Rooted and Grounded in Love A Sermon by Randy Harris Highland Presbyterian Church July 26, 2009 Psalm 145:10-18; Ephesians 3:14-21 Both at church and with our families, Carol Ann and I are privileged to hear some very humorous stories about children. One of our favorite niece and nephew stories comes from about 15 years ago, when a niece was born into a family with an older brother. When she was born, her then three-year-old brother seemed to think that everything was just fine at first. His baby sister was cute, and everyone adored her and lavished attention on her. He did, too, for a while. Then one day, when she was about three months old, he went into her room and systematically started to take all of the clothes out of her closet, one by one, dropping them on the floor. With each item, it was as if he was saying Nice to have you visit; come back when you can t stay so long. Now, he has always been smart, and he knew; he knew what we all know. It s one thing to have someone visit; after all, everyone can be on their most hospitable behavior, for a while. But it s another matter altogether to have someone come to stay. When someone moves in for good, there are some fundamental changes in how things work. At first, says Karen Chakoian, you might try to hold on to your familiar patterns and routines, and the new member may work hard to accommodate you and stay out of the way. But eventually, they make their mark. Conversations change. Relationships realign. Household tasks increase and responsibilities shift. So it is, she says, when Christ moves into the hearts of Christians. This isn t merely tweaking old patterns; everything changes. 1 As we continue through this Letter to the Ephesians, it is just this fundamental change that Paul addresses in this wonderful prayer we ve just heard. For this reason, he begins, and we remember. We remember the reason for which Paul is giving thanks. He is thankful because love has come to town, not for a visit, but to stay, to move into a household that had been divided but has now been brought together. Christ has come to dwell in our hearts all of our hearts, bringing every family under heaven together under God s name. Not just Jewish Christians, not just Gentile Christians, not just us, not just them, not just one race, not just one nation, but Children of God, all of us! says Paul. And God has done this in Christ, for sake of love. Love has moved in, says Paul, and the result is that we now have a chance to put some roots down ourselves. It s not that we have searched and searched for God and finally achieved our goal. It s the other way around. God has searched for us, and found us! And so we are able to set roots down in this love that wilt not let us go. Our lives can be rooted and grounded in the very love that set the world spinning, that reaches out in love to every family under heaven. We need no longer wander aimlessly, searching for something to give our lives meaning and purpose. Instead, we can give thanks to God 1 In Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B, Volume 3, Pentecost and Season after Pentecost (Proper 3-16) edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (WJKP, 2009), p. 280.
2 that we are rooted, well-established in the soil of God s everlasting love and faithfulness. And in that deep, rich soil of God s love we find the freedom to grow and thrive as God has created us to be. To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul, Simone Weil once wrote. Uprootedness is by far the most dangerous malady to which human societies are exposed, for it is a self-propagating one. Those who are truly uprooted, she says, either fall into a spiritual lethargy resembling death, or they set out, often by violent means, to uproot those not yet uprooted. To be rooted to have a strong and dependable system that provides nourishment, to be grounded, sure of who you are and what your life is about: this is indeed one of the most important needs of the human soul. 2 To be sure of who you are and what your life is about. Those are fundamental issues of human identity and purpose. Who are we? Why are we here? Our Reformed tradition has wrestled with those questions, you know. I think of the first question of two of the different catechisms used in our Presbyterian Church, particularly with children. The first is from our relatively new children s catechism, and its first question asks simply, Who are you? The answer? I am a child of God. The other question goes back a little ways, to England in the 17 th Century. The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks Why are we here? What is our purpose? What is our chief end? it asks. And the answer is that Our chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy God forever. Children of God, whose common calling is joy in God s service. That s who we are. And that s who others are, as well. And that s the news that gives shape to our common life as the church seeks to be a community of love, God s love giving shape to our own, shaped by the One who dwells among us. And we work at it, so that every last one of us will know this love that wilt not let us go. For that to happen, we all have to be involved. I think of the ways that you are at work to give shape to this love that has brought us together. I can t tell you how many times I ve gone to visit someone who s been in the hospital who tells me, I ve received so many cards; or so many people have called to check on me, and to tell me that they ve been praying for me. Rooted and grounded in love, they are God s love, at work through you. I think of the church nursery. When we recognized our confirmands and our high school seniors back in May, I heard more than one of you say I can t believe that she is graduating; or There is no way that she s old enough to be a member of the church! I kept that child in the nursery! We ve baptized several children lately, and they need to get to know you! They need to know not only that their parents love them, but that you love them. One of our friends in South Carolina noted once that if a child in the church knows that one adult loves them, then they know the love of that one person. But if that same child knows that three, or four, or five adults (or more!) love them, then they come to know in a profound way that God loves them. And that sense of God s love will saturate their lives. It s the same with our youth who have been at Montreat youth conferences this week. Imagine over 1,000 high school students drawn together in Anderson Auditorium to hear the news that God loves them, and has a purpose for them as they are called to 2 As recounted by Cynthia M. Campbell in a sermon preached at Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, IL, July 27, 2003.
service in a world on fire. Or over 600 middle school students hearing the news that by the loving purpose of God their seemingly-ordinary lives are made extraordinary, and that they are able to do extraordinary things for sake of love. Rooted and grounded in love, they are. And I hope you ll come tonight to hear their tales, and to continue surrounding them with love and encouragement so that they might be reminded again and again of who they most truly are. It happens outside of the church, too. Think of the family who will be moving into the house we ll be building this fall through our Habitat for Humanity Unity Build. Think of their experience of setting down roots in that new home, a home built in love, for sake of love. Think of families who are at their wits end, who come in desperation to Crisis Control Ministry for help. Some of you are there to greet them, to help them through a very difficult time, rooting and grounding them in love. Indeed, it will happen this afternoon as we join with our sisters and brothers in the Presbyterian Inter-Racial Dialogue to sing praise to God, and to share in a time of fellowship as we continue to extend the boundaries of God s love in our community. Folks, all of us need to be involved in this process of rooting and grounding. Christian nurture, Christian service this is serious business, and we need to take it, and one another, seriously. We can t just assume that these things will happen in our midst. We need to commit to that service, to that nurture, again and again and again, as we tend to the roots of who we are, as we ensure that all of God s children know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. We face a dizzying time of economic struggle and change that is more rapid than the world has ever known; in the fearsome face of these realities, we need to remind one another of this love that has claimed us, moved in and reshaped us. While it is full of joy and peace, being rooted and grounded in love is also serious business, and we need you to be a part of it. Every person needs to know that love, and it takes all of us to share it, and to embody it. Fred Craddock tells a story about the rooting and grounding that we experience in the church or at least that we ought to, but sometimes don t. He says, A few years ago in a church in Oklahoma where I was worshiping with my family, I had an afternoon engagement and had to leave quickly. I said goodbye to them after the benediction. In order to get to the parking lot quickly, I cut through the back, through the choir room. I said to one of the women in the choir as she was putting away her robe, I appreciated very much the anthem this morning. She said, I hope so, because that s it. I said, What do you mean? She said, That s it. I m hanging it up. She was putting away her robe. I said, Are you retiring? She d been in the choir 103 or 104 years; I thought she was retiring. She said, No, I m quitting. I said, You re quitting? She said I m quitting. Oh, you re not quitting. I m quitting. Well, why are you quitting? 3
4 She said, I sat up there in the choir loft this morning and looked around at the other choir members. I looked at the minister and looked at the worship leader. I looked at the ushers and just looked out over the congregation. I said finally to myself what has haunted me for years. I said, What s that? She said, Who cares? Well, I was in a hurry, I had to make a speech, so I said, Oh, you ll be all right. Take an aspirin, you ve got a headache, all right? I went back to the parking lot, but all the way to my engagement and all the way back I thought of that indictment. I was a member of that church at the time, and she was indicting me and all the members. In fact, if it were true, what she had said was This is not a church. If her opinion after longtime membership there, as an active participant in that church, was that the sum gesture of that church was a shrug of the shoulders, then it was not a church. When I got home that afternoon, I called her. I said, I want to talk to you. She said, If you want to. I said, I want to. I went over there; we talked, and brusquely we disagreed. I finally asked her, Well, what would we have to do to show that we cared? And this was her definition: She said, Take me seriously. That was a strange way to put it, especially for her. She was a kind of comic..., always playing practical jokes...she would go early and put some big cartoon on the pulpit so that when the minister came out in all his sobriety, he d look down and be blown out of the water. She was that kind of person, so I said, You can t be serious! Take you seriously? What are you talking about? You re always joking, laughing. And she said, You bought all that? I thought it was rather transparent, myself. I like to be taken seriously. When I left that lady s house, I said to her You re wrong, you re wrong. She said, I m not. I said, I get to travel to churches all over the country, and everywhere I go there are people who care for each other. They take care of each other. She said, Where? I said, Everywhere I go, there are people who care. She said, Really? Yes. She said, Name some. She wants names. May I use your name? May I give her your name? 3 To Craddock s inquiry I would add: the patient in the hospital who needs company; the child in the nursery in need of loving arms; the middle schooler in need of guidance and encouragement; the family at Crisis Control ministry in need of listening and support; May we give them your name? 3 In Craddock Stories, ed. by Mike Graves and Richard F. Ward. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2001, pp. 58-60.
Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. 5