may 17, 2009

Anna Blaedel
First UMC, Osage
May 17, 2009
Psalm 98
John 15:9-17

Today I want to begin and end this sermon with lists. To begin, a list of Christian one-liners sent to me by one of you. To end, the ABCs of Christian living, as written by a colleague of mine in ministry. In between, I invite us to search the scriptures together—to celebrate God’s living Word, offered to us in love. Love is, after all, the central theme of the Gospel, and our recent lectionary texts return us over and over again to God’s command to love.

Someone asked me this past week if I have been choosing “the love passages” to make a point about same-sex marriage, and the sacred worth and faithfulness of God’s gay and lesbian children. Know that I have been merely preaching from the lectionary. But it is true, the lectionary keeps bringing us back to love. Repeatedly. Almost obsessively. Like a broken record.
Recall the last few weeks: On May 3, we read from 1 John 3:16-24. “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s good and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” And then on May 10, from the 4th chapter of 1 John. “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…if we love one another, God lives in us.” And then this morning, we leave 1 John and enter the gospel of John. “As the Creator has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. This is my commandment, that you love one another. I am giving you these other commands so that you may love one another.”

Let us pray: Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us. Melt us, mold us, fill us, use us. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us.

A few words of humor, mixed in with some subtle truth, to get us started:

Don’t let your worries get the best of you; Remember, Moses started out a basket case.

Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited. Until you try to sit in their pews.

Many people want to serve God, but prefer to do so only as advisors.

People are funny; they want the front of the bus, the middle of the road, and the back of the church.

If a church wants a better pastor, it needs to start by praying for the one it has.

A lot of church folk singing “standing on the promises” are really just sitting on the premises.

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.

When you get to your wit’s end, you’ll find God lives there.

Don’t let your worries get the best of you. When we want something better, we need to start by praying. Sitting on the premises is a poor substitute for standing on the promises. A safe landing awaits, but sometimes the passage through is anything but calm. The task ahead is never too great for the Power of God surrounding us. And, when you get to your wit’s end, you’ll find God lives there.

This is the message of Psalm 98. Another psalm, praising God as the Creator of the universe. The psalmist, demonstrating God’s power to love, and God’s commitment to doing so. Psalm 98 is a happy psalm. The psalmist, as another pastor put it, is having a good day. She got up in the morning, the sun was shining, it was not too warm and not too cool, and the very “ends of the earth,” we read, “have seen the victory and glory of our God.” It is a good spring time psalm. On bright May mornings the grass here in Osage is green, the dandelions yellow and covering the landscapes, blue birds building their nests, gardens starting to emerge from rich, dark earth, the tulips offering their colorful praise, blue bells covering the fields at New Haven Potholes, wrens sing their scolding song. Good days for singing psalms of praise. “O sing to God a new song, for God has done marvelous things! Our Creator has remembered to show steadfast love and faithfulness. All the ends of the earth have seen the glory of our God. Make a joyful noise, all the earth! Break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Let the sea roar. Let the floods clap their hands. Let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of our God! Surely the presence of our God is in this place, is it not? New Creation.

Have you ever noticed that God doesn’t speak in the Psalms? In over 150 settings, God says nothing. The gospels give voice to a living, loving God. The psalms give voice to God’s people. Us. Sometimes the psalms cry in pain and sorrow, sometimes they cuss and fuss and condemn. Sometimes they cry out in praise and celebration. Like life, like us, it is all jumbled up together, one big, holy mess.

A cycle, as Walter Brueggeman writes, of New Creation, Dislocation, and Reorientation. New Creation. Dislocation. Reorientation. We wake up rested, the sun is shining, we give thanks to God for another new day. And then the phone rings, and there is bad news. Or the loss of a loved one creeps back in. Or our fears and insecurities get the best of us. And we become lost, dislocated. We stray away from this new creation in God and God’s love. But then, because God is God and God is good, because Moses too started off a basket case, and because God does promise a smooth landing, if not a calm passage, and because the task ahead is never too great for the power behind, and because when we get to our wit’s end we find God lives there, well, we find ourselves reorienting. Regrounding in God’s love. Remembering to stand on the promises of love and care and presence. New Creation. Dislocation. Reorientation.

Where are you this morning, in this sacred cycle? What new buds of possibility lay waiting in the fields of your heart? What new song are God calling you to sing? Wherever you are, whatever your song, whether sung in praise of new creation, in the struggle of dislocation, or the saving grace of reorientation, sing out your song to God. Sing a new song, for God is doing marvelous things…

And then, the Good News according to John brings us back to love. In John’s gospel, Jesus is the incarnate Word of God. Recall the opening words of this gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word became flesh and dwells among us. Jesus’ life, teachings, death and resurrection—this is the Word of God. The Bible seeks to point us toward it. The Living Word. Love incarnate. No longer do we have only a set of biblical writings to guide our life of faith. Now we have the Living Word. And it is a word of Love.

Jesus does not simply speak God’s words and do God’s works. Rather, Jesus does what he does, lives how he lives, and loves how he loves because he is God’s Word and Work of love in the world. And this passage from John helps us understand what love really is, and what it means to make our homes in, or to abide in, Jesus. In love.

John’s theme is obedience. To obey God is to love. The command is not, “I love you, but…” Or, “love the sinner, hate the sin.” The command from God is, “I love you. And I want you to love one another. I have loved you, so now you must love one another.” A song celebrating new creation. A promise we can stand on when we are experiencing dislocation. And the command that will carry us through, into the reorienting love of God.

This love is to bind us together in community, and bind us to God. This is the path. The process to joy. The kind of joy we can abide in.

To abide in perfect love means to ask, before we speak, before we act, before we judge: Is this rooted in love? Does this bear the fruit of love for the Kin-dom of God?

All of us are ministers of the Gospel. This is the call of our faith, the mark of our baptism. You are called by God to ministry.
Henri Nouwen writes of this call: “The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own very limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God.” As the living body of Christ, we are Christ’s hands and feet and heart in the world. The love of Jesus flows through us, into the world. If we let it. If we love.
Not an easy call, all the time. Dislocating. How are we to be faithful to this call? The gospel implies we can do it one of two ways. As servant, or as friend.

A servant does what she or he is told, often without thought or commitment. Perhaps begrudgingly, or out of fear. The command is an imposition, placed on a servant without choice. Do this, or else. This is not the way God works, Jesus teaches. To act as servant does not lead to abiding in God’s love, or God’s joy.

But to act as a friend? Consider a dear friend of yours. A true friend. A friend responds out of love. Is concerned about the outcome, not just about putting in their time. Invested in cultivating joy, and showing love, and healing hurts, and binding up broken hearts. Jesus speaks to us in love, saying: “You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, but I have called you friends. And I appoint you to go and bear fruit, so that you may love one another.”
Hear the good news! We are chosen to be friends of God! The call can be disorienting, can require us to change, can lead us into singing a new song we never thought we’d find on our lips. But it is not a call to grit our teeth and bear it. It is not meant to be a matter of grim-faced respectability or dour commandment-keeping. This call is meant to be a joy! Challenging, sure. But the call to love and be loved leads us, God promises, into a joy so deep, so abiding, that we cannot help but burst into song. Clap our hands and shout our praise! Make a joyful noise, and sing together for joy at the sure presence of our God!
And Jesus, God’s Word alive in the world and in our hearts, uses himself as the model for this love. It is anchored in daily life. Jesus is giving us a pep talk to end all pep talks, trying to encourage, convince, and convict those who claim to follow him. “You can do this! You can do this because I have done it, and I am here to show you how!”

Abide in love. Bind yourselves in love, to each other and to God. Sing praises for God’s love made known in new creation. Seek and receive God’s grounding, steadfast love when things are a mess and joy seems impossible and love feels far away.
And to guide us, to orient us, the ABCs of Christian living, shared by Sally Hoelsher.

Apologize - and mean it

Be a good example
Care for those in need
Do what you can
Extend an invitation
Forgive
Generously share your time
Help build a house
Involve yourself in life
Join together with others to work toward common goals
Keep your heart and mind open
Learn about current events
Make someone laugh
Nurture relationships
Offer a word of encouragement
Pray for someone else
Quietly do good deeds
Read to a child
Smile
Take time to listen - really listen
Understand your limitations
[Visit someone who is lonely]
Write your congresspeople
eXpect to make mistakes
Yell less
Zealously work for justice [and love.]

And remember God’s promise and command. Jesus is the Word. And the Word says, “As the Creator has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
May we sing this song, and hear it resound, feel it reverberate throughout our lives and to the ends of the earth.
May it be so. Amen, and amen.