith.

    The letter to the Roman church was written around 54 to 58 AD. It was written twenty years     before the fall of Jerusalem. It was written after Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome     and Nero had allowed them to return. Paul is working to have the diversity of the church work together in a manner that they are able to set the example what living out the love of Christ looks like. They were a foreign lot these new Christians throughout the world, Jews, Greeks, white skin, brown, and black skin, rich, poor, and in between, all finding their place in the love of Jesus now becoming the church.

So, now Paul is not only telling them they need to get along, 

but they also need to have regard for their enemy! 

Showing love to them means bringing drink to them and learning how to talk to them. 

It means taking a sandwich to the one you really can’t stand because they support political and social ideals you don’t. 

Paul tells the church to get brave and head straight into trouble by offering a blessing to the people who have tried to hurt them. 

He says go and bless those who persecute you and mock you and take away the ones you love. The most incomprehensible act we’ve witnessed in recent years are the ones of two churches. In 2006 11 children were shot and five died at an Amish school in Lancaster PA. In hours from this tragedy the families of the children and the whole Amish community gathered to forgive the shooter-what unfolded was the amazing story of Amish grace and forgiveness.

Then in Charleston in 2015 a gunman walked into a church attended Bible study leaned the names of the people there and then stood up and shot them dead. Nine people died at the hands of a ruthless, horrible human who had no respect for the life of others. And yet, the people of the church chose to live according to the words of Paul. They met their persecutor and forgave the one who murdered their children, their family members. 

This is probably the hardest kind of love living that Christians are called to live.

Much of what people have against those who claim to be Christians is the hate they hear them spewing at others. Somehow there is an indignant righteousness that lauds superiority of belief over others. 

Jesus went to his death on the cross for us out of love. 

Can’t we show at least a little love for others? 

If we don’t even try, we are mocking our Lord who brought the love of all humanity into our world.

It is really clear that genuine love requires an enormous capacity to forgive. 

It is a powerful thing to be on the receiving end of forgiveness. 

It’s a moment when the story of Jesus is no longer a story but an all inhabiting invasion of overwhelming love, indescribable love.

We are turning a corner this month.

Our children are headed off to school.

We have been in seclusion for six months and we are slowly emerging as we find safe spaces and places to go. We are navigating the chance to be face to face with those we have missed so very much. We are trusting our schools and our leaders as they seek to reengage us in life in a manner that keeps us out of harms way. Even the families choosing 100% virtual school or homeschool are venturing out into an unknown world.

I believe Paul has a few words for us in this second half of chapter twelve to challenge us in living out our faith. 

The church is in a new way. 

The church is no longer the way it used to be and there is no going back. There is no going back because it is and has always been going forward. 

The church is always the church of Jesus Christ.

Paul was giving hope to the people of Rome. 

I honestly believe verse twelve is our go to verse for then and for now and for the future. 

Please consider memorizing it. “ Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.” 

What a blessing to hear these words in times of great sadness, 

in times of great difficulty, 

in times of great frustration. 

If we are struck down with cancer, 

or a miscarriage, 

or a stroke, 

or the loss of a lifelong partner, 

or the loss of work, or the loss of friends, 

or the loss of togetherness, 

or the coronoa virus, 

or the devastation of a hurricane, 

or the loss of a daily moment of snuggles and hugs; 

this stand alone verse is there to get us through absolutely everything of this world that comes our way. It is the truth for our very being.

All these verses have hope built in for us today. So, let me run through the list of 10 for you today. Pay attention. Don’t nap there at home or here in those pews. As we adopt these hope words and ways the world won’t seem so scary. We’ve got this because God’s got us.  God grants us wisdom and courage to go forth and do the work of love. Here are our marching orders:

1. Love will always do what is good. 

2. Lead the way. Laziness is not allowed. 

3. Keep your heart light shining. 

4. Remember who you serve. 

5. Well, you know…live with hope, patience, and prayer. 

6. Risk being open to others. 

7. Superiority has no place. Be a blessing. 

8. No getting even; no matter how bad you want to. 

9. We all want justice. Do so without denigrating others. 

10. All people have value even in the face of unjust authority. Trust to continue to do the good that Jesus calls us to do.

Finally, by forcing interaction with our enemies, even those enemies in our own heart, we are offering redemption in the act, both for the enemy, and for the giver.

We can trust that God will grant us all we need as we face the next hours ahead of us. Delight in the love of the Lord. Let love be genuine. Go out in joy! Amen.

Resources: NIB Romans N.T. Wright; Working Preacher Romans 2020 Israel Kamudzandu, sermon 2017 notes Monica Gould

 

Choose Your Battles Well

 

Sermon Matthew 15:21-28 August 15, 2020 Ordinary Time

Choose Your Battles Well

Relationships require an ability to communicate.

They also require an understanding of mutuality.

And relationships require some sort of ability for forgiveness.

How do I know this?

 

Well, it’s one of the essentials of our faith.

Whether we adhere to the faith of the Old Testament through the Torah, the ten commandments, and the shema from Deuteronomy 6:8 ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might’, or from the New testament where Jesus added to Deuteronomy 6:8, ‘your neighbor as yourself’; or Paul in Corinthians that we are ‘the body of Christ’.

 

All of these words from Scripture point to the mercy and love of God.

All of these verses point to the fact that relationships require mercy.

This can be the most challenging news for how we interact with each other as a parent, a spouse, a child, a neighbor, a friend, or a stranger.

 

When my first child came along, I was determined to make sure everything I did as a parent would be the correct way of parenting. I was worried about what people thought of me more than how my relationship with my child unfolded. By the time my third child came along I didn’t care what people thought and cared only about how we all got along. It became necessary for me to take the attitude, ‘choose your battles well’ if I wanted to get through seeing the kids into adulthood. So, when my children played in the playroom and didn’t clean up, I decided that was less important than making sure they ate well, or took a bath, or did their homework, or came with us to church. I’ll never forget being fussed  at by parents at church when my daughter decided she was going to dye her hair every color she could imagine. I remember saying to them, ‘I choose my battles and that’s not one of them.’ They were upset with me because I allowed her to demonstrate such a visible expression of herself. Yet, she is an amazing woman. All three of my children survived my style of parenting (at least I think they did). My children chose their battles well too. When they were determined (whether the choice was a good one or not); they stood up for themselves and challenged us to live up to what we professed about our love for them and their right to make choices for themselves. It was hard to watch them when they made choices that brought them sorrow. It was hard for us when we realized we missed crucial signs of anguish. It was hard to learn through one another as we sought to follow God’s word in our lives.

This Scripture passage is an important display of humanity.

It is an important display of Jesus’ humanity.

He is downright rude and crude.

He ignores.

He belittles.

He dismisses the very person who expects the divine to work through him.

 

What kind of example is he setting for his disciples?

What kind of humanity is this divine person showing others?

What point is Matthew, the gospel writer, trying to make by including this for the readers?

It is perhaps a most important set of verses for us to take some time to wrestle with.

It is important for us to recognize how a woman in Scripture chose her battle well.

And it begs the question for us when we should or could or would do the same.

Let’s consider her for a moment.

She is a Canaanite woman. Joshua has just entered her land at the end of the Exodus and claimed it as the Promised Land from God for the children of Israel. She is considered unclean. She is considered foreign. She is considered socially outcast. She is considered outside the boundaries of a true member of God’s household. She has no place among men and especially no place among the religious authorities. The theology and doctrine of her day forbid her from having any value.

She made a conscious choice to approach the One in authority to challenge her right to receive mercy and healing as others had received.

Nothing was going to stop her from appealing to the Son of David.

Nothing was going to stop her from shouting him down and making him honor his own words. Jesus himself had quoted Hosea 6:6 “I desire mercy over sacrifices.”

She was not intimidated by his position.

She knew who he was and expected him to break through the barriers of theology and doctrine and provide for her and heal her daughter.

She turns the tide on Jesus!

 

She initiates her encounter with Jesus.

And she does not do it with finesse,

nor with delicate charm,

nor with wit or fancy,

nor with body language or a dainty wardrobe.

 

She challenges Jesus’ mission through her prophetic shouts.

Her behavior is socially unacceptable.

She violates every norm of her day: she shouts, she speaks to a man, she speaks to a Jew, she demands, she is offensive, she is rude (and so is Jesus), she is in Jesus’ face!

She will not accept that her people are dogs.

Nor will she accept that her people are not children of God eligible for mercy as those Jesus claims to have come for.

 

She makes Jesus alter his actions.

 

In this story we witness Jesus act shockingly toward another.

Mercy is the very thing that Jesus is accusing the religious authorities of lacking.

Now he comes face to face with a challenge of his own.

Can Jesus live up to his claim of mercy in the face of one who is doctrinally marginal?

This Canaanite woman, who does not receive the honor of having her name recorded in biblical history, puts Jesus’ words of mercy to the test of action.

She revealed the length she would go for the salvation of her daughter.

Jesus acted on her behalf as he witnessed her unrelenting faith. His encounter with a foreign woman broke through the barriers and boundaries of theology and doctrine to allow the mercy of God to be fulfilled.

Tuesday August 18, 2020 marks the one hundredth anniversary of the ratification of the 19^th amendment to the constitution of the United States of America allowing women the right to vote.  

                                                                                                        
I wonder if the audacity of the Canaanite woman gave the women of the suffrage movement the same courage to break through boundaries and barriers to bring about the mutuality of all people in their rights including the vote.

Friends, the people who wrote and fought for this constitution went up against an authority to declare what they believed was right. The amendments that follow the Bill of Rights were brought about in the same manner. Alongside our Bibles this should also be an annual read for us as we treasure the rights we have in this nation. Sidebar-let’s consider reading through our Bibles together this year.

I can’t say that the encounters with Jesus will always turn out as we expect.

I can’t say that our encounters with each other will turn out as we expect.

But, as we kneel before our Lord and cry out the ancient phrase, “Lord, in your mercy” we are crying out the words of thousands of years of challenging God to act.

We too challenge God’s divine mercy to intercede on behalf of others.

 

The great faith of others have challenged norms and barriers.

They have shouted prophetic words to challenge doctrines to bring about the ways of mercy and love professed in God’s word.

May God’s people hang on to the power of the Canaanite woman’s ability to choose her battle well. May her ability to shout for mercy when mercy was required be the impetus for us.

Relationships are worth fighting for.

Learning how to choose battles well for mercy and love for the sake of others is key to who we are as people of faith.

It is up to us to seek God’s Kingdom.

It is up to us to hear God’s voice and follow as we are summoned.

It is up to us to challenge doctrines and theology in the light of mercy and love.

It is up to us to go onward, we are not divided, all one body we, one in hope and charity-yes, mercy.

May we be challenged on our assumptions of faith. May we live with such great faith that we can take the initiative to encounter Jesus and together turn the tide for mercy and love. Amen.

 

Resources: NIB Matthew, Eugene Boring; Feasting on the Word Year A, Jae Won Lee; Feasting on the Word Year A, Iwan Russell-Jones.

Sermon belongs to Monica Gould.