Proper 25-A
October 23, 2011
Formation Sunday
The Rev. Marguerite Alley
In the Episcopal Church every Sunday we participate in a liturgy designed to demonstrate for us the two most important concepts of our faith: Word and Sacrament. Each Sunday we gather to hear, to interpret and to meditate upon the history of our faith and the teachings of our “great high priest”, Jesus. In the sacrament of bread and wine we are reminded of God’s unconditional love for us. In the word and the interpretation of the word we are called to a closer relationship and deeper understanding of our connection with God.
Today in the Gospel lesson we are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. This is our primary purpose in life: To know God in our heart by prayer; in our souls through our deeds and in our minds through learning. In our Formation activities we teach that our purpose is to learn the mind of Christ, to offer the prayer of Christ, and to do the work of Christ. In this way, we love the Lord with our whole being. When we do this, we discover that love is verb. It requires action. To love is to leave ourselves open to doing the work of Christ in the world.
Being an active part of a community whose total purpose and focus is to do the work of Christ in the world, is what belonging to this church is about. I can’t say that for all churches. For some, going to church is about personal salvation. For others, it is about hearing a personal interpretation of scripture and being told how to behave and act as a result. But in this church, our primary goal and purpose for existence is to do the work of Christ in the world; to be the hands and feet of the Lord for those who are in need. Now you might think that if you are out there in the trenches day in and day out, fighting for the rights of the disenfranchised, or working for equality in the work place or teaching or whatever it is that you do, that you are exempt from being here on Sunday morning…or Thursday night or whenever. You might think that because you have no disposable income or because you are a single parent struggling to make it from month to month or because your family is pulled in 8 different directions at any one time or because you are retired and living on a fixed income that you are released from an obligation to participate either personally or financially. Maybe you are right. Or maybe you are thinking that we don’t need whatever it is you have that you CAN give. So I will just ask you one question. Do you love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, all your soul and all your mind?
Love has nothing to do with demands. Love is free. It cannot be bought; it cannot be sold. It can only be given. It does not expect anything in return. There are no strings attached. That's how God loves us and that how we are instructed to love. We are also told to love our neighbor. But in order to do this, we must know and understand how Christ loves us. Having a personal relationship with Jesus is how we know that we are loved. Now I know you have all heard that statement……. “have a personal relationship with Jesus”…..and we probably all have different responses. I am going to share my own with you, but you must keep it a secret. Please. No really. You can’t tell anyone I said this. I don’t really get what having a “personal relationship with Jesus” means. In any relationship that is healthy, we should find two things….we should find comfort and we should find challenge. We are offered strength and refuge when we need it, and we are pushed to be better when we need that as well. That is, I think, the mark of a good relationship. So how can you have a personal relationship with someone you have never met; someone with whom you can only have a one sided conversation? How do you get to know someone with whom you cannot communicate? Well, the only way that I have been able to figure out is to read and learn about Jesus’ teachings, to understand about the audience he was speaking to, know a little bit about the Mediterranean culture of the time and go from there to trying to translate that into my current life in this culture and time. And miraculously, by doing that, I do feel as though I have come to know Jesus in a deeper and more meaningful way. I may not personally describe it as a “personal relationship” with him, but I can easily say that I find comfort and challenge in his words and actions. So I could more comfortably say that I have a “healthy relationship with Jesus”.
As you know, we are in the midst of our Every Member Commitment Campaign at the moment and I would like to take a moment now to speak about that in connection to the Gospel today. If you don’t find comfort here in this place then we are not doing our jobs as fellow Christians. If you are not finding challenge here then we have missed the mark. But if you do find comfort here then you must also be here to comfort others. If you do find challenge here that calls you to be more Christ-like then you need to be here to share that as well. Nowhere does Jesus say “Come unto me all you are heavy laden and have some extra cash and I will give you rest”. Our theme in formation this fall has been a short scripture passage from the 12th chapter of Romans: “Do not be conformed to this world, only be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that the will of God might be discerned”. In our formation activities and in our sermons we have talked about transformation. I hope that that message has been clear. Loving God with all our heart and soul and mind is the goal and the purpose for everything we do when we call ourselves Christians. Learning how to do that is the goal and purpose of our formation program. Doing that to the best of our ability is the goal and purpose of our liturgy…..in Word and Sacrament. All that remains is for us to be the verb…..LOVE.
Lectionary: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Matthew 22:34-46
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