Sermon for SMHP, Year C, Proper 17, Pentecost + Twelve,
Sept. 1, 2019
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Let mutual love continue. 2Do not neglect to show
hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels
without knowing it. 3Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison
with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being
tortured. 4Let marriage be held in honor
by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge
fornicators and adulterers. 5Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with
what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” 6So we can say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” 7Remember your leaders, those
who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life,
and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
15Through him, then, let us
continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that
confess his name. 16Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices
are pleasing to God.
In the late
eighties…before some of you were born…we progressive types were reeling. Eight years of Reagan followed by the election
of George HW Bush…and we were outraged!
Iran
Contra. The first Persian Gulf War. The oft-ignored AIDS Crisis.
We imagined
that it couldn’t possibly get any worse…
As often
happens in times like those, the bright lights to whom we looked were the folks
in the bright lights. Musicians. Actors.
People with a microphone and a conscience. There were the Live Aid and then Farm Aid concerts,
starting in 1985. The Farm Aid concerts
continue to this day, fortunately, raising money for struggling family
farms. Live Aid raised millions for
famine relief.
And in a
time when the president would not even say “AIDS,” celebrities like Elizabeth
Taylor and Elton John began calling attention to and raising money to fight the
disease that was devastating the gay community, and later much of sub-Saharan
Africa.
[Slide] The Irish rock band U-2 was often in the
forefront of the hopeful social activism of the era. Front man Bono started the global aid
concerts with Band Aid in 1984. By the
late eighties, Bono was speaking out on a variety of topics, especially those
rocking the continent of Africa. In
particular, Bono was outraged that leaders in the US were doing so
little to address the starvation and looming HIV/AIDS crisis there.
[Slide] In
the late eighties and early nineties, U-2 concerts sometimes started with Bono
attempting to call the White House to speak to the first president Bush. He never got through, but it gave everyone a
chance to be outraged together.
As Bono got
older and wiser, so did his activism. So
when George W. Bush became president eight years after his father, Bono chose
not to make staged phone calls, but instead to engage with the man himself.
There are
two different stories about who called whom, but we know what happened next. Bono went to the White House to speak to Bush
in 2002, and the next year, Bush launched PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief.
The two men
speak well about one another, and their friendship is a testimony to a
difficult truth: it’s sometimes easier
to be outraged than to make a difference. Because making a difference requires us to
see through our quick judgments about other people, and to recognize their
humanity, and their complexity. Only then can we do work together which arises
out of deep relationship. Work which
could be summed up in this way:
“Let mutual
love continue. 2Do not neglect to show
hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels
without knowing it. 3Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison
with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being
tortured.”
Those first
four words, in fact, could be a mantra for living in the world as a Christian,
which, by the way, is another thing I admire about Bono. He and his wife of 37 years, Ali Hewson—who
is an even more impressive activist than her husband, since he has to spend
some of his public time being a rock star—Bono and Ali are quick to acknowledge
that their social justice commitments arise out of their Christian faith. They are striving to follow Jesus,
and that means feeding the hungry, and healing the sick.
We live in
a time in which doesn’t seem to value the principles outlined by the author of
the letter to the Hebrews.
Hospitality
to strangers is not exactly trending.
[Slide]
What’s
trending?
Outrage.
We’re outraged! So very outraged.
And should we be? Of course.
Little kids are in cages! There’s
a lot of outrageous stuff happening!
And is our
outrage going to change any of it?
Maybe. Some.
I’d like to
think that their outrage changed some things.
[Slide—civil rights]
But outrage
alone isn’t going to do it, is it?
What else
do we need, Christians?
We need
LOVE! We need JESUS! We need to listen to the great wisdom that
closes out the book of Hebrews!
“Let mutual
love continue.” Say it with me: “Let mutual love continue.” Say it to your neighbors: “Let mutual love continue.”
Real change
arises out of relationship. [Show
next two slides, slow transition]
We gotta
love one another. Tell your neighbors,
“I love you.”
The world
does not change because we share pictures and pithy quotes [slide] and
outrage.
The world
changes because we remember that we were put here to love one another and “one
another” means everybody.
Prisoners, and people being tortured, and persons who are
undocumented. And people who don’t
necessarily believe all the same things we do…but who might just believe some
of them. [slide, slide]
Let mutual
love continue. Find someone who isn’t
just like you and love them. Love them
fiercely.
That’s
what’s going to change the world.
Love. And Jesus.
Jesus the
bold. Jesus the courageous. Jesus the lover of sinners and tax collectors
and centurions and betrayers.
Jesus who
is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Despite all
of our attempts to bend Jesus to fit our ideologies and pathologies, Jesus does
not change. That is the good news tucked
into the midst of all of this exhortation about love and solidarity. [Slide]
Jesus. Does.
Not. Change.
So if you
start hearing about a Jesus that sounds radically different from the one you
met in the gospels, just remember [point to slide].
Jesus. Does.
Not. Change.
And in the
end, despite our weakness, our penchant for outrage over relationship, and our
attempts to change him, Jesus will save us again. Will teach us to love one another, again. By reminding us that we are deeply
loved. Turn to your neighbor and say
“Jesus loves you.”
“And
there’s nothing you can do about it.”
That last
part is important. In a world of
fleeting loyalties, of winning and losing and whatever the nonsense in
Washington is…in the midst of that world, we need to be remembering that the
love of Jesus—the love he bestows upon us and the love that flows through us
because we are his disciples—that love also does not change.
No matter
who wins elections, the love of Jesus is the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. No matter what happens in your life, what
changes are rocking your world, you are loved by Jesus, and the love of Jesus
flows through you.
So be
outraged, when outrageous things are happening.
But ground your outrage in the love of Jesus.
Let mutual
love continue. And continue. And continue.
Let our
hearts be good soil.
Amen.
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