Exodus 33:12-23 1 Thessalonians
1:1-10 Matthew 22:34-46
Once
again, I bring you greetings from the congregations, worshiping communities and
ministry partners that make up the Presbytery of South Louisiana! That may not
sound so very exciting to you, but it gives me great joy. In fact, every time our
General Presbyter reports on the activity of God’s Spirit in and through our
midst he closes his remarks by saying, “I am sinfully proud to be a part of the
Presbytery of South Louisiana!”
Of
course, that has nothing to do with who we are and everything to do with
recognizing what God is doing in our midst. For just as Moses told God, “How
are we to be any different than anyone else unless you go with us?”
Examples
of God with us were abundant at the Presbytery meeting, believe it or not.
Worship of God set the tone for our work, as we recognized and commissioned
Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) and celebrated God’s active presence in all
things. We celebrated the hope that springs out of the loss of beloved friends,
of past ministry opportunities, resources, and ways of doing things that were
good and right but have become irrelevant. Then we set our sights on the new
things that God is already doing in our midst.
The Young
Adult Volunteers – these beautiful, amazing YAVs – are one of the most
exciting, because they change every year. Each of them has given a year of
their lives over to the service of God through partnerships and agencies that
recognize the needs of the most vulnerable. They live in community, and they build
community around the celebration of God’s abundance and providence. And while
that may seem remote to us – they work and live in New Orleans and their
funding is mostly from grants or self-developed – they are yet a part of what
we do here. Likewise, the flood recovery work that we do through Presbyterian
Disaster Assistance was encouraging to members of congregations from Slidell to
Lake Charles.
There
was so much more to celebrate with congregations and ministry partners engaged
in food justice through community gardens, the promotion of righteousness by
campaigns against human trafficking, ministry partners that care for those with
special needs, and so much more.
We
were carried by the flood of all of this love and providence, and it consumed
us while we sang, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
And
in the space between the “oohs and ahs” over what God was doing, your
commissioned Elders thought of you. We thought of the way in which God is present
here- not here in this building, as though a place could hold the active
presence of God, but here in the immersive and present love that makes us into
a people of God’s choosing – a people who demonstrate grace and mercy together and
give glory to God!
Yes,
we have a lot of work to do, and some of that work is letting go of things that
we hold dear to make room for the new things that God is already doing. For we
can all be a bit like the Pharisees who could not believe that Jesus was the
Messiah, because he did not fit their expectations. Fortunately, there is yet
more to our faith than our expectations. Fortunately, there is yet this
fundamental core that forms and re-forms us time and time again, and Jesus told
us what it is when he summarized the law:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the
greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets.”
This does
not mean that God is greedy or needy or selfish. It means that devotion is at
the center of purpose. While it’s a pretty loose paraphrasing of John Calvin, I
believe that he indicated that true knowledge of self comes only from true
knowledge of God, and that true knowledge of God results in right relationships
with one another.
If we love
God, we are going to love one another. I’ve even heard it said that the measure
of our love for God is found in the measure of our love for the person that we
love the least. While that may sit with you about like a piece of gristle on a
good steak, I think an even tougher measure is to ask if we truly love
ourselves.
In the
benediction from our worship in Presbytery we were told to love our neighbors,
but not to forget to love ourselves. It made me wonder how much of the anger in
our world is misplaced. How much of the conflict in our world, and the
self-centeredness that we see is really a result of not seeing ourselves as individual
images – little imperfect snapshots and selfies – of the Divine?
If we can
see ourselves that way it might very well change the way we see those around
us. Then we might recognize that faith is not just a matter of ritual or
individual piety. Our faith is in fact a demonstration of who we are that gets
lived out and amplified through our coming together.
In just a
few minutes we will celebrate that union and the love that echoes throughout
all of time and space through welcoming new members into the household of God
through baptism and transfer of letters and re-affirmation of faith.
Before we
do that, I want to call your attention to the insert which states clearly what
it means to be a member of the church. As we look at this list of characteristics
and responsibilities, I want you to think on a few things.
First off,
I want you to know that these fine folks who are joining our congregation are
joining because they see value in this faith community and because they feel
welcome. The second thing that I want to say is that they will bring change
with them. By the very nature of adding new variables into any equation, change
happens. This is good and right and in keeping with God’s design of things, and
we must embrace it fully.
The next
thing that I want to say is that when Paul told the young church to imitate his
faith, he was not giving us permission to expect that the purpose of new people
coming into the church is to get them to do the stuff that we are too tired to
do but really, really expect to still get done. It means that we as a body and
as individuals are constantly being reformed around the reality of God’s
pervasive and insistent love.
And it is
that love and grace and mercy that forgives and reforms and gives purpose and
meaning to our lives. It gives us the ability to even love ourselves so that we
might be more loving to others. It helps us to see and to proclaim that God is
in our midst, even here, and even now just as God was there and then.
And this
is what it looks like in our ministry together:
·
No one is excluded apart from a
profession of faith.
·
Together we bear witness to God’s love
and grace, each of us becoming involved in:
o
proclaiming the good news
in word and deed,
o
taking part in the common
life and worship of a congregation,
o
lifting one another up in
prayer, mutual concern, and active support,
o
studying Scripture and the
issues of Christian faith and life,
o
supporting the ministry of
the church through the giving of money, time, and talents,
o
demonstrating a new quality
of life within and through the church,
o
responding to God’s
activity in the world through service to others,
o
living responsibly in the
personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of
life,
o
working in the world for peace,
justice, freedom, and human fulfillment,
o
participating in the
governing responsibilities of the church, and
o
reviewing and evaluating
regularly the integrity of one’s membership, and considering ways in which
one’s participation in the worship and service of the church may be increased
and made more meaningful.
Let me be the first to say that this list is a
pretty tall order, but it’s not a checklist. It’s not a way to judge how much
God loves you or me. It simply describes who we are as a people of God
responding imperfectly to a love that seeks to perfect us all the same.
In that love, be encouraged, dear ones. For I am
more convinced than ever that God is active, God is present, and God is doing
great things – even here, even now. As we sing, as we pray, as we celebrate
life in all its fullness together, let it all be in response to the love that
enfolds us, and all to the glory of God!
Amen.
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