Sermon: Phoenix Affirmation 9
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Sermon: Phoenix Affirmation 9: Discovering God's Love
Texts: Luke 19:1-9; Psalm 139:1-18 Date: March 4, 2007 Bud Alger, Eagle Harbor Congregational Church Phoenix Affirmation #9:Basing our lives on the faith that in Christ all things are made new and that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imagination – for eternity. Good Morning. First, thank you, Dee for giving me this opportunity. I hope to justify your trust. In the book on the Phoenix Affirmations I discovered what I thought was the underlying rational: what a survivable church might look like. shows an underlying rational: what a survivable future for the church might look like. I’m sure we can all bring to mind situations and statements made by church officials, speaking for the church (and sometimes even for God) that do not sound like Jesus. They sound more like judgmental human beings. The current state of many churches is driving people away. Some feel what the church has to say is either irrelevant or judgmental. What is sought in the affirmations is a possible future for Christianity that will make it inclusive, rather than excluding. I think we have come a long way on this path in the United Church of Christ and here at Eagle Harbor. I, and many of you, first heard of the Phoenix Affirmations by reading them in the Communicator. I read through the first eight with no surprises, love of God, love of others. . . But I was drawn up short on number nine: Love of self. “ Basing our lives on the faith that in Christ all things are made new and that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imagination – for eternity”. I have always been a fan of love, and have a pretty vivid imagination, but this sounded unlike anything I had heard in church before. Often God’s love is portrayed as something to be achieved, or earned after we have suffered enough. The focus on our selves seems to be about our past sins, what about me needs fixing, and what I am going to do tomorrow. I sound more like a home improvement project than a child of God. How can I love myself? I could have taken advice from Mary Oliver who wrote:
Wild Geese You do not have to be good.
But instead, I called Dee and volunteered. My father, Fred, spent the last 12 years of his life as a Methodist minister. He worked for Lever Brothers for thirty-some years and took early retirement. He said he went from making cleanser to cleansing souls. He was frequently invited to speak at AME churches. That is African-Methodist Episcopal; in other words, the black church. Early on, he related how he was speaking one Sunday and a woman in the congregation cried out. He immediately thought she had been hurt or was suffering. He looked around and didn’t see anyone in pain, just smiling faces and nodding heads. As he proceeded, the cries became more widespread. At some point, someone shouted “Amen” and he understood they were expressing their agreement with him. I went with him to services several times and grew to like the energy and enthusiasm. It made me wonder what was wrong with our churches; our services are more like memorial services. We acknowledge God’s gifts and our joy by sitting quietly. I want to experiment this morning with changing that. And with the choir’s help I will. (Give me an Amen). You don’t have to go along, but your cooperation will let me know I am on the right track, because I intend to move you this morning. (Amen). The second part of the experiment involves your thinking. Just for now, I ask you to make two agreements. First, if there is anything about this church or what I say today that makes you feel less than whole and perfect in God’s sight, stop that, right now. If there is anything about this church or what I say today that makes you see other people as less than whole and perfect in God’s sight, stop that, right now. Now, these are temporary agreements, so you can feel free to continue as you were once the service is over. Thank you. I can summarize my sermon for this morning very simply: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. One of the most common quotations of Jesus in the Bible, found in every one of the synoptic gospels, is “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” That seems to hinge on that word “as”. It almost sounds like a legal agreement which means to the same degree, amount, or extent. So it works both ways. If I can accept you as a child of God, then I must be one, too. Maybe I am not so unworthy. A friend and teacher of mine, Cheri Huber, has written a book entitled “There is Nothing Wrong with You.” I just like having it on the bookshelf. Cheri starts out saying “Unless you were raised by wolves, you probably have heard some of these as you were growing up: Don’t do that . . . Stop that . . .Put that down . . .Why don’t you ever listen…You should have known better…What were you thinking of? Cheri goes on to show how we, in order to explain our own unlovable-ness to ourselves, end up with a non-stop internal judge who freely points our faults. While it wasn’t you that first said those things about you, it was you that internalized those judgements and continue saying those horrible things about you. When you discover that that internal judge is you, you can move on to seeing that maybe you aren’t all bad. There is hope for you – and me. One of the knottier points of Christianity is accepting that we are all loved, always, without reservation. If you can accept that, it is a wonderful, freeing statement. I chose our scripture this morning because it illustrates this point. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, not very well thought of by his fellow man. He would rather hide than face the crowd and Jesus. So he hid in a tree. Jesus saw him and called out, “come on down, we’re staying at your house tonight.” Zacchaeus was so stunned by being recognized and accepted that he faced the crowd and promised to mend his greedy ways. Jesus replied “Today, salvation has come to this house.” I admit, I had to chew on this for a while. I woke up one morning to reread it and get the meaning. Notice the sequence: Zacchaeus, ashamed of his fellow man’s opinion of him, hides from the crowd. He judges himself as unworthy. Jesus asks for nothing. He doesn’t say “Do you accept me as your Lord and Savior,” or “Am I the true Messiah?” No. He just calls out “We’re going to your house.” Jesus accepts Zacchaeus. No reservations, no questions asked. It is that love, expressed so freely, that causes Zacchaeus to mend his ways. Wow. First, the love of God, as Jesus, is freely given. The story could have ended there, but Zacchaeus is transformed by accepting that love. Thus Jesus says, “Today, salvation has come to this house.” God’s love is freely given to us all, we don’t even have to ask. But, accepting that love, and using it to transform our lives is the path to salvation. Here is a gift, take it, no strings. The parables carry the same message. In the parable of the talents, the good-for-nothing son returns home and his father runs into the street to greet him and throws a party. No mention is made of the son’s remorse: he is loved. In a similar way, the parable of the field laborers, who labor all day, half-day, or one hour, were all paid equally, as we are all loved equally. That bumper-sticker bible verse, John 3:16 is often quoted to show the necessity of belief prior to reward. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life”. But listen to the next verse, John 3:17. “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” So, none of this separating the sheep from the goats. You are in the world; you can be saved. God loves you. And this is from Romans 8:38: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Zacchaeus mended his ways when he accepted Jesus’ love. How do we respond? As the noted Swami Beyondanonda said: ”We are not here to earn God’s love, but to spend it.” What does that mean? To spend the love means to me that our actions and reactions must come from our hearts, from where the love is. That means giving up our considerations and judgements about our fellow humans. That is the hard part – surrender. We must surrender control if we are to accept God’s gift. For many people, admitting errors, giving up, surrendering is the hardest thing to do. This is the other side of God’s gift: we must love our neighbor as God has loved us. About four months ago, my cancer, which had been in remission for seven years, came back with a vengeance. The tests and scans that were made at that time looked bad. I became very weak, I had trouble walking, I even started using a cane. That is tough on a self-made man. I have always thought that I was in charge and could manage anything. Then I was faced with something beyond my power. I felt like I was falling – endlessly – like in a bad dream, but this was real. I lost the confidence that has always kept me going. I faced the reality that I was going to die. This is something everybody knows intellectually, but denies emotionally. It is hard to face. In that sinking and falling, I never hit bottom. What I found instead was a reassuring presence that slowed my fall, like being caught ever so gently. I felt assured I was cared for. Something I hadn’t thought of. It was like a small crack in the darkness that let in the possibility that I was loved. I stayed with that for a while and watched the small spark of light became a glowing, blinding presence that surrounded me. I felt I was experiencing, maybe for the first time, God’s love. In that place, my whole being shifted. After that, I started having the same feeling when I experienced other people’s love. When someone asked after me. When I received a card, or found out I was included in a prayer circle. I have never felt so loved. I look back on the experience of facing my death as a great gift. It shook me to my core, but it also awakened me to God’s love and the love that we can share in the world. A fellow cancer experiencer, Gunther, wrote to me a while ago to share this thought: “Life is more precious when you have cancer”. This is what we all can do with God’s love: be open to it and share it. And acknowledge the gift we have been given. There are times now when I am so overcome by the beauty and splendor of existence that I cry – for joy. I have even developed a mantra to go along with it. This is it: Thank You; Thank You. Repeat as necessary. It is the best prayer I know. I want to tell you a story from my life. I hope the telling of it will illustrate the difference I have found since I started recognizing God’s love. I have three reasons: I like to tell it, I can fit it into my message today, and it’s a love story and y’all are suckers for love stories. Here goes: A little over three years ago, I lost Kathy, my wife of forty years, to breast cancer. That leaves a pretty big hole in your life. At the time there was a woman who was a friend of Kathy and mine. She understood my loss. She invited me over to her house on several occasions, we attended various functions together, and were invited out together. After a while, I noticed a strange thing: I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Sometimes she would call me on the phone to talk. I found myself waiting for those phone calls. This condition got worse. I was in love, which seems kind of silly when you are 60-some years old. Kids’ stuff. I made up my mind to let her know how I felt. I went over to her house one evening on some lame excuse. As we were talking, I said, “I have something to tell you, I love you.” She said, “that’s nice.” I tried again. I took her hands in mine, looked into her eyes and said, “Ann, I love you.” Well, it was a good thing I was holding her hands, because her legs went out from under her, and she gave a sort of yelp. From the floor she said, “Just go home. Good night.” It was a long night for me. I went home. At some point I went to bed because I did have to go to work the next day. I remember I didn’t sleep a lot for replaying the scene, rephrasing my words, hoping it would come out better. Around 5 AM, the phone rang. I knew it was her calling, so I picked up the phone and said, “You could have called sooner.” The rest is history. I think you all know how that came out. She agreed that we should meet for dinner. It was NOT a date. She said maybe we should see more of each other and then decide where this was going. My feet haven’t touched the ground since. I am still madly in love and wake up each morning and thank God for the life that is mine. Here is where I want to apply this story to our lives. God is saying, “I love you,” every morning, every night, with every breath we take. And we say, “that’s nice.” What I hope for all of us is that, when God next takes you by the hand, looks you in the eye and says, “I love you,” you hear him so clearly that your legs go out from under you. Being confronted by such an awesome presence should make you weak. Here is part of another Mary Oliver poem entitled “The Summer Day”: I don't know exactly what a prayer is. |