What It Is To Be Loved, January 31, 2010

Jeremiah 1:1-10
I Corinthians 13
What if, everything we thought we knew, everything we have ever been taught, All was true, but had been intended for a slightly different, far more grand purpose? I was in a bookstore this week, and recalled that years ago the religion/spirituality section was confined to a small selection of Bibles, but now was three aisles long. As I went to check out, the store clerk took my credit card which said “REV” who then asked, “Why is it that there are so few books on Christianity that are selling and so many on Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and New Age Religions?”

My temptation was to shoot back, because stores must market those books better, or because Americans think we know what Christianity is all about and having a short attention span we are curious about obscure faiths we do not know about.
But instead, I decided to see where she was going, and asked “Why do you think?”
She replied, “In Sunday school and Confirmation Class the teachers taught us all this information, as if knowing the geography and names were a lesson like geometry or Spanish, some kind of system that if you could memorize or figure out, would give you life's answers. But these other books seem to be talking about faith, as if faith in God was a different way of life.” I thanked the clerk and left thinking: What if, faith in God were not about knowing who God is, knowing Paul's Damascus Road conversion, or that there were Twelve Sons of Jacob, Twelve Tribes of Israel and Twelve Disciples; but simply and sincerely, that we each were formed for a purpose, We have been Called by God to give ourselves to one another in love?

Now there is a frightening thought!
What matters is not what we know, not what we have possessed, or experienced or accomplished, but that we live out each day as a gift intentionally given to us to give to others.

Somehow we have made an equation between our lives and the game of Musical Chairs, that everyone is going around in a circle, and no matter how many or how few of us, there is always less than enough, so when the music stops and we know it will, we want to be certain we have a place to rest. We want to win every round and will fight to never be left out. What if, instead of pushing others off the chair to sit upon, we imagined life as a game of Hot Potato. We each want to receive the gift, we are starving to receive, but we know our role is to pass the gift to others. This week, we were blessed with being able to receive a gift of using someone's home on the beach in Florida. Part of the fun was lying on the beach, as people walked by complimenting one house after another, thinking to yourself I get to live in one of these. Imagine you have been invited to a glorious party, in one of the finest of homes, there is exquisite food, as you float from room to room there is awe-inspiring music, in one space to dance, in another to listen, and just as the party is to begin, the host sends word to you that they will be late, and you are to host until they arrive. This is life, we are temporary hosts making others feel welcome, sharing the gifts entrusted to our use.

This passage from Corinthians we have taken out of context and usurped as being guidance about marriage to a naïve virginal couple, as if a Best-man's answer to marriage before you encounter trouble. The words are among the most beautiful poetry ever penned, and fitting for us all to imagine in marriage, that more important than money, or children, more important than our hopes and dreams, is love. Important to remember in every marriage. But these words as prophecy, were spoken to the Church at Corinth, a cosmopolitan city, filled with learned people, Romans and Greeks Christians and Jews each of whom wanted to be right, each of whom wanted to be in charge and to have others listen because they had figured out the answers to all of life's questions. First Corinthians 13 is a rebuke to all those who imagine they know the mystery, to those who possess the word of truth. Instead of any one having the system and knowing the answer, the way of life is to love.

One of the questions I routinely ask couples wanting to get married is “How did you know you were ready to be married?” Which is a far different question from, How did you know this was the right person. Rather than the other person making you complete, it is a question about your maturity and your readiness to give to another.

Every pastor, every believer has a story of what it is to be Called.
For me the Call involved having had a mother who died and literally the church raised and nurtured us. Loving the integration of ideas I saw the church as a resource for the community. Growing in faith, I came to understand and appreciate the symbiotic relationship of Church and Community, challenging one another and representing the same people. Being in a time where churches struggle with survival, my continual calling has been to challenge the church to new resurrection and new life.

Over the years, I have worked with a number of churches, and the three questions that continually need to be asked by the Session and by the membership are
1)Is the church The Church, and
2)What are you prepared to give to others, and
3)What is your Calling?
Often Churches are prepared to describe being a Family, a GREAT GROUP of people, a Membership, doing wonderful charitable works...all of which are good, though I have known a number of dysfunctional families some of whom carry their problems to the church, but being the Church is also different. The Church follow the Way of Jesus Christ. The Church act, not only out of charity, but out of love, out of mission and purpose, as if God has us by the short hairs on the back of our neck and being dragged to the problems of life we can do no other, that our identity is in devotion to God and giving to one another.
DO we welcome strangers who come to us or do we invite others and share our faith? Do we allow others to rent our property/Do we perceive all that belongs to the church as gifts to be put to God's use? In that way, we have a responsibility to use the website, to share fellowship with those outside, to celebrate weddings and memorials and baptisms for those seeking to believe; and for us to struggle with the meaning of sacraments and acts of faith as sacred mysteries in our time. Are we willing to be inconvenienced, to risk the future on what we believe?
What we are Called to do, who we are Called to be, is an ever changing question as we follow the Way.

For the last decade, we were the church with BOCES Alternative School, and now we have given birth to that program. For the last five years, we have been the church creating a Clinic in Sudan, but now that Clinic is created. Since the 1970s we have been the church with Presbyterian Manor, and in recent years a supporter of the Ecumenical Food Pantry. With our architecture and music we are the Classical Church in town, recognizing that as a patron of the Arts, quality music and art and ideas never go out of style. We are also a church of those seeking faith in God. But the question we never fully answer, is what are we being called to be now?