Let Mutual Love Continue

Scripture Lessons: Jeremiah 2: 4-13 and Hebrews 13: 1-8 Sermon Title: Let mutual love continue Preached on September 1, 2019 This Scripture Lesson that I’ve just read is a good reminder of what we, as Christians, ought to be all about. And the Scripture Lesson that Linley just read is a good reminder that we, as Christians, have a tendency to stray away from what we ought to be all about. Of course, we’re not alone in straying. We all stray. Consider Kentucky Fried Chicken. Consider just the name: Kentucky Fried Chicken, and yet last week they started serving something called “beyond fried chicken.” Now I don’t know what “beyond fried chicken” is exactly, but while it’s fried it’s not chicken, and you can just about be certain that it didn’t come from Kentucky. What’s next, right? But this kind of thing happens a lot. We come loose from our roots. We go off the rails. We stray from the very essence of who we are and what we’re supposed to be doing. And while considering expanding American waist-lines, it could be that un-chicken is where we should be going, however, most of the time, straying too far from the point is bad. So, from time to time we have to be reminded of the point. That’s why various human institutions ritualize the simple and crucial act of stating who they are and what they’re all about so as not to forget the main thing. Our youngest daughter Cece took taekwondo lessons for a while. She loved it, and in addition to seeing her master various punches and kicks, I loved that every lesson ended the same way. The Senior Student, the one who has achieved the most advanced rank in the group, would lead the class in reciting the six tenants of taekwondo, the six defining attributes that every student of taekwondo should embody in their daily life: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, indomitable spirit, and victory. At the end of the class all the kids lined up, and our Cece was in the back standing there in her resting stance, and the senior student faced the rest of the class and yelled out: “courtesy,” and all the kids repeated, “courtesy.” Then “integrity” she says, and all the other kids say, “integrity.” Then “perseverance” – “perseverance.” “Self-control” – “self-control” “Indomitable spirit” – and the little ones in the back would say “indom -mmm - ble spirit.” It was great. It was all just great, because what could be better than closing the lesson with the core, the essence, the epitome of what every taekwondo student should be and should be doing? The Cub Scouts do the same: “I promise, to do my best, to do my duty, to God and my country, to help other people, and to obey the law of the pack.” The Boy Scouts of course begin their meetings with the Scout Oath and Law, and I’ll bet everyone here who’s been involved in scouts could stand and say it. This is why the school day starts with the Pledge to the Flag and the baseball game with the National Anthem. We use these rituals to summarize; to clarify. It’s by these kinds of statements that we hope to make our expectations clear and stay on the right path. And that’s important, because every group strays. Every group forgets. It’s easy to get distracted from the main thing. Cece signed up for taekwondo and the first thing I wanted to know is when she was going to karate chop a board in half, but that’s not why they’re there. It’s about integrity, perseverance, self-control, and the indom – mmm - ble spirit. In the same way, Boy Scouts isn’t about merit badges and getting into a good college once you have your eagle. Being a doctor is about first, “do no harm,” life as a lawyer is centered around defending the Constitution and living by a code of fidelity and truth, only how many are like those preachers who stray from such ideals to make a little more money. How do you keep a group rooted in its true purpose? You make the true purpose plain and clear again and again: “A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.” That’s Scouts. But what about Christians? You go out into the world and ask around a little bit and you may hear the opposite of what we intend. You may hear that “A Christian is judgmental, closed minded, self-righteous, fearful, so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good.” Like every group in human history we need to keep coming back to the real purpose, the true essence, of who we are and what we should be doing. To put it in the language of our 1st Scripture Lesson from the book of Jeremiah, we go to broken cisterns that cannot hold water again and again, and so, must be led back to the fountain of living water again and again. We need this passage in the book of Hebrews to stay rooted in what we should be doing. How we should be living. We must stay rooted in the qualities that Christ embodied, so the author of Hebrews writes: “Let mutual love continue.” “Let mutual love continue.” Don’t let it stop. It’s as though the author of Hebrews were saying to us, “You’ve been loved by God, saved by his grace; you’ve memorized the verse, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only son” so don’t you accept this love and fail to pass it to your neighbor.” Don’t put a fence around it so that you love the members of your family who you like, the members of your church who you know, and the people who voted for the same people you did. That’s not letting mutual love continue, that’s showing the world that Christian love is for some and not for others. If you think it’s bad that some people think taekwondo is about breaking legs or that physicians stray from the Hippocratic Oath than be disgusted that the Church has lived in such a way that many in our world are convinced that God’s love is for some and not for others. Hebrew’s demands that we “let mutual love continue,” though we’ve left people out according to race, fenced in love according to standards of sexuality, and built up an idol that makes God’s love look like something that not everyone deserves, when nothing could be further from the truth. “Let mutual love continue, and do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Don’t you know that’s true? I was reading in Atlanta Magazine last week about a man named Marshall Rancifer who spends his nights helping homeless people. He gives them food, takes them to find medical care, and if needed, when they’re ready, into recovery for addiction. According to the article he’s helped over 2,000 people get off the streets, but his story started when he himself was homeless, and found help and comfort in the shelter at Central Presbyterian Church downtown. We don’t often know what’s going on in the life of the strangers we meet, but too often our assumption is that they’re probably up to no good and should be avoided, when the book of Hebrews urges us to entertain the possibility that the ones we call stranger might be an angel poised to change the world or even Christ himself. “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (And) Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured” even though it is so easy to forget every last one of them. They put jails and prisons where they do, way out from the road, near the landfill and under the cover of a hillside so that we won’t have to trouble ourselves with the thought of them. However, I saw a picture this week that brought their struggle right into my living room. It was a picture of all the rosaries collected back in 2007 from men and women detained for illegally crossing the border. Of course, it’s true that this issue has seen greater press coverage recently, but the problem goes back longer and the root cause is universal: that men and women filled with hope move north from South and Central America to try and find a better life. When I saw the rosaries their faith became clear, and so did their humanity. “Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured [for are they not God’s children too?] (And) let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.” Some reflections of scholar and Episcopal Priest, Gray Temple helped me to understand this part better: “You come to resemble what you admire. People who admire money get green and crinkly. People who admire computers grow user-unfriendly. People who admire youth get juvenile.” And I would add that people who can’t stop looking will never know satisfaction. On the other hand, “People who actively and deliberately admire Jesus Christ come to resemble him” and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Isn’t that the point of this whole lesson in Hebrews? And maybe that’s the point of our entire religion: that Jesus’ life is to be mirrored in you and me. So, as you consider this table today, be mindful of the life of the one who has prepared it. The one who, though he was the King of Kings, set the table and waits on us as a servant. This food he has prepared is his body, and this wine, it is his blood; both he offers that we might know our worth and the worth of our neighbor whom he has prepared it for. The bill will come, but he has already paid it with his life. All he asks is that the light that shines in him, shine also in you and me. May it be so. Amen.