Easter 6b Passing on the Fire, InReach Sunday May 17, 2009 by Howard Anderson Ringing across history are these statements that must have rocked the world in their day. The God who had been seen as law giver, judge and ruler, was now, The God of Love. God IS love! The theologian Marcus Borg, who grew up very near where Linda and I grew up, speaks of how the medium can cloud the message. The stern, pietistic Norweigen Lutheran pastor of his childhood church would say GOT IS LUV! It would be easy to miss the true meaning and message of this statement. And that is why we are to pass on God s love in words AND deed! No wiggle room here. This is called The Love Commandment. As The Holy One has loved me, I have loved you. And it doesn t stop there. We are to share that inexhaustible love with the world. In the Hawaiian language there is no general word for teacher. Rather, there is a reciprocal concept: a o aku, a o mai. As best as it can be translated it means passing on the fire. God s love is like this fire. It demands to be passed on. The Greek concept of Agape was picked up by the early Christians who were struggling to create a language to express the way in which the fire of God s love warmed and held together their churches.. In the Greek common usage agape was used in reference to the love of parents for an only child. The Christians thought it was about as close as they could come to describing their core experience of God s love through the church community. It was inspired by God s love most fully expressed in Christ s sacrifice on the cross. In Paul s writings agape love was most often used without a direct object. It was something almost like a fragrance, something that permeated their communities. And, it was what attracted people to the early church in droves. The church grew like wildfire one scholar, Rodney Stark wrote in his book The Rise of Christianity, because the people saw how the Christians lived, loved and served, and they had never, ever seen anything like it. I think the term wildfire is apt, because as today s lessons make so abundantly clear, God s love is so powerful, that we cannot help but pass it on to others. Stark also points out that the early church did not spread, like wildfire, primarily because of great preaching, or praying, and not even because they reached out to others who were not even a part of the church, but because of the selfless way they took care of one another. Stark points out that the early church grew because of networks of social relationships. To support the point, I have read that Mormon missionaries have to call on 1,000 people to get one convert. But, they convert one of every two persons they meet through relatives and friends. Friends and relatives have EXPERIENCED God s love through us, not just heard sermons, sung hymns or read about it. All those things are laudable and important, but the church thrives when love is acted out. Loving relationships is what built the Christian church from a tiny sect to 2.3 billion members today. In the early church, the nurture and support that people of both genders, every class, race, free and slave received spoke much louder than any sermon. Like moths drawn to holy fire, people flocked to be a part of this wondrous thing, the church, in which person to person, the love of God was acted out and passed on.
I have only been here with you for 10 months. But it is clear that one of the things members of St. Matthew s knows how to do is care for one another. But don t take my word for it. Listen to Kimberly Bloom, who, on this InReach Sunday will share her story. Kimberly Bloom: I ve had the blessed, good fortune of being on the receiving end of Pastoral Care.not once, but twice. The first time was in 1996. I was new to St. Matthew s, and had just completed The Practice of Religion, now known as Engaging St. Matthew s. I d taken the class mostly to appease my husband, who wanted our son baptized Episcopalen, as he had been. Being the Mom I thought it best to check out this Episcopalean thing before agreeing to having our son baptized into the faith. You see, I was raised with no religion, so I was hesitant to label him and wary of joining a church. What was the point? I turned out OK, I m a good person. And besides, I m so busy! The last thing I need is another thing to do! Maybe I ll just come to church here I thought on Easter and Christmas. And then came the diagnosis. Advanced Hodgkins Lymphoma,. Stage 4. 26 infected lymph nodes in my chest and lungs, infected spleen, small spot on the spine. My son, Oliver was 14 months old and I was terrified. What happened in the weeks and months to follow, can only be described as God s work. The outpouring of unconditional love and support from this parish was unlike anything I d ever known., outside of my own family. At first I thought There must be some mistake. I m not a pledging member yet I hardly know you guys, in fact most of you I don t know at all! But none of that mattered.not to you or to former rector Deborah Dunn, whose image is as alive today in my mind as it was on that beautiful sunny afternoon on the meadow, as she walked towards me, arms outstretched,
and enveloped me in an embrace that still brings tears to my eyes. We ll get through this, she whispered. We re here for you. God is here for you. Fast forward to December 2004 and the second diagnosis. Breast Cancer. Stage 1. Early catch, no chemo, just a little surgery. Piece o cake! Then a little surgery turned into a lot of surgery and once again I was in need. Once again St. Matthew s and Pastoral Care were there.yvette Van Dalsem with a big pot of homemade potato/leek soup.elizabeth Alford doing my laundry & emptying the dishwasher.mike and Carol Lanning arriving at my door on a rainy, wet, miserable Sunday morning with Eucharist, prayers and worship.flowers at my doorstep from the Altar Guild..Betty Jo Tilley driving me to a post-surgical doctors appointment Ann Costin bringing fresh cut roses from her garden to my bedside in the hospital. Whenever I smell the sweet scent of a rose, I am reminded of Ann s love. That is Pastoral Care. That is what we do here we care for another, help one another, heal one another. It is that experience that inspired me to join Saint Matthew s fourteen years ago to be baptized on this very altar at the age of 36.and that which continues to call me into service. Not bad for a girl who slept in on Sunday mornings and was raised in The Church of Cartoons. As a member of Fellowship, whenever I see a new face at an event or Fellowship meeting, I wonder How might they be hurting? How might we be of help to them? My story wouldn t be complete without telling you that my parents have since joined a Church., where my mother attends a weekly Bible study and my father is in Outreach. None of this would have been possible without you. without the love and support that I received or that my parents witnessed
..not once, but twice. For that I am eternally grateful and I thank you. I was reading a piece by the writer Faye Moskowitz in which she was remembering the life threatening illness of her five year old son. She and her husband couldn t fix things. They couldn t make his pain stop, just as those of you who ministered to Kimberly could not make the cancer simply go away. And so what did the Moskowitz s do? They took turns holding their son in their arms, and let him feel the blaze of our love leap like silver lightening from our bodies to his. Passing on the fire of God s love. It may be the mission statement of the Church. This is what brought and kept Kimberly, and perhaps many of you, here-the silver lightening of God s love being passed on from one of us to the next. It could be Yvette s potato leak soup, Deborah s hug, Mike and Carol bringing communion and community, Elizabeth doing laundry or oh so many of you who bring food when there is need, or say Let s go for a walk and talk about it. Oh how very well we pass on the fire. The love expressed in the pastoral care ministries of this parish are like that silver lightening of which Faye Muscowitz wrote. It heals, warms, nourishes and encourages. These ministries of agape, of love, are what allowed the church to grow at its founding and are the glue that holds it together to this day. But on this InReach Sunday, I have to tell you that I tipped my cards in my very first sermon from this pulpit. I said that I was afraid for you-all of you, men, women and children. I am afraid that you (and I must say we) are all moving too fast. That first Sunday I told you that one of my favorite theologians, Lily Tomlin has said The trouble with this rat race of a life of ours is that even when you are winning, you are still a rat! And I reminded you that the two Chinese characters for busy, or busy-ness are heart and killing. I am even more afraid now that I am coming to know you better that we are all killing our hearts with being overly busy than I was when I came last August. Oh, don t get me wrong. We are mostly busy with good and important things. But I fear for us all if we do not slow down we will lose our ability to pass on the silver lightening of the God who is love. What is at stake in doing pastoral care and self care is our ability to follow Christ into the world and pass on the fire of that love which passes all understanding. Parker Palmer, the educator and theologian speaks of this in his book A Hidden Wholeness. The journey toward inner truth is too taxing to be made solo. Lacking support the solitary traveler soon becomes too weary or fearful and is likely to quit the road. The path is too deeply hidden to be traveled without company the destination is too daunting to be achieved alone-we need community. We are proud of the outreach we do here. We should be. But we cannot sustain this work alone. We need, as Parker Palmer says, companions along the way. A long term UC Berkeley study of those who are most active in social change and service to the poor who lasted decades in their activities without burning out, were those that were in relationship with a religious community which nurtured, loved and cared for them. Dear Ones, the only way we will sustain our outreach work long term, is if we allow ourselves to be
drawn more deeply into relationship with The Holy One, through the loving care of this community we call St. Matthew s. Remember, when the flight attendants instruct us about what to do if the oxygen masks drop down on loss of cabin pressure. Even traveling with children, we are told????? Yup. Put your own oxygen masks on first. The loving kindness and care we offer one another here, is what will determine how well we are able to serve the world in Christ s name. So let us slow down. Let us listen to the still small voice of God. Let us, as my spiritual director once said to me, learn to slow dance with God. If we do, our energy and power to serve others will multiply, and the work we do from this good place with move from strength to strength. Acts 11:19-30 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called "Christians." At that time prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world; and this took place during the reign of Claudius. The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea; this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. 1 John 4:7-21 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. The Gospel John 15:9-17 Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."