It's A Love Story

This is the manuscript for the sermon preached on October 22/23. The Gospel text that accompanies the sermon is Matthew 22:34-46.

I know a man who is loved by God, which is to say I know a man whom God loves. He was born into a loving family and before the man could speak a word he was brought to the baptismal font. Surrounded by his parents, family and sponsors, he was sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the Cross of Christ forever. Promises were made to walk with him in his journey of faith, and in this case, those promises were kept.

This man grew up in the church and was nurtured in his faith. As he grew older he began to explore his faith and how it worked in the wider world. He continued to go to church and through the ups and downs, the joys and the sorrows, he learned to see God in the world.

A fire was kindled in the man’s heart and a call began to take shape. His parents and family friends began to tell him that he ought to be a pastor. As time went on, more people joined the chorus, and he began to listen with growing curiosity. He liked church. He liked the support and the community. He liked what the people of the church did for the wider community. He loved his God. He began to listen to the call.

This man went off to college and continued his education. He dated and learned of broken hearts. He began to see more clearly the scars in the world, the broken people and the broken places and the broken systems that he passed every day. It broke his heart, still does. He knew that God loves all peoples, he knew that God loves the world, but sometimes it seemed that people didn’t love God or each other.

He graduated from college and set off to seminary to follow his call to become a pastor. He took on his classes with excitement, but the more he learned, the more his faith was challenged. The deeper he dug into scripture, the harder the questions became, but he still loved God. And through all the questions and midnight doubts he knew that God still loved him, that God would always love him. He got married while in seminary and began to explore the depths of love that God can create between two people. Through the hardships and joys, the love still remains, and grows because it is nurtured by God. I know a man with whom God is in love. I know this man because well, because he is me.

It’s a love story that is being written. It’s a love story that was initiated by God with the spirit’s movement over the waters at creation. The whole of scripture points to this truth without a doubt. There are countless volumes of theological writings, theological meaning simply “God talk,” that point us to the love of God. We have generations upon generations of stories and witnesses, saints and sinners all of them, who have gone before us boldly proclaiming the love God has for the world. What we have in our relationship with God is perhaps the greatest love story that has ever been told. We write new chapters to this love story every day.

This love story is centered in one word, love. It seems like too simple of a statement because I think that over the years we have lost some of what it means to love. Hollywood and pop culture have taken from us the meaning of love and wrapped it in hot pink and fireworks and sex. Love is easy, love is quick, love is something we can find, throw away and find again within a 90 script. The love I am talking about goes much deeper, pulling on heart strings that we may not even remember. The love I am talking about is what the Greeks called, agape.

Agape is not just a word, it’s way of living. It literally means “a relatively high level of interest in the well-being of another.” Agape is not just about feelings, it’s about taking interest in the life of another person, the wholeness of another person, the completeness of another person. Happiness, comfort, security, good, welfare, safety, and health are all aspects of well being. They’re all synonyms, they’re all interchangeable, and they’re all part of another’s well being. You cannot take interest in someone’s well being and leave out their safety or health. I guess you could, but you would be missing part of their being. You would be forgetting a part of who they are and what makes them human. You would be missing part of agape.

This idea of agape is found twice in our Gospel text today. The Pharisees have grown weary in their attempts to trap Jesus in his own words and find a way to arrest him. They will waste no more time. They send out their best, a lawyer Matthew tells us. Now this man is not a lawyer in the modern sense, he’s not bound by a legal constitution. This man is Biblical professor of high degree, a man who has spent nearly his whole life studying the Law of Moses. If he can get Jesus to contradict the law, the Pharisees will get their arrest of Jesus on account of false teachings.

This lawyer steps forward and asks Jesus a simple question, “Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?” Out of 613 laws in the books of Moses, which one is the most important? The lawyer is playing a trump card, thinking he trap Jesus over one of 612 laws he did not chose. The second question will come with no mercy and attempt to catch Jesus in his own words.

But Jesus doesn’t miss a beat, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first. And the second is like it; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” The entire law hangs on two statements; “Love God. Love God’s people.”

At the center of these two statements is the word love, agape. At the heart of the Law of Moses, the Law handed down by God, is love, which is the practice of agape. Yes our God is agape. God took the highest interest in our well being, giving us the Law and sending Jesus Christ into our world. Through his life, death and resurrection Jesus Christ lived out the heart of agape. Jesus Christ took a high level of interest in the well being of humanity and took it all the way to the cross. Agape in its truest practice is cross-shaped. Agape is a way of living, leaning always towards and into the life of another in service and sacrifice.

Without the love of God, without God’s agape, today’s command from Jesus would make no sense. How could we possibly love God and love God’s people without first being loved ourselves? We can do nothing apart from the God who loves us.

But because God loves us, because God has taken a high level of interest in our well being, we can have life and turn to another with a life of love. Because God loves us we are driven to love others. We are driven to reach out to others. We are driven to serve others. The love of God works on our hearts to reach out and touch the lives of others with the same love that gives us life.

I see agape when I see this community open the doors of its building to events like “Zumba” and “Family Promise.” I see agape when this community of faith gives out of its resources and collects food, clothing, and other items to support Our Daily Bread and the One Stop Center. It’s a love story that is being written and it’s all about the love of God through Jesus Christ. I remember being taught this as a little boy, it was a simple rhyme. I’m sure you remember it, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Just as I know that my life is part of God’s great love story, I can see chapters of that story being written in the lives of the people in this place.

Because we’re all part of God’s love story. Every day we walk through this world writing new chapters to the story that was begun at creation. We are part of something much bigger than ourselves and our call is to, “Love God, Love God’s people.” So go out and live your lives with agape. Go out and take a high level of interest in the well being of the people you encounter as you walk through this world. Go out and write the next chapter to the greatest love story that is still being written.

The Image of God

This is the manuscript of the sermon preached on October 15/16^th. The Gospel text is Matthew 22:15-22 and the Baptism of Elijah James Rice took place on the evening of the 15^th.

Have you been keeping up with politics lately? It’s hard not to. Every time I turn on the news there seems to be a dozen updates on who said what and what everyone else thinks about it. With all the candidates jockeying for position, the pace of politics these days is anything but slow. I heard a week or two ago that we may even see our first primaries starting up as early as December, talk about getting an early start on the 2012 elections.

Now if you listen to the political hopefuls, what’s one of the driving issues of any platform? Right, taxes. Regardless of what political ideology you claim to hold, taxes are always in the middle of the debate. We need to raise taxes. We need to cut taxes. The chants seem to be never ending and always seem to go back and forth, but never forward. We can’t escape the tax debate, and it seems that Jesus couldn’t either.

Yes, it seems that even two thousand odd years ago, even Jesus couldn’t escape the debate over taxes. In today’s Gospel we once again find Jesus teaching in the temple. His long string of parables is interrupted by a question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” How do you feel about taxes Jesus? Where do you stand?

The question comes from a new group of people, fresh to the scene at the request of the Pharisees. These new folks are the Herodians, a priestly group who had gotten their power from alliances made to the Roman Empire. The Herodians supported the political aspirations of the Herod family, the rulers of the Judean region of the Rome. They’re another sect of leaders in the religious and political landscape of Jerusalem.

“Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth.” Their initial greetings to Jesus are full of kind words and flattery. The big smiles and gentle dispositions seem genuine. They’re just students of life seeking the advice of a respected teacher. They’ve come to Jesus with a practical question, “Tell us then, what do you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?”

It’s a practical question to all those in attendance, Jews and Gentiles alike. Everyone knows life in the Empire is hard, especially the Jews. They pay the taxes of a conquered nation, their minds at their mention. Taxes, Rome gets its money, even when we don’t have enough to make ends meet. With hungry bellies and empty tables we turn out our pockets and give money that would put food on the table and perhaps quench our hunger. And in the face of that, it’s against our religious beliefs as Jews to give money to Rome since they hold that the emperor is divine. It’s against the very law of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes Jesus? What do you say?

The Herodians are just seeking sensible advice. They just want some direction on an issue that has plagued the people for years. They seem nice enough, but even wolves can look good in sheep’s clothing.

“Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites?!” Jesus senses the trap before it can be sprung. He knows that if he tells the people not to pay the tax to Rome, then Rome will take him out for starting a political revolution. He also knows that if he tells the people to pay the tax to Rome, he will lose credibility with some in the crowd who see the tax as oppressive and an unlawful slap in the face to Jewish law. He knows that the question is well crafted to trap him in his own words. So Jesus cleverly takes the third option.

“Show me the coin used for the tax,” he says, let’s see the subject of your question. Ironically one of the Herodians pulls the small silver coin from his pocket and shows it to Jesus. “Whose head is this, and whose title,” Jesus asks.

“The emperor’s,” they answer. It’s true, the image of Tiberius Caesar is the focus of the coin. In fact the denarius is loaded with both political and religious propaganda written in favor of the divinity of the emperor. Jesus takes a look at the coin and gives his response, “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” If the emperor’s face is on the coin, then it’s clearly his coin, by all means give it back to him Jesus says.

Jesus doesn’t get caught up in the debate. He simply makes a logical statement, while along the way pointing out the hypocrisy of the Herodians, who ask about the very taxes that they have no problem paying. Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and give to God the things that are God’s Jesus says. It’s that simple. But what exactly is God’s?

What do you mean Jesus, what exactly is God’s? For that answer we have to go all the way back to the beginning, all the way back to Genesis. Do you remember the sixth day? After darkness and light, land and waters divided, green upon the earth, then what? On the sixth day, God creates the animals of the earth, covering the lands with creatures. And then in the afternoon, God takes a handful of clay and works it with his hands. God breathes life into humankind. In God’s image we are created. We bear the very image of God. So if we follow the logic of Jesus, then we surely must belong to God. If we are to give to God what belongs to God, then we must give ourselves to God.

Now notice who initiates this action. It’s God who chooses to create us in the image of the divine. It’s God who initiates the divine/human relationship. God wants to be in a relationship with us. It’s out of love that we are created. We bear the image of the one who loves us, and God does not forget the craft of his hands. This idea of giving to God what belongs to God is a powerful statement about our identity.

At the heart of this statement is the challenge to live out our lives with the knowledge that we bear the image of God. Jesus tells us through this statement that taxes are a nonissue. Pay the tax and move on with your life. The tax is only a small portion when your whole life belongs to God. And if your whole life belongs to God, then live like it. If you see your neighbor struggling with hunger, reach out and help them to put food on the table. If you see someone who is lonely, provide them with companionship. If you see someone one who is grieving, provide them with comfort and a place to rest their sorrows. These are the actions of the God who created us. These are the actions that brought our world into being. These are the actions that point us to what God looks like in our world. They’re the very image of God. The image in which we were created, the image in which we are called to live. The image of God is a nurturing, sustaining, life giving love that is written into our bones by the God who loves us.

Today we come together to celebrate this life giving love. Today we come together to celebrate with joy the truth God that wants to be in a relationship with us. In no place is this desire for a relationship more clear than in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Today we gather around the font and celebrate the sign that God gives us to hold on to for our whole lives, our Baptism.

In Baptism we are invited into a covenant relationship with God. Through ordinary water and God’s life giving promise we are joined into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our sins and all that separate us from God are drowned in the waters and we emerge as new beings in our life together with God. It’s God’s promise that we cling to. It’s new life that we receive.

Today we celebrate with Elijah James Rice as he sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Jesus Christ forever. We surround Elijah with love, promise him our support in his journey of faith, and are reminded that he, just as you and I, bear the very image of God.

The parable of the tenants (Matthew 21:33-44) revisited.

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. Not long after, a group of immigrants arrived seeking sanctuary and a place where they could practice their religion in peace. Seeing that the original tenants lived and worshipped in a different way, the immigrants took it upon themselves to instruct the tenants on how to live and worship in a proper manner and introduced the tenants to their religion. After much labor and misunderstanding and lack of perceived progress, the immigrants decided it would be easier to go on without the tenants. They seized the tenants and killed some, left others to disease and death, and moved others to the margins of the vineyard. The immigrants then took over the management of the vineyard, making decisions, driving work flow, extending the fences, depleting resources, and building more watchtowers, all under the mantra “All men are created equal.” The original tenants, and many groups of “other” immigrants, were left out of the decision making process and left to scratch a living off of what was left. The original immigrants struggled with their original goal of practicing their religion in peace because the management of the vineyard became their number one priority. Their religion stated that the two greatest tasks of people were to love God and love God’s people. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do with the immigrants?”

We’ve had a number of parables thrown our way in recent weeks as the lectionary cycle works its way through another year. In light of Columbus Day, the parable about the tenants in Matthew 21:33-44 from a few weeks ago resurfaced when I was running at the gym. If you have a facebook account or other form of social media, or maybe if you opened a paper today, you know that Columbus day catches a certain amount of attention. I am not going to go into the argument of who or what Christopher Columbus is and how he has been treated in the collective minds of American, and more specifically, United States history, but I do want to take a moment to pause and look at how we are living now, and I think that the parable of the tenants, has something to say to how we are living our lives. I took the liberty to update the parable. Some of the words come from Matthew’s Gospel, the others come from me, but they come together and lift up a few questions. How are we walking through this world? What does a day like Columbus Day do in our lives? Does it move us to empty words, or does it ignite something deeper?

My friend Vance Blackfox, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, wrote an inspiring piece about building right relationships with native peoples. It’s this kind of inspiration that our world needs now more than ever.

Today presents us with a great opportunity to reflect on the past and present, and take steps into a future grounded in love. How are we building relationships as we walk through this world? Or better yet, how are we building relationships as we work in the vineyard?