The Humble Heart of Gratitude

3rd week of Gratitude Season

Luke 18:9-14; 18-30    

27 October 2013

Elizabeth M. Deibert    

We are in gratitude season and our first week we heard the story of the ten lepers and how only one went back to thank Jesus.  Last week we read Deuteronomy

and Mark – two stories where the people are warned not to forget what God has done, what Christ can do.   Today we read passages from Luke that teach us that the value of a humble heart.

These two stories are not usually read together – the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, and the Story of the Rich Ruler.   Usually we take them on their own because there is certainly enough in each story to keep us thinking.  But it dawned on me as I was reading the whole of chapter 18 several weeks ago that they are similar.   In both the problem Jesus is addressing is arrogance or self-sufficiency.   

But first, let’s pray:  Give me a humble heart, a heart of gratitude.   Lord, fix my heart and my mind and my attitude.   For we’re not worthy of all these blessings.  Spirit of God, please lead and we’ll follow you.    

Luke 18:9-14, 18-30

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.’” 21 He replied, “I have kept all these since my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 He replied, “What is impossible for mortals is possible for God.”

28 Then Peter said, “Look, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.

Jesus told this parable to those who trusted in themselves and regarded others with contempt.    Now as soon as we hear Pharisee, we think “bad guy” but for the Jews hearing this story, they are thinking prominent, respected leader, above reproach.    When we hear tax collector, we think “hard-working government number cruncher, but they think “Traitor, thief, who steals money from the poor to pay Rome and to pay himself unfair wages.”   You have to know how Jesus’ audience heard the story in order to appreciate the way Jesus turns it around.

So the Pharisee is thankful to God for his blessings but in being thankful he also expresses this attitude of superiority, while the Tax Collector says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”   By the way, the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Is a wonderful spiritual discipline.  This simple, set prayer which we used as our prayer of confession today has been recited for most of the history of the church, particularly by Eastern Orthodox Christians.  Clearly its origins are in this prayer of the tax collector.    

What we learn from the tax collector is the value of a humble heart, eager to be transformed by God.   All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.   That’s the moral of this parable, which we remember was told to those who trusted in themselves, believed themselves to be righteous, and regarded others with contempt.   Be humble or get humbled – that’s our choice.   I mean the Pharisee gets what’s coming to him for being so arrogant in his prayers.   Can you believe he said what he said?   I’m sure glad I’m not like the Pharisee.   Oops, see how easy it is for our prayers to become words of contempt for others.   

Now let’s jump to the story of the rich man.  (image on screen)  He asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.   Now remember that eternal life from a Biblical point of view is not just what happens when you die.   It is fullness of life, everlasting life.   It is now, as well as later.   So Jesus says, “You know the commandments” and how does the rich guy respond?   With a note of  superiority.  Yes, I know the commandments and not only do I know them, but I have kept them since I was a kid.   Jesus doesn’t like arrogance.   “Oh you have, have you?   You’ve kept all the commandments for all of your life?   Well, I’ll tell you one more thing you should do because it seems to me you are arrogant and that you have a lot of stuff that you have not chosen to share with others, and so why don’t you give up all of those possessions that make you think you have your life so together.   Give those up and give more money to the poor, because you know, loving you neighbor means caring that your neighbor is suffering and doesn’t have enough to eat while you are driving that fancy camel across the desert with all the latest and greatest stuff.   

While you’re living in that fine house, someone else whom I love just as much as you has no roof, no shelter, no protection, nothing.”

(image of camel on screen) Jesus says it is harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom that a camel to go through the eye of the needle – something which seems impossible if it is a real needle, and very difficult if it is a narrow, short gate called the Eye of the Needle.  Perhaps the reason Jesus says you need to share your riches and become more poor is because wealth makes us arrogant and makes us look with contempt on those who have less than us.  

Sometimes it is impossible for mortals to get rid of their wealth, but it is possible for God to make that happen.  Be humble or get humbled.  Remember the guy who kept building bigger barns?   Nobody goes to heaven with their moving truck.  Though, please dear God, we hope to take our moving truck over to the Hwy 64 property.   We will never look down on a church that lives in a temporary home.  Be merciful to us who have carted stuff to a warehouse this week.  We have not done everything we should have.   We have not followed every commandment nor have we tithed like we should have, but we will continue to grow in our generosity.

We are eager to serve you, and we will count ten thousand reasons to bless your name and not be finished there.  Yes, we know that none of us are taking our bank accounts, our fine houses and cars when we go home to You.   We are trying to grow in faith and practice, trusting you, giving over control of our lives to you.   We are aiming to simplify more, give more to the poor.   In just a couple of weeks, Lord, we will all make commitments of our treasures to you.   We will trust you enough to make pledges to the church for 2014.

We know we are like the Pharisee  and the Rich Young Man.  We think too much of ourselves.  Actually, it’s more like C.S. Lewis said. “It’s not that we think too much of ourselves, but that think of ourselves too much.”  We compare ourselves to others and think that we’re not too bad.  We pretend to have it together, or think we have it together when we don’t.   We all need you, God, but we don’t admit how much we need you.  We like to feel like we have control, rather than trusting you completely.

“Humility is a strange thing.  Once you think you’ve got it, then you’ve lost it.”  (E.D. Hulse)  Repentance is not about feeling bad about ourselves, about feeling guilty.  It is about feeling needy.   We might be braggadious like the Pharisee about giving away 10% or about fasting twice a week, but we do sometimes give thanks that we have so much, rather than praying for the courage to give it away.

We do compare ourselves to others and find ourselves in a good, comfortable position.   We want to put a check mark in the “been good enough” box.   But these stories teach us otherwise.  No, we are never good enough.  Unless we are talking to God out of a sense of neediness, in a humble position with God, we have not arrived where we need to be.   Unless we rushing back to Jesus regularly to say “thanks” we are not where we need to be.   Unless we have become like a child, who gladly sits at Jesus feet, we are not where we need to be.  Unless we have given away enough stuff to make us a little needy, we are not where we need to be.   Unless we are praying, God, please be merciful to me, a sinner, we are not where we need to be.   

I missed Bob Seiter’s birthday party in the hospital on Friday afternoon.   I had told Sue that morning I’d be there.   I wanted to be there.   I got distracted by many things and missed it.   It’s not the first time I have failed  to be a good pastor, nor will it be the last.   But I sure felt like the tax collector, instead of the Pharisee Friday afternoon.  With things progressing well on the property purchase and feeling proud that we are reaching this milestone, I can become Pharisaical, thinking that this had something to do with me.  But really, I know this wonderful moment in the life of Peace Church is purely gift from God.  So I need and we all need more of those “God, please be merciful to me, a sinner” moments – not to feel bad about ourselves, but to build a heart of gratitude, a life of humble generosity, a life that is quick to recognize our own faults and willing to give up whatever is keeping us from putting God first.    

Do Not Forget

Gratitude Season #2

Deuteronomy 8:11-18 & Mark 8:17-21
20 October 2013
Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                                                  

As we are perched on the edge of our “promised land” I’ve been reading Deuteronomy lately.  Deuteronomy is presented as Moses’ last words to all Israel before they entered Canaan.   It is meant to focus them on what matters to them as a people as they enter a new phase of life together, more established.   Now many scholars believe this book was written or edited many years later, because it shows signs of later periods such as when Assyria dominated the region and when King Josiah was making reforms.  It shows signs of the later exile, when the people were removed from the land, sent away by the Babylonians.   But no matter the timing of the writing, the setting is when the people are about to move into the Promised Land.   After leading the people for forty years, Moses doesn’t get to go in.  As I’ve only been pastoring this flock for eight years, I sure hope I don’t have to die sitting over here at MAR.   

The word, Deuteronomy, is Greek, for second law or repeated law.   But law as understood by the Hebrew people was more than legal requirements.  Law was life.  It was guidance.   It was help.   The Hebrew people call this book “Devarim” which means “words.”  These are the words, the story they are not to forget.   In fact, twenty-three times in the book of Deuteronomy, God’s people are told either in the positive or the negative, “Remember” or “Do not forget” the Lord your God and all God has done for you.

Deuteronomy 8:11-18

Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. ¹² When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, ¹³ and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, ¹⁴ then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, ¹⁵ who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, ¹⁶ and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. ¹⁷ Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." ¹⁸ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.

Remember.   Do not forget.   Every week we come to the table to feast on Christ and we rehearse Jesus’ table words to the disciples from Luke and 1 Corinthians:  Do this in remembrance of me.  The Greek word he uses there is anamnesis.  Remembering not forgetting – not having amnesia.   We do not want to have amnesia about what Christ/God has done.   As I was thinking about this, I remembered this challenge from Jesus to the disciples who are worried about having enough bread. This is just after the miracle of feeding the five thousand.  Jesus and the disciples had left that great crowd, leaving in a boat, arriving in Dalmanutha where the Pharisees pester Jesus, and they left again by boat.  While on their second boat trip, they realized they only have one loaf of bread.  

Mark 8:17b - 21

Jesus said to them, "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?" They said to him, "Twelve." ²⁰ "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?" And they said to him, "Seven." ²¹ Then he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

(New Revised Standard Version)

So we have the Israelites perched on the edge of newness (or living in times of struggle long after the newness has worn off) hearing the challenge to remember that it was not by their own might, not by their own strength, not by their own smarts that they were blessed with a land of plenty.   And we have the disciples, worrying over their single loaf of bread, fretting that there will not be enough, even after Jesus has performed a great miracle multiplying the bread, however you interpret the miracle.

It’s a lot like us.   When we are worried about something, we go running to God in prayer.   Please God help me.   I’m struggling.   I’m worried.   I need you to help me with this test, this broken relationship, this health issue, this grief, this decision.   But then we forget that God helped.   Just as soon as life is going well again, we stop praying, and we don’t even remind our own hearts, not to mention telling anyone else, that it was God who got us through that hard time.   It was God’s help that we needed and God’s help we got.  It was the Spirit of Jesus Christ sustaining us and leading us out of darkness.   But as soon as we see the light, we forget who brought us to it.

That’s why it takes a whole season of gratitude at Peace to wake us up.   Yes, we started thanking God last week, with the one leper out of ten who remembered to go back to say “thanks.”  We recognized that we’re often like the nine who run off with our healing and forget.  Yet, Jesus says it is the expression of thanks that actually makes us whole, in the largest sense of that word.   Thanksgiving saves us, even after Jesus has healed our bodies.  

As we at Peace prepare to move to our “promised land,” we easily already forget where we were back last spring, when the Faith Church property was found to be infected with mold and the bank insisted that all liability be on us and we were dead in the water.  No options.   But God came through at the perfect moment, providing us with a new and better option.   We can easily forget the year before that, when we were so disappointed that we could not afford the cost of building on the five acres on Lorraine Road, and God knew but we did not know, that we really could afford more, but God prevented us from acting too quickly.   

Because then we would have built on a tiny five acre site, heavily controlled by SMR, and now, because of the growing faith of the people of Peace, we can afford to buy and to build on this lovely twenty-four acre site because many of us trusted that there will be enough bread, enough retirement, enough to pay the bills month by month.  These last eighteen months have had purpose – teaching us to trust God.

You see, this act of remembering what Christ/God has done and can do empowers that attitude of trust that there will be enough bread, enough money, enough of whatever it is you are worried about having.   But if you forget and think that is by your own strength, power, wisdom that you have achieved good fortune (as a individual or a community or even a country) then you fail to give thanks and in your amnesia, you lose not only your memory of God’s goodness but with it, you lose your faith, courage, or wisdom for the present and the future.   

You know one of the traditions that has made this country great is our emphasis on the Thanksgiving holiday.   I despise the way Black Friday commercialism keeps creeping toward Thursday, crowding out our one big day for giving thanks.   For those who are forced to work on Thursday to prepare for Friday’s craziness, I have sympathy.   

When people forget God, they begin to worship their possessions, and they begin to take unfair advantage of the poor, or at least to be less concerned for them.   When people forget God, they think it is all up to them to guard their future, instead of trusting that all will be well we will seek the way of Christ in the world.

When people forget what Christ can do, they grow in anxiety about God’s faithful provision, which is sure.    How am I going to pay my bills?   How am I going to be secure in retirement?   How am I going to pay for my kids college education?   

People who have forgotten God also fret about time.  True confession time.   This is one of my biggest weaknesses – thinking there’s not enough time.   God gives us all the time we need to do what we are called to do.   

If we are frantic about time, it is that we had unrealistic expectations about what we should be able to accomplish.   We needed to simplify.  We have enough.  And all this fear of not having enough money or enough time is really a trust issue.   Who is in charge?  God or me?   Have I remembered that God has blessed me and given me everything I need, including all the time I need to accomplish every single thing God intends me to accomplish?   

We heard on Friday night from Pastor Helevio Poget from Madagascar and Doug Tilton, PCUSA global mission coordinator for six countries in Southern Africa, that 85% of the people in Madagascar identify as Christian, even though many of them live in terrible poverty, especially since the coup d’etat of 2009.   It is estimated that they are the tenth poorest country in the world in terms of food shortages.   And compare ourselves that to our country, where a shrinking number of people identify as Christian.   We don’t need God.   We have forgotten what God has done.   We are self-made and independent.   

It is time to remember again the story that it is God who rescues his people and carries them through the wilderness, who gives them guidance to follow so that it will go well with them.  Those ten commandments are aimed at making us well, at giving us a blessed life, as we honor God and care for one another.   Remember my friends – we have more than a few reasons to give thanks.  Christ was a little harsh with his disciples, asking them, after they forgot so quickly his ability to provide for them:  do you not hear or see or understand?   So in his Spirit, I say to you, do you not see all God is doing for you?  Do you know how much Christ loves you?   Do you have friends or family who care about you?   Do you have shelter, food, health care, education?  You have transportation, enough money/bread for this day, clean water, reasonable safety – that’s more than most of the world’s people have.   Last year we read the book One Thousand Gifts, a book that challenged us to start a journal, writing down all the little blessings of the day – everything from the taste of maple syrup to the feeling of warm sun on our backs.   The trouble is one thousand is not a large enough number.  This year we declare that there are ten thousand reasons to give thanks, to bless the Lord our God.   

 

Credit Where It is Due

    

Gratitude Season Intro

Luke 17:11-19     

13 October 2013

Elizabeth M. Deibert    

If we could only begin to appreciate all the healing work the Spirit of Christ is doing all the time, we would fall on our knees every hour in thanksgiving.   Did you get better from the cold or flu?   Give thanks.   Are you beginning to process your grief over a death or divorce?  Give thanks.  Your anxiety, your compulsions or your depression under control?  Give thanks.   Can you walk again after foot, knee, or hip surgery?   Give thanks.  I am always amazed at how fast eyes heal after cateract surgery, or how fast skin heals after skin cancer removal.   

Jesus Christ is the great Healer.   The story we will read today is one of twenty-one different stories about Jesus’ healing power in the Gospels.   Some people find these stories hard to fathom because first of all, we cannot imagine having God in human flesh with us, walking through life with us.   But secondly we want to say that miracles like these do not happen anymore.   Oh, we understand a lot more about the human body now.   We know why people get better.   We can explain medical science.   And so we stopped thanking God for the miracles.   It is not that God stopped performing great miracles.   It is that we stopped giving thanks.   

Jesus healed ten lepers and only one came back to give thanks.   Ten cured of leprosy, but nine found to be sick with amnesia or dementia or attention deficit, because Jesus sent them to see the priest, and though their lives were absolutely transformed along the way, they forgot to go back and thank Jesus.  There are a lot of us forgetting to be thankful as well.  How can you possibly wake up in sunny Florida and not be thankful for the sun, for the moon, for the sunsets, for the green grass, and the flowers year ‘round?   You have seen or read about Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai who almost won the Nobel Peace Prize at 16 years of age for her courage in standing up for the education of girls in the face of Taliban opposition.  Malala said in a recent interview, “It is human nature that we don’t learn the importance of anything until it is snatched from our hand.”

 

Why are we not dancing with gratitude every single day?   We take our healing and run, just like the lepers.   We take the beauty of every day, the health of most days, the joy of relationships, and we run through our daily activities without noticing.  We take our comforts and freedoms and run to spend more on ourselves. And Jesus stands there, waiting for thanks, waiting for days, months, and years.

 

Here the word of the Lord from Luke’s Gospel:  

 

Luke 17:11-19

 

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" 14 When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19 Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

 

The healing took place while the ten were in transit, as it often takes place in our lives, when we least expect.   All ten were healed of leprosy, the disease that was so scary, so disfiguring, so dreaded by all.   But one comes back to thank Jesus.   And Jesus tells him, after he gives Jesus the gift of gratitude, that his faith has made him well.  His faith has saved him.  Faith seems related to giving thanks.   What about the rest – the other nine?    Their leprosy is healed, but are they well?   We’re not sure. 

  

If wellness is about giving thanks, then perhaps not.    Faith is not about quantity of belief, but about quality of trust expressed in thanksgiving.   A life of gratitude makes us well, the word for “well” can also be translated “save”   To be filled with gratitude saves us, whether we are physically well or not.

 

They nine were physically healed and rushing to get on with life.  Going to the priest was required before they could circulate in soceity again.  They had to be certified as clean, as not contagious, as not a danger to the public.  They had been in total isolation, some of them for years, and now they were going to get their discharge papers from the rehab office, but they forgot to thank Jesus first.   They were going back to work after a long time off, but they forgot to thank Jesus.  They were promised a new freedom from disease, a release from pain, isolation, and the horrible judgment of others, and they forgot to thank the One who gave them release from misery.  They were assured a new life with new relationships, the opportunity to work again, to start over again, and they forgot to thank their Healer, who gave them a new lease on life.    

  

Do we all become so consumed with taking the gift that we forget to thank the giver?   So often I forget to thank God, but Friday afternoon, after visiting Bob Seiter, my heart was filled with gratitude.  Kim Adams, our recent seminary graduate (who is here today)and I went to the hospital together.  Bob was not in his room , but in the dining room.  Thank you, God.   Seated in the dining room in a wheel chair, waiting for dinner, Bob was preparing to eat real food, not pureed.  Thank you, God.   He was talkative and coherant.   His uniquely Bob Seiter sense of humor was very much intact.  Thank you, God.   We prayed together – he saying the Lord’s Prayer with us.   I thought Bob Seiter might be dying several weeks ago.   He is alive.   Thank you, God.   Sue has expressed from day one her gratitude to God for all of the support and prayers of this congregation and many friends.   

 

Why does it take a friend’s miserable experience to make us grateful for the little things?   What is it about suffering that has the potential to bring out our best?  Instead of rolling along with assumptions and expectations, we begin to give God credit where credit is due.    On a smaller scale than Bob’s disease, many of us have had a horrible respiratory virus this fall.   Why does our gratitude for feeling better wear off so quickly?   Why do we talk so much about medicines and fail to appreciate the miracle of God healing our bodies?   Ingratitude is our first step away from God.   What makes us so ungrateful – so unwilling to give credit where credit is due?  There are three things for sure.  Unrealistic expectations.  Entitlement attitudes.   Distracted forgetfulness.  

 

Does God owe us anything?   When we begin to assume that our simplest blessings are owed to us, then we are on a slippery slope toward ingratitude.  God promises never to forsake us, but God never promised us a cushy life.   Do we deserve a life free from pain and suffering when God in human flesh had a life full of pain and suffering?   Suffering is part of life.  We are not promised to outlive our children, even though most people do.   We are not assured a happy childhood or a loving marriage.   If you happen to have one, even for a day, give thanks to God.   And for your hardships, give thanks that you have the opportunity to grow in perseverance and patience.   There is nothing more inspiring than a person with great hardship who perseveres with a grateful heart.  That’s why mission trips are such a great blessing to the ones who go – because they witness that perseverance and gratitude.  

 

There is no better gift we can give God or the world than a heart of gratitude, which overflows in  generosity.   This is the gift that keeps on giving, because it not only pleases God but it is a gift to our families, our friends, our neighbors, our congregation.   Try this week to express gratitude to God and to the people around you about everything.   Instead of moaning, griping, or living with a silent but cold spirit of dissatisfaction, try to name things for which you are grateful.   Jesus says this will save you, heal you.   There are relationships here in this room that need healing from months or years of ingratitude.   Like leprosy or cancer, a spirit of discontentment has grown to the point of threatening your life, making you unhealthy.   I will also wager than it is a leprous spirit of discontentment, entitlement, mistrust, and stinginess, that fuels the debate in Washington that threatens not just our economy but also the global economy.

“To practice gratitude intentionally changes an individual life, to be sure. It also changes the character of a congregation.   When Christians practice gratitude, they come to worship not just to “get something out of it,” but to give thanks and praise to God.  Stewardship is transformed from fundraising to the glad gratitude of joyful givers. The mission of the church changes from ethical duty to the work of grateful hands and hearts. Prayer includes not only our requests for help, but also our thanksgivings at the table.  There are those who believe that worship—this practice of gratitude—is almost primal, an essential part of being human.   (human in the sense of our best selves, not our worst selves)  To stifle gratitude may be as unnatural as holding one’s own breath.  Worship is certainly at the heart of the Christian life, and the story of the leper who returns to give thanks points us to that truth.”  (Kimberly Bracken Long, Feasting on the Word)

 

“Go on your way; your faith has made you well” is no longer a problematic saying, even when physical healing does not come.   Instead, it is a description of a life of blessing for the church: as we go on our way, we rejoice and give thanks; for in giving thanks in all things, we find that God, indeed, is in all things.”  (Kimberly Bracken Long, Feasting on the Word)  So in all things and at all times, we offer prayers of thanksgiving, we make offerings of gratitude, we give promises of faith, committing ourselves to the service of God.   

 

These acts of faith, these efforts at trust become our participation in the work God is doing to heal us, to make us well, to save us from all that would tear us away from our identity as God’s beloved children.   Karl Barth was fond of saying that the basic human response to God is gratitude.   

 

Giving credit where credit is due for the boundless love of Jesus Christ, which saves us.

Completely One

     

John 17:20-26 & Ephesians 4:1-6

Peacemaking/World Communion Sunday

6 October 2013

Elizabeth M. Deibert    

We live in the United States at a time when it is hard to see what unites us – other than the tendency to argue.  We have so much for which to be grateful, but like spoiled children, we seem always to be bickering when we don’t get our way. We go to great lengths to manipulate, hoping to win the fight.  Apparently over seventy percent of us would like to see compromise from both political parties, rather than strict adherence to principle, but we’re still waiting for this obnoxious game in Congress to be played out.

What Jesus prayed two thousand years ago is that his followers would be one, as Christ and the Father are one.  He said that with Christ in us, and God in him, we can be completely one.  And in being one, all the world would know God’s love.  This is the truth of our existence – something we do not much appreciate.  We really are one with each other.   At the heart of our conflict, our broken relationships, our misunderstanding and lack of concern for people different from us is our inability to see that we are really are one.   We share a common humanity despite all our differences.

Let us pray: God of our salvation, how beautiful are those who bring good news and announce your peace. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to hear and believe your Word and to show and tell this good news: peace on earth and good will to all; through Jesus Christ our Savior.  Based on Isaiah 52:7 and Luke 2:14

John 17:20-26

20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Ephesians 4:1-6

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

(New Revised Standard Version)

If there is one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.   And if this God has come in the person of Christ, who said we are his body.   And if we his body are called to be humble and gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, then there just has to be a better way than we are seeing.   This better way is available to us, if we only will live into our calling to be united with Christ and one another completely.

You see glimpses of God’s work in the world.   When a whole conglomerate of singers got together with Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson back in 1985 to perform We are the World, we are the children to raise money for Africa after a famine had devastated that continent, especially Ethiopia, the Spirit of God was at work.   When that same compassion spurred a new group of singers to do a remake of the song for Haiti after the earthquake, we humans were living as we are called.    

(Hotel Montanta slide) While at our son Andrew’s University last week-end, we heard the story of a family, whose daughter Britney happened to be on a college mission trip to Haiti when the earthquake hit three years ago.   She, three other college students and two professors from Lynn University were killed in the Hotel Montana in Port Au Prince.   (Brit with orphans slide) Her last text message to her parents said, “They love us so much and everyone is so happy. They love what they have and they work so hard to get nowhere, yet they are all so appreciative. I want to move here and start an orphanage myself.”  

Brit’s parents decided not to let her dream die.   (Orphanage slide) They have spent the last three years raising money and building this earthquake-proof orphanage which will house sixty children.   They spend one week every month in Haiti.   (Dedication of Orphanage) They have always had this oneness with the people of Haiti, but they came to appreciate it when their daughter died there, with love in her heart for the children.  How much easier to run from the country where their daughter died, but they chose to invest.   

(HOM slide) The Presbyterians at Burnt Store Church in Punta Gorda have invited our congregation to consider sending folks with them on a week-long mission trip to Haiti where they have a partnership with Haiti Outreach Ministries and Pastor Leon D’Orleans to help with a Church, medical center, and Christian school there.  Maybe you are being called to go in February to make a difference.   Maybe you’d rather give money to help someone else go.

(Syria slide) The people of Syria, need us to connect with them, to experience our oneness with them in their time of weeping.  More than two years of conflict have resulted in over 100,000 deaths, 2 million Syrians becoming refugees, and the internal displacement of as many as 5 million Syrians.  The Peacemaking Program and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) are working collaboratively to respond with humanitarian aid to those most affected by the crisis in Syria.   Please give generously today to the Peacemaking Offering.   Make a difference.   

(Christ and the World slide) Your peacemaking offering helps with peacemaking projects here and abroad and helps bring people like Rev. Helavio Poget from Madagascar to our country to help us to appreciate the fact that we have deep connection, just as we saw last year with Pastor Kade from Bali.  Many of you made a commitment to pray for sisters and brothers in Pastor Kade’s congregation.  Oneness shaped by our relationship with her and our prayers for them.  

Your peacemaking offering has helped us to do our own small part in building a more peaceful character in the school children of Manatee County.   Peace begins with recognizing our oneness with God through Christ, and then expands as we live peaceably, knowing that all others are God’s children too.   

World Communion Sunday, celebrated by many different denominations now, was first celebrated at Shadyside Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg 80 years ago.  In the dark days of the Depression, when there was fierce loyal to particular branches of the Christian faith, they had the wisdom to initiate this day of celebrating not our differences, but our unity – which is seen best at the table of Christ.

We have choices to make.   We do not have to turn cynical while sitting around watching talking heads debate who is winning the senseless battle of words in the Congress.   We can do the challenging and meaningful work of living into our name, Peace.  We can make a difference in the lives of people by being one in Christ, humble, gentle, patient, loving with one another and with those near and far away, building our sense of oneness with God’s people all around the globe, learning what makes each country and community unique –sharing our mutual burdens and joys.  Living as Christ would, by caring for all – even those different from ourselves.