Let Love Be Genuine

Proper 17A: Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16:21-28; St. Paul’s 9/03/2017

Jim Melnyk: “Let Love Be Genuine”

Proper 17A: Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16:21-28; St. Paul’s 9/03/2017

Jim Melnyk: “Let Love Be Genuine”

Today is no ordinary Sunday in September – and by that I am not referring to our Labor Day weekend.  This morning we bring Una Rochelle de Silva to the waters of Holy Baptism, and this act is an extraordinary event in both her life, and in the life of the Church.  Today we recognize, name, and celebrate both a God who time and time again calls us into relationship, and Una Rochelle, who begins her journey of responding to that call.  It is also a moment in time that calls us to recall our own baptismal life.

You may remember a story I recounted three weeks ago – a story told by Dutch Reform Chaplain Nico ter Linden about the baptism of a young girl and his exchange with the children gathered around the baptismal font. 

                                   

“’Father and Mother Stolk,” he begins, ‘by what name do you wish your child to be called, now and in the life eternal?’  ‘Anna Elizabeth,’ her parents respond during the baptismal service. 

‘Why do people get names?’ I ask the children in church, who always crowd as far forward as they can at baptisms.  ‘Well,’ says one little girl, ‘then they can call you.’

I ask who ‘they’ are.  ‘Your mom and dad,’ says one child.  ‘Your friend,’ says another.  ‘God,’ says another little girl… I see that she means it….”  And as we have said before, we are left with the question: How do we respond to a God who calls us?

Like each of us gathered here this Sunday, Una is called by God to a life of faith – called to become a faithful followers of Jesus – and like each of us, she will spend a lifetime learning what that means.  She, like each of us, will grow to learn that the life of faith – that responding to the call of God – is quite often a challenging life; one full of both risk and reward.

Paul gives us a further glimpse into this life of faith – into what this responding to God’s call looks like – as he continues his letter to the Church gathered in Rome.  Last week he reminded us that we need to be transformed by the power of God working in our lives.  He challenged us to discern “what is good and acceptable and perfect” – that is, he challenged us to live out our life of faith with integrity – that all that we say and do might reflect the image of God which abides deeply within us. 

This week’s portion of his letter begins with the words, “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.”  It’s important for us to know that when Paul talks about love he’s not talking about the mushy stuff of Valentine’s Day cards and the Hallmark Movie Channel.  When Paul uses the word “love” he is talking about a sense of deep, abiding loyalty.  When Paul instructs us to love one another with mutual affection, he’s telling us to be loyal to one another in the same way that God is loyal to us and we are to be loyal to God.  He is talking about relationships where the dignity of everyone involved is respected and held dear, and where we refuse to think of ourselves as more important, or more beloved by God, than anyone else.

Paul goes on to tell us what that love – what that loyalty to God and others – looks like.  Rejoice in hope, be persistent in prayer. Contribute to the needs of others.  Welcome the stranger – the sojourner – the alien who resides among you – for you once were strangers in a foreign land. 

Look, he goes on to say, everything isn’t going to be perfect.  Life will be hard at times – even if you’re doing everything right.  Bless those who persecute you – do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Live with empathy for one another, and do not be condescending toward those in need.  Paul even seems to give us a glimpse into his own struggles to be faithful – “If it’s at all possible, live peaceably with all.”  It’s a challenging life we’re called to as followers of Jesus.

Paul was writing to the Church in Rome decades before Matthew’s gospel was penned.  Yet Paul had come to know the risen Christ through his own personal revelation on the road to Damascus, and early on he hung out with those who had heard the teachings of Jesus first hand. 

While he and Peter didn’t always see eye-to-eye, I’m sure Paul learned about the life and teachings of Jesus from his brother in Christ.  It only makes sense that Paul would have heard Peter’s retelling of the events in Caesarea Philippi more than a time or two over the years.  And I can see where Paul’s teachings have their roots in the experiences of the disciples and the teachings of Jesus.

In Caesarea Philippi Jesus throws his friends for a loop.  They’ve just acknowledged him to be the Christ – the Son of the Living God – and he immediately tells them he’ll be betrayed, beaten, and put to death in Jerusalem.  Lutheran pastor Kari Jo Verhulst writes, “Can you feel Peter's heart breaking as he listens to Jesus describe the suffering and death he is about to endure? All that he has allowed himself to hope for – the meaning and energy he has found since leaving his nets behind – is about to be shattered, and so he grasps for Jesus, as he did in the water, afraid for his life and desperate at his impending loss” (Sojourners Preaching the Word, 9/3/2017).  It’s a challenging life we’re called to as followers of Jesus, and even those who walked with Jesus struggled from time to time with his words and deeds.

“Then Jesus [tells] his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?’”  It’s a challenging life we’re called to as followers of Jesus. 

Today we bring Una Rochelle to the waters of Holy Baptism and she is united with Christ in this sacred moment – sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever – as are each of us who are baptized into Christ.  Only ten days away from her first birthday, and Una will be inextricably bound to Christ in both his death and his resurrection.

Una, and each of us here, make a commitment to follow the One who invites us into the great paradox of life – that by dying we live, and by giving of ourselves in love we receive.  In Holy Baptism we are buried with Christ in his death, and then, as Simeon the New Theologian reminds us,

We awaken in Christ’s Body

as Christ awakens our bodies…

I move my hand, and wonderfully

my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him….

(Simeon the New Theologian, quoted by Cynthia Bourgeault in her book, The Wisdom Jesus, Shambhala, 2008)

“Today we have the opportunity to encounter Christ once again. Once again we have the opportunity to respond to the invitation of God to follow Jesus” (Brother James Koester, Brother, Give Us a Word, 9/3/2017).  This is our high calling as followers of the One we call Christ – to love genuinely – to care for all people as well as the whole of creation.  This is our high calling – to give ourselves to God so that Christ might be made alive in us.  We don’t do this alone.     We are the body of Christ gathered together in all our amazing, beautiful, diversity.  We are the body of Christ – sealed with the power of God’s Holy Spirit, and marked as Christ’s own forever.