Sermons: #family

Showing posts with label #family. Show all posts

Sunday, March 5, 2023

A Spirit of Adoption

March 5, 2023
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Romans 8:1-17; John 3:1-17 [1]

Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. He is perhaps afraid or embarrassed to be seen with Jesus. He is, after all, a Pharisee, a teacher of Israel, and as we learn later in John’s Gospel, a member of the Sanhedrin. These are the people most threatened by Jesus, and who will eventually put him on trial. So, Nicodemus doesn’t want to be seen with this rabble-rouser. But he is troubled, confused. He has questions for which he cannot find answers. He is no longer sure where he belongs. He comes by night to speak with Jesus.

Jesus seems to leave Nicodemus more confused than when he arrived. He talks about being born from above, born of the Spirit. “How can these things be?”[2] asks Nicodemus. A careful reading of the law and the prophets has not revealed to him what Jesus is trying to communicate. That’s because Jesus is speaking a different language – the language of the spiritual, the heavenly. Jesus isn’t speaking the language of rules, of procedures and “how to get into heaven.” He is, rather, speaking the language of relationship, of belonging, and of love.

We, too, come with our questions, out of the night of fear and confusion, seeking the fresh perspective, the new life offered by Christ. We are pulled in a thousand directions, dragged down by the weight of temptation at every turn, trapped in living, as Paul puts it, “according to the flesh.”[3] We know that the way of the flesh is the way of death, and we are trying to live according to the Spirit, to seek the way of life, but we are stuck somewhere in between. We’re not sure who we are, and who we are supposed to be. Like Nicodemus, we are drawn toward something that we don’t understand, the mystery that is God.

Jesus speaks of God in the language of relationship. To Jesus, God is “Abba”, literally “Daddy.” God is a parent who loves us as children, who seeks to save us from our self-absorbed lives. God is a sibling, one of us, who seeks to show us the way of eternal life. God is a Spirit moving through us, empowering us, shaping us. It is the nature of God to be in relationship, and this is what we celebrate on Trinity Sunday, the one God with three identities in relationship with one another. And it is God who seeks us out to love us, to teach us that we belong to the family of God.

Belonging is a basic human need. As children we need to know who mommy and daddy are, and where our home is where we can feel safe. We need to belong to a community, a country, a school, a team, a club, a church. We need people to call family, friends, we, us. And we seek out ways to identify ourselves with where we belong. Where we feel belonging changes over time as well. Right now, right here, in St. John’s UCC in Union, in Lent, in the month of March, as members and friends of this community is where we belong in this moment. Five years ago, five years from now, things might be different.

Young people attempt to find their place, their identity, in many ways. Some dress in the latest fashions, join teams and don the colors of a school; others dye their hair, shave their heads, or get tattoos and piercings. Most will try out a sport, an instrument, a school club, the musical, or talk about favorite books, movies, and music in search of commonality with others.

Adults try to find their way as well. “What do you do?” is a question that usually puts a vocational identity on a person. Where you live and what car you drive sends a message of your “place” in the world. Whether we belong to the Harley club, the Lions, or the church softball team, we surround ourselves with the symbols of where we belong. I have a certificate from my college fraternity on my wall at home, I wear a UCC lapel pin on my suit jacket, and I fly the flag from the front of my house. In high school I wore a letter jacket, or a camp sweatshirt, and (briefly) a calculator watch. And who I am has a lot to do with the other people around me.

One of the ways that Christians often identify where others fit in is to ask something like “Are you saved?” or “Are you born again?” From an insider perspective, it can function as a way to determine if a person is a believer, an insider, or an outsider in need of evangelization. From the perspective of an outsider, it can serve as a convenient way to label a religious fanatic. Neither of these perspectives is especially accurate or helpful, since they rely on stereotypes of what it means to be a Christian. Not all Christians identify as “born again” or understand salvation in the same way.

Jesus was a traveler, and did not have a permanent home. One of the first things he did was gather a group of people around him. The disciples derived identity as followers of Jesus, and some of them even had nicknames – James and John were the “Sons of Thunder,” Simon was called Peter, “the Rock.” This group became Jesus’ friends, his family even. We read in Mark that “A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!’”[4] Jesus invited the disciples into that intimate familial relationship he had with his brothers and sisters, his mother, and with Abba.

Jesus offers an identity that goes beyond what the world offers. Clothing and cars, haircuts, sports teams, friends, and even churches change, but the identity that Christ offers is based on a relationship with God that does not end. Clayton Schmit, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary explains it this way: “The intimate relationship of faith is richer than others because it is established by the Spirit of God and will not fail. And even if it leads us into threatening or challenging circumstances as we share in Christ’s suffering, we have the assurance of God’s parental love, the Spirit’s power, and presence of our brother Christ.”[5] No matter what happens, no matter where you go, God goes with you.

There is a touching scene in John’s Gospel at the foot of the cross. “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.”[6] The disciple is adopted, literally, into the family of Jesus, just as we have become, through Christ, adopted members of the family of God.

Paul says that we have been adopted as God’s children.[7] I heard a story once that grasps the feeling of what Paul is talking about. In Native American culture the blanket makes a statement of belonging in the community. Blankets were woven with patterns unique to a particular community and family. A Pueblo woman might wear a simple dress at home. “But before she goes out to join the group dancing in the plaza of the pueblo, she wraps herself in a fringed shawl – a symbol of her belonging to the community. At the moment she wraps herself in the shawl, she is transformed. She’s wrapped in a different identity.”[8]

A similar thing happens when orphaned children are adopted by another Native American family. They are wrapped in the family blanket and walked through the village. This is a statement that these children now belong to my community; they are adopted children of my family. When Paul talks about our relationship with God he says: “you have received a spirit of adoption.”[9] We are wrapped in the blanket of Christ’s love and walked through the village of humanity. God says these are my children, the adopted ones, “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.”[10] Those who are led by the Spirit of God belong to the family of God.

Belonging to the family of God gives us an identity, but it also challenges us. God has adopted the people around us as well. We are in this together. We are joining a large family, and we must learn how to love all of our sisters and brothers. One of the mottoes of the United Church of Christ is “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here.” The relationship with God is a gift of the Spirit, open to all, for the blanket of God is big enough for every one of us. The people with whom we share this community, this country, and this world are our family. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are our partners in this community; they seek with us the realm of God. The challenge for us is to open our blanket, to wrap it around the shoulders of those around us, and to walk together to the dancing in the plaza of the pueblo. Amen.

[1] The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] John 3:9.

[3] Romans 8:5.

[4] Mark 3:32-34.

[5] Clayton J. Schmit, “Homiletical Perspective on Romans 8:12-17” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B, Vol. 3, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, General Editors (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), p. 43.

[6] John 19:26-27.

[7] See Romans 8:14-15.

[8] Robert W. Kapoun and Charles J. Lohrmann, Language of the Robe: American Indian Trade Blankets (Gibbs Smith, 2006), p. 17.

[9] Romans 8:15.

[10] Romans 8:17.

Sunday, May 15, 2022

They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love

May 15, 2022
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Acts 11:1-18; John 13:31-35 [1]

What religion were Jesus and his first followers? The answer is, of course, Jewish. So, let’s look at this vision Peter has when he is praying in Joppa. What he is being shown are animals that Jews cannot eat. According to the laws of Moses recorded in Leviticus, certain animals such as pigs, rabbits, and shellfish are unclean, unacceptable for a Jew to eat. So, what is this vision from heaven? Are the rules suddenly being changed? It seems that way. But if you remember any of the other stories of visions people have in the bible, things are not always exactly what they seem.

You see, the vision is linked with what happened next. Peter’s vision ends and at that very moment three men arrive from Caesarea. They are Gentiles, non-Jews, and the Spirit tells Peter “not to make a distinction between them and us.”[2] Up to this point, only Jews could become Christians. Part of the reason for this is that in order to understand who Jesus is you have to know something about Judaism.

It’s the same reason that our Christian bibles have not only the New Testament stories about Jesus but the Old Testament also. What we know as the Old Testament is the Jewish bible. It helps us understand Jesus when we understand where he came from, what his culture was like, how the Jewish people understood God, and what their idea of Messiah was. At least, that’s what Peter and those around him thought. There are prerequisites to being Christian. Peter’s vision, and its accompanying interaction with a group of Gentiles, suggests that maybe you don’t have to have all the keys before you walk through the door.

This was a breakthrough moment for Peter and the other disciples. It was a realization that the gospel, the salvation of people through Jesus Christ, was not meant just for one small group of people. God’s grace and love were not limited to Jews only. “The Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.”[3] Yes, the rules are changing. “And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’”[4] God has big plans, bigger than you can imagine, and who are we that we could hinder God?

The differences between us don’t matter to God. You’ve heard it said: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”[5] The rules that are designed to keep us apart have been broken by this God who loves all people. God is bigger than one group or another. There is no longer Catholic or Protestant, there is no longer Presbyterian or Methodist, there is no longer Congregational or Evangelical. God is bigger than any denomination. God is the Creator of the entire universe and all that is within it. God’s love is not limited to this people or that; God’s love is for all people, no exceptions.

This is what it means to be Christian; it is about something much bigger than any of us. We are members of St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois. But we are also members of the United Church of Christ in the United States of America. And, most importantly, we are Christians, along with all the members of all the other churches all around the world. We are all members of the family of God.

There are some things you should know about this family. You see, people can tell when you’re part of this family. There is a way of life, a way of being in the world that is evidence of your membership in this family. It is the way of love.

Let me ask you, what do you do when you love something? Me, I love chocolate. When there is chocolate in the room, my attention gets drawn to it. I spend time thinking about it. I like to tell other people about it, and I can get really enthusiastic about it. Dude, I had this really dark chocolate from Ghirardelli and it was unbelievable! You have to try it! I sometimes stash chocolate around the house so I can find it later and savor a moment with my chocolate. I’ve gone out of my way to get chocolate. I really love chocolate.

So, what happens when you love someone? Your heart races, your mind gets all fuzzy. You spend a lot of time thinking about the one you love. You want to make them happy. You work hard to please them, and you want them to notice how much you care. You miss one another when you’re apart, and you can’t wait to be together again. As love grows deeper, you communicate better, you share your joys and your sorrows, you talk about your deepest fears and your most precious hopes for the future. You become partners through life, dancing to the same inner rhythm. People can tell when you love someone.

“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”[6] Jesus’ disciples were good friends. You’d have to be to work so closely and so hard and at such risk for three years. They cared about each other, not in a romantic sense, but like siblings or best friends. But Jesus is pushing them toward something more. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.”[7] This is not a suggestion. This is not “Hey, can’t we all just get along?” This is a commandment, and it is bigger than all of them.

The earliest Christian communities functioned like large families. “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”[8] They loved and cared for one another, for all the believers, but it was more than that. The love that they had extended to their neighbors, the people around them in their communities, even those whom others considered outcast. Their love extended across traditional dividing lines of religion and culture too; remember the Jew/Gentile thing? But it was more than that.

People could tell they were Christians by their love. The love just spilled out of them. Their love for the things in the world around them, their love for the people around them, their obvious love for God expressed in prayer, praise, and song. They were bursting with love, and they never stopped. Their love flowed into others, who passed that love along to their children, and grandchildren, and so on. That love flowed into the people who founded the church in this place, into your ancestors, and it flows now into you. It is the Holy Spirit. It is the love of God that seeks to flow through every heart. Just as my love of chocolate is hard to hide, just as people can tell when you love someone, God’s Holy Spirit of love overflows the Christian heart. Look around. Can you tell you’re surrounded by Christians? Amen.

[1] The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] Acts 11:12.

[3] Acts 11:15.

[4] Acts 11:18.

[5] Galatians 3:28.

[6] John 13:34.

[7] John 13:34.

[8] Acts 2:44-45.

Sunday, January 23, 2022

Members of the Body of Christ

January 23, 2022
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

1 Corinthians 12:12-31; Luke 4:14-21 [1]

Our bodies are amazing. We’re composed of 206 bones, 639 muscles, ligaments, arteries, veins, skin, and more. Every move we make takes hundreds of different parts working together. Feet, hands, ears, eyes – each member important, each needed for our functioning. We are both complex, and one, at the same time.

We each have our role, our part to play. Denny shovels snow and spreads salt to make our paths safe. Cindy and Sue place flowers and displays in front of the church to show our welcome. Carolyne tracks our finances and pays our bills. T.C. and Tetyana stir our hearts with music. Shirley sets up the coffee and cleans up afterwards. And there are many more parts to this body.

What makes us one, what brought us into unity as one body, was our baptism. We approached the water, the font, the river, as an individual. We came out of the water as part of something much more. We became part of a new family, the family of Jesus, disciples of Christ, members of one body, the Church.

As part of that family, we belong to one another. We pray for one another. We bring food to each other. We break bread together. When one of us is hurting, we all feel the pain. When one of us celebrates, we all feel the joy. We may not be as large, as beautiful, or as capable as another body, but we have our place, our history together, and we are a beloved member of the family of God.

Part of keeping a body healthy is caring for it. It helps to know that somebody out there knows you, knows what is going on with you, and cares. It helps to know that somebody out there is praying for you. That is what we have the church for, and that is part of the reason we are here together today. We need care from one another, and we need to care for one another. It is in that caring that we keep our whole body healthy.

We each have our role, the gifts and talents that we share which contribute to the functioning of the whole. If we were all in the choir, where would the congregation be? If we were all in the congregation, where would the preacher be? Each of us matters, from the home-bound to the newborn, the generous givers and those who receive our support. As one body, it is only with all of our members and friends that we can be whole.

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Cor. 12:21). We need each other, in order to be a healthy church, a healthy community, and even a healthy democracy. We need women and men, because we think differently and have different experiences. We need the hopes and prayers of people of color, LGBT+ folk, people struggling to get by, as well as those of straight, white, male, property-owners, because all of us are in this life together and none of us knows the needs of everyone everywhere. We need the leadership and ideas of Republicans and Democrats, holding one another accountable as we seek together to form a more perfect union.

As a congregation that welcomes everyone, no matter where they are on life’s journey, we won’t always agree on what to do or where to go. But we will share the journey, suffering and rejoicing with one another, loving one another, “striv[ing] to share our love of Christ and Christ’s message with our community through our words and deeds, inviting all who search for God’s will on earth to join us in worship.”[2]

Many of our relationships in life are functional or transactional. They exist in order to work together, fulfill our needs, to accomplish something. Those types of relationships are also temporary. The church is different. Our relationship as part of this fellowship exists in order to be an expression of the love of God. Love is not temporary, just as family is not temporary. Love never ends. As part of this family, this body, we share each other’s lives, the good and the bad. We know the love of God which holds us together in a community of grace. We are the church, not a building, but a body, bound together and empowered by the Holy Spirit who works in and through all of us.

As Christians we are challenged to see all people as members of one Body. All of us are members of the body, and we need one another in order to live. As we go about our daily lives, let us strive to include others in our community, to reach out to those who are different from us, and welcome them as members of one human family, one body with many members. Amen.

[2] From the Mission Statement of St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois, Constitution, Part 1, Section II.

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Stronger Together

September 12, 2021
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Proverbs 1:20-23, 29-33; James3:1-6a, 9-10 [1]

From the top of the towers, you could see past the narrows,
Past Our Lady of the Harbor, to the broad, open sea;
See the curve of the earth on the vast, blue horizon,
From the world's greatest city, in the land of the free.

All the brave men and women that you never would notice,
From the precincts and fire halls, were first on the scene
Storming into the buildings on the side of the angels,
They were gone in an instant in the belly of the beast.

We are children of slavery, children of immigrants
Remnants of tribes and of tired refugees.
As the walls tumble down, we are stronger together
Stronger than we ever knew we could be
Strong as that statue that stands for the promise
Of liberty here in this city of dreams.[2]

These words, written by David Wilcox shortly after 9/11, capture for me the essence of that day.

I was working in check processing for Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Denver. Shortly after the morning shift started, our manager called us all together to break the news. We were assured that upper management was monitoring the situation, our building – one of the tallest in Denver – was not a likely target, and we were to continue working the full shift. I remember watching footage of the second plane and the collapse of the towers on a computer in the manager’s office and, with a ball of ice in my stomach, thinking “we’re going to nuke somebody.” It was a strange and lonely bus ride home that day.

You each have your own memories of that day. You may have known someone working in the towers, in the Pentagon, or even on Flight 93. Today we honor the nearly 3,000 people who died on September 11, 2001, and even more who lost their lives in service to our country in the twenty years since. What stands out for me, what fills me with hope from the days and years following those events, is the courage shown by those who, when terrible things happen, seek to help.

Fred Rodgers offered this advice to children, said by his mother when something awful was in the news: “Look for the helpers.” That advice, meant to help young people process tragedy, can be a call to adults to be the helpers.

In his address the evening of September 11, then-President George W. Bush framed it this way: “Today, our nation saw evil -- the very worst of human nature -- and we responded with the best of America. With the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.”[3] The best of human nature is in our desire to help others, to offer care and compassion, to save and to serve.

Another former President, Barack Obama, remembers it this way: “America has always been home to heroes who run towards danger in order to do what is right.” He wrote these words yesterday:

For Michelle and me, the enduring image of that day is not simply falling towers or smoldering wreckage. It’s the firefighters running up the stairs as others were running down. The passengers deciding to storm a cockpit, knowing it could be their final act. The volunteers showing up at recruiters’ offices across the country in the days that followed, willing to put their lives on the line.[4]

It's not just Americans, either. I recall in the days following 9/11 seeing photos of embassies all around the world piled high with flowers, candles, and handwritten prayers and notes of solidarity. The Rev. John Thomas, then General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, was in Germany meeting church partners in Europe. In a reflection written last month, Thomas recalls: “From the members of the news media who invited us to their studio to watch the unfolding events, from those who joined in the vigils and memorial services we attended, and from the hundreds of young people who gathered in central Berlin that night to sing, we experienced a global solidarity the world desperately needs today.”[5]

That solidarity, that desire to help, was soon overpowered by desire for revenge, the demand for a response that would show the strength and power of the United States. Twenty years on we have only now ended our longest war, our unity is frayed, and we are facing new threats to our society with division and hostility.

When interviewed in Germany twenty years ago, Rev. Thomas said, “The violence so many in the world experience on a daily basis has now come to the United States. I hope that our response is to be drawn into a deeper sympathy and solidarity with the vulnerable ones around the world, that we will not retaliate by simply inflicting our own violence on others.”[6] Sadly, we have in many ways turned away from sympathy and solidarity. We have too often turned away from the gospel.

When our Muslim, Sikh, Arab, Indian, and Pakistani neighbors are attacked because they look like the twenty men who took over the planes that day, that is not the gospel. When people in the store are speaking Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, or Arabic are told “this is America; speak English” or “go back where you came from,” that is not the gospel. When people in our communities who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender are blamed for offending God or destroying families, that is not the gospel. “The tongue is a fire. With it we bless the Lord, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God” (James 3:6a, 9).

God is love. God loves everyone. That is the gospel. Jesus said, “Love one another” (John 13:34). That is the gospel. It is not too late for us to turn back to love, to community, to recognize that we are all in this together. It is not too late for us to remember that we are stronger together, if we listen when wisdom cries out in the street.

Today, as we face another wave of coronavirus infections, the helpers are still there. Doctors and nurses are exhausted, but they are still doing what they can to save lives. Soldiers, some of whom weren’t yet born 20 years ago, stayed in Afghanistan as long as they could to save Americans and help refugees find a better life. Firefighters are battling forest fires in the west, and first responders are defying flood waters in Louisiana, New Jersey, and New York to bring families to safety. The best of human nature is still within us, and that is what can and should bring us together.

On this 20^th anniversary of 9/11, let us consider how we can still reach across barriers and find common cause with those who, in the words of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, seek to “break down the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14). Let us undertake the journey that leads to a new understanding of how we live in peace as a human, global community. Let us find our unity again, not only as Americans, not only as Christians, but as one human family.

The leadership of our denomination, the Elected Officers of the United Church of Christ, have this challenge for the Church:

We… call for and invite a turning towards the ways that make for peace between all peoples. Let us unlearn the ways of war. Let us no longer cultivate fear for the purchase of political power. Let us be eager to know both the conditions that make for suffering, and the requisite empathy needed to alleviate it. …We embrace the hope that people of faith will unite in a common love for all. That love is the only pathway we see to the vision we have of a just world for all.[7]

In conclusion, I offer these words of prayer written by The Rev. Ann Kansfield, a UCC minister and New York City Fire Department chaplain, for a remembrance of 9/11 yesterday:

We pray for the fallen. They are the ones we love so dearly and miss so deeply. We have entrusted them to you and ask you to continue to embrace them in your love. We don’t really have to tell you, God, since you already know. But we’ll say it again: the ones who have died and whom we entrust to your care are some of the best people — wise, brave, compassionate, joyful, whip-smart and really humorous. They are family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. They are your beloved children.

We also pray for the crestfallen. This day marks a time of so much sadness and grief for so many. We ask for your care and comfort for the living. Remind us again and again that you are with us and you always have been.[8]

Amen.

[3] George W. Bush, “9/11 Address to the Nation” delivered September 11, 2001. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbush911addresstothenation.htm.

[4] Barack H. Obama, posted on Facebook September 11, 2021. https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/posts/10158872265961749.

[5] John H. Thomas, “Are We Still of Any Use? Reflections on September, 2001 After Twenty Years,” August, 2021.

[6] Ibid.

[7] The Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer, General Minister and President; The Rev. Traci Blackmon, Associate General Minister, Justice and Local Church Ministries; and The Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson, Associate General Minister, Wider Church Ministries and Operations; Co-Executive, Global Ministries; “UCC officers pray for healing, understanding, unity in love on 9/11 anniversary” September 7, 2021. https://www.ucc.org/ucc-officers-pray-for-healing-understanding-unity-in-love-on-9-11-anniversary/.

[8] The Rev. Ann Kansfield, FDNY Chaplain, “A Prayer for the Fallen” September 11, 2021. https://www.uccfiles.com/pdf/APrayerfortheFallen-AnnKansfield.pdf.

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Community of Christ

July 18, 2021
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Ephesians 2:11-22 [1]

The early church began losing its vision. Paul had started churches all over Asia Minor and taught them the gospel. He told them of God’s redemptive involvement in the life of human beings and all of creation, and of the promise through Christ of our glorious destiny.^{^[2]} That destiny Paul spoke of was the second coming, the end of the world, when Christ, “with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and... we… will be caught up in the clouds… to meet the Lord in the air.”^{^[3]} Except… that didn’t happen. The end never came. Jesus didn’t come back on the clouds, at least not yet. So, they thought, now what do we do?

The author of Ephesians has an idea of what to do next. This letter was probably written soon after Paul died by one of the early Christians writing in Paul’s name. The letter to the church in Ephesus was circulated to other churches as well. In that letter, the author redefines the purpose of the church. Paul had established churches with the idea that the end was coming soon. They were to be an apocalyptic group, withdrawn from the world, waiting for the end. Sounds a little like a cult. Ephesians gives the church a new vision and a new mission. The church is redefined as the body of Christ, the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel and the final goal of God’s salvation history.^{^[4]} Christ isn’t coming back in some future time. Christ is here, now, present in the Church (with a capital C), the gathered community of believers, and engaged with the world. In Ephesians, the church becomes “the household of God… a holy temple… a dwelling place for God.”^{^[5]}

In this new vision, the concept of who is, and is not, a member of the community must be re-imagined. Paul had already convinced the other leaders of the church – Peter, James, the apostles – that the Greeks, the Gentiles, could join this Jewish religious movement. Yet they were treated as second-class citizens. The Jewish Christians held their physical marking, circumcision, as the symbol of true membership. The Jews knew that they were members of the commonwealth of Israel; God’s chosen people through the covenants. They were the insiders. The Gentile Christians were aliens, strangers, far from God. They were outsiders. And there was hostility between them.

Things are not so different today. We are constantly tempted to focus on what divides us – the Muslims and the Jews; Catholic, Evangelical, and the Old Main Line; the rich and the poor, women and men, the red states and the blue states, gay and straight, white and black. It is so easy to fall into “us” versus “them”, to focus on who is “out” and who is “in”. By our words and our deeds we exclude others, we exile people from our community. And to be excluded from the community is like being condemned. The Greek word “Ghenna”, which is translated “hell” in the New Testament, was the word used for the place outside the walls of the city where the garbage was dumped, the place where the outcasts were exiled. To be in hell is to be tossed out with the trash.

The early church was divided. The Jewish Christians had the laws and the commandments that they used to push the Gentiles away, to exclude them from the community. It stinks to be treated like an outsider. When you are left out, kept out, pushed aside, how do you feel? Do you feel resentment, bitterness, hostility? The Gentile Christians did.

In his gospel, Luke tells us that a lawyer once asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”[6] Jesus replied with a story about a Samaritan, someone who would definitely have been seen as an outsider by the Jewish community. Using that story Jesus redefines the meaning of neighbor. You think that person over there is an outsider, a stranger, an enemy? That person is your neighbor, a child of God, a member of your heavenly family!

So the author of Ephesians wrote to the churches, to the saints who are faithful in Christ Jesus, to remind them that Christ came to reconcile us to God, to reconcile both groups in one body through the cross, to create in Christ one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace. One new humanity. One community of God. This is a new definition of community, a community that is joined together in Christ, where there are no more outsiders, only insiders.

In the midst of this community dwells God, God who has a plan, “a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth.”^{^[7]} God gathers all things, not some things, not some people only. In this new vision, there are no more outsiders. There is no room in this vision for Israel’s salvation as a separate people, an exclusive group. In the church of Christ there is no more division.^{^[8]} For through Christ, all of us have access to God. “[We] are no longer strangers and aliens, but [we] are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.”^{^[9]}

What does this mean for us today? What does a community look like that will not exclude? What does it mean to be God’s dwelling place, and to gather up all things, all people, in Christ?

A story I read many years ago in Newsweek, back when it was still a print magazine, featured the “Giving Back Awards.” The article told the stories of fifteen people who had gone out of their way to help others. One of the people featured was Mona Purdy. The article said that “When vacationing in Guatemala in 1999, Purdy, a hairdresser from Illinois, noticed children coating their feet in tar to be able to run in a local race.”[10] Now, she was on vacation. This wasn’t her community; she was a stranger, an outsider. Besides, what could she do?

“She went home and began to collect shoes. Today, her nonprofit, Share Your Soles, has branches in 13 states and sends shoes around the world. ‘I always thought I was too busy to help others,’ she said. ‘Then I started this and found myself wondering where I’d been all my life.’”[11] Mona redefined her community so that it included those children in Guatemala. Now her community includes 28 countries.

In this church we seek to be a welcoming Christian community, with open hearts and open minds. Our definition of community includes Gahan, where Debbie and Larry Colvin have served as missionaries for the past three years. Our community includes Cambodia, where our giving through Our Church’s Wider Mission is helping people living in poverty create sustainable and safe futures for themselves and their families. Our community includes Northern Illinois, where our work with the Food Bank helped hundreds of people to put food on their tables. Our community includes the young people who learned music and performed a concert here just a week ago. And our community includes the people sitting in the pews next to us, members of the household of God and citizens with the saints.

As Christians we are challenged to see all people as members of the household of God. All people are part of our family, heirs of the promise of salvation. As we go about our daily lives, let us strive to include others in our community, to reach out to those who are different from us, and welcome because they are members of our family, God’s household.

We belong to God. God bought us with the cross. Through Christ we are members of God’s family. God’s family includes children of every race and every song. God’s family includes the refugee, the hungry, the poor and oppressed. God’s family includes you and me. Let our currency be love, and kindliness our law, so that we may help to usher in God’s realm of peace forevermore. Amen.

[2] J. Christiaan Beker, Heirs of Paul: Their Legacy in the New Testament and the Church Today (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996), 124.

[3] 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (selected).

[4] Beker, 90.

[5] Ephesians 2:19, 21-22 (selected).

[6] Luke 10:29.

[7] Ephesians 1:10.

[8] Beker, 90.

[9] Ephesians, 2:19.

[10] Alice-Azania Jarvis, “The Giving Back Awards: Reader’s Choice” in Newsweek (July 3/ July 10, 2006, Volume CXLVIII, No. 1/ 2), 64.

[11] Ibid.

Sunday, May 30, 2021

A Spirit of Adoption

Trinity Sunday, May 30, 2021
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17 [1]

Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. He is perhaps afraid or embarrassed to be seen with Jesus. He is, after all, a Pharisee, a teacher of Israel, and as we learn later in John’s Gospel, a member of the Sanhedrin. These are the people most threatened by Jesus, the ones who will eventually put him on trial. Nicodemus doesn’t want to be seen with this rabble-rouser; but he is troubled, confused. He has questions for which he cannot find answers. He is no longer sure where he belongs. So, he comes by night to speak with Jesus.

Jesus seems to leave Nicodemus more confused than when he arrived. He talks about being born from above, born of the Spirit. “How can these things be?”[2] asks Nicodemus. A careful reading of the law and the prophets has not revealed to him what Jesus is trying to communicate. Jesus is speaking a different language – the language of the spiritual, the heavenly. Jesus isn’t speaking the language of rules, of procedures and “how to get into heaven.” He is, rather, speaking the language of relationship, of belonging, and of love.

We, too, come with our questions, out of the night of fear and confusion, seeking the fresh perspective, the new life offered by Christ. We are pulled in a thousand directions, dragged down by the weight of temptation at every turn, trapped in living, as Paul puts it, “according to the flesh.”[3] We have heard that the way of the flesh is the way of death, and we are trying to live according to the Spirit, to seek the way of life, but we are stuck somewhere in between. We’re not sure who we are, and who we are supposed to be. Like Nicodemus, we are drawn toward something that we don’t understand, the mystery that is God.

Jesus speaks of God in the language of relationship. To Jesus, God is “Abba”, literally “Daddy.” God is a parent who loves us as children, who seeks to save us from our self-absorbed lives. God is a brother, one of us, who seeks to show us the way of eternal life. God is a Spirit moving through us, empowering us, shaping us. It is the nature of God to be in relationship, and this is what we celebrate on Trinity Sunday, the one God with three identities in relationship with one another. And it is God who seeks us out to love us, to teach us that we belong to the family of God.

Adults try to find their way as well. “What do you do?” is a question that usually puts a vocational identity on a person. Where you live and what car you drive sends a message of your “place” in the world. Whether we belong to the Harley club, the Lions, or a church softball team, we surround ourselves with the symbols of where we belong. I have a certificate from my college fraternity on my wall at home, I wear a UCC lapel pin on my suit jacket, and I fly the flag from the front of my house. In high school I wore a letter jacket, a camp sweatshirt, and (briefly) a calculator watch. And who I am has a lot to do with the people I associate with.

Jesus was a traveler, and did not have a permanent home. One of the first things he did was gather a group of people around him. The disciples derived identity as followers of Jesus, and some of them even had nicknames – James and John were the Sons of Thunder, Simon was called Peter “the Rock.” This group became Jesus’ friends, his family even. Mark tells us that “A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!’”[4] Jesus even invited the disciples into that intimate relationship he had with Abba.

Jesus offers an identity that goes beyond what the world offers. Clothing and cars, haircuts, sports teams, friends, and even churches change, but the identity that Christ offers is based on a relationship with God that does not end. One scholar explains: “The intimate relationship of faith is richer than others because it is established by the Spirit of God and will not fail. And even if it leads us into threatening or challenging circumstances as we share in Christ’s suffering, we have the assurance of God’s parental love, the Spirit’s power, and presence of our brother Christ.”[5]

Paul says that we have been adopted as God’s children. I heard a story once that grasps the feeling of what Paul is talking about. In Native American culture the blanket makes a statement of belonging in the community. Blankets were woven with patterns unique to a particular community and family. A Pueblo woman might wear a simple dress at home. “But before she goes out to join the group dancing in the plaza of the pueblo, she wraps herself in a fringed shawl – a symbol of her belonging to the community. At the moment she wraps herself in the shawl, she is transformed. She’s wrapped in a different identity.”[7]

A similar thing happens when orphaned children are adopted by another Native American family. They are wrapped in the family blanket and walked through the village. This is a statement that these children now belong to this family. When Paul talks about our relationship with God he says: “you have received a spirit of adoption.”[8] We are wrapped in the blanket of Christ’s love and walked through the village of humanity. God says these are my children, the adopted ones, “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.”[9] Those who are led by the Spirit of God belong to the family of God.

Belonging to the family of God gives us an identity, but it also challenges us. God has adopted the people around us as well. We are in this together. We are joining a large family, and we must learn how to love all of our sisters and brothers. One of the mottos of the United Church of Christ is “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here.” The relationship with God is a gift of the Spirit, open to all, for the blanket of God is big enough for every one of us. The people with whom we share this community, this country, and this world are our family. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are our partners in this community; they seek with us the realm of God. The challenge for us is to open our blanket, to wrap it around the shoulders of those around us, and to walk together to the dancing in the plaza of the pueblo. Amen.

[2] John 3:9.

[3] Romans 8:13.

[4] Mark 3:32-34.

[5] Clayton J. Schmit, “Homiletical Perspective on Romans 8:12-17” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B, Vol. 3, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, General Editors (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), p. 43.

[6] John 19:26-27.

[7] Robert W. Kapoun and Charles J. Lohrmann, Language of the Robe: American Indian Trade Blankets (Gibbs Smith, 2006), p. 17.

[8] Romans 8:15.

[9] Romans 8:17.

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Romans 8:1-17; John 3:1-17[1]