John 15:1-12
Tis A Gift
Rev. Kelley L. Dick
In our scripture for this morning Jesus appoints and commissions a group of followers to go into the world living and loving as he did.
They are commanded to go empty-handed, without even the most basic provisions necessary for the road. No purse, no bag, no sandals. Just their words of truth, love, and grace.
As this group disappear two-by-two into the dusty roads before them, the gospel writer tells us that they are empowered to share in the work of Jesus.
"Go on your way." Jesus said. These followers are no longer safe on the sidelines, in the shadows, in the corners in or in the safe box of “this is how we have always done it” These followers are to be persons on the move, alive to the present moment in all of its possibilities, positive and negative. They are to share peace and table fellowship, to cure the sick, to proclaim the kindom of God, to make friends, love enemies and in short, they were called to live out and practice the faith that they had confessed
And today we find ourselves in this same place. In the same place of being inspired by the gospel. Inspired to not just sit around and wait, but to actively engage and do. We are to share in the work of God.
Tis a Gift to be…..
Called
There are few things more attractive, more noticeable, than someone who's pursuing an activity he or she loves and is good at. I hope we have all had that remarkable experience of sitting in a classroom, lecture hall, town meeting, church service, listening to someone who engages and awakens the deepest parts of who we are. It’s thrilling and exhilarating.
I have a friend who runs a gardening service, and if there was ever a person with a green thumb or rather 10 green thumbs it’s Jean. And as I listen to her alk about keeping a family's yard looking nice, the joys and skills she brings to what he does are obvious.
For her, it's amazing and fulfilling to live life in line with God's calling. But for us, it can seem a bit difficult and overwhelming to discover it. We are all called by God for greatness, but how best we discern that, is in the relationship between us an God. When we stop and ask question like.
What gives me life?
What am I good at?
What do I love to do?
A part of all of our calling I believe is living out the vision of God’s world; We are to practice peace, do justice, perform the faith. We are to be like Barbara.
Barbara and her husband came to church the first time on a Christmas Eve several years ago. Her husband attended to her needs, as he found them a place to sit and he fetched orders of worship for them both. Barbara was bound to a wheelchair. Born paralyzed from her waist down, She experienced the coming of God in many ways in her life. She struggled with anger as a teenager as she wanted to be a cheerleader, so she yelled loud in the stands and made posters to hang on lockers. She loved seeing the look of the athlete who didn’t know her, open his or her locker with the encouraging poster on the locker.
As an adult she wanted to be a mother, but was told she could not bear children. So as a wife she learned to knit. She couldn't do much else, but she could knit, and knit she did. And as she knitted she prayed a prayer with every stitch, for the unknown person who would be covered by the "shawl" that she would knit. And as her prayer shawls were shared with the sick, the newly born and baptized, the dying, with almost anyone as they were agents of peace and transformation of God in knit word and yarning prayer. They were for Barbara her children, her gift to God.
The kindom of God is near.
There is something about the Christian faith that simply has to be lived to be understood. There are some gospel truths that only make sense in the homeless shelter, or on the steps of the capitol, or at a hospital bed, or at FCC on a day when we are taking applications, or have the food bank open, or any one of the great number of places in the world where people cry out for mercy, for bread, for justice, for compassion, for love. Perhaps this is why Jesus sends his followers into the world carrying only the message that the kindom has come near.
Tis the gift to be
Sent
I have a friend who spent six weeks a few summers ago along the United States-Mexico border. Anne was working with an organization called No More Deaths, which provides humanitarian aid to migrants crossing the desert. This organization was a comprised of a group of people, whos main concern was humane care for all people.
Over 2500 people have died since 1998 trying to cross into the United States, most from dehydration or exhaustion caused by the oppressive heat and meager supplies. Anne spent her summer handing out bottles of water and granola bars, binding feet and seeking medical attention for those who had the greatest need.
She didn’t question why they were crossing, didn’t ask them if they thought it was a good idea or whether or not they believed in Jesus. She just went into the pack of wolves carrying nothing more than the peace of Christ with her. Through her actions people knew God was near.
When she called me from the border, Anne described the closeness to God that she felt and how deeply convicted she was about the Christian faith as she worked with men, women, and children who have been forced to leave everything behind in search of life for their families. She said, "I do not think it is because I am praying more or reading the Bible any more carefully, there is just something about being here and doing this that makes it all seem so real to me."
When we are sent, when we feel truly feel sent by God. We allow our intersactions with God’s people to impact our lives, to transform us and allow that interaction to continue to mold and shape us. And when we let that happen, we become connect at the core of our being to God..
But that means we must be willing to be sent.
The kindom of God is near
Artist and athletes speak of something called the zone. It’s that space where they become so connected to their mind and bodies that time disappears and the world around them because new all over again. They become one and the same as that of what they are doing. A potter can becomes so connected to the clay that he or she essentially is clay. Runners can be so in tuned with their bodies and the earth when they run on that they essentially become one within the earth. Awareness of one’s self disappears and we become bigger than the self.
Christian mystics would call this connectedness the divine union. The union where self stops and the person becomes greater than the self,
The creativity of living then takes shape, even more so when we seek to encounter other humans for the sake of the encounter. Not as someone to fix, change, help, safe, convince or confine but as one that through the connection transformation occurs.
Tis the gift to be….
Neighbor.
In all religions great and small it takes communities to make them work. God exists in relationship.
I want you to try something sometime. I want you to connect to another person. I want you to truly connect to another person.. Engage in real conversation and listen and look in the eyes, genuinely care for another person. Do this with people you know, and you aren’t stepping out of the box.
So here is the catch, Do this people you meet in the grocery store, farmers market, convenient store, hair salon, restaurants, card shop, video game store, hardware store, and all sorts of others places. You will be amazed at how when you look at the other person, and see them not as your server in the restaurant, and someone who knows where the potting soil is, but as someone’s daughter or son, or mother or father as a struggling college student or a person just released from jail, homeless, whoever they are, see them.
But we don’t want to encounter our neighbors like that. We don’t want to see our neighbors as more than their role in our life, for at that moment they are character in our story, we are not characters in theirs. We don’t want to engage them like that.
I want to remind us that we are not characters in a fictional story, or actors in a movie, but members of the body and that means something very different!
And we know in Corinthians that it takes all members of the body to make it work. Eyes and ears, fingers and toes.
All children of God all neighbors.
And yet we hear about red states vs blues states,
Latin America vs South America
Women vs men,
Sunnis vs Shiates
Muslims vs Christians,
Jews vs Budhist,
This vs does not build up, rather tear down. Why must we find strength in the common enemy. Why not find strength in the common humanity. Why do we need to have and us vs them. God created us with God’s stamp of approval, which means God loves and cares for us. God needs us to be together in the body. This does not mean we have to agree, but it does mean we must work together. We must try to encounter each other at that place of the zone so that we may live in harmony like a beautiful piece of music full of sharps and flats.
The Kindom of God is near.
We must not succumb to the ways of the world, we must go out in the world, wolves and all, and stand for truth, justice, peace and love for God, knowing that in the midst of the heartache of the world, God is still present.
We can use our theology to beat others who cannot have the faith we have. We can shout louder, speak longer, or preach harder than anyone else. We can be absolutely sure of our right answers and the certain wrongness of others. We can stay in our comfort zones, safely hovering above real engagement with the issues of faith that call out.
But if we do, if we refuse to get our hands dirty and our hearts changed-than we risk missing the kindom of God. We risk missing the terrifying and empowering, transformative journey that requires nothing but faith in God to sustain us and trust in fellow travelers to support us.
But we might be tempted to disagree with Jesus in so strongly asserting that the kindom has come near. All we have to do is open the morning newspaper and scan the headlines to come to the conclusion that we do not live in such a kingdom. We hear stories of adoptive children being sent back on planes by themselves, the word earthquake has become a daily vocabulary word, and violence is rampant. Wars rage on with little sign of stopping. Poverty and hunger claim the lives of so many while others live in comfort with more than enough. Many are unsafe even in their own homes, while others enjoy the security of gates and fences. These are not the signs of the kindom that we would expect.
In fact, if the kindom itself knocked on our door with no sandals, no food, and no money-we might be tempted to ask it to leave us alone
God is sending us out into a complex and hostile world, like sheep in the midst of wolves. God is calling us to knit blankets, to be sent to borders, and to love as God loves. Jesus has equipped us, called us, and sent us with nothing more than a message, and what a message it is.
The kindom of God is near!
Tis a gift to be….Indeed
