2019-10-28
Brooke Strong
Scripture: Romans 12:1-8
A number of years ago, Mary’s parents lived next-door to neighbors who had a swimming pool. They graciously invited us to swim there whenever we wanted. One of the things I used to love to do in that pool was to hold my breath, dip below the water, and swim as far as I could without coming up to take a breath. Of course, when I did finally emerge from the water, I was gasping for air.
We at Federated have been immersed in a water theme for the last eight weeks. We’ve explored how water has shaped our faith, and how it invites us to jump in and to bask in it and to swim in the waters of Christian life. And today we conclude the series with an appropriate final invitation: “Breathe.” Come up from the water. Catch your breath. As lungs are filled, so also are hearts and souls. Grace embraces us. And we breathe. And we live.
Today, among other things, is Reformation Sunday. It’s the day that celebrates the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation, the day, on All Hallows Eve in 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door in Wittenberg, Germany, the day in which theological fireworks were set off, reminding us of the centrality of grace. There’s nothing we can earn. There’s nothing we need fear. Failure and guilt are whisked away. All is love. That’s the heart of the Reformation and it’s what we breathe today and always: God loves you and me just as we are.
And if that’s all there were to the Protestant Reformation, that alone would be pretty wonderful. Most weeks, and especially at the most challenging times in our lives, this is what we most need to hear—to be reminded of that all-embracing love. One way to put it is to say that we come to church, at least in part, with bibs on. We come to be fed, to be nourished, to be restored by the waters of grace. People go to the Jordan River and Lourdes and, in Hinduism, to the Ganges to touch or bathe in water that will bring them healing and hope. I imagine that many of us come here with some of that same hope, that the waters of faith will make us whole again. We come here with a bib on, certainly, to breathe, and to be nourished, in grace.
This is essentially the meaning of the first part of Federated’s theme for the year, “Gather in Spirit,” that you see on the banners in front of you. To gather in spirit is to come together knowing that the Holy Spirit holds us and inspires us and creates us anew. With bibs on, we are served by the Spirit who continues to give us life and breath and hope.
At the same time, of course, that’s only half of our year’s theme. We “Gather in Spirit,” and by the gift of that Spirit, we are enabled to “Serve in Love.” A friend and colleague of mine, Michael Piazza, tells the story of a pastor who is shaking hands with people after a worship service and meets some guests who are new to the church. They make small talk and the pastor learns that the couple are members of another church in town but are looking for other options because they “just aren’t being fed” at their current church. So the pastor says, “Sounds like it’s time for you to put on an apron instead of a bib, because, as the gospels remind us about Jesus, so it is true for all of us: we are here not to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). That may make the point a little bracingly, but it’s a point well worth heeding: while bibs are a crucial part of Christian attire, so also are aprons. Service is at the core of a Christian’s responsive breathing in of the Spirit’s gift of grace. Not just bibs but aprons, too, are to be daily apparel for followers of Jesus.
Sometime in the middle of the first century after Jesus, the apostle Paul writes a letter to some Christians in Rome whom he’s never met. He’s hoping to meet them soon, and he sends them a kind of cover letter introducing himself and setting out the core of Christian faith. For eleven chapters, he writes about the theological and spiritual center of faith, expounding essentially on the grace of God—or, in terms of our year’s theme, the gift of gathering in the Spirit. And then in the twelfth chapter, he shifts his tone markedly and comes to the great “therefore.” Since God has done all this amazing stuff, in other words, here’s what’s expected of us in a kind of grateful response.
So, given the wonder of the blessings that have engulfed us, Paul tells both the Romans and us that the hallmark of a faithful life is to serve in love. As is so often true, Eugene Peterson’s The Message expresses it so vividly: “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.” Because of what God has done for you, in other words, make every moment of your life a gift in return.
This is essentially the meaning of Commitment Sunday here at Federated. We are here to place our whole lives before God as an offering. In response to God’s incalculable grace, we are invited to be re-formed in the image of Christ and to make our whole life an offering to God.
And how, you might well be wondering, do we make our entire lives an offering to God? How do we live with the apron as our uniform? It has to do with how we’re oriented, doesn’t it. In Paul’s letter, he reminds the Romans “not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think” (12:3). It can be pretty tempting to think that life revolves around me, rather than us, so Paul reminds us to beware of our own egos. How about this for example?
[a cartoon of a minister who’s arrogantly asserting in worship that this is his best sermon ever, and that he’s “rocking” his vestments, https://www.google.com/searchrlz=1C1EJFC_enUS822US822&biw=1895&bih=888&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=UD2zXbX7Lsmc5gKlj6TYDw&q=cartoon+wow+that+was+my+greatest+sermon+ever+&oq=cartoon+wow+that+was+my+greatest+sermon+ever+&gs_l=img.3...52314.57737..59677...0.0..0.152.1048.2j7......0....1..gws-wiz-img.GvmSG1occjo&ved=0ahUKEwi14-bSg7jlAhVJjlkKHaUHCfsQ4dUDCAc&uact=5#imgrc=QkTUjp7ncoJ7rM:]
Right? It’s like the woman on the plane showing her seatmate picture after picture of her family. Finally she turns to him and says, “Well, enough about me. What do you think of my family?” How easy is it to commandeer a conversation and make it all about us? How thoughtlessly can we go on and on about our own lives, without paying the slightest bit of attention to the person to whom we’re talking? Maybe making our lives an offering to God means every once in a while, we stop and say to our partner, “Tell me, how are things with you?” Maybe it means thanking our spouse for preparing a great meal, or making the bed, or raking the leaves. Maybe it means wishing someone well.
Our son Taylor works near Chicago with a legendary college cross-country coach. Al Carius is fabled for lots of reasons, not the least of which is his athletic success. But Taylor says what makes him such a remarkable leader is the sensitivity and care he shows for each of his athletes. One day recently, as Taylor was walking down the hall past Al’s office, he overheard one side of an extremely brief phone conversation. Al calls someone and the person answers. Al says, “I need you to do me a really big favor.” “What’s that?” comes the question from the other end. “I need you to have a really great day,” says Al, and he hangs up. That’s the entire conversation.
The world isn’t all about Al. Despite what the culture may want us to believe, it isn’t about any single one of us. As Paul says in Romans, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God” (12:2, The Message). And, we might add, fix your attention on the world God has given us. The truth is that life at its richest is about so much more than any single one of us. First and foremost, it’s about being attuned to, and giving to, others who may need a word or a gesture or some resources from us.
I was struck to learn yesterday that Carlos Carrasco, who pitches for the Indians, won baseball’s Roberto Clemente award this year. The award is given to a player who demonstrates extraordinary sportsmanship and community service. Carrasco, as many of you will remember, was diagnosed earlier this year with a form of leukemia. Soon after he was diagnosed, he wondered, as many of us would, “Why me?” His wife Karry “snapped him out of his funk by telling him, ‘This is nothing to you. This is a new day.’” And he has subsequently carried on just that way. While for many athletes, life is reduced to making the big leagues, earning a good deal of money and winning a title, for Carrasco, his goals are significantly broader. Several years ago, his horizons expanded immensely when he took his young daughter to the hospital to visit children on a cancer floor. He realized then, as he watched his daughter coming home from that visit and cut her own hair so she could give it to some of the patients, how crucial it is to give back and to care. “In the offseason, he and Karry cook and distribute 500 lunches to . . . homeless [people] every other Sunday from their front porch in Tampa, Florida. When the Indians played the Twins in Puerto Rico last year, he brought boxes of T-shirts and baseball caps and handed them out in the stands . . .
“Last November he traveled to Africa and donated more than $70,000 to families in need while visiting several villages. He also distributed shoes, shirts and backpacks to children.” He gives especially generously to people in his native Nicaragua, giving large gifts of food, medicine and money to countless people.
And he still has a heart for children with cancer. He continues to visit the hospital to encourage them and give them hope, largely for them, but also, he says, because, “I love . . . to bring a smile to the kids. It [makes] me happy” (http://plaindealer.oh.newsmemory.com/?publink=0a0364dbd).
Giving is at the heart of a rich and fulfilling life. Which is why we do what we do today. Today, we make financial commitments to this remarkable church. Today, we say, “The meaning of life is about something much bigger than me. My life really only means something if I’m connected to God and to the wholeness of this world God has given us.” Today we say, “This church is a radiant manifestation of the wholeness that God both gives to us and asks of us, and I want to demonstrate my support by giving substantially to its work and witness.”
Here at Federated, we form children in such a way that they know themselves to be mirrors of the God who is, in Paul’s words, “good and acceptable and perfect” (12:2). Here at Federated, we sing of hope and pray for healing and open ourselves to be stretched by the God who invites us into lives of loving service. Here at Federated, we gather people in countless settings to be steeped in grace and formed in community and shaped by mutual appreciation and care. Here at Federated we encourage people to come with bibs of need so they might be fed, and to leave with aprons of service so they might re-shape the world. Today we make our pledges to a place and a people whose grace and mission are unique and life-giving and world-changing.
I’m going to invite you in just a moment to show your commitment to this marvelous church by coming forward down the center aisle to make your gifts and promises. As the Bell Choir plays, come to the water on the table at the head of the aisle. Touch your fingers to that healing restorative water, and remember the God who has given you life, the God who has washed you clean, the God who has given you a new beginning. Then move toward the side. Put your weekly offerings in the basket. And also put your pledges for the coming year in the basket as a sign of your commitment to God and of the apron you pledge to wear.
Many of you will remember that on Rally Day in September we collected water from around the country and from far parts of the world. It signifies grace and baptism and blessing. That water has been purified, and some of it is in this big bowl, and some of it has been put in little bottles for each household to take one. You might use the water in your bottle to bless your family or your home or your friends or yourself. Susi Kawolics has prepared a booklet of blessings you might pray as you sprinkle the water. So after you have left your offering and your pledge, pick up a bottle of water and a blessing booklet. And take them home with you and out into the world so that, having been blessed, you might also be a blessing. Receive the water as you wear your bib. And take it with you as you wear your apron to shower God’s blessing on those you meet. Come gratefully now, to receive and to serve.