Sunday, February 17, 2008
Genesis 12: 1-4a Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17 John 3: 1-17
How are you observing Lent this year? Lent is the church’s yearly invitation to let God change us at deeper levels… but let’s be honest. It is easy for Lent to become superficial. Sometimes the only thing that really changes during Lent is the color on the altar…but our lives remain unchanged.
If Jesus came to visit you and me this morning…and gave us an outline of the changes he wants us to make in our lives this Lent…so that our lives reflect God’s will, God’s desire for us…what changes would Jesus ask you and me to make?
I have a hunch that Jesus would invite us to change in ways which are more radical and surprising than most of us can imagine.
For example, in the reading from Genesis, God asked Abram to leave the security of his home town and family and go to a place where God would show him. That was all the directions God gave him. He had to leave home and trust that God would guide him. That was a radical Lenten discipline of change that God called Abram to make.
I wonder, is God calling all Episcopalians and all Christians who live in the Springfield area…not to move away…but to leave our comfortable routines, to change the way we use our time and money…so that we make a positive difference in the lives of the poor in this city…make a difference in the lives of young people and the elderly in this city…make a difference in the level of physical and verbal violence in this city?
God has been disturbing me over this past year…and especially in recent weeks…about our failure as Christians to demonstrate God’s love for all people amid the crying needs in our cities and our world. In a few moments some members of this congregation will be Confirmed and Received in this branch of Christ’s church. We will all be asked to renew our Baptismal Covenant. These vows we all make…are not just a little ceremony by which we enter a religious club called St. Peter’s…and the Episcopal Church. These vows involve a life long commitment to live as Jesus-followers…in a world which does not yet reflect God’s vision, God’s dream for the world. We are sent by God to be instruments God uses to change the world, change our nation, change our neighborhoods to become more like God’s Kingdom, God’s longing for the whole creation.
This urgency that’s been growing in me over the past year is part of something much larger which God is doing across the Christian church in this country and around the world. For Lenten reading I’ve been reading a powerful book which I commend to you called THE GREAT AWAKENING, by Jim Wallis. It is filled with stories of how Christians are recognizing that God is calling us to change the structures and values of our society. Government will not bring the changes we need unless we, the people of God, are committed to a movement for change in our society, like the movements to end slavery and bring about civil rights for all people.
We live in a world of global economics, but without global ethics. We live in a world where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There are over 2,000 passages of Scripture which call God’s people to care for the poor around us. Jesus says the test of our love for God…is the way we care for the poorest, the least among us. The truth is we American Christians are not doing a good job of caring for the poor in Springfield, in our nation or in our world.
Friends, God is not calling us to be content with giving up a few chocolates for Lent. God is calling us to change the way we live and pray…so that God can change the problems of this world…through us! Jesus reminds us in today’s familiar gospel, that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Do you and I, like Jesus, love the world so much …that we are willing to sacrifice our comfort and convenience to care for people in need around us?
Last year, Rebecca and I worked along side Episcopalians in New Orleans as they try to rebuild that city. They told us that before Katrina, they ignored the poverty in their city. But since Katrina, God has awakened them to their Gospel responsibility to care for the poor and make it a priority to work for justice for all people.
Last month, Rebecca and I had the privilege of visiting with the Episcopal Church in Liberia. We saw a country devastated by over 20 years of civil war. We saw overwhelming poverty. We also saw a vibrant yet struggling Episcopal Church of Liberia praying and working to rebuild their churches, schools and clinics to serve the needs of people in that suffering nation. The task is humanly impossible, yet they told us stories of how God had blessed and protected them through the war… and now, out of gratitude for God’s blessings, they are eager to help others as God has helped them.
Their attitude reflects God’s word to Abram in today’s first reading. God blessed Abram so that he would be a blessing to others in need around him. God blesses all of us…not just for our comfort, not because we deserve it…God blesses us so that we will, out of gratitude, pass on God’s blessings to others in need around us.
In Liberia, one way they serve the poor around them is that many people adopt needy children into their families. When these children grow up, the families find other children in need to invite into their homes. Imagine the difference this simple practice is making for the needy children in that country. I talked about this at our Cathedral on Ash Wednesday and found out after the service that three families in the choir at our Cathedral have taken children from Springfield into their homes and families to love and care for them.
God may not be calling you and me to adopt children into our family, but what sacrificial changes is Jesus calling you and me to make so that we can be a blessing to people in need around us in this city?
In today’s familiar Gospel reading, I was struck by the words of Nicodemeus. He said to Jesus, “you must be a teacher who has come from God for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Notice, what attracted Nicodemus to Jesus was not just his words, but his actions…the things Jesus did.
We Christians talk a lot about love…but what about our actions? All across this country there are people who believe in God, but who don’t want to be part of any church. They pray and have a daily communication with God…but they have seen and experienced such harsh words, such judgmental attitudes, and such arrogant self-centeredness in the church…that they don’t want to be part of any church.
Friends, we Christians have denied our Lord by our lack of love toward each other in the church and toward people in need around us in our communities. Look at the media stories about the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church over the past 5 years. All they talk about is our conflicts and divisions.
Thankfully, Jesus is not finished with us yet. Jesus invites us to change and learn better ways to talk about our differences, with respect and love for each other. As we let Jesus show us how to love across our differences and hurts…we Anglicans and Episcopalians may yet be able to show the world how Jesus is helping us to love and respect people who differ from us. In South Africa, Anglican Churches are teaching adults and children how to be reconcilers and peacemakers in their homes, their schools and businesses and their nation. Perhaps God is calling us in this country to teach the skills of peacemaking and reconciliation in our churches and families.
I was very surprised a couple of weeks ago at a gathering of clergy in our diocese. Canon Shofstall spoke about a training program which will be offered in our diocese this coming Fall on how to deal with bullies in congregations. A significant number of clergy said…we need to learn about how to deal with bullies in our congregations…but we don’t want to wait until Fall. Can we get some training sooner on how to deal with the damage done by bullies in our churches?
I’ve listened to people who have visited in our churches…but found no one speaks to them, no one listens to who they are and to the concerns they bring with them. Many visitors don’t return to our churches because we have not learned how to love and care for the strangers in our midst in the churches of this diocese.
But friends, God has not given up on us. This Lent, I believe God is calling us to begin to make some radical changes in our lives. At this time in history, God is calling us with urgency to change the way we relate with people and with the overwhelming needs of our city, our nation and the world. Obviously, we can’t bring positive change amid the vast needs around us unless God helps and guides us.
So let’s close our eyes…and in the silence, let’s listen to what fresh words of guidance God might want to say to us.
First, be aware of God’s love for you. What changes do you sense God is calling you to make in your personal life this Lent and in the months ahead, so that like Jesus, you are bringing good news to the poor in the Springfield area and the world?
What changes do you sense God is calling you to make in your corporate life and ministry at St. Peter’s so that you are living more fully as God’s Good News people?
O Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair hope, where there is darkness, light, where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.