Have you ever noticed that the opportunity TO
LOVE someone—to extend yourself for the good of another—happens every day?
*Perhaps you’re entering a store, and the door is quite
heavy, too heavy for another person to move, so you open it.
*Perhaps someone texts you on your cell phone by
accident, and it’s an important text, and so you alert the person texting that
they need to correct the number so they can reach the person they really need
to reach.
*Perhaps your child needs you to listen to their story
about their bad day, so you drop what you are doing and look at them, and
really listen.
*Perhaps your friend needs a ride to the airport and you
rearrange your schedule to take them.
*Perhaps you’re aware that a group of persons who are in
the minority are being unfairly treated, and so you find some leadership in the
community who are addressing that injustice and join them in their effort to
raise the community’s awareness. That
might include a letter to the mayor and the city council.
*Perhaps there’s a wedge between you and someone and you
have a hunch it’s time to resolve the issue.
The other day a friend was telling me about his need to forgive someone
so his doctor would quit lecturing him on his blood pressure. “I called this person up,” he said to me,
“And I said to him that I’m worried about talking about this issue, but if he
and I can’t come to some kind of understanding, I might not live to see my 55th
birthday, and I’d really like to see my 55th birthday.”
Writer
and teacher Robert Benson tells a story in WEAVINGS,
Journal of the Christian Spiritual life about the day there was a knock at
the door of his home---the man on the other side was quite the character: graying hair in dreadlocks, baseball cap on
backwards, T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, dungarees that were too long and
rolled at the ankles, and work boots.
The character said, “I noticed you
have some weeding that needs to be done, and I thought you might want me to do
it.”
Benson and his wife said yes.
A couple of hours later he knocked on the door, asking if
someone could make him a meal.
Benson and his wife said yes.
The character worked for several hours and did a good
job. Then he knocked on the door
again. “Can you give me a ride home?”
Benson and his wife said yes.
They learned that the character’s name was William or
Billy, and that he slept outside, often under the picnic table at the youth
building of the church across the street, he had a cousin in the neighborhood
where he was allowed to sleep when it was cold but they charged him twelve
dollars a night. He was illiterate,
though he had a high school diploma and went to college on a track scholarship
at a local university. He had a shed
where he kept tools and such. He had a
niece that lived nearby and he stayed there sometimes; it was the place where
Benson and his wife dropped him off.
They decided to keep the relationship going, offering him
work in the garden one to two days a week, and some coffee and breakfast and a
ride. Benson and his wife were getting
tired of the yardwork.
In time Billy knocked on other doors in the neighborhood
and he used the Bensons as a reference.
The Bensons allowed him to store his tools on the side of their
house.
Sometimes Billy showed up late and on the wrong day and
sometimes Billy stilled played the numbers and still needed a meal or two most
days. Some days he wanted twelve
dollars. Some days Billy stashed stuff
that he had rescued from trash piles along side of his garden tools—before he
took the trash to local yard sales.
“Billy was a mess,” Benson writes,
“always had been and always would be.
Some of it was his fault, and some of it was not.” But as Christian persons who sat in worship
and heard, “When did we see you naked or alone or hungry or thirsty or
imprisoned?” read from Matthew 25:31-46, Benson and his wife knew that they had
to look Billy in the eye –and meet his need.
He was their neighbor.
Eventually, thanks to the neighborhood, Billy’s life
began to change for the better. In time
Billy would smile and say, “I have family.”
The whole life of Christ teaches us that
showing mercy to others does indeed makes life better for others. But I don’t simply want to make such a broad,
sweeping statement…I want you to help me identify person in the scriptures who
are better for the time Jesus took for them: invite the congregation to speak…
Mary and Martha’s life was greatly improved for having
known Jesus, and so was their brother Lazarus—although he did stretch them a
little bit in today’s story when he didn’t respond immediately to Martha’s
request. (The scriptures want us to
understand that Lazarus was REALLY dead, that it was against this backdrop that
Jesus stepped in and not simply an illness that had depleted Lazarus of his
strength, but not his life.) By returning Lazarus to Mary and Martha they
remained financially stable at a time when women couldn’t own property. By returning Mary and Martha to Lazarus, he
got to spend more time with family.
He would die again, of course.
But
the point is this: wherever love is
present God is present and people are blessed—we enter into the highest form of
life that is possible---we enter into God.
Giving and receiving love is the greatest experience we can ever have
(Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth). Jesus came that we might have the
highest quality of LIFE. I believe he called it “abundant life.”
That’s what Jesus means when he says 25 "You
don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one
who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. 26 And
everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you
believe this?" By
believe Jesus doesn’t mean have an opinion about who he is. Jesus means TRUST him as in go about YOUR life like I go ABOUT mine. And
we all know how Jesus did his life, don’t we?
Jesus did his life as God would do his life—with great love.
When
we don’t go about our life the way God would go about our life, we keep God
hidden. When we go about our life the
way God would go about our life, we free God from being invisible to the world.
As
the church, the body of Christ, we are called to make God visible to the world. So if we aren’t living like Jesus—restoring
people to community, feeding the hungry, connecting to the Spirit, meeting the
needs of our neighbors—it’s no wonder that people have given up on the church
and look elsewhere for help, and for hope.
It’s no wonder that some people might exclaim that God is dead.
If people say “I can’t see God,” we who call ourselves
the body of Christ are most to blame!
And yet we struggle, sometimes, to move love beyond a trait we admire, a little prayer for the welfare of
others, the people we know, or a Bible study.
I am reminded of
the story that broke in the newspaper this past week about the archbishop in
Atlanta, Georgia who used funds earmarked for charity to build a mansion. “I wasn’t in the right frame of mind,” he
confessed, “I simply was thinking we needed separate sleeping quarters and
large spaces to entertain. The world has
changed.” The ”world” he is referring to
is the current Pope’s spiritual alignment with austerity. “We’ve got to do more for the poor,” the Pope
said to his faithful flock months ago.
Moving his leadership towards an austere life is one of many steps
towards integrity; sincerity. People are
watching; listening as the current Pope brings the holy Spirit of God into the
light—unveiling God.
Mary,
Martha and Lazarus act together
in John’s story to remind us that people suffer and look to us for help. People long to see God. “Be here for us,” they cry like Martha, “be
here for us.” Jesus acts to remind us
that love is of God, that love shows up, that love feels the pain of
others, and that love is a powerful source of healing. Love changes people’s lives.
Jesus
also acts to remind us that a life motivated by love is indeed the greatest
life we could ever know! It is the life
that is remembered; cherished; blessed.
And love isn’t always about the big things; spectacular
things; loud things...
Twelve dollars.
Breakfast.
Rakes and hoes stashed on the side of the house.
Help with a heavy door.
Forgiveness.
A ride home.
Someone to listen.
Someone to advocate.
“Love,”
Jesus teaches us through the healing of Lazarus, “acts like love in everyday
life.”
Let
us prayer: Gracious God, may we who call
ourselves Central Christian Church live our life together the way that you
would live our life together so that our community might see you and love you. Amen.
(This sermon was shared by Reverend Dana Keener on April 6, 2014 at Central Christian Church in Billings, MT.)
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