Sermons

SCRIPTURE:

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8:You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully maltreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

SERMON: “Sharing” The Rev. Brent Damrow

To know The Rev. Liz Meyer Bolton is to know love wrapped in flesh. To know The Rev. Liz Meyer Bolton is to know someone with a keen intellect, willing hands, and a heart so wide it defies imagination. To hear Liz Meyer Bolton preach is to witness love in action and to be moved to love every single time. It is not surprising that during her seminary work she chose to do work in Haiti. She chose to go to Haiti to bring all of her gifts, her love, her knowledge, her skills, her can do attitude. It is no surprise that she chose to go to one of the poorest, most destitute places in the entire world – the island of Haiti. Anyone who knows Liz knows that it is also not surprising that she fell in love with those people, that she ended up not just sharing her gifts and skills, but sharing her life with them. Because those people came to mean so much to her that how could she do otherwise? They came to be her family. But here’s the thing: she came to be theirs too. Throughout her time there, this group of five or six women were constantly inviting Liz in for a snack of this, a bite of that, a fried piece of this, a tender morsel of that. Virtually every day, every hour, she was invited in to eat and to be fed in this poor, destitute place. When Liz would leave Haiti, she tells this story of how the women who had invited her in to their home came up to her, and they took their hands and put them on her belly, and they cackled with glee, saying “We made you fat!” And Liz very quickly got over what in the United States would seem to be crazy talk, to realize that they had sacrificed the most precious thing available to them – food that was so scarce – for the joy of not just seeing her full, but for the joy of seeing her really full, abundantly full, sharing what they had that she in the midst of her sharing might experience the joy of giving. They had next to nothing and gave it all, that in the end they could send her home with a little belly of love.

Paul spent a great deal of time with all of his churches, years in Corinth, extended times in each of the other cities too. While in those places, he came to know the people as family. Last week we talked about being church as being family. What is completely striking about this letter from Paul is that despite all of the teaching he would have done, all of the ways that he would have taught them about faith and how to live, what really shines through here is that Paul became so taken by them that he didn’t just share the good news of Christ. Paul says he shared his very life. He and those with him shared their lives with them, because that is what being church is all about. Yes, sharing the good news of God. Did you hear in so many of those passages in the Bible there is this notion that because God loves us, we can love others. That to know God is to know love, and to be able to give it away.

Henri Nouwen says that our task as the church is first to accept that we are the beloved of God, not for anything we have done or will every do, but simply because of who we are. And the reason he claims that’s the most important task is that then once we know it, we can then freely share that love just as it’s been given to us. Sharing is at the heart of what we call church.

Two weeks from today in this very sanctuary, seated up on this balcony over here are going to be four people. Four people who are deciding right now is the best time to become members of this church. Friends, we are not just treading water in these times, we are doing what the church and the Body of Christ does, we are growing and welcoming. Do you remember last week, Paul said that they knew that their work was going well in Thessalonica, because the people in the area talked about the welcome that they received. Well, next week there’s going to be four people up in that balcony becoming members of this church, people who have experienced our welcome and want to be part of this church.

In the United Church of Christ, membership is critically important. But if you read our new member liturgy and if you come to understand what membership is all about, it says this, that in our church, membership is not a creedal exercise, it is a relational one. That to become a member of this church doesn’t mean you believe any specific set of doctrines, because we understand that life’s journey is all about an unfolding, a never fully knowing, and always yet becoming. But instead, to become a member in the United Church of Christ is relational. It is to share the covenant with one another. In every single United Church of Christ, each of those churches have what we call a covenant. We do, too. Many of them stretch back to the founding of the churches. That covenant is the way in which we become members of a church. And a covenant is a holy promise. It is a promise of how we will be church to one another. When you become a member of this church, it isn’t about anything that I do. It is something about what we do together. It is that mutual claiming of the covenant.

Do you know what’s in our covenant? I’m not going to put you on the spot, but I hope so. It does talk about things like coming to worship. It does talk about things like sharing our gifts and our talents. It does talk about things like showing up. It talks about things like learning and growing. But there’s a critical and key component of membership here which Paul would have loved. We make a promise to each other that we will care for one another, and just as importantly, allow ourselves to be cared for by one another.

When we do new member classes, it’s never surprising which one of those people find easier. Many people say they join the church because they want to help other people. They join church because they believe in giving to other people, that it brings them joy in doing so. When I ask them, well what about allowing yourself to be helped, that can get a little more complicated for some people. But here in the church, being the church is also about allowing ourselves to be helped by others. It not just allowing leaders or readers or teachers to share with you, it is you sharing with us.

Do you know how old this congregation is? Well, the church stretches back to 1734. This building stretches back to 1824. And in two weeks, do you know how old we will be? Newborn. Because here’s the thing: when those four people join our church, they don’t become part of our church, we become a whole new church. Because what we promise to them as they join is that we will honor their journeys of faith, we will learn from them, we will share the journey with them. So in two weeks, this storied old wonderful place becomes brand new again. It is one of the reasons that I love membership so much.

The challenge that Paul lays out for us in this stewardship season, this season where we decide how much of our resources we’re going to share with this place, is Paul says yes, yes, share resources. In fact, in every one of his letters, he ends by asking for a donation to help the widows, to help the poor, to help building up the church. And that is what we’re doing in stewardship. But more than that, what Paul asks for here is for us to share our lives, those parts we’re eager to share because they’re beautiful, those parts we’re eager to share because they’re joyful. But also those parts of our lives that the world says we should keep hidden and maybe not talk about.

We were so taken by you, Paul said, we couldn’t help but share our lives. We couldn’t help but talk about the good news of God. We couldn’t help but live with you. That is how much you have come to mean to us.

As you think about stewardship this year, I want you to think about how much the people in this room have come to mean to you. I want you to think about how much being part of this church has meant to people, whether they stayed with us for a moment or a lifetime. Because that is what church is all about – sharing. Finding joy in each other to the depths of our being, that we can’t help it. But instead open our hearts and minds to one another.

Friends, the music you’re about to hear after this sermon is another hymn that’s supposed to evoke something for you. Each piece of music today has been chosen so that you might imagine the words. I want you to look at the words of this hymn for a moment. John Greenleaf Whittier resonates what Paul would say to us this morning:

Children of God, lift hearts to one another; where pity dwells, the peace of God is there; To worship rightly is to love each other, each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer.

Amen.