Confronted By Love

"Confronted by Love"

To begin today's message, we first need to remember very important parts of our denominational baptismal services. In the UCC service of baptism, either the parents and sponsors answer for their children, or if the ones being baptized are of age to answer for themselves to these questions:

1. Do you desire to have your child, or do you desire to be, baptized?
2. Will you encourage this child to renounce the powers of evil and to receive the freedom of new life in Christ?
3. Will you teach this child that they may be led to profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?
4. Do you promise by the grace of God to be Christ’s disciples, to follow in the way of our Savior, to resist oppression and evil, to show love and justice, and to witness to the work and word of Jesus Christ as best as you are able?
5. Do you promise, according to the grace given to you, to grow with this child in the Christian faith, to help this child to be a faithful member of the church of Jesus Christ, by celebrating Christ’s presence, by furthering Christ’s mission in all the world, and by offering the nurture of the Christian church so that they may affirm their baptism?

 
Then comes the Congregational Assent, where the pastor asks: Jesus Christ calls us to make disciples of all nations and to offer them the gift of grace in baptism.  Do you, who witness and celebrate this sacrament, promise your love, support, and care to those about to be baptized, as they live and grow in Christ?
And the People respond: We promise our love, support, and care.
 
Now hear how similar the words are in the UMC Baptismal Service:
 

1. On behalf of the whole Church, I ask you (to those who can answer for themselves): Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?
2. Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?
3. Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?
4. Will you nurture these children (to those who are baptizing infants) in Christ's holy Church, that by your teaching and example they may be guided to accept God's grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly, and to lead a Christian life?
5. According to the grace given to you (to those being baptized), will you remain faithful members of Christ's holy Church and serve as Christ's representatives in the world?
6. Will you (to the sponsors) who sponsor these candidates support and encourage them in their Christian life?
7. The pastor addresses the congregation, and the congregation responds: Do you, as Christ's body, the Church, reaffirm both your rejection of sin and your commitment to Christ?
8. Will you nurture one another in the Christian faith and life and include these persons now before you in your care?

 
This ends with a Congregational statement where everyone says: With God's help we will proclaim the good news and live according to the example of Christ. We will surround these persons with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their trust of God, and be found faithful in their service to others. We will pray for them, that they may be true disciples
who walk in the way that leads to life.
 
 
You might be asking yourself why I am spending so much time today going through the baptismal liturgies of our denominations. And the answer has to do with our sermon title today, “Confronted by Love.” In both these liturgies, which mirror each other pretty closely, there is a call to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves and to live in a community that is one of love and forgiveness.

In our denominations, we only have two sacraments and I think it is purposeful that we celebrate one today and remember the other, because every time we are welcomed to the table of sacrifice and eat of the bread and drink of the cup and are reminded of just what Jesus went through to bring us from death to life, we should also be reminded of the other sacrament of Baptism that unites us in one faith and one love that we are called to confront our world with; we are called to resist the temptations of power and greed and evil that would rather divide us and teach us false gods to worship. We are called to confront the powers, be they what they are, wherever they are, because we are freed through the sacrifice of Jesus and united in the baptism of Jesus, to live lives just as Jesus. Which means, we are called to love as Jesus loved and go as Jesus went.

See, in our Gospel message today, this is exactly what Jesus is doing. He is confronting the town he grew up in, the people he has known his whole life, the tribe(s) where he would be best known, he is confronting them with love to tell them that the ways they are living is not the ways they should be living and that the scroll of Isaiah, from which Jesus read, and we heard from last week, which preaches sight to the blind and relief for the poor and love for all God’s children; is not happening in the world and Jesus has come to change that. In response, the people ask questions that doubt Jesus could be the Messiah and ask him to do miracles like they had heard of in Capernaum. To which Jesus replies that the ancient Israelites also called out for miracles, but because they did not listen to the prophet Isaish when he came to tell them the very same message Jesus is now offering, that when the prophet Elijah came to save the widow, it was not the Israelite widow, but a foreigner in Sidon.

Furthermore, Jesus says that even though there were many lepers in Israel, because they would not listen and did not obey God, when Elisha came to cleanse the lepers, it was not in Israel where he went, but to a foreigner in Syria. Jesus is confronting the very people who should know him best, the very people who should know that this boy who was raised in their midst was one who was called to be the light and love of the world and would come to preach the message that He was the Messiah and fulfill the prophets and the law through the love of God in and through him. But when he calls them to action and to work for the love of God in the world, their reaction is to be filled with rage and to carry him out side of town and attempt to throw him off a cliff to kill him!

Confronted with Love, confronted with the message of Christ, confronted with the call to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, the people who should have loved Jesus and known him best, attempt to kill him because his ways are not what they expect, want, or believe. And although we know that Jesus does not die in this moment, we do know where his ministry leads and to what we are baptized into, and what we remember and partake in today at the table.

So, confronted by Love do we answer the call the very same way? Do we crucify or attempt to kill the message that Christ came to share with our world because it does not match up with our worldview, society, beliefs, or man-made gods and idols that have al our attention? And I get it, maybe we are confused because we do not know how we can confront our world with love or fulfill our baptismal vows to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves. If only we have a way of knowing what way is the “right” way of confronting our world with love! Well, I have great news for you, Paul gave us just such a test for us to ask ourselves every time we speak, act, choose, or have to decide…If we do not have love, we have nothing. Hear again Paul’s list for us:
 

1. I may be able to speak any and every language of our world, but without love my words are just noise.
2. I may be able to tell the future, predict God’s will, or answer with all wisdom the mysteries of out world, but without love I am nothing.
3. I can have a faith that is so strong that it will move a mountain, but without love, I am able to move nothing.
4. I can be the nicest person in the world and give everything I possess to the poor, neglect my comforts for the benefit of others, yet without love these are empty actions void of meaning.
5. I can fast or diet or be physically fit, but if I do not have love, I am nothing.

 
And just in case we need reinforcement in our efforts, Paul gives us a checklist to define what love is, so that we cannot try to get out of doing what we are called to do by hanging our actions up on semantics:
 

1. Love is patient
2. Love is kind.
3. Love does not envy
4. Love does not boast
5. Love it is not proud.
6. Love does not dishonor others
7. Love is not self-seeking
8. Love is not easily angered,
9. Love keeps no record of wrongs.
10. Love does not delight in evil.

 
And now, let us move to a positive list:

1. Love rejoices with the truth.
2. Love always protects,
3. Love always trusts
4. Love always hopes
5. Love always perseveres.
6. Love never fails.

 
Because people the things of this world shall cease; like prophecies, language, knowledge, but God’s love will never end. And just in case we try to get out of Christ’s call by saying that we cannot be expected to do all of this, that we are just children, God reminds us through the Jeremiah prophecy and call narrative that we are no longer children because we are called by GOD!!! And what was incomplete before has now been made complete through our baptism through this table and through our acceptance of the Holy Spirit into our lives to place upon us and confront us with the call to love! Amen? Amen!
So nothing else should get in our way and everything we are called to through our Baptism to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves is met in the three things that remain; faith, hope and love. And without me having to say it, you all know what the greatest of these three is…LOVE!

Confronted by Love

Hmmm, can you feel the Holy Spirit here, now? Can you feel God’s love pouring over us? Maybe you are resisting though, because being confronted by this call to love can also not just be confronting, but convicting. It can make us reflect on all the ways we have not done what we know we should have; it can make us look at our lives and recognize all the times we met the call to love with the breath of hate. It can make us recall all those moments when we had a chance to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they presented themselves and to be a person who based their life on love and instead fell prey to the very forces we were called to confront. Or maybe we are conflicted because we do not feel like we have the energy, stamina, power, abilities, or wherewithal to be the love and light to our world even though we want to with all our heart.

That is why the Holy Spirit is with us right now! Because we can do anything by the grace of God. We can do anything by the love of God! We can fulfill our call and vows we have made in only the way we can because God has called us in our own special ways. As long as what we are doing answers the test of love, the Holy Spirit will be with us no matter what. And what you can do and I can do and whomever can do are all different things; remember, every part matters! This is why, when we take those baptismal vows, when we unite at the table of Christ, we are not doing so in a vacuum, we are not doing so alone; we are joining a multitude that knows that this world needs us to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, and does so by the help of God. In fact, remember the answers we say in those vows we take all are with God’s help, by God’s grace, as best I can according to God, with the help of the Holy Spirit, and so on. We are not alone so long as we do everything with love.

Confronted by Love, how will we answer? Are we going to be the people who take Jesus once more to the cliff and try to throw him off because what he says does not agree with our world? Are you going to take me to the cliff and throw me off because I am preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ who called us to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves by loving all God’s children in our world? Are we going to meet the call to make love the test by which we make every action, every voice, every part of our lives align with excuses, negligence, false narratives, and false idols? Or are we going to be confronted by love and accept it as our call to remember, our call to resist, our call to go and be love ourselves to our world?

Confronted by Love can we indeed live into those baptismal vows, live into the call of Christ, live as we have been given life by the grace of God? Let us show our world, from every little corner to the universe itself, that when we resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves by confronting them with the love of Christ, that our actions are not empty or our speech hypocritical; but rather, we persevere, we hope, we never fail, because we love, Amen!