Welcome:
Good to be with you all - and I do mean “with” you.
Spoke first week about “Imagining” Continue to do that - not imagine something which is unreal - but imagine the realities we can only see with eyes of faith or through the eyes of Jesus.
Imagine - we are together, we are in God’s house, we are God’s people. Imagine you are a great artist - the best artist.
Each week - one aspect of what it means to be an Easter People. Child of God; One with the whole of creation; Part of God’s Chosen People. Tonight - what those with such marks do - namely care for others.
We care by feeding/housing/clothing. We care for them by sharing ourselves - our time, our attention, ourselves.
What does it mean to be attentive to one another? Image the gift of being present.
Bit more complicated image - show you the finished product - even as we sing our opening hymn…
Sermon - Week 4
This evening, I am going to read from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. I will be reading from a part of Romans we don’t read as often. Most of the time, we read from the opening or middle chapters. Rarely, in worship, do we read from the closing chapters.
There is actually a bit of a debate as to which Paul would have considered the most important of his letter to the Church in Rome. As is true for his other letters, the latter chapters of Romans are practical, pastoral advice. When Paul writes, he writes to a context - to a particular group of people at a particular point in time. We extrapolate from those personal letters that Paul would want others to overhear.
The closing chapters of Romans follow that pattern.
The opening chapters of Romans are the only letters from Paul which read like a theological discourse. Those who prefer the opening and middle chapters probably do so because these chapters are more about thoughts and ideas and convictions. Found in those chapters are statements of truth and faith.
Some think Paul had to write this sort of stuff - not that he wanted to do so. The other churches were getting a letter from an old friend and trusted pastor. Paul had never met the folks in Rome. So, he needed an introduction - maybe eleven chapters of introduction.
Not that Paul was opposed to a theological piece; he simply wanted any theological piece to be firmly connected to how we live our lives and how we serve our Christ.
Allow me to share some of Paul’s words from these latter chapters of his letter to the Church in Rome:
Romans 12-15
9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.
8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
14Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions.
7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
10 Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? …….
13 Let us therefore no longer pass judgement on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another.
15We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak.
7 Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you were with us for worship this past Sunday, you heard me tell a story about my brother-in-law. I want to tell you a bit more about him this evening.
Doug has hearing problems. Doug is practically deaf. Years ago the audiologist told him that hearing not only involves the mechanics of the inner ear but is also a brain activity. Getting hearing aids was only helpful when his brain once again learned to recognize the signals coming from the ear canal. He didn’t listen. He wouldn’t hear it.
Doug has spent his retirement years visiting. He had a list of nearly a dozen folks he would see at the nursing homes, in their homes, sometimes at the hospital. He also delivered Meals on Wheels - and came to know those folks well, too.
He would often tell me he visited Bee Gantt or Clyde Thomas. “How were they doing?” I would ask. And he would report what he had seen. But if I asked him for details, Doug was unsure how to respond. We will never know if Doug just didn’t ask those kinds of questions, or if he didn’t hear the answers.
Doug also isn’t much for theological conversation. I was with Doug on Tuesday. I looked at the inside cover of his bible. It is there he records each time he re-starts in Genesis to read to the end. He is currently in his fifth read through of that particular bible. He gleans great comfort from his reading; but he admits he has trouble remembering. Before her death, Carolyn and I would be in the room with Doug, discussing the impact of the reconstruction of the Tempe in the years of Nehemiah and Ezra. Was not of interest to Doug. He wasn’t even sure what we were talking about, even though he had read through the bible four times since I even last attempted to start in Genesis.
While Madeleine has been drawing images of someone listening and caring, I have tried to portray an image of someone doing that. And I picked my brother-in-law because he does this so well - and from him we can learn what it means to be present.
Can I confess to you that I am at times so nervous when I go to visit that I never shut my mouth? Is it okay to admit that I am so fearful of what they might want to talk about that I make sure to keep the conversation going down the path I would prefer? Rather than fall back on the opportunities I have had to study the bible I use what I know to fill the gaps where I might be asked a probing question.
My brother-in-law is much better at Christian companionship than I will ever be. Aunt Lorraine and Faye Daniels and Tommy Richardson would light up every time Doug walked in the door.
One of the marks of an Easter people; the trait of an Easter person we want to lift up this evening is the willingness and the ability to simply be present. To side by the bedside of another and to share the marvelous gift of simply holding my hand. Sometimes we are so worried that we don’t have anything to offer that we overlook the most important thing which could be offered.
It isn’t the sophisticated responses to the angst of the human condition which gets me through the troubled days. We survive - we preserve - when we know there is another by our side as we face what the morrow might bring.
I am going to run out of time before I run out of content. But let me say just a few words about those we refer to as “Job’s Friends.”
You know those friends, in the book of Job? They are the ones who keep trying to get Job to admit he did something to deserve all this. We hear persons referred to as a “Job’s friend” when they give us advice that could only make sense in the twisted mind of someone more concerned with self-justification. Well, those friends in the book of Job deserve some of the bad press. They do turn out pretty bad. Which is a shame. Because they started out so good. It is at the end of Chapter 2 that we read: When they saw (Job) from a distance, they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud; they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads. They sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great. Job 2:12-13
If they had just kept their mouths shut. If they had continued to sit there and let Job grieve. All they had to do was to be with Job. But they couldn’t. They thought they ought to offer something more. And when they open their mouths and begin to speak they stop being a comfort and a help to their brother Job.
Let’s pray that God will make us an Easter people. Let’s ask for help in becoming the kind of person who doesn’t think we are smart enough or crafty enough to put the pieces back together. Let us become generous with our time and our companionship. Let’s worry less about what we might say and be better prepared to hear what others might say to us.
Let’s be present for one another.
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