Song of Songs 2.8-13; Psalm 45.1-2,6-9; James 1.17-27; Mark 7.1-8,14-15,21-23
I'm going to challenge us this
morning to think - just think, no conversation please - think of everything
that's wrong with this church.
*pause*
Got a list in your mind? Good.
Now, I'd like you think - again, no
conversation please - of everything that you love about this church.
*pause*
Okay? Got that list too? Excellent.
So with your two silent lists, I'm
going to invite you to start dividing these into 2 columns: those things that
are spiritual, and those that are earthly.
Ah. Now that's a harder exercise,
isn't it? Because now we're looking at both the intention and the outcome of
those things.
And now for the next difficult reflection.
With our four groupings now: spiritual wrongs, earthly wrongs, spiritual love,
earthly love: what list is the longest? And is that the list that you *want* to
be the longest?
Now, if your list of spiritual loves
is huge, and earthly loves is a little smaller, and the wrongs are negligible:
great.
But I'm going to guess that many, if
not all, of us have some of those things in the "earthly wrong" list
that still kinda niggle at us.
So here's the most difficult
question of the day. What are you going to do about that? How will you take
action in such a way that the 'wrong'ness of that thing can shift over into the
love side of things? What will you do so that someone else can only ever
experience that thing as an aspect of spiritual love that's here in earthly
form.
Here's what you're NOT going to do
about those wrong things, though.
Complain. Or blame.
Even though that is the easiest way
we respond to what we don't like, the fastest reaction, and sometimes the best
way we feel better about ourselves. As Christians, we just don't do that.
Instead, we take action. Lovingly,
without grandstanding, in humble service. We do all that we can to love one
another, to focus on the spiritual rather than the earthly.
That's what God wants us to do. That
may mean giving up our bulletins if we have so many worshippers that we run
out. It's inviting a newcomer to coffee hour, to sit WITH us, even if that
disrupts "our table" downstairs. It's encouraging someone to join us
at bible study so we can learn together form the scriptures. It's offering to
accompany someone in prayer as the journey through a difficult time.
It's - well, it's many things. We
could do another list in our minds, if we wanted.
And actually, that's not a bad idea.
Because that's the list that we can use to discern how God is calling us to
love.
So let's think about that: how is
God inviting you into humble, loving service, in and through the church?
*pause*
Because that is the message of the
scriptures today. To act in love, in humble service to our God.
The Song of Songs speaks of love,
both literal and allegorical: between two people, between human and the
landscape, between human and divine, between earthly and holy. Arise, my love,
come away from the earthly. Arise, my love, come be enveloped by my love.
The psalmist echoes this
love-in-action with the heart being stirred up, as though in a marriage, where
righteousness (or right action) and justice are celebrated as coming from God
as a gift and as a privilege to share and extend with the world.
James is almost poetic in how he
details how we should not judge others but reflect our own ministries: being
quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. That our best way to be doers
who act is to keep God pure and undefiled in our heart and love-based actions;
to care for the vulnerable and to keep ourselves unstained by the world -
focused on God.
And Jesus himself is quite clear on
this, in the Gospel. Love God, even when it's inconvenient to your current
practice. The Pharisees think they're above judgement as they are doing
everything the way they have always done
it - but they don't realise that in doing so, they are actually putting up
barriers for people to know God, to worship God, to serve God. They actually
think that keeping people out of the worshipping community will please God. Can
you imagine if someone stood at the doors here and told people NOT to come in?
I doubt God would be pleased. And it's not about the dirt on their hands - the
dirt that God made, after all. Yes, clean hands are a good hygienic idea, but
they are not indicators of a clean and God-loving heart. Hence why Jesus
encourages them to love instead.
It's why Jesus continues to
encourage us - all of us, every day, to love. Love instead of anger, love
instead of division, love instead of indifference. Love- as God's commandment.
So how is God
calling you into loving service today? Let's make that list, and start doing
it.
Let us pray. Holy
God; help us to know and love you in all we do.
Help us to move
past our earthly moments of complaint into moments of service.
Help us to not say
"I would have done it better" but "how can I help you?"
Help us to not seek to
embarrass or shame someone, but to empower and support them.
Help us to not be
focused on the earthly faults, but on the spiritual potential.
Help us to abandon
human expectations and embrace your Holy commandments.
Help us to find
ways to see with love, to act with kindness, and to commit our lives to love.
Amen.
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