How Is Jesus Calling You to Love?

Epiphany 3C; Luke 4:14-21; St. Paul’s Smithfield, NC 1/24/2016

Jim Melnyk: “How Is Jesus Calling Us to Love?”

A story is told about Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk who “once referred to a certain rabbi as… ‘a righteous person with a fur coat.’

He explained: ‘When it is winter and it’s freezing cold, there are two things one can do.  One can build a fire, or one can wrap oneself in a fur coat.

In both cases [the rabbi continued] the person is warm.  But when one builds a fire, all who gather round will also be warmed.  With the fur coat, the only one who is warmed is the one who wears the coat’” (Synthesis, 1/24/2016). And after the power outages of the past two days, and the experience of people taking family and friends into their homes to help them keep warm, we can certainly understand the wisdom behind the words of Rabbi Mendel. 

Jesus enters his hometown synagogue, picks up the scroll of Isaiah and invites those listening to gather round the fire – he reads what will become one of the central themes of his Gospel message.  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  The congregation looks on with expectancy – wondering what teaching Jesus might offer in response to God’s promise through Isaiah.  The next few words from Jesus catch those gathered by surprise.  Rather than sitting before them and talking about how such a promise of God’s Spirit will unfold for God’s people, Jesus tells them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  And the members of the congregation, we are told, were “amazed at the gracious words that came from Jesus’ mouth.” 

And so, when I listen to today’s Gospel lesson from Luke – when I hear about Jesus reading from the scroll of Isaiah – I realize that I am listening to – that we are listening to –

not only what Luke considers to be Jesus’ inaugural sermon, but a sermon that “sets the agenda for  his entire ministry” (synthesis).  What we heard read this morning is part of the very core teaching of Jesus.  We are listening to the heart of what Jesus comes to proclaim – to a teaching that’s so central to his message that we hear the very meaning of the word Gospel in its message – Good News.

In all four Gospels Jesus is asked about the core teaching of Torah.  He is asked one way or another to comment on which is the greatest commandment of all and his response is always straightforward.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength…, [and] you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31).  This seems to me to be the mission statement of the Gospel from which Jesus’ whole agenda is set– and therefore it must be the driving force behind the mission of the church – the Body of Christ gathered.  Love God with all that we are – with every fiber of our being; and love our neighbor – the one who is one like us – even as we desire to love our own selves.

So if the Great Commandment – as Jesus’ words are called – is the mission statement of the Gospel, then perhaps today’s words from Luke might well be understood not only as the agenda for Jesus’ fledgling ministry, but as one of the key action statements of our baptismal calling: bringing good news to the poor – whether that be those who are physically and financially destitute or those bereft of spirit; proclaiming release to the captives – whether captive politically, spiritually, or of their own choosing; recovery of sight to the blind – whatever incarnation that might be; freedom for the oppressed – whether in body, mind or spirit; and the Jubilee year of God’s favor – God’s promise of freedom for all of creation.

This echoing of the prophet Isaiah must indeed be central to the teachings of Jesus – because he sees his own life as a fulfillment of God’s promise in the words of the prophet.  And if this way of acting – this way of living – comes out of Jesus’ ultimate love for God and love for his neighbor – if it is indeed central to the teachings of Jesus , then it must indeed be central to how we live out our baptismal calling as followers of Christ.

This is the how and why of being Church in the world – love.  In fact, Torah Teaching actually takes what Jesus pulls forward from Leviticus as the second half of the Great Commandment even further.  Just a handful of verses after the command to love the neighbor, God says to Israel – and therefore to us – Wait, there’s more! “When a stranger – that is, an alien – resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the Lord am your God” (Leviticus 19:33-34).  So, this is the how and why of being Church in the world – our love for God, our love for neighbor, and our love for the stranger – the sojourner – among us.  The Stranger – those who may not look just like us, or speak just like us, or believe just like us.  However they are fellow human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, just like us.

Jesus came to his home town in the power of the Holy Spirit bringing Good News to the poor – proclaiming release to those held captive and recovery to the sight of those who are blind.  In two weeks time many of us will gather in Lawrence Hall to participate once again in Stop Hunger Now, and package thousands of meals for those who are hungry – for those who face the reality of day-to-day poverty or those who are striving to survive unexpected disaster.  It is one way that we can bring Good News to sisters and brothers in need.  As those who are baptized into Christ – as those who are called to be imitators of Christ – how can we bring Good News – bring release – bring sight to those who are blind – and Gospel sight to those who turn a blind eye toward others – what one person calls embodying “the Divine Life active within us” – incarnating, putting “flesh and blood on the impulse of the Spirit of Christ active within us” (Mark Brown, Brother, Give Us a Word, 1/22/2016).

Brother Jim Woodrum of the Society of St. John the Evangelist asks: “How is Jesus calling [us] to love? It’s most likely through something broken, something in need of God’s life, light, love and provision. Certainly it is more than [we] can handle on [our] own. Jesus’ good news is that [we] don’t have to [handle it on our own]. God the Father’s love will see us through to healing if we will just say ‘yes’ to Jesus’ invitation” (Brother, Give Us a Word, 1/17/2016).

Recalling the teaching of Rabbi Mendel, we can most certainly put on a good, heavy winter coat and keep ourselves warm, or build a fire so that all may be warmed.

A Love Affair Renewed

Epiphany 2C; Isaiah 62:1-5; Ps. 36:5-10; John 2:1-11; St. Paul’s Smithfield, NC 1/17/16;

Jim Melnyk “A Love Affair Renewed”

Just last Sunday we heard a passage where God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, says to Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine….Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you…” (Isaiah 43:1b, 3a).  For me, those are courting words.  I have an image of God standing before Israel with a box of the finest chocolates and dozens of long-stemmed red roses in hand.  Imagine how it would feel to hear God say to you, “you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.”

Now, I know physical and emotional sensuality seems to be one of the hooks for human beings today – whether we’re talking about a commercial for hamburgers or the content of  the TV shows, Movies, and Books that bombard us daily – Game of Thrones, anyone?  If you ask marketing people they will tell you, “Sex sells.”

           

But when it comes to reading, thinking, or talking about the obviously sensual language found in Holy Scripture about God’s love for humanity – something deeper and more meaningful than what the marketing gurus try to sell us – we tend to squirm a bit, don’t we?  Just read about how many rabbis, and then many Christian scholars tried to keep The Song of Solomon out of the Bible.   Consider, also, how God’s words through the prophet Isaiah last week conjure up images of the soft whisperings of a lover – and how, when we put it in that context, it makes a lot of people uncomfortable – perhaps because that kind of love can be so messy, and so risky,  and leave us feeling too vulnerable.  And yet St. Augustine, whose life bridged the fourth and fifth centuries, described the Holy Trinity as “Lover, Beloved, and Love” – and that was meant to conjure up all sorts of images of the intimacy that helps define God – and the closeness with which God desires to have with each of us. 

In another Old Testament passage, this one from Hosea, God tells Hosea of a plan to lure Israel back out into the wilderness where they first met and fell in love with each other, there to seduce her – to woo her and win her back, so that she will forsake the gods of the Canaanites and return to her former love – to her husband who is God (Hosea 2:14-23).

In this Sunday’s lesson from Isaiah, God goes from simply courting to a marriage proposal: “You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:4-5).  And I have to believe the imagery of a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride is purposeful in all the images it conjures up.  Twentieth century poet W. H. Auden put it this way: “He is the Life.  Love Him in the World of the Flesh.  And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy” (The Hymnal 1982, #463/464).

Auden’s poem is actually found in our hymnal – hymn 463 – and it points to the incredible delight God seeks out in relationship with us.  Mystics throughout the ages have reveled in the mystery of that love – and have long understood the emotional aspect of being in relationship with a God who is described in Holy Scripture not just as Lord, Savior, and God Almighty, but as friend, parent, lover, and spouse.  What an incredible range of connectedness!  And I daresay our world becomes quite dim when we forget or ignore the holy sensuality of God – the desire of God to delight in us – a God who breathes us in like perfume, and whose eyes dance with joy just at the thought of us!

How in the world can human beings created in the very image and likeness of God mistreat one another – despise one another – vilify one another – allow fellow human beings to wallow in poverty – or physically abuse or kill one another?  Why are there needs for places like Harbor House?  Why has our nation fallen so in love with guns, and society become so defensive, and so indifferent or numb to gun violence?  What might it be that causes us to treat one another differently – especially with distain or abuse – simply because of the color of one’s skin, their age, gender, sexuality or politics?  How can people of faith, like so many in the Anglican Communion, turn its back – and in some provinces support life in prison or the death penalty – on a whole segment of sisters and brothers in Christ simply because of whom they love?

When we forget that God delights in us – delights in all of us – that God delights in what Archbishop Desmond Tutu called the whole “rainbow people of God” – when we forget how that same God seeks us out to be part of a heavenly wedding – when we lose sight of the image of God in one another – then we find it easier to hurt one another – sometimes even in the name of the Holy One, and I have to believe that heaven weeps. 

As our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry said this past week, “Our commitment to be an inclusive church is not based on a social theory or capitulation to the ways of the culture, but on our belief that the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are a sign of the very love of God reaching out to us all, [and that what] the Apostle Paul [wrote] to the Galatians [long ago is] true for the church today: All who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, for all are one in Christ.”  It is God’s desire that no one be named “desolate.”

It has been said that “we are in the habit of dividing the ministry of the Lord into his miracles and his parables and teaching. [The author of John’s Gospel] refuses any such division.

It is perhaps for this reason that he has virtually no parables in his Gospel, and that he chooses this word "sign" for the miracles in order to insist that the miracles are themselves parables” (Christopher Evans, Synthesis Today, 1/23/2016).  So perhaps in the end we should look at the miracle that takes place in the midst of a wedding in Cana of Galilee as an enacted parable – a teaching about the richness and extravagance of God’s love surrounding us and filling us – a sign of the inbreaking of the kingdom of Heaven upon and around us.  As the Psalmist proclaims – “wine to gladden our hearts” (Psalm 104:15).  We can then see in this enacted parable of Jesus hints about his resurrection (“on the third day there was a wedding”) and in the feast itself, allusions to the messianic banquet – the feast that will celebrate the inauguration of God’s rule (The Jewish Annotated New Testament, notes).

Throughout the Gospels, “Jesus’ motivation is love for God and love for God’s people” (The Rev. Lorraine Ljunggren).  Jesus’ actions are not dictated by what is popular in the culture of his day, or what might make everyone like him more – but rather in the belief that as God says through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord delights in us – we are precious to God – and loved by God – and worthy of God’s redeeming action in the world. 

Therefore, “theologically speaking, as followers of Jesus we are to do likewise keeping in mind that we begin with believing we are beloved, too” (Lorraine Ljunggren).  That’s the Good News, my friends!  As broken as we may be at times – as disillusioned as we may become at the brokenness of our world – and it is broken – our brokenness is not God’s final word for us.  God delights in us – God calls us “My Delight Is in Her” – and God loves us enough to throw a huge wedding feast for us in honor of that love.  How in the world can we not love one another if we have indeed been made worthy to be loved by God?

If Jesus’ miracle at the wedding in Cana is a parable telling us about God’s great love for us – if it purposely, or even accidently, alludes to the proclamation of Isaiah we’ve heard the past two Sundays, and the promise of a messianic banquet yet to come – then perhaps it stands to reason that we’re called to turn water into wine as well: By how we live together faithfully as followers of Jesus – by whom we welcome, and how we welcome them – by how we open our doors and our hearts to love and care for one another – even those who differ most from us – even those upon whom the world turns its back. 

The kind of love to which God calls us can be messy, it can be risky, and can leave us feeling vulnerable – but it can also leave us – and those to whom we minister as followers of Jesus – feeling precious.  For God has redeemed us, my friends, God has called us by name, and together we are God’s own beloved.

I have called you by name – you are precious in my sight!

Epiphany 1C; Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22; St. Paul’s Smithfield, NC 1/10/2016

Jim Melnyk:

“I have called you by name – you are precious in my sight!”

 With apologies to the late, great, Rod Serling: Submitted for your consideration – a not so ordinary looking silver container of water – H-2-O – resting in the top of an interestingly sculpted marble pedestal, and only a few inches deep.  Submitted for your consideration – an eye-catching container of water not much different in volume than what you might find in your bathroom sink – a rather traditional baptismal font – something we walk past every Sunday morning and most likely don’t even notice.  And yet it is a place of Holy Mystery resting in our presence every time we enter this sacred space.  Each time we pass this font we should be reminded of our own baptism – we should be aware of the Mystery of what it means to be a part of God.

And although no baptisms will take place at this font this morning, today is the Sunday upon which we commemorate the baptism of our Lord Jesus, and most of us here have at one time or another witnessed something taking place at this font that is indeed different from any bathing ritual practiced by young and old alike in every household.  The water we pour in this font and bless is for us a symbol of life and of God’s love for humanity.  As our baptismal liturgy reminds us, “Over [this water] the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation.  Through it [God] led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise.  [And] in it…Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit” (BCP, 306). 

This is the water of life which flowed from the side of Jesus at his crucifixion – it is the stream of Living Water that flows through the gates of the New Jerusalem – it is the life-nurturing water that surrounded and protected Jesus in Mary’s womb – which has done the same for each of us before we came into this world. 

This morning in the presence of water that we will bless, and the Holy Spirit who surrounds us and fills us with the breath of God, we will later renew our own baptismal promises, and will find it once again a doorway into the heart of God.

We will stand together as the Body of Christ given for the world and will find this moment in time – this particular experience with water and Word – a new beginning to a journey which began for each of us with the first beat of our hearts and the breath of God’s Spirit in our lungs.  Created in the image and likeness of God, we will recall, at least liturgically, the beginning of our transformation into the likeness of Christ – our being transformed into the human hands and heart of God who is very much alive and a part of this world.

Baptism – whether the fantastical experience of Jesus at the Jordan River or the more tame reality of our lives – isn’t some strange reality visited upon us from the likes of the Twilight Zone – doves and voices from heaven notwithstanding.  Baptism is the outward and visible way in which we celebrate the love of God made known to us in creation, and in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus – who is for us the Christ of God.

And while Jesus was baptized in a river – as were some of you, I know – most Episcopalians are a bit more proper about it all.  I have served in two churches with fonts large enough to totally immerse a child in one, and an adult in the other, but mostly I have attended or served churches whose fonts are more like ours.   I recall a story told by my wife, Lorraine, many years ago after a baptism at her church in Western NC.  A former Baptist parishioner leaned over to her at the tiny traditional font much like the one here in our Nave.  “Lorraine,” he whispered, “There’s not enough water here for you to do anything!”  “That may be true,” replied Lorraine, “but there’s plenty of water there for the Holy Spirit to do everything!”  

Baptism isn’t something we coerce God into doing, whether by using the proper formula of words, having the best space or the right sort of font – we don’t coerce God to act, rather God calls us into relationship because God chooses to do so.  So baptism – and the renewal of our baptismal vows – is our celebration of the love and grace of God already freely offered and so wonderfully received.

Baptism is our celebration of the mystery that promises: before we ever did our first good deed – before we ever took our first step – said our first word – breathed our first breath – God delighted in us!  As we listen to the words of the prophet, or retell the story of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan we are invited to realize that God’s first words to us are always words of God’s love for us.  This is the first great truth of baptism: that baptism is our “first calling…” a calling that, first and foremost, “simply loves and names.  You are my child, I delight in you” (John Stendahl). 

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah God tells us, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine….Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you…” (Isaiah 43:1b, 3a).  Just simply for being, God says, I take pleasure in you – and I claim you for my own.

Baptism is a recognition and acceptance of God’s great delight in us – even as God delighted so long ago in the baptism of Jesus – the beloved son of God.  Baptism is like a doorway into that delight – into that love – into the heart of God – and if like a doorway, it is a doorway that upon entering begins to transform us – to change us – to shape us as the children of God that we are.  And each time we renew our vows we are shaped just a little bit more.

And so, a second great truth of Baptism is that God’s delight in us shapes us – God’s hopes and dreams for us come out of, and find a home in, God’s delight in us.  Somehow in the passing through this doorway those hopes and dreams of God take on deeper meaning – become more real – and hopefully they take on a greater sense of urgency for us.  It is God’s delight in us which shapes and calls us beyond being – which calls us to lives of action – which calls us from being to doing.

And this is the next great truth about Baptism – that becoming the hands and heart of God in this world is a scary and challenging prospect.  The calling that first and foremost loves and names also identifies us forever with the Jesus of the Gospels: with the Jesus of dusty Galilean streets, with broken hearts and troubled lives – with the Jesus of betrayal and the cross – and with the Jesus of resurrection life.  Entering into the waters of Holy Baptism – and renewing our baptismal promises – should give us reason to pause – to count the cost – to understand what it means to be a part of the transforming life of Christ.  Because later in the Gospels that very same voice heard at Jesus’ baptism – the voice of God that proclaims “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased” – that same voice will tell us to listen to this person Jesus – this beloved Son of God – and to obey him – and the road to Jerusalem and the cross will make clear what it means listen to, obey, and follow Jesus.

In being identified with Christ we are called to be imitators of Christ.  We are God’s anointed ones – like so many who have come before us and answered the call of God – from the very first human creatures who walked the face of this earth to those in generations yet to come.  Children of God – sisters and brothers of the living Christ: called in the righteousness of God, taken by the hand of God and filled with the very breath of God.  Like those spoken of in the days of Isaiah: a covenant to the people of this world and a light to the nations of this world – to open eyes that are blind and set the prisoner free.  Identifying with Christ we are to be voices for the voiceless, champions of the sick, the friendless and the needy, challengers of the status quo, and harbingers of the new promises God declares for God’s people.

Submitted for your consideration – a not so ordinary looking container of water – H-2-O – an eye-catching container of water not much different in volume than what you might find in your bathroom.  Submitted for your consideration – a community of faithful people committed to one another, beloved of God, and willing to take the challenge.