Living A Life of Love Part I

Romans 12:9-21 August 30, 2020 Year A 13th Sunday after Pentecost Living in Love Part I Prelude Welcome Opening Prayer Surprising God, you have an uncomfortable habit of showing up where we least expect you: in a burning bush, in the face of an enemy, in a livestock feed trough, on a rough wooden cross. Turn our lives upside down with your radical love. Help us fully embrace your surprises, even as we revel in the joy of being fully embraced by your all-encompassing grace and mercy. We pray in the name of your most amazing surprise of all: your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Stewardship Moment A Living Sacrifice There is, I think it is true to say, something a little bit depressing about Labor Day weekend. For Labor Day weekend signals the psychological end, at least, to summer with its periods of refreshment, and the start again, for many of us, of the more hectic rhythm of life and work at school, in college, at office or, in home. So let me ask you: How is your work? Are you giving of your self at work? Is work a place where you sacrifice for a cause? I find it helpful to remember the story of the little girl who, in the process of growing up, discovered that more than anything else she wanted to be able to mow the lawn. But each season she was told that she was too young. The great day came, however, when her parents decided that, at last, she was old enough to do the task. She did it with surprising skill and great delight, and having finished admiring her work, she began to cast long, envious glances across the fence at the neighbor's lawn, which also needed cutting. The neighbor, seeing her interest, said, "Sally, would you like to cut my lawn?" And the little girl enthusiastically said 'yes.' "Well, let's see...how about $3.00?" said the neighbor. The little girl's face fell, and she turned away, shaking her head. "What's the matter?" asked the neighbor. "I only have $2.00," said the little girl. Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com. Adapted from a sermon by Rev. C. Wayne Hilliker: "Living A Life That Matters" Offering Prayer (Matthew 16) Dear God, we offer you now these gifts. Take our money and use it to bring comfort to those in need. Take our service and use it to bring justice to those who are oppressed. Take our witness and use it to bring good news to those who hunger for hope. Take our lives and use them for our very salvation. We pray through Jesus Christ, the one whom we follow even to the cross. Amen. Scripture 9 Love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil, and hold on to what is good. 10 Love each other like the members of your family. Be the best at showing honor to each other. 11 Don’t hesitate to be enthusiastic—be on fire in the Spirit as you serve the Lord! 12 Be happy in your hope, stand your ground when you’re in trouble, and devote yourselves to prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of God’s people, and welcome strangers into your home. 14 Bless people who harass you—bless and don’t curse them. 15 Be happy with those who are happy, and cry with those who are crying. 16 Consider everyone as equal, and don’t think that you’re better than anyone else. Instead, associate with people who have no status. Don’t think that you’re so smart. 17 Don’t pay back anyone for their evil actions with evil actions, but show respect for what everyone else believes is good. 18 If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people. 19 Don’t try to get revenge for yourselves, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. It is written, Revenge belongs to me; I will pay it back, says the Lord.[a] 20 Instead, If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. By doing this, you will pile burning coals of fire upon his head.[b] 21 Don’t be defeated by evil, but defeat evil with good. Sermon Romans is an important book with a lot of important lessons on how we should live once we become a Christian. But a lot of times in reading it, it can easily become a bunch of words that are too much for us to take in all at once. So I want to reread our scripture in another version. The District Superintendent introduced a new version of the bible – word on the street. It puts scripture in a very plain language. I would never replace the traditional scripture – but I do think this version puts it into perspective for us. Love has to be the genuine article. Hate evil. Get a grip on what’s good and don’t let go. Love each other like the best of brothers. Rate other people higher than yourself. Don’t lose your attack. Go for it. Keep on going for it. Keep smiling when chewing over what’s ahead. Keep going when it all goes pear shaped. Keep hanging in there when you’re talking to God. Don’t get tight fisted with God’s people. Ring people up. Have people round. Take people out. If someone has a go at you, do them good. Always want the best for them. Even if they are out to get you. If someone got something to celebrate, be the life and soul of the party. If someone had someone die on them, be there with an arm and a fresh tissue. Get on with each other. Don’t get cocky. Mix more, especially with people you’d have through were below you (in your previous life). Don’t act like Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms know it all. You don’t have to fight back. If someone does you wrong, rise above it. You don’t have to give as good as you get. Do the right thing. If its down to you, keep the peace. Don’t take it into your own hands; leave it in God;s they are bigger. As he says in the Manual “It is my job to dole out punishment. Instead if your rival looks a bit puckish, buy her a sandwich If he’s spitting feathers, get him a drink. You might even shame him into shifting his attitude. Don’t get sucked under by his evil, but drag him back to the surface by doing him good. These are the ten rules to being a Christian. When we hear that we are supposed to show love as a rule. As a said it is often hard for us to make sense of these rules. But when we hear them we also think about the people we know outside of the church and realize that it is impossible to love some people. In the world that we live in, it is impossible to live out these ten rules. I remember, a friend in high school told me that we live in a dog eat dog world, and you might as well get used to it. You cannot afford to be nice to other people. And yet Jesus says that you do not have to get used to it, you can do something different. A pastor tells the story of how he learned that not only was the rule of love possible, but in many ways it was necessary. During a snow storm, there was so much snow in the driveway, the father had to ask for help in order to move all of the snow. It is strange that we don’t get snow like that anymore. But it had snowed so much that the kids could not even go to school. So as the dad and the helper were clearing off the driveway, the young man asked if they would pile the snow on the side so they could build a fort. The young man, his sister and a younger neighbor all set out to build this fort. As they were digging a trench – another young nieghbor asked what they were doing. The neighbor micheal was a young man who had been hit by a car the year earlier and it left him permanently disabled. But Micheal wanted to build a fort and to have a snowball fight with them. They reluctantly agreed. Afterall Michael was by himself, so they were sure it would not be a fair fight. Turns out, it wasn’t a fair fight. Michael stuffed all of his snow balls with ice, and he had a much stronger hand to throw them. First he attacked the sister, who was so overwhelmed, she screamed and went into the house. Michael kept throwing. He all but destroyed their snow fort. He was determined to keep throwing snowballs. The other team strategized an attack on Michael, and won. That only made Michael more determined to fight. Well into the next day Michael was still throwing snowballs. It got to the point the children could not come home with being ambushed in a snow ball fight. They finally got the message. This fight was not going to end by winning. Those ten rules for showing love were the only thing that was going to stop Michael. They called a truce and declared Michael the winner. They were nice as possible to Michael. The young man who wanted a fort went on to become a pastor. Michael – continued his reign of terror and found new victims. Michael grew up to get his first car, which he used to terrorize all of the stray dogs in the area. Let your love be genuine. Treat every person as a friend, always do what is right, help people who need help, pay attention to people’s feelings, laugh with them when theya re happy, comfort them when they are sad. Don’t think you are better than others, ask God to be good to people when they are mean to you, don’t try to get even – leave that to God, don’t give in to evil ideas. 10 rules for living a life of love. 3 rules of John Wesley John Wesley actually took Paul’s ten rules and turned them into three- Do no harm, do what is Good, Love God in all things. Repeat those with me – We will be studying more about those rules in the coming months- as we think about who God calls us to be as a church. Jesus makes it even more simple for us – God is love. If we are followers of God then we too show love in the way we live our life. All throughout the bible, scripture tells us not to seek vengeance, but to let God handle vengeance. The term heap burning coals on the heads of your enemies comes from Proverbs. Paul uses that phrase once again here. But it does not mean what we think. Heaping burning coal is not a punishment to hurt them – in biblical times everyone would have had a fire in their house to cook and to keep warm at night. Many times in the cold night, the fire would go out and they would not be able to eat in the morning. If your neighbor knocked on your door and asked for coal – you were to leave one for yourself and put all the rest in a container for them to carry home and relight a fire. So the bible tells us to give our enemies burning coal. Help them out, show then love, give them what they need. The only way to conquer an enemy is to make then a friend. Once they become a friend, perhaps they will think about their actions and change. If they don’t that is not you problem – that is between them and God. What we do know is that vengeance never ends the situation. I remember a United Methodist Pastor who would say that he did not have any enemies, but he had a lot of very confused friends. I try to remember that in life. Story of the holy Shadow You may not know it but the angelic council meets every Wednesday from 3-5. The angels are not allowed to make decisions for God – but they do get together every week to discuss our lives and to decide which one of us humans should get the reward for obeying God and doing the most good in the world. Last week they found the perfect candidate. They had decided on a reward – but God told them to make sure that they asked her first. An angel representative flew to her to tell her that she had been granted the gift if healing. She told the angel that she was flattered, but didn’t want the gift. This caused a special meeting on Thursday to decide what to do about this refusal. They decided to give her the gift of conversion, so that all whom she talked to would automatically join her church. She still refused. On Friday the angels were in a real flux – what divine gift could they give that she would accept – the finally decided that they would give her the gift of being a good person always. It was only after this third refusal that they remembered God’s advice to ask her what gift she wanted. (remember I told you this was an advisory committee – not capable of the deep thought that it required to instruct God). The asked her and she responded that she wanted the gift of doing good, but not knowing it. The angels talked about it and realized they would never have thought of that – but it was a fair gift and granted it. The woman walked along throughout her life – and wherever her shadow fell – people would just know they were touched by the grace of God. She is probably in this room right now. The world has been changed because of her – and yet no one ever knew her name – they only see her shadow or love and grace. One of the last of the ten rules is to pray. Pray for our world, pray for our situation, pray for our enemies. A young freshman girl at the University of Illinois wrote this definition of prayer a few years ago: To pray is to laugh, whistle, dance on happy feet. Sing, shout, jump higher then ever before. But it is also to whisper, wonder, stumble in dark places, cry, scream, or just hold a worried head in tired hands and wait. Prayer is the tired reaching out to the one who holds us closer. And loves us more then we would dare imagine. Sounds a lot like to ten rules. Let us pray now…. Prayer Prayer of Confession (Exodus 3, Romans 12, Matthew 16) God of Mystery, we are constantly amazed by the depth and breadth of your love. Over and over again, you turn our expectations inside out and upside down. And still we don’t understand the radical nature of your grace. We play by our own rules of justice, even when it means excluding those we are called to love and defend. In our darkest moments, we doubt if we are worthy of your trust. God, help us remember that you give us all the tools we need; that through the solid foundation of your love, we find the strength to follow your call as true disciples of Jesus Christ. Surprise us again, O God. Surprise us again. Words of Assurance (Exodus 3, Psalm 105) The God who brought our ancestors out of slavery will not desert us. God has promised to be with us throughout all generations. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice, for God is with us! Passing the Peace of Christ Rejoice, for you are standing on holy ground. Praise the Lord! Lord’s Prayer Moment of reflection Where He Leads Me UMH 338 Announcements Next week is the First week of September – we will have communion next week. If you would like to pick up the elements from the office during the week you can, or you can call to have them delivered to your door step. If you are not able to pick them up from church, you can use any drink or bread product. The health team will be meeting after church service to talk about what service will look like in the coming months. If you have any input you are free to attend the meeting with a mask, or you can email the office. Next week we will continue looking at Romans – the scripture will be Romans 13:8-14. The hymn for reflection will be Love Divine, All Love Excelling in the United Methodist Hymnal 384 if you want to look up the words at home. Benediction Benediction (Exodus 3) God promised to be with Moses, and we are here to witness to the fulfillment of that promise. From generation to generation, the God of Israel is also the God of (your community’s name). The God of the burning bush is waiting even now to encounter you, call you, challenge you, and change you. Go out to be sustained and surprised by the love of God. Amen. Postlude Children’s Sermon Objects: A cane, a straw hat (give the idea of a circus barker). [Start only when everyone is assembled. Put your straw hat on very carefully and then begin only after you have taken a very long look at the cane in your hand. Point with the cane and be sure to address the children.] "Step right up, step right up, and come on in. You are about to see the greatest show on earth. Here you will see the most beautiful women, the most dangerous animals, and the highest flying men in the entire world. Step right up, step right up and see a man put his head inside of a lion's mouth, a man leap from one hundred feet into a barrel of water, and one of the wildest horse races held anywhere right here under the Big Top. There are women with beards, men with muscles bigger than beach balls, and more clowns than it takes to fill a bright red caboose. Come on in, you hear me, come on in. For only a few cents you can see the biggest show on earth." How many of you have ever been to a circus? Wasn't it exciting? Did you hear a man like this outside the circus tent trying to get everyone to come in and see the show? Do you think this man likes the circus? Of course he does. He loves the circus. He is excited about the circus, and when you hear him talk, he makes you excited, too. His job is to excite you, and make you want to come in to see it. People call this man a circus barker. If he is good at his job, then many people will come to the circus and enjoy it also. St. Paul thought that every Christian should have that kind of enthusiasm about his religion. Being a Christian was and is the greatest privilege on earth, and Paul thought that everyone should have the chance to enjoy it as much as he did. He told Christians that they should act enthusiastic at all times so that people would want to know more and more about Jesus. I wish that boys and girls would be a little more like the circus barker when it comes to church. I wish that there were people telling other people to come on in and find out about the greatest thing that ever happened on earth. I wish that boys and girls would tell other boys and girls how Jesus was born and why he came to earth. I wish that boys and girls would tell everyone about how much God loves them and what he promises everyone with his very special heaven. Do you know why I wish that you would tell people these things with enthusiasm? [See if you can get some answers.] That's right, because when people hear you talking with excitement and real enthusiasm then they will want to know the Lord Jesus like you know him, and God will be pleased. Start today, tell everyone, "Come in and meet the Lord Jesus and you will be thrilled to know all about the love of God." CSS Publishing Company, PATCHED PEOPLE, by Wesley T. Runk Additional illustrations Deeds Inspired by Love Frederic Ozanam was a Frenchman whose life of only forty years ended in 1853. The France in which he lived remained torn as a result of the French Revolution in the late 1700s. The Roman Catholic Church had suffered the loss, not only of property and power, but of many lives, and its leadership had become reactionary. As a result, the Church, and even Christianity itself, was treated with distrust by the working class and with disdain by many intellectuals. Ozanam was in his late teens when he arrived at the University of Paris to study law. He was appalled to encounter there an atmosphere of bitter hostility to the Christian faith. With a number of his fellow students, he formed a study circle in order to present a positive intellectual witness to their faith. The group engaged in many debates and public controversies on behalf of Christianity. Then one day, a student threw at Ozanam this derisive challenge: "You Christians are fine at arguing, but what do you ever do?" It was in that moment that young Frederic Ozanam was struck by a basic insight: Christianity is not about ideas, but about deeds inspired by love. His fine arguments were useless unless they were validated by how he lived his life. He resolved to start a fellowship of Christian lay people who would immerse themselves in the world of the poor and perform acts of service at personal sacrifice. This fellowship became the St. Vincent de Paul Society. In making this commitment, Frederic Ozanam died to himself. He picked up his cross, and followed after Jesus. Charles Hoffacker, An Invitation to Die Rethinking the Formula In a chapter about rethinking discipleship James Emery White states: Some of you may remember comedian Yakov Smirnoff. He said when he first came to the United States from Russia; he wasn't prepared for the incredible variety of instant products available in American grocery stores. He says, "On my first shopping trip, I saw powdered milk--you just add water, and you get milk. Then I saw powdered orange juice--you just add water, and you get orange juice. And then I saw baby powder, and I thought to myself, what a country!" One of the most basic assumptions made about life change is that it happens instantly at salvation. According to this belief, when someone gives his or her life to Christ, there is an immediate, substantive, in-depth, miraculous change in habits, attitudes, and character. As a result disciples are born not made. The question for rethinking discipleship is this: Are these assumptions valid? If they are, then working this formula in the life of the church should consistently give the same result: a new community of people who are becoming increasingly like Jesus in their life and thought. If that is not the answer a church gets when it works the equation, then it needs to rethink whether the formula is sound. Unfortunately, many churches are not getting the correct answer. In fact, a Search Institute study has found that only 11 percent of churchgoing teenagers have a well-developed faith, rising to only 32 percent for churchgoing adults. Why? Because true life change only begins at salvation, takes more than just time, is about training not trying, and it is a team effort. James Enery White, Rethinking the Church, Baker, 1997, p. 55-57. Self Denial An Admirer once asked Leonard Bernstein, celebrated orchestra conductor, what was the hardest instrument to play. He replied without hesitation: "Second fiddle. I can always get plenty of first violinists, but to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm or second French horn or second flute, now that's a problem. And yet if no one plays second, we have no harmony." James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale, 1988, p. 450 The Sacrifice Play Sacrifice is not a word we use much these days, is it? When was the last time you used it or thought about it in terms of your own life? When was the last time you sacrificed anything for anybody? Come to think about it, there’s only one sport as far as I know where the term is actually used. Do you know which sport that is? You can almost hear Harry Cary announcing it over the radio, “And there it goes, a long fly ball to left; easy out, but the man on third tags up and trots home. Sacrifice fly.” What a great idea -- you’re out, but you helped someone else score a run. Baseball is one of the few sports where you lose but the team still gains. Comedian George Carlin spelled it out in his routine about the contrast between the hardness of football and the softness of baseball. He said: In football you Tackle! In baseball, you “catch flies…” In football you Punt! In baseball you “bunt…” Football is played on a Gridiron! Baseball is played on a “field…” In football you Score! In baseball you “go home…” In football you Kill! In baseball you “sacrifice…” Baseball may be the only sport where you actually can hear this word. It’s one of the few places anywhere that you hear it in a self-centered, take-care-of-yourself, don’t-worry-about-anybody-else society. In contrast to football, sacrifice may sound like a sign of weakness but I hardly think of any of the Atlanta Braves or Minnesota Twins as weak. Baseball’s one thing; life is quite another. Who sacrifices anything any more in a time like ours? Who really denies themselves and takes up crosses anymore? Actually sacrifice can lead to bitterness, especially when you thought you were trusting God’s plan for your life and suddenly you realize that you have to sacrifice all your greatest hopes and dreams as burnt offerings on the high altar of the providence of God. William J. Carl III, Church People Beware, CSS Publishing Company. The late Harry Emerson Fosdick told of visiting the magnificent chapel of the University of Chicago. A group of roughnecks was following him, taunting, and decided to go in with him. After a little while, they came out, subdued and quiet. Fosdick overheard one say, "Ain’t it strange? A place like that does something to you!" A church like that can do something to you, too - and to me - and to all of the world. It can change the world until it becomes the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. But it has to be a church transformed by the Word of God, the only form of church God wants for the future. Wouldn’t you like to be part of a church like that? A farmer who had never been to the city was chosen by his grange to represent them at a national convention, and thus he found himself in New York. After checking in at the hotel, he approached an elevator, something he had never seen. He watched as a very large woman walked into the elevator. The door closed, what appeared to be a single hand on a large clock made a revolution, and the door opened again, this time discharging an attractive, curvaceous young lady. The astonished farmer ran to the nearest phone, called his wife, and said: "Martha, pack your bag and get here as quick as you can! I found a place where you can get that form we’ve been wantin’ all these years!" Apparently, the farmer and his wife were both dissatisfied with her form and were hoping for a better form for her in the future. In this respect, they had much in common today with many Christians who recognize that if the church is going to survive the twentieth century, it must take on a new form. A recent Gallup Poll shows that 94% of all Americans believe in God, but only 44% have confidence in organized religion and 41% are deliberately unattached to any church. This means that 61 million Americans are not members of any church or religious body. Even those who are loyal to the established denominations are often unhappy. During a Convocation on Missional Priorities for the United Methodist Church in Lexington, I overheard one layman say to another, "If we Methodists don’t get something going soon, the Baptists are going to get another member: ME!" Surely a question with which any serious Christian must grapple during these last years of the twentieth century is, "What form of church does God want for the future?" This works beyond the family as well. Rather than being hard with people, Paul suggests giving others more than they deserve, even feeding your enemies when they are hungry and giving them a drink when they are thirsty. When these basic needs have been met, the generosity should continue. Paul suggests, in a wonderful burst of insight and humanity, that "by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." A desire for revenge is a part of most people, and it seems as if the best way to get revenge is to fight fire with fire. But Paul has a better way, a way that helps Christians to resist evil, to prevent being overwhelmed by evil, and finally to overcome the evil that tempts us, a way to hate evil and hold fast to what is good, as he commanded early on in his list. Paul suggests that we should overcome evil with good. It is not always the way we are familiar with, and it is certainly not the way most of the world seems to work. It is simply the way that Christians let the divine love of God show through them to the world. It is simply the way we live our lives as Christians. There are certain things a man has to do for himself. He has to blow his own nose, make his own love, and say his own prayers." Paul certainly shared this perspective when he urged his listeners to persevere in prayer. And so should we, as individual Christians who actually do persevere in prayer. John Wesley said that the most important description of God in the whole Bible is this three word statement: “God is love.” When a community lives out of that reality in all that it does, then there is an unbeatable “team spirit” that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. The theory Runicman offers is simple, but profound: “home advantage is a team phenomenon …Somehow playing at home breeds a sense of solidarity, or what used to be called team spirit, which means that players have more confidence in each other and work better as a unit.” Runciman conclude his critique by admitting, “I can’t prove my theory, but I can defend it. It chimes with what you can see happening in any team sport — the away players don’t quite believe in themselves in the way the home players do.” 10 rules of Romans
Our Romans scripture has been a perfect backdrop for my sermon – because Paul is trying to help us understand what it means to be obedient to God. To trust and obey in every action. Paul tells us to do things like treat everyone as a friend, help when help is needed, laugh when people are happy and cry with them when they are sad, do not give into evil ideas and love everyone ,even those we may consider to be enemies.


1 rule What is impossible for us alone is possible for God
In the meantime there is only 1 rule to remember – that what is impossible for us alone is always possible for God.

Remembering that it is not about us – but always about what God can do
That woman has a wonderful lesson for us – that God’s grace in the world is never about us, about what we can do, or even about the gifts that we have been given. God’s grace is always about God. The beauty of God, the everlasting presence of God, the love of God for all of God’s people. If we are willing to obey God – then God’s bush still burns brightly in the world. Burning us – yet never consuming us. We can experience those moments of sadness and joy, pain and happiness, those moments of life and death. And know that everything that we see and experience is a reflection of God.

The cross is the burning bush
The bush still burns for the world today in the form of the cross of Jesus. We are still standing on holy Ground – the ground of the church. God still calls each of us to take off our shoes and listen and obey. Amen. Ten rules for Christian life: love sincerely, be affectionate, be zealous about your faith, rejoice in hope, share with those on need, pray for and bless those who hurt you, live in harmony with one another, be fair, respond to your enemies with kindness.