Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 21, 2023 “No Ordinary Love” John 17: 1-5, 11 – Common English Bible When Jesus finished saying these things, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. 2 You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. 3 This is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent. 4 I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I shared with you before the world was created. 11 I’m no longer in the world, but they are in the world, even as I’m coming to you. Holy Father, watch over them in your name, the name you gave me, that they will be one just as we are one. (NRSV – That they may all be one) When the United Church of Christ was formed 66 years ago, it was with the express purpose in today’s text: That They May All Be One. That was our motto. Officially, it might still be, but if I asked you what our motto is, what would you say? Probably, “God is Still Speaking.” Or you might quote, “Don’t place a period where God has placed a comma,” which is actually Gracie Allen and not scripture. “That they may all be one” was part an ecumenical zeal at the turn of the 20th century that talked of denominationalism as a “sin.” Into that spirit, our history began with the Congregational Churches and the Christian Churches uniting in 1931. And in 1934, two German immigrant denominations in our family tree came together to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church, which we call the E and R. There other denominations reuniting. For example, pro-slavery Methodists broke off and created the Methodist Church South in 1845. Northern and southern Methodists were reunited in 1939; however, only if all African Americans were segregated into a separate conference. That changed in 1968, but just four years later, a new division began when a rule was adopted in their Book of Discipline stating that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Sadly, after 50 years of fighting over that line, the church has started splitting again, often in the same lines as slavery. In the past year, 3,000, mostly southern, churches have broken away, with more to come before the end of the year. Most of them joining a new anti-LGBTQ denomination. Presbyterians split over slavery too. Their reunion came in 1983. It was supposed to happen in 1954, but after the Supreme Court decision about school desegregation, southern Presbyterians pulled back. But since 1983, new divisions have formed, largely over LGBTQ inclusion. Today there are multiple Presbyterian denominations. Baptists also split in 1845 over slavery. The north and south have not reunited. And Southern Baptists are dealing with another issue dividing them – women pastors. Except they are not splitting. They’re simply expelling churches who advocate for women, ensuring that Southern Baptist pulpits will forever remain closed to women. The denominations that formed the UCC were almost exclusively northern and so there was no big split over slavery. In fact, Congregationalists were often at the forefront of abolition. Much of the uniting was reuniting or bringing together churches with a shared ethnic heritage, a shared theology or creed, or a shared way of being church, such as their autonomy. The United Church of Canada was one of the first in the world to bring together Christians across theological and significant organizational differences, uniting Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians in 1925 – the first was in The Philippines in 1901. Attempts to do something on the same scale in the US failed to go anywhere, although there were plenty of conversations and proposals. That’s around the time our UCC forebears began conversations about a larger union or merger that could result in upwards of 8,000 churches. But it wouldn’t be easy. Why? Congregationalists are fiercely dedicated to each church’s autonomy but the E&R operated more like a group with some hierarchy. The practices and theologies of the two were quite diverse. Would they be coerced into some kind of conformity for the sake of unity? Despite these questions, Jesus had prayed to his Father: That they may all be one. And that was the driving force. It appeared to be working. In the late 1940s, with the horrors of a divided world in World War II very much in mind, a union of these very different traditions was successfully moving forward. But there was some significant opposition among Congregationalists. And then in 1949, some members of Cadman Memorial Church in New York City filed a lawsuit alleging that the “merger” would violate local autonomy. The New York Supreme Court upheld the case and stopped any activity for four years until it was overturned by the Court of Appeals. Work resumed and the UCC was finally born in 1957. That they may all be one! Except for the 1,000 Congregational churches that started a new denomination instead. It seems that every merger of two churches creates a new total of three. Would Jesus weep over the inability of his disciples to become one church? Or was that his prayer? What did Jesus really mean when he prayed, “that they may all be one?” John emphasized over and over the unity of Father and Son. Like the circular logic of the Gospel of John, Father and Son are circular, one flowing into the other and back again. I believe that the followers of Jesus are to be a mirror of God and Jesus as one. But all being “one” does not mean that all must be the “same.” Jesus and God are not the same. We agreed about this at Lunch and Lectionary on Thursday, although one person commented, if we’re not all called to be the same, couldn’t we at least all go in the same direction? I agree. Unless I disagreed with the direction chosen! When “let’s all get along” means leaving some people out, then I dissent. Many UCCs begin worship with the same line: No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here. That’s the “same direction” I’d like to go. The inclusion of all people of every race, color, nationality, ability, gender and identity, orientation, language… An equal place at the table for people of all faiths or none. A celebration of diversity. Healing from our very real divisions over slavery in our past that are still very much present today. Ironically, other Christians are fighting against that very “same direction.” What did Jesus mean? Eugene Peterson translates “that they may all be one” in this way: “so they can be one heart and mind, as we are one heart and mind.” But, we are very much not. Yet, if not of one heart and mind, isn’t it possible we could at least find one purpose? In 1987, diverse constituencies of the UCC created a Statement of Mission. It’s what we used to open the service today. They met to try to find some common theological ground – evangelicals and liberals, social justice types and charismatics, folks from our theological diversities that include LGBTQ people and others who claimed what they called a “biblical witness.” The Statement articulates a lot of purposes, but, I wonder, is there something behind them that might help us all be one? So, I went back to the Gospel of John to ask, “what would make us all one?” Here’s an idea. Jesus said, “This is eternal life: to know you, the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.” What if our one purpose, our one prayer to God, was to “know you?” The caveat, however, there’s always a caveat, is the language, “the one and only true God.” To respect all religions and make peace in the world is to take that phrase out of our vocabulary. We could say, our one and only true God. But if our purpose was to know God, would, or could, everything else flow from that? However, we don’t all come to know or experience God in the same way.
What is the one purpose behind worship and praise and protest and prayer and community and solitude and music and study and children and the dying and communion and soup? What is our one purpose? At least for today, I want to suggest it is to know God and seek God all our days. Because if you know God, you know love. And if you know love, if you know that you are loved and that our calling is to love, you know God. You see that very circular logic of John’s gospel? It’s confounding. Or is it really just that simple? If who we are as the United Church of Christ and as Mission Hills UCC is to know God in all we do, shall we then all be one? I believe the answer is yes.
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Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 14, 2023 “No Ordinary Love” John 14: 15-21 – Common English Bible “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion,[a] who will be with you forever. 17 This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you. 18 “I won’t leave you as orphans. I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” Some people find it easy to say “I love you” and some people find it very hard. My mom was the latter. I knew she loved me but much more because of her actions than her words. I have no doubt. I felt loved, cared for. She prayed for me, she sacrificed for me, but the words didn’t come easily. They were more like the last few words as the car door shuts before driving away for another six months – almost like, I should say that. She wasn’t a big hugger either. My mom loved me – even though it wasn’t easy for her to say it. The question came up on Thursday, did Jesus ever say “I love you?” Not really. Love was a frequent topic, but like my mother, Jesus showed it more directly than he spoke it directly. He got close. In the next chapter, chapter 15, verse 9, he said: “As the Father loved me, I too have loved you. Remain in my love.” “I too have loved you” doesn’t quite qualify as “I love you,” but it’s consistent with John’s circular logic. In John, Jesus doesn’t tell the kinds of stories and parables we are more accustomed to in the other gospels. Instead, it’s such circular speech as, “Because God loves me, I love you too.” But, wait. What if God didn’t love him, would he also likewise not love his disciples? It sounds conditional. Except. Except that “God loves” or “God is love” is not a question. God is love – period. Unless, of course, you do not believe that God is literally love. And I would understand. We weren’t all raised with a theology of God’s love but rather an angry punishing God whose love was very much conditional on your behavior. Just like many of us were raised by parents whose love was very much conditional and could be revoked. As I implied earlier in my prayer, nothing about motherhood is simple, surely not as simple as saying, “I love you.” Love is not primarily an emotion that rises out of our chest, a tear from the eye, a feeling, an attachment. Love is an action. A series of actions that are consistent. A series of actions that are consistent because they are not about how you feel about it but because they are based on something else. For example, the commandments of Jesus, “If you love me.” On the one hand, that sounds very much like conditional love. I will only love you if you do what I say. But that’s not what Jesus has been saying. He has been talking a lot about a “way.” A way of life. And not just talking about it, but showing us a way of life that is based on loving one another. Whether or not we feel like loving. Something we can keep doing, day in and day out, because the commandments are the path. They are the way to love. We’ve all heard it before. Jesus said all the law and prophets are summed up into two commandments: To love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And to love your neighbor as yourself. Every neighbor as confounding and difficult as they may be. And to love ourselves, as doubtful as we may be that we are worthy of love. But again, it’s not the emotion of love – heart pounding, sweaty palms, face turning red. It’s not the words “I love you” or the lack of them that matter the most. It’s the consistent actions of love. But Jesus knows that’s not easy, so he promises to send another in his absence. In these chapters, Jesus has been preparing his disciples for his death, which, in fact, will happen the very next day. How will they keep following in his way when he isn’t there to show them? So, Jesus promises to send a “paraclete.” Paraclete is a Greek word that doesn’t have a precise translation into English. Various translations include comforter. Counselor. Encourager. Helper. The Common English Bible uses the word Companion. Literally though, a paraclete is “one who comes alongside you.” I agree with the scholars who translate the word as Advocate: one who pleads your case, who understands, takes your side, who intercedes for you, and who stands up for you.[1] It kind of reminds me of the work of Just in Time for Foster Youth. After a life of being shuffled from home to another with your belongings in garbage bags, or as Tasha spoke of last week, spending her childhood in one home with adults who kept trying to demoralize her and minimize her and even stole from her, Just in Time comes alongside and helps build a life with educational supports, mental health counseling, help to find a first home, and people to just love you unconditionally. I’ve rarely seen an organization quite as focused on its mission as closely to this biblical word paraclete. In fact, Jesus immediately follows these words with, “I will not leave you as orphans.” Like, I will not leave you alone as an 18-year-old who has “graduated” from the system to figure it out on your own. I will send you an advocate. Did my father love me? Yes, of course, though as a child I didn’t quite see it that way. After church most weeks, we had roast for dinner. Not the food my mother put in the oven as we drove off for Sunday School, but roast preacher. My dad would find something about which to comment, or rather criticize, except on those Sundays when the preacher and his wife were actually guests for dinner. Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise when I became the flavor of roast on Sundays, mostly having to do with my playing the piano or organ. Or on the way home from a school concert. I was certain to get a lecture on what I had done wrong and how I could have improved it. My mother was the paraclete. She would stand up for me. She would intercede as both advocate and comforter. I assume my father thought criticism was loving. Increasingly it became “Don’t get a big head.” I can’t tell you how many times I heard “don’t get a big head.” Which, not until adulthood, did I realize meant he couldn’t find something to criticize – not that I was perfect, but I was certainly getting better. Nearer the end of his life, however, he switched gears completely. I don’t know what happened, but he couldn’t stop telling me how proud he was. Often with tears. I would respond, I know, I know. But he was determined that no matter how often he must say it, I would know his last words for me were of his pride. We all have our own stories like this – painful and joyful. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Love in practice is so often conditional. But let’s be clear: he didn’t say “If you keep my commandments, then I will love you.” Instead, he was describing a way of life. A path. Follow my teachings. But even better, follow my example, like this one: “There is no greater love than to lay one’s life down for a friend.” Jesus not only said it, he did it. As he told his disciples, the world doesn’t understand this, they don’t see this. In a world where every man is supposed to be out for himself, no matter how often he lies, cheats, or steals to get ahead – that’s no ordinary love. Jesus had compassion on the crowds, so he told the disciples, “You feed them.” In a world that sends people off with thoughts and prayers – that’s no ordinary love. When he saw a group of men ganging up on a woman, ready to stone her, enforcing laws on her they didn’t apply to themselves, Jesus stepped in and said, let the one without sin cast the first stone. In our world out for blood – that’s no ordinary love. Jesus had mercy upon those who begged for healing, Jesus affirmed them by saying your faith has made you well. In a world where people with no shoes are told to pull up your own bootstraps – that’s no ordinary love. Jesus told stories about leaving the 99 behind to go find the just the one. In a world where the odd-one-out is thrown out for being different, Jesus has no ordinary love. Did he say I love you? Which is more important: To say “I love you” or consistently do the Jesus kind of unconditional, transformational, healing, feeding, lay-down-your-life sacrificial love? If you love me. [1] David Lose, Working Preacher Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 7, 2023 “The Way of Jesus is the Way of Love” John 14: 1-7 – Common English Bible “Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. 2 My Father’s house has room to spare. If that weren’t the case, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? 3 When I go to prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me so that where I am you will be too. 4 You know the way to the place I’m going.” 5 Thomas asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you have really known me, you will also know the Father. From now on you know him and have seen him.” For You may be familiar with these words: In my Father’s house, there are many rooms,[1] or In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places, or In my Father’s house, there is plenty of room, or if you grew up on the King James, In my Father’s house there are many mansions. How many of you have been at a memorial service that included talk of pearly gates and golden streets leading each of us to our own mansion in the sky? I don’t know about individual mansions but it certainly speaks of a vision of God that is expansive. Jesus spoke these words to his disciples on the night before his crucifixion. They are the beginning of what are known as Jesus’ Farewell Discourses – unique only to John’s gospel – a series of teachings stretching from chapter 14 to 17. He is preparing them for his death, he’s reassuring them of his continued presence, he’s promising them the comfort of the Holy Spirit, he’s encouraging them to live in unity, and especially, Jesus is exhorting them to love. They’ll know you are my disciples by your love. The passage begins, “Do not be troubled.” These are words of encouragement to “trust in God. Trust also in me. My Father’s house has room to spare. I’m going to prepare a place for you and I will return to take you with me. [But don’t worry.] You know the way to the place I’m going.” Thomas asked, “Lord, how can we know the way?” Great question, right? But imagine, if the disciples who have spent a year learning from Jesus, maybe 3; if they don’t yet know the way, what chance do we have? So, Jesus responded, “Hey dummies…” Well, probably not, but if this were Mark’s gospel, Jesus might have said, “How can you still be so clueless?” After all this time together, how can you not understand that I’m the way. Oh, but if only Jesus would have stopped there. Instead, he continued with, dare I say, one of the most misused verses in the Bible – “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Misused but not necessarily mistranslated. Of 62 English translations of that verse, 36 of them say, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” 13 translations say, “No one comes to the Father, but by me.” Some of the others say, “The only way to the Father is through me.” They’re all pretty clear that Jesus is the “only” way. But, although this may be the answer, what is the question? This may be what it says, but what is it saying? What is the question? Thomas asked Jesus, “How can we know the way?” Thomas didn’t ask, “What happens to people if they don’t believe in you?” He didn’t ask, “Are non-Christians going to hell?” Of course, at the time, there were no “Christians” so everyone was a “non-Christian.” But let’s be clear: Jesus wasn’t setting up criteria to keep certain people out. You know, up in heaven, Peter and Paul had a dilemma. Peter was in charge of checking people in at the gate. Paul was in charge of keeping track of people. But Paul kept finding more people than Peter had been admitting at the gate. This discrepancy greatly annoyed both of them. They couldn’t figure it out. Then one day, Paul came running to Peter and said, “I found out what’s been happening! It’s Jesus. He keeps sneaking people in!”[2] After all, Jesus has just talked about the expansive “many” rooms. Plenty of room. Room to spare. He may have said, “The only way to the Father is through me,” but by it, he wasn’t also saying, “and keep everyone else out.” In Peter and Paul’s heavenly scenario, Jesus had to find a way to get around the misuse of his words. The question Thomas asked was, “How can we know the way?” Jim Burklo answered by saying, before doing anything else, “we must fall in love.”[3] It is not to first adopt the right set of beliefs and recite the words of a creed. It has nothing to do with believing “about” Jesus. It is to be moved by his example of love. It is to hear his words and marvel, to fall in love with, the possibility of a world transformed by love. Jim described being 16 years old on a backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada mountains with his youth group. We got to the top of Kearsarge Pass, with its spectacular view of alpine lakes and peaks. As we rested, our leader read aloud from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. There, at 11,760 feet, Jesus’ words came alive when he heard, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” He said, “My chest exploded with radiating warmth. I was overwhelmed by the love that Jesus preached and practiced. I realized how hard it would be to love my enemies, but the voice of Jesus, calling across the centuries, vibrated within me. When we put on our backpacks and resumed our hike, I took my first step on the trail and began my commitment to walk with Jesus, one foot in front of the other, on his path ever since.” What is falling in love? It is aching for our divided world so much that we commit to loving our neighbor. And when we feel anxiety about our place in this world so much so that we don’t know our own worth, falling in love is hearing Jesus say to not just love God and our neighbor but to love ourselves too. To fall in love is to set aside judgment of both others and ourselves despite our many faults and failures – and theirs. Please know that what others say about you, especially what Christians say, if it is not about love, it is not the way of Jesus because no one shall come to the Father except through love. The way of Jesus is the way of love. No one shall come to the Father except through love. We might think this is a call to action to extend more kindness and compassion in the world – and yes, it is. Except that it’s more than acting with kindness and compassion. How can we know the way? Jesus has been showing his disciples a path that if we love Jesus, that love will transform us from the inside out and allow us to do more than we ever imagined ourselves. I don’t know what to do with the people whose toxic and hateful rhetoric causes such terrible agony to so many people, especially transgender people right in this moment, that they think the only solution is to kill themselves to escape the pain. How can I possibly love those who think that being the most cruel is a winning strategy? I know that on my own I can’t love some people. But on the Jesus path, I trust that with God’s help, I can. And as often as I fail at it, I can fall in love all over again. Not to find a new lover but to return here every week to hear the vision of God of an expansive life where there is room for everyone. Or go into a closet in our room where we can close the door and listen only to the voice of Jesus who invites us to follow the way, the truth, and the life. The way of love, the truth of love, and the life of love. The way of Jesus is not to disparage one another but to love. It is not endless hopelessness or cynicism but love. The truth of Jesus is that despair isn’t the way to a transformed life. Love is. Not some cheap sentimental wish but the hard work of justice. A Jesus-centered life is to know that returning hate with hate gets us nowhere because the way of Jesus, the way to God, is through love. Only love. Because in my Father’s house, there are many rooms, many dwelling places, many mansions – plenty of room. Room enough for us all. If this wasn’t so, it wouldn’t be of Jesus, because the way of Jesus is the way of nothing except love. [1] I’m using “Father” instead of a more inclusive “God” because Jesus is talking about his intimate relationship. “God’s House” doesn’t communicate in the same way, I believe. [2] Story frequently told by Peggy Campolo, referenced in Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said?” by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo [3] Jim Burklo, Tenderly Calling: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus, St. Johann Press, 2021. Jim is a UCC pastor and a Dean at USC |
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