i was in a pulpit?

yesterday i preached my first sermon from a pulpit as a guest preacher as ocean ave. presbyterian church, MBCC's new roomies. not as scary as i thought it would be. and OAPC was fun.

lectionary texts i picked: matthew 22:34-40, 1 thessalonions 1:1-10.

so if you are curious.... here it is (well the typed manuscript version, which is mostly follow).

Who can forget one of the most humorous and painful to watch gaffes of the presidential election… when Senator John McCain was asked how many houses he owned. You know the reporter would not have asked the question if he didn’t already know the answer. That reporter knew that the Senator would look ridiculous if he knew and answered and correctly… and even more ridiculous if he didn’t know. He was trying to trick him, to trap him, to expose him in public. That was not unlike the situation Jesus found himself in the middle of in this passage. The religious think tank, the old boys club, saw their power threatened and wanted to expose him for the flake they thought he was.

And yet his answer is not one that is a big surprise.

It comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-6, which says:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.

The Pharisees were not uneducated. They knew exactly where in the Torah Jesus was pulling that commandment from. They could probably recite it as readily as he could. They may have even given the same answer to that question (and probably hoped he would not be able to answer to well and so quickly). He probably passed the test.

But Jesus didn’t stop there (did he ever?)…

When they asked for one commandment, he gave them two.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus always gives us more than we ask for and never the easy answer.

Do you think that is the answer they wanted to hear? Sure wasn’t the easy answer. If it were me, one of those commandments about the number of things to sacrifice, the measurements of the temple, the festivals to celebrate would be what I wanted to hear. Now those are some commandments I can jive with. Formulaic. Direct. Simple. God gave specific instructions and all I have to do to be a faithful person is follow them. All this love stuff—it is just straight up messy.

But … Jesus didn’t stop there. Do you think you could hear the groan from the crowd when he kept going?

On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets.

Loving God and loving my neighbor as myself… just that, sums up all these books in the beginning of the Bible? All that Old Testament stuff boils down to this? Really? Really.

Despite the concise and succinct nature of these two commandments—you can teach them to a five year old—they are anything but simple. You and I both know that the work of loving God with all you heart, soul, and strength is a life long process and challenge. The work of loving both your neighbor and yourself is equally as arduous. This ain’t easy stuff folks. The whole law and everything all the prophets ever said hangs on these two tasks. For thousands and thousands of years, millions and billions of people have tried to live up to these standards and in all that time, we are left with only one perfect example—Jesus, the one who handed these commandments to us as priorities in the first place.

It is exhausting to try to wrap my head around this—much less my heart or my life.

So let’s break it down a little. What can we, in this room, in this building, do about this commandment, as a community?

Y’all are at an interesting point in your history—as is Mission Bay Community Church, the faith community I am a part of. After decades of ministry in your own space, your own community, your own neighborhood, suddenly you are sharing all those things. After years of flitting and bouncing from one location to another, we have to look at a new space and try to commit to making it our home, maybe for the long term. We are moving in together. It is like siblings who always had their own rooms sleeping in bunk beds. Or a couple that lived in different states cramming into a studio apartment. This is a movement of magnitude.

But as communities, we have discerned that this is where God wants us to be. God called you to open your doors, and God called us through those doors. We have both discerned that this is the move we need to make to follow that first commandment Jesus gave us. But, as we are following that first commandment, we are in a unique place to follow that second commandment.

Which brings us to Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, the first reading for this morning.

First, a little context. All over the near Eastern world, parts of Asia and part of Europe, churches were springing up. What was once a movement where everyone knew each other could not longer be a tight knit community. By the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit Christ the movement had exploded as followers were carrying the love of God all over the world. Communities that were once closely related and bound together found their relationships loosening as more and more communities came into the fold. In this process, they also started to diversify and disagree. Followers traveled between communities encouraging each other and inspiring each other, and resolving disputes. But, as more and more Christ following communities were established, there were more and more communities that needed attention, and so letters became a tool for building up and inspiring each other as well. The distance did not diminish the relationship of love between Christ followers and their communities. This is one such letter.

All over the letter, Paul addresses the Thessalonians as beloved—and he does so authentically. Paul can be a little over he top… this love gets drippy and cheesy sometimes, but it deep and truthful love just the same.

Throughout this passage, Paul praises and praises and praises the work and faith of the Thessalonians. They are steadfast in their hope and labor in love. They imitate God, despite being persecuted, chased and harassed for it. The word of God speaks through their faith. Some of this that Paul is praising them for he heard of second hand, and the stories were so amazing, he needed to let them know what the impact of their work had been. He even says that they turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God. Given where they lived and the religious landscape of the time—when Caesars were God themselves and most folks had a cultic religion they followed—this is a big deal. Paul love, love, loves these folks. He is amazed by the work they are doing, wants to promote it, support it, and join in on the fun—whether in person or in spirit.

We are not unlike these communities. We are a part of the same fold, and now we share the same space, but we have different callings. The call of the Thessalonians was to serve their community. The call of Paul kept him from participating in that particular call but does not diminish the authenticity of that call and the vitality of that work. God’s call to the community of Ocean Ave. Presbyterian Church is not the same call as God’s calls to Mission Bay Community Church. God calls us to different work; but, God calls us to love each other’s communities as we love our own.

What does that look like? The first few verses of first Thessalonians flesh that out for us.

Paul tells the Thessalonians that they are always in his prayers. So, we, too, can remember each other in our prayers. Prayer is a powerful tool to build relationship with God, but it is also a powerful tool to build relationships with other. In prayer, we can listen and look of God moving in these relationships. In prayer, we can recognize the blessings of God around us. In prayer, we can learn to love each other. Prayer allows us to be thankful to God for the presence of the other community and the work they do.

Paul also notes that he sees God at work in the Thessalonian community and that even he, Paul, can learn from their ministry. And so, we can look at the ways that the word sounds forth from the other community. We can learn from each other’s joy and sorrow, each other’s faith and hope, each other’s service to the true and living God. The two communities that are now sharing this space occupy different places in God’s kingdom and serve God in different ways. When we recognize how the other community is faithful, our own faith grows. This is the first step to deeply loving each other. When we can see God working the Holy Spirit moving and Jesus blessing another community, we can love that community—as we love our own.

Just as the earliest Christians needed each other, we need each other. Mission Bay needs Ocean Ave. When we were without a home, you opened your doors. As we look to find roots as a faith community, as a young church, we can look to you to see how it has been done. As we begin, in the life of our church, to look outward more than inward, we can learn from all the ways that your community has served the Excelsior and continues to serve the Excelsior. I hope that we bring as much to this partnership as you do.

When the Pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, they got more then they asked for. There may be times that this move, this partnership, feels like more than we asked for, but who knows, when we truly and deeply love each other, we might find that all of our ministries grow as a result of this relationship that God called us into.