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SERMON
"The Lord Be With You." (And also with you.)
I probably caught you off guard, and I really want us to get this little
exchange right. This little snippet of liturgy is part of what is called
The Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, which starts off the traditional
Presbyterian communion liturgy. It also happens to be our promise for
the day, so I really want us to do it well. I think even just this
little bit sums up so much of who we are called to be as a church. It's
really very simple, the minister says "The Lord be with you," and the
congregation says… "and also with you."
What wonderful words! What an awesome promise! This is, I think, one of
the biggest promises of the bible. This is a promise that goes back to
the very beginning. This is the promise that set the religion of Israel
apart from everyone else in the ancient world. It's the promise that
still sets Christians apart today. God's promise to God's people: "I
will be with you!"
This promise has feet. God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden; God
traveled with Abram to show him the new land he was promising; God was
with Joseph in his trials and tribulations. It was this promise of God's
presence that moved Moses from stuttering excuses to confronting the
most powerful man in the most powerful nation in the known world; and it
is this promise that moved the Israelites from slavery to purposeful
exodus. "I will be with you" is the promise that Joshua clings to as he
stares across the Jordan to the promised land flowing with milk and
honey and lots of really big, tough, bad guys. "I will be with you."
God was "with" Samuel and Deborah and Gideon and all the other heroes of
early Israel. God was with Saul, and then Saul wasn't with God so God
was with David instead. Do you remember what made the ark of the
covenant so special? It was the visible symbol of God's very presence
with Israel. God made His home with His people, and as long as God was
with them, they knew everything else would work out. The Lord be
with you. (and also with you) What a great promise.
But it gets better. Because God did something amazing, incredible,
unimaginable! God took that promise of presence to the very furthest
degree. God became one of us. The angel showed up and said to Mary
"Greetings, etc, etc… the Lord is… with you!" And he told her she would
give birth to a boy and name him Immanuel, which means… "God with us!"
And he was with us. He walked with us and he talked with us, and he
claimed us as his own. And he died for us. And he rose again. And he
gave us a message to share, a job to do; to take that presence into the
world. And as he commissioned his people to this service, he did it with
a promise: "surely I am… with you… always, even to the end of the age."
What a great promise!
The Lord be with you…(and also with you.) It's this exchange that's
really what both Jesus and Paul are saying in our passages today.
First, let's take another look at John. This segment is part of Jesus'
final talk with his disciples before he is arrested. They have already
shared their last meal together, and Jesus has already washed their
feet. He has predicted his betrayal, his abandonment by the disciples,
and Peter's three-time denial. I'm guessing that by this time the mood
in the room is not very happy. And Jesus recognizes this and speaks
words of comfort to the disciples. He talks about the coming of the Holy
Spirit. He talks about God's presence and what that will look like in
their lives. You may remember last week's verse, starting at John 14:18,
"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you… on that day you
will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in
you." It is a refrain that comes up again and again in these last
words to the disciples; we are united with Christ. Just as surely as a
branch is one with the vine, we become one with Christ. God is with us
in an intimate, nourishing, life-giving way. So long as we remain firmly
attached to the vine, there will be life, and growth and, ultimately,
much fruit.
So how, then, does one remain firmly attached to that vine? Jesus is
pretty clear that there are conditions, requirements for staying
attached to the vine. "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved
you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands you will remain in
my love…" You always have to watch for these "if" statements. "If"
statements usually have "thens" attached. So what are his commands? If
you have a regular time for devotion and prayer? If you live perfect,
righteous, holy lives? If you are the model of orthodoxy, pay your tithe
regularly and dress up nicely on Sunday morning? No way! It's not that
those things are bad, but Jesus is not talking about things to DO to
stay connected, he's talking about a fundamental attitude toward one
another. "My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you."
Our unity with God, our firm attachment to the life-giving vine is
directly dependant on our fundamental attitude towards each other. I
probably need to say that again, because it's pretty important. It's
important enough that Jesus also felt the need to say it again; it's
there in the text in front of you. All these wonderful promises; the
life, the fruit, the friendship of God, all these things depend on a
fundamental attitude towards the people around you. "This is my
command: Love each other."
It seems like it should be one of the easiest things in the world for
the church to do. But as hard as we strive to make the church a "nice"
place to be, we don't always seem to have a grasp on even this simple
command. The church, after all, is made up of people; broken, sinful,
imperfect, ordinary ol' people.
And let's face it, we are going to have disagreements. We don't all have
the same theological foundations, the same upbringing, the same life
experiences, the same expectations. Even on the most superficial of
levels we can find differences that divide us. We look different, we
dress different, we talk different; we have differing interests and
priorities, we have differing tastes in music, different styles. We
connect on different levels. And it can be so easy for those differences
to become issues that divide us. I've seen this in action in
congregations, in youth groups, at camp, in college, at seminary, at the
Presbytery level, at the Synod level, at the General Assembly level. It
can be so easy for us to sidle our way into the judgment seat, grab some
pruning shears and start lopping away at the vine. "This branch belongs,
that branch doesn't. This one's good as it is; that one needs to be
reshaped." It can be so very tempting for us to try and play gardener.
We might even think we have the best reasons to judge, too. We may feel
that we are holding the theological line, or keeping the church solid.
We may feel that we are helping to make the church a better place, or
helping make it more efficient and streamlined. We might feel completely
justified in talking about another person. We might even feel that we
are obligated to try and change their behavior. We might have every
logical reason to complain about things as they are, or to protest some
wrong. We might feel that we have the church's interest, or another
person's interest, at heart, when we step into their lives and try to
change them. But the reality is that even little conflicts in the
church, when handled in an uncaring way, distract us all from fulfilling
God's call in our lives, and short-circuit our ability to carry out the
primary command of our Lord, to love one another. The reality is that
whenever we start behaving in ways that are not loving, we run the risk
not only of damaging our relationships with the body of Christ, but of
disconnecting ourselves from the life-giving vine itself. After all, if
we are too full of ourselves, we leave no room to be full of God.
It is not that we can't disagree with people in the church, and its not
that we should never try to change things. But we should never forget
that all of our interactions within the body need to be based on a
vibrant, growing relationship that is first of all founded in Jesus
Christ; first of all based in love.
It's helpful, when we are faced with the temptation to dwell in our own
self-righteousness, to remember what Paul is talking about in Romans.
For eleven chapters, Paul talks about how we were all lost in our sin,
cut off from God and doomed, but that God in his grace has enfolded us,
unworthy as we are, back into his love. That's it eleven chapters of
Romans in a nut shell. It's simple, but it should bring us just a bit of
perspective. Through God's amazing grace, we are united with Christ so
completely that nothing can separate us "neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any
powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus
our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)
Do you hear the good news in that? We are bound together with the Living
God, fused inseparably to God's love. And none of us deserved it. Paul
makes it explicitly clear in Romans, we all have this one thing in
common… we are all united to Christ by the gift of God's grace, and NONE
of us deserved it. We all start at the same place.
That is the depth of God's love for us in Jesus Christ. When we
recognize the magnitude of God's love for us, and when we then hear
Jesus say "Love one another as I have loved you," where does that put
us? How do we live together?
Paul reminds us to think of ourselves with sober judgment, to remember
who we are. He does not want us to think too highly of ourselves.
However, he also doesn't want us to think too lowly of ourselves. He
reminds us, in this passage, that we are a people unified in Christ and
gifted by the Holy Spirit. It is together that the strength of God's
people is found. Not strength found in our own hands, but in the
combined resources that are poured out on the church. It is the basic
functioning of the body. An eye by itself cannot do much. But an eye,
connected to a hand coordinated by the brain can do amazing things.
I really think it is all summed up in that simple liturgical exchange.
"The Lord be With You." And also with you. When we say those
words, we tap into that promise. When we speak those words we reach out
and give that promise new life within us, and offer it to another in
Christ's name. We offer the blessing of God's presence to one another.
It is not just the Lord with me. It is not just the Lord with you. It is
the promise of God with all of us, as together we dialogue, as together
we become the body of Christ. It is the promise of the Lord with each of
us, as together we take God's presence into the broken, hurting places
of the world.
We are commissioning Stephen Ministers today. I've had the privilege
over the last several months to spend many, many hours along side these
faithful servants, as they have prepared for their ministry of coming
along side people who are hurting. They recognize that they are going to
face challenges. But they also recognize that they are Christ's body in
this world, gifted by God to follow God's calling. They recognize that
wherever they go, God is with them. They recognize that as they show
unconditional love to God's people, they are being rooted more firmly
into the vine that gives them life, and that they are growing according
to the master gardeners plan.
Stephen Ministry is just one ministry of this church, just one way that
we are able to love others as Christ loved us. I would ask you to think
about where your connection to the vine is. God promises us his love and
presence, his gifts and his grace, but he expects us to turn that love
outward, showering it upon one another. How are you going to be finding
an outlet for that love so that you too can grow?
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