Ascending, Expanding Love
“Ascending, Expanding Love”
Acts 16:9-15 John 14:23-29
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C, May 26, 2019
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Sandpoint, Idaho
Put your money where your mouth is! Have you heard that saying? Put your money where your mouth is; this phrase attempts to reveal what’s really the operating values at work in a situation. Someone can say, for example, they value the food bank and helping people who are hungry. But if their checkbook doesn’t prove their point, then not only does their sentiment not carry any weight, but it opens the question of “What, then, is receiving their money?” The beneficiary of funding is a more accurate reflection of reality in terms of assigning value. Putting money where their mouth is becomes a good indicator of what’s really important for people.
30 billion dollars. Billion, with a B. 30 billion dollars per year would end hunger on earth. This is from a 2008 report by the United Nations. Don’t look to the Peace Corp to help with this staggering amount, because their budget has been cut by the highest amount in 40 years. The annual budget for the United States Peace Corp is now 398 million. Million, with an M. The Peace Corp just can’t afford 30 Billion per year to end hunger.
If you look at military spending, that’s a different story. Globally, roughly 2 trillion dollars is spent each year on militarism, with about half of that from the United States. A mere 1.5 % of this spending could cover the bill and end starvation on the planet. Of the 1 trillion dollars in United States military spending through a variety of agencies, 3 % would end starvation on earth. Three percent of our annual spending. (https://worldbeyondwar.org/explained/).
Which gets us back to the Peace Corps. The 398 million dollar budget of the Peace Corp as a percentage of military spending is .0398 %. Not even half of one percent.
Put your money where your mouth is and be honest about true ideals. Values, the things we hold dear, can be explored not only by following the money, but in how people choose to invest their lives.
Many people give of themselves in service to the country. Memorial Day is an invitation to sharpen our focus. As we honor people who have died in military service this Memorial Day Weekend, lets remember that America has fought many wars since it’s founding, and we’re currently in ongoing war with no end in sight. Between 1775 and 1991, almost 42 million Americans served in the military during wartime. This doesn’t include current wars. Until 1991, the total number of battle deaths, military personnel killed in battle, was 651,031. In addition, disease and other causes killed another 539,000. Not everyone was killed; some were wounded and lived to tell about it: 1.4 million. Right now there are almost 17 million living veterans in our nation. Happy Memorial Day, as we remember almost 1.2 million American military deaths from war. And that’s just the American side; this does not including military from other countries, and it doesn’t count civilian deaths. Those figures would bump the number exponentially. WWI alone had over 40 million deaths. (https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/fs_americas_wars.pdf )
In John’s reading this morning, Jesus shares what his life is based on, what he’s calling us to base our lives on. Jesus puts into words what’s at the heart of his actions, of God’s desire and intention. Jesus says,
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.”
In Acts, the Apostle Paul takes action. He has a vision during the night, a vision from God that changes his life and redirects his path. He goes from Troas, which is today on the western coast of Turkey, and travels to today’s Greece, the region called Macedonia, to Philippi, which was a Roman colony. It took three days of constant travel to get there. It was on the Sabbath Paul and his group of companions go outside the gate, by the river, as they think it is a place of prayer. They sit down and speak with the women who are there, and one of them is named in this passage, Lydia. As a dealer in purple cloth, Lydia is a woman with financial resources, and she “opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.” Lydia and her household are baptized and she talks Paul’s group into staying at her house.
These two passages have very active dynamics. There’s an edginess to the underlying current, like Jesus and the disciples on the verge of his arrest, like they’ve found a temporary safe haven in this house, and like Paul, on the Sabbath, speaking with women, Gentiles, outside the gate, and later staying at the home of Lydia. There’s also interplay between big and small, with large, sweeping images like “the world” and “the Father” and “the Holy Spirit.” We see Paul has a vision from God in the night, and vast distances are crossed as a result. There are also smaller details that hone us in on specifics, like being by the side of the river just outside the gate on a Sabbath day. It’s from this marginal place that God is speaking to Lydia’s heart, but she’s already a worshiper of God; God is already at work in her life as her heart opens even more.
Jesus also talks about heart, saying,
“Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
“Do not let” means we’re invited to action and activity, and this does not promise to be easy. Christian life is not a spectator sport, nor a passive event or identity. Our hearts will be troubled, we will have fear. But we’re called to “not let” these define our reality, “not let” fear or troubled hearts have the last word. Our experience of living in Christ is an invitation to another dynamic shown in these passages: relationship.
Paul and the women are sitting down and speaking with each other. The women are Gentiles, non-Jews, but they worship God. Paul speaks “to the women who had gathered there.” This is an image of neighborhood, of community, of relationship in action as people come together, share with one another, learn perspectives and gain encouragement. Going it alone is not part of this equation. Both of these passages show groups interacting.
Last Thursday, on the day I typically try to write my sermon, I actually had a meeting in Spokane, so I couldn’t write my sermon that day, and yet, because I had that meeting, I now have something to share. The Presbytery of the Inland Northwest has organized a missional church movement and hired Katie Stark as a missional expeditor. She’s the person who hosts a Pastor Cohort group about six times a year. Last Thursday, I went to this meeting as we met at the Spokane Women’s Club on the south hill, then had brunch at a local food vendor’s trailer set up in the neighborhood just up the street (the owner of which is a Presbyterian), and then we visited a woman who runs a house church every week from her family’s living room.
The theme of the day explored a model of ministry involving the neighborhood as the parish, the local community as the immediate district for being church. Relationship is nurtured as these Christian leaders share their lives with the people who live in the same neighborhood as they live. That specific home church meets weekly, on Saturday mornings, and has a community garden space, and hosts annual events open to everyone in the neighborhood. Nothing fancy, it’s just her living room, just a couple of raised beds along the boulevard for planting veggies, and just beer and brats in October. But in creating space, in claiming the sacred among us, through relationship, God is at work building connections, putting love into action. The fancy church word for this is “incarnational ministry,” as spiritual realities are embodied in day to day living.
The reading from Acts is from a larger mission story and Paul’s journeys take him many places and he meets lots of people. The reading from John is one part of a larger narrative called “the Farewell Discourse” in which Jesus gathers with the disciples, washes their feet, shares a meal, prays with them and, on the verge of his death, teaches them that “God’s love will remain present in the world and the community’s life will be shaped by that love.” (NRSV, The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, Abingdon Press, footnotes, NT pg. 1934).
One of the things mentioned by our House Church host during the Pastor meeting was that many of the people who connect with that new worshiping community would never set foot in a church. Some of them have had very bad experiences in congregations and they feel burned. She pointed out the model that most churches are based on: a central building that people drive to from all directions. People leave their immediate neighborhood, travel to a church for worship, then go back home where they may not even know their neighbors, let alone see them very often. This model of neighborhood parish starts with the people who live right around you, to meet them and talk with them and listen about the ways God is at work in their lives. They may or may not use traditional, churchy language to describe this. But as relationship forms, as community is strengthened, people open their hearts to one another and love grows as life is shared.
As we pause on a special weekend that recognizes the fragility of life, and the importance to actively choose to guard and nurture our hearts, may we take courage as life’s resiliency and the deep peace of Christ carry us in ways that the world just can’t offer. May we, like Paul, be responsive as God shares visions, even in ways that may surprise us. May God continue to speak to our hearts. May we take courage to respond to God’s vision of love and community by shaping our actions and responses in ways that bring healing and hope. In humility, may we explore and critique the many ways we invest our lives to show an authentic witness of trust in the greatness of God, putting our money where our mouth is. For the gift of peace beyond understanding is rooted in the dynamic promise of love in Christ. May our love for God through Christ continue to grow, so we experience unity as Jesus says, “we will come to them and make our home with them.” As we open our hearts to the teachings of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, and God’s peace is given, may God all-vulnerable be humble, NOW, even as forever. Amen.