"a charge to keep"

Anna Blaedel
First UMC, Osage
October 26, 2008

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
Matthew 22:34-46

About nine hours ago, I returned from Washington DC from our fall meeting of the General Board of Church and Society, of the United Methodist Church. Have you heard of the work and witness of this part of our church? I invite you—Google it. Ask me about it. Talk to the members of this community who have been to annual conference, or who know about it. I have served on this board for four years, and was re-elected to continue this work and ministry for the coming four years. Don’t worry, they cover all the financial costs! A great privilege, a great responsibility. Being on this board is exhilarating. Exhausting. Essential in my life and my faith and my ministry.

In this morning’s gospel text from Matthew, one of the followers approaches Jesus: Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? Jesus said to him, “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. Let us pray: O God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing to you, our strength and our redeemer.

The stated purpose of the General Board of Church and Society is to relate the gospel of Jesus Christ to the members of the Church and to the persons and structures of the communities and world in which they live. A mouthful, I know. Or, to connect the good news of the love and justice of Jesus our Christ in our daily lives. To help us know better how to love our neighbors, even those we have never met. Or, to discern how the gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to live in our local community, local church. AND, how the gospel calls us to connect within our global community, because as United Methodists, we are a global church, we worship a God of all the nations, we are citizens, first, of the kingdom of God. Our charter states, “This board shall seek to bring the whole of human life, activities, possessions, use of resources, and community and world relationships into conformity with the will of God.” Quite a charge to keep! All of who we are, what we have, what we do, what we believe…all our hearts, our minds, our souls, our strength…all opportunities to more fully conform ourselves and our lives to the will of God.

We are a connectional church. We are called to connect with each other. We learn in the sacred scriptures that how we connect with each other reflects and enables how we connect with God.

On these two commandments, teaches Jesus, hang all the law and the prophets—Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. On this, our Lord was crystal clear. Together, this is the great commandment. Love God. How do we do this? By loving our neighbor. Not just with what is left over, what is easily given, what we won’t miss anyway, what we can easily do without. With all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, all our strength. All of who we are, and all of what we have. This is the plumbline of our faith, and should be the plumbline of ordering our lives.

After all is said and done, teaches Jesus, our very salvation hangs on this, the state of our very souls depends on this. Love the Lord our God. And love our neighbors. With this commandment, Christ calls us to build the kingdom of God here on earth. Our sacred calling, our holy tasking, to be kingdom builders, prophets of justice, love and hope. What God requires of us—doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.

Exhilarating! Exhausting… Essential to our shared faith and faithfulness.

From John Wesley, the founder of Methodism—Three simple rules for faithful living. First, Do No Harm. Second, Do Good. Third, Stay in Love With God. Wesley charged this denomination, Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the people you can, in all the places you can, by all the means you can, for as long as you can. Love God. Love your neighbor. And by doing this, bring the whole of our human lives, activities, possessions, use of resources, and community and world relationships into conformity with the will of God.

Jesus embodied, Wesley remembered, we are taught: By loving and serving our neighbors, far and near, we love and serve God.

I will not try to share all the stories I heard from fellow board members and staff these past four days. From United Methodist Bishops in Angola and Liberia, Pennsylvania and North Dakota, from pastors serving United Methodist Churches in the Philippines and New York, Texas and Sweden, California and Congo, from delegates, lay members in churches, just like you, from Zimbabwe and Switzerland and Kenya and North Carolina and Puerto Rico and Nebraska. We sat at table together, and ate. We visited congressional offices. We laughed together. We cried together. We worshiped together, oh did we worship together. We shared our personal stories of faith, shared our deep need for God’s love and justice and hope in our communities, shared ways we might be prophets of this love and justice and hope.

In my work area alone, we are tasked by the people of the United Methodist Church through General Conference to be kingdom builders around issues of immigration, torture, the death penalty, HIV and AIDS, domestic violence, family planning and reproductive health, child marriage and human trafficking, human sexuality, bioethics, and more. A steep learning curve for us all…To bring the whole of human life, activities, possessions, use of resources, and community and world relationships into conformity with the will of God. Love. Justice. Hope. Looking at and learning about the world around us through new eyes. This is the practice of incarnation!

In the last 36 hours or so, I was invited to face very difficult realities which call for faithful, for faith filled response:

Did you know—over 70% of the chocolate we will hand out this Halloween is made with coco harvested under slave conditions, often by children?

Did you know—Equal Exchange works with the United Methodist Church to provide Fair Trade chocolate, available to you, so that we might enjoy pleasure without causing others to suffer?

Did you know—over 10,000 non combatant people every year are killed or maimed by landmines, and that the US is one of a small group of countries, along with Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Burma, China, and Saudi Arabia, who has refused to ratify the Mine Ban Treaty?

Do you know where your elected officials stand on this ban? Do you know whether the presidential candidate you will vote for in 9 days is willing to save lives and sign this treaty?

Did you know—1 in 4 women experience domestic violence, and 1 in 5 young women will experience sexual assault between the ages of 18-24 years old?

Did you know—far too many people, sometimes batterers, sometimes pastors, use the Bible to justify or excuse this violence?

Did you know—in a comprehensive poll in 2006, 37% of men in the US admitted to committing one or more acts of physical or sexual violence in the past 12 months?

Did you know—states which practice the death penalty have a 40% higher murder rate than states which do not?

Did you know—about 930,000 people in the US are currently living with AIDS?

Did you know—worldwide, almost 40 million are living with AIDS, and that 600,000 children are infected each year?

Did you know, that study after study after study and story after story after story has shown that abstinence only sex education is ineffective in addressing this global health crisis?

Did you know—the United Methodist Church is working, through our connectional system and apportionment giving, on educating and advocating and ministering to the real people and lives behind these statistics?

Did you know—part of being a United Methodist church is participating in ministries of love and justice for our neighbors through our apportioned giving, and through our prayers, presence and service?

Did you know that this church, 1st United Methodist Church of Osage, has only paid 44% of our apportioned giving, 44% of our connectional commitment to these ministries we cannot possibly do on our own, these ministries which also impact people within this church, within this community?

All in 36 hours, or so. I left DC utterly exhausted. This work is overwhelming. These statistics are overwhelming. The need is wide. Our call runs deep. But. And. I left renewed. Because, God’s grace is wide, and Jesus’ love runs deep, too. Our connection with each other is sacred, and carries us through. We are called. As Christians, we are commanded. To be prophets of God’s love and justice and hope. To bring the good news of Jesus Christ to a world desperately needing good news. To be disciples and to make disciples for the transformation of the world.

And, because we are human, we do grow weary in this work of faith, cry out with the suffering we see when we dare to look in our lives, or the lives of our neighbors. Hear this reminder from the psalmist. “How long? Have compassion on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prepare for us the work of our hands—O prosper the work of our hands!”

As deeply as we are afflicted, so deep can be our joy. As pervasive the forces of evil, so pervasive can be our just and loving response. Hear again the words we sung together this morning written in the 9th century, over a thousand years ago: where charity and love prevail, there God is ever found; brought here together by Christ’s love, by love we are thus bound.
In a few moments, from Together We Serve: Together we serve in Spirit and truth, remembering love is the strength of our song.

From our closing hymn, our benediction to each other: We share each other’s woes, our mutual burdens bear.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets, all the faithful work and witness and service our faith charges us to keep: Love the Lord our God with all our hearts and all our lives and all our souls and all our minds and all our strength. Love our neighbors. This is our charge to keep. May it be so. Amen, and amen.