Let's
take a few minutes and look around the room at the
people that have gathered here. And, I want you to focus
on just one person that you have known for awhile. It
can be your spouse if need be, but I'd rather you find
someone else whose life you have observed over a period
of time. Try to think of one strength that he or she has
been blessed with that has carried them or maybe you
through the years.
For some of you this will be
easy. You will see perseverance, courage, enthusiasm,
wisdom, caution, insight, imagination, creativity,
kindness, faith, etc. Often times, when asked to do
this, people will identify something that they
themselves wish they possessed. Perhaps a complementary
trait that counters our own weaknesses and strengthens
us overall. It would be interesting if we could take the
time to jot down on a small notepad a character strength
for each person in this room and then merge them all
together to form a composite of our congregation. I
think that we would find that as a whole, we are
wonderfully gifted.
In fact, if we took this task
seriously and not carelessly, we would ultimately paint
a word picture of Jesus. Now, this is not a new concept.
We have heard it said many times that the church is his
body. But if you are like most people, we think of that
in terms of doing something that Jesus would want done,
like caring for an elderly person, taking food to the
needy, donating money, lending a hand during a disaster,
making sure the church building is clean and maintained.
Yet, it is more than doing. Within this room, Christ
lives and breathes through you without your conscious
efforts.
It is not as easy or obvious to
see as a deed lovingly accomplished. It takes those
quiet times when our busy-ness doesn't get in the way of
our subconscious reflection. It takes those moments when
we aren't angry or upset with someone or an event that
didn't go according to our wishes. We go beyond seeing
things our way. It has to do with looking at another
person as a recipient of the Holy Spirit and recognizing
how the Spirit is moving in that person.
It has everything to do with a
promise spoken years ago by Jesus himself. He knew that
his time in our existence was coming to an end. He knew
he had initiated something momentous that would go on
without him present in the way that they had always
known him. The disciples now had to connect with the
Father's realm, connect with the kingdom to which he was
going in order to become the men and women who would
carry the Gospel to the world. If Jesus had simply
departed, their lives would eventually have returned to
what they had left behind three years before. We already
saw a sample of that in the resurrection stories. They
had returned to fishing, they were hiding, they were
afraid.
But Jesus had promised that once
he had left them, the Father would send the Holy Spirit
to teach them everything and to remind them of the
things he had already told them. Jesus would leave, but
he would be coming again to them. He promised that for
those who loved him, the Father and the Son would come
to live with them. And they would be able to keep his
word. To keep his word in spite of the trials that beset
them. To keep his word in spite of the disappointments
and the failures. To move beyond their own desires,
their own reactivity. His word that was to be kept - was
to love.
How easy it would be to look
around this room, or our workplace, our schools, our
city, our state, our nation, our world, and say, "yeah,
but." And then we could list all the events that prove
unworthiness, where someone has fallen down, or let us
down, all the things they should have done, they should
have known, they should have said - and we instinctively
withdraw love. Or perhaps our well-intentioned efforts
to love meet with seemingly brick walls. The person we
are loving does not seem to be moved in any way by our
love. We are rebuffed and we quit. But either way, in
doing so, we are blinded from seeing Christ at work.
When we focus on the bad and not on the glimpse of the
Spirit we isolate ourselves from the work we are to do.
Can you imagine what the world
would be like today if the disciples had sat around that
upper room saying things like, "well Jesus didn't tell
me what town to start in, so I'm not going anywhere."
"Hey, Jesus didn't leave us enough money to spend the
night in a hotel or even get a decent meal. I'm going
home." "No way I'm talking to those people from
Thyatira, they're so rich they'd just laugh at me coming
into town without even a change of clothes!"
The thing is, the Holy Spirit
equips us with exactly what we need to love and to be
loved. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. We all have a piece of
the eternal in us and we are called upon to go and fill
up the empty spaces or the decaying spaces of someone
else with our piece. By our love we help someone not
only come to see the big picture, but to help them
complete that picture within their own lives by focusing
on the movement of the Holy Spirit - NOT the movement of
the evil one.
The apostle Paul was skilled at
the task. When the Holy Spirit inspired Paul, he didn't
think, well, I'll weigh the situation and see if this is
economical or if this is what the committee feels we
should do and they meet in three weeks. When the Spirit
laid it on Paul's heart that someone was in need, he did
it. The reading from Acts tells us that he and his
friends immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia
after Paul had his vision.
On another well known occasion,
Paul heard that the folks in Jerusalem were in desperate
need. He went around to his Gentile congregations and
gathered a collection for people who hadn't always liked
him or agreed with his ways. But no matter, they were
hungry and needed food.
In our own time, there was a
humanitarian who spent her life working for human
dignity and setting up tuberculosis centers in Kenya and
Somalia. She was assassinated in October 2003 by rebels
who objected to her work among the poor. Prior to her
death, however, she had been interviewed and asked what
gave her the motivation to devote her life to some of
the poorest and sickest people on earth. What enabled
her to be so positive and filled with such gratitude?
She responded, "the reason that
more people don't feel peace and joy in their efforts is
that they don't try hard enough. You have to give time,
you have to be patient; and then year after year, you'll
see that what matters is only love. But if you are
impatient because people are not grateful or you were
full of limits you will not be happy. You need time."
You need time. But then, you'll
see that what matters is only love. Annalena Tonelli
said it, and that is what Jesus said to his disciples,
too. Keep my commandment. Love through thick and thin,
day by day, year after year, and you will know the peace
of God.
So, how do we obey Jesus'
commandment to love over a lifetime without becoming
grim, bitter, or simply falling away? After all, love is
only easy on Hallmark cards. In actual life it can be
quite demanding. It is important to stay focused on what
the Holy Spirit is accomplishing in one another rather
than on the fall out from our sin filled world. Sin and
evil win when you look only at what is wrong in the
world or what someone else has done that you hate. The
battle will go on forever - and that's exactly what
Satan is hoping for - keeping you from recognizing what
God is doing in the world.
Instead remember what Jesus
said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I
do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your
hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." Look
around you here - and everywhere you go. What is the
strength you have that can fill an empty place in
someone else's life - then go and love them. And
remember, when you do, you too will grow and be loved.
For that person has a gift - a strength - and they will
be filling an empty place of your own.
Amen
Read other
sermons by Pastor Joan