Advent Lutheran Church

"Our Christian Credentials: Love"

            Many of you know that I serve on the national ELCA Church Council.  But I also am a member of the “Communal Discernment Task Force,” a group that has been charged with the seemingly impossible task of changing the culture of how the church comes to its decisions at synodical and national assemblies, the legislative gatherings for the church.  Right now, when you are a voting member of one of these meetings, you receive three cards for voting purposes:  white, red and green.  If you’d like to speak to an action that is on the floor, you must go to the microphone with one of these cards, which lets the group know whether you are for (green) or against (red) the action being taken.  This works well for the presider, because they can balance the speaking between pro and con.  However, it also makes the speakers decide BEFORE they vote, what they think about the action.  What the Communal Discernment Task Force is attempting to do, is find a way that allows for the movement of the Holy Spirit in our work together – a process that allows for listening to one another, and not simply responding to the person who has spoken before you with the opposing position.  It is an attempt to change a culture, with the mark of community no longer being “who is right” or “who is wrong,”  but an attitude of loving trust in one another.  And if you are in any kind of relationship right now, you know that choosing to act out of LOVE is much, much more difficult that standing on the foundation of being RIGHT.

            Today is the Fifth Sunday in the season of Easter, and for the past five weeks we have heard miraculous stories about resurrection and encounters with the risen Christ.  We have seen miraculous actions of the Spirit and of God’s work in the world.  However, today we return to a night BEFORE Easter morning, and we wonder how this story might be miraculous in nature.  But then, when Jesus begins to address living out of love, we can see how even a glimmer of that kind of change in our human culture might be considered “miraculous.”

            Jesus is sitting at the table of the Last Supper, saying goodbye to his friends.  “Where I am going, you cannot go,” he says, and he is attempting to prepare them to let him go.  Jesus is giving them “life advice” to help them begin to learn how to live as they go forward without him.  Please note that Jesus’ advice came in the context of foot-washing – that intimate and loving action in which he had washed the disciples’ feet.  This is NOT the gospel that sets his goodbye in the context of the institution of Holy Communion, as Matthew, Mark, and Luke told the story.  No, the Gospel of John places this New Commandment of Jesus in place of the bread and the wine, in such a way that the body and blood of Christ will be the CHURCH – you and me – and we begin to understand our mission as having sacramental significance for the world.  “Love one another, as I have loved you,” shifts our perspective from us receiving Christ to the world receiving Christ through us.  It’s how everyone will know we are Jesus’ friends, his disciples, because we are Easter, we are Christ’s love in the world when we are using our love in the world.

            Back in the early 1970’s there was a series of historical fiction books called The Kent Family Chronicles, which followed the Kent family from England to America during the Revolutionary War.  Generations of the family come into contact with real historical characters like Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere, and the story is a fascinating telling of American history from the inside of the Kent family.  The one thing I still remember from the series of books is the Kent family’s motto:  “Take a stand and make a mark…”  What a great motto for followers of Jesus!  For we must stand up and be visible with the love that Jesus brought into the world.  We are to be witnesses, who by our very presence in the culture, can change the culture.  And just as parents are honored when their kids turn out okay, Jesus is honored when his followers “love one another”

            It’s a hard concept this kind of love.  And we know full well that “self-sacrifice” is not a very attractive selling point for Christianity.  We don’t like to give up what is ours when we have earned it, or deserve it, or must share with those who have not.  But in the New Interpreters Bible, commentator O’Day makes this comment:  (p. 734)   Jesus' death as the ultimate act of love is not the giving up of one's life, but the giving away of one's life. The distinction between these prepositions is important, because the love that Jesus embodies is grace, not sacrifice.  Jesus gave his life… as an expression of his relationship with God and of God's love for the world. His death was not an act of self-denial, but an act of fullness, of living out his life and identity.”

            You are Easter’s promise for the world.  And your credential is Love.  Jesus didn’t deny who he was; he lived his identity fully. So we seek to love in a way that brings people closer to God and to one another, to live a love that illustrates a whole new reality for the possibilities of community.  At a time when “traditional” churches are declining in membership, this is the gift we bring to a hurting world.  We can’t fake it, can’t manufacture it, but we can live it.  Therefore, perhaps we should be more conscious of how we take our “church words” into the world.  Perhaps when we hear the word “Easter,” we should speak it in the world as “New Life.”  When we hear the word “gospel,” we should speak it as “God’s love.”

            On my recent trip to Europe, most of you know, I had the opportunity to meet Pope Benedict XVI.  Now, if you have a “public audience” with the Pope, you get to stand with 100,000 others in St. Peter’s Square (which is really a circle) and the pope comes out on a balcony to see you and to be seen.  If you have a “private audience” you receive a ticket from your Cardinal or Archbishop and you are allowed in to the private audience hall, which holds about 5,000 people.  What we got to experience was called an “encounter” with the Holy Father.  In a small room for about 20 people, we sat in a semi-circle for almost an hour waiting.  During that time I noticed the tapestry that hangs on the wall in that room in the Vatican.  Since I had quite a while to stare at it, I will never forget this tapestry.  It shows the Prodigal Son’s return to father’s arms in the very center.  There is a circle surrounding them with Zodiac signs, which indicate a cosmic theme, and on either side of the circle are two angels:  the Angel of Darkness and the Angel of Light, and each of them is turning the crank of “Time.”  The point of this tapestry:  at the center of Creation is reconciliation.  At the very heart of the universe is forgiveness, acceptance and love.

         

            Easter is still the basis for sharing ourselves with others, and the Story of God and Us still has POWER:  God’s love still heals the hurt of divisions.  God’s love continues to bring new life out of old wreckages.  God’s love, through us, still fills the empty “holes in souls.”  So what’s in it for you?  Well, over the past few weeks as I have grieved my father’s death, I can tell you there are five things I know for sure about following Jesus:

            #1 Identity:  I am baptized – and in that water God claims us and promises that nothing will ever separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus.  I am claimed.  I am loved.  No matter what. 

            #2 Heaven:  Eternal Life – which didn’t mean so much to me when I was younger, but as I grow older and lose loved ones and friends, the sheer fact of heaven brings me comfort and peace.

            #3 Reunion:  with the Communion of Saints of every time and every place.  Not only have my parents been reunited, but all the saints who have gone before us, and they stand with us at this altar, every time we participate in Holy Communion.

            #4 Meaning:  Using all of the gifts that God has placed in me – everything unique that God has created in my life – is to be used for something more than me.  Which gives me purpose, the “why” I’m here.                           

            #5 Belonging:  a Community of Faith.  This is the one that moves me beyond words.  The love and strength, support and care that I have received from all of you fills me with love and a gratitude that I cannot even begin to express.  I will continue to be in awe of what a difference it makes to belong somewhere.

            So I invite you – encourage you – implore you – to use the power of who you are to tell folks who God is and what God has done for you.   Tell the world there is a way to find New Life when they are in desperate need of second chances.  Tell them there is a way to find love, in a world full of pain and separation.  Tell them there is a way to find a place to belong, “where everybody knows your name.”  And the Spirit of the Living Christ, the Spirit of the Resurrected Jesus, Son of God, Savior of the World, will give you strength to “take a stand and make a mark.”     Amen.