SunMay172009
You Don’t LOOK Like a Minister!
Scripture: John 15:9-17 (The Message)
9-10"I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done—kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.
11-15"I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father.
16"You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17"But remember the root command: Love one another.
The call came pretty late in the evening. It was a shrill interruption for a guy getting ready to go to sleep. This was during the years when all of my kids were still in school and at home with Kathy and me, so I did a quick inventory to figure out who might be calling to ask if they can stay out a ½ hour later. Everyone was home. I pulled myself from my toasty bed and answered.
The call was from a very distraught member of our church. A family member had been admitted to one of the big hospitals in downtown Cleveland in the Mental Health ward for some needed special care during a difficult time in their life. The hospital had called the family and said the person was very upset and would I be able to go and visit. They apologized for the lateness of the hour, but they could not control the outbursts. I told them I was happy to go immediately to the hospital to be with their loved one.
But this story is not about that visit. Instead, it is about the greeting I received upon attempting to be admitted to the Mental Care unit.
I presented myself at a window at the nursing station that reminded me of the visits I had made to penitentiaries and jails. The hall was dark and the entry looked very forbidding. I rang the bell and a nurse came to the window. She was not overly excited to see someone on the ward after visitor’s hours and her treatment of me had the air of one who is exhausted.
“Can I help you?” she asked?
“Yes,” I began, “The family of so-and-so called me and asked me to make an emergency visit to so-and-so. They received a call from the hospital that so-and-so was having some problems and wanted me to visit.”
“It is way past visiting hours,” she told me, pointing to the sign on the window.
“This would be a clergy visit.” I slid her my business card. She took it, looked up at me for a moment, and left me standing at the window without a word. I resisted getting annoyed. She looked tired and sometimes I get tired too, so I thought maybe that was why she was so abrupt.
She returned with another woman who was dressed in jeans, a casual shirt and a jacket. I was dressed about the same, in jeans, running shoes and a t-shirt.
“Sir,” she began, holding my business card in her hand, “It is way past visiting hours.”
I reminded her that clergy had extended privileges in visits when there was an emergency. I told her that the family had called me and wanted me to visit so-and-so and noted that this department had called the family looking for some help in settling so-and-so down.
She was pretty irritated and looked me over with something close to scorn.
“You don’t look like a minister.” She snidely remarked.
I resisted commenting that she didn’t look much like a nurse, but I decided that fighting was not going to get me in any quicker. Visiting the church friend was more important than getting into it with this woman. I told her that I had BEEN IN BED and just threw on some clothes to get to DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND from CHAGRIN FALLS in a HURRY because a church member who was in the hospital reportedly needed someone to talk to. In my head I said, “EXCUSE ME for not putting on my ARMANI so I could meet your approval in order to come and sit in a hospital room.
As she buzzed me through the high security doorways into the ward, I thought about her comment – “You don’t look like a minister.” In fact, I have thought about that comment many times over the past years. You don’t look like a minister.
The question – what does a minister look like?
Our weekly bulletin adds to this question further. Take a look at the opening masthead of our worship service bulletin. It reads: Ministers to the world – all the congregation; ministers to the congregation, all the church staff. I like this definition. It makes me feel like we are on the right track when we acknowledge that we are ALL to be ministers, treating and caring for others in the way that Jesus showed love and care to everyone he met. But at the core, what exactly is it saying?
What might that mean to be a minister? And what are the implications to all of you, who have studied and discussed for a year what it means to be part of the Federated Church? These are questions that will be part of your life from here on out, if you follow Jesus’ command to love one another as he loves us.
Jesus told his disciples that the love he showed to them was the same kind of love that God showed Jesus. Then he tells us to live in that kind of love. And what is God’s love like? Well, think of every good and pleasant and wholesome and nurturing and encouraging and positive love experience you have ever had, mix it with love that is fair and just and accepting and forgiving, and you get a touch of the kind of love God has for all humans. It is the love you hunger for when you are lonely or have been hurt by others. It is the love that you expect from your parents and friends, even if you find that sometimes they let you down. It is the love you dream about when you think about a boy or girlfriend. It is perfect love. That is the love that God had for Jesus and that Jesus has for us.
This business of love is a hard thing. I have a friend who recently told me that the trouble he has in his marriage is directly linked to the abuse he experienced as a kid. He finally figured it out that being an abused child, going through his parents’ terrible divorce, being raised by a mother who could never see anything beyond her own needs, and rarely allowed to visit the his father, who was emotionally uninterested in his children, did not prepare him well for his own marriage and relationships. Now, he is struggling to keep his family together and has finally figured out that his problem is that he has no idea what love is. He feels so alone. He believes that God is there, but somehow love seems alien to him. He recently said, “I don’t know how to love, what love is and how to give it to others.” I can’t think of a sadder statement and I hope you will join me in praying for this man.
Yet, Jesus believes that love is available and possible. He believes it so much that he commands us to love. Jesus says, “This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you.”
Wow, Jesus is getting pretty in-your-face here. “This is my command,” he says. Not, “please do this.” Not, “it’s good if you follow my advice.” Not even a, “Hey gang, I have a cool idea.” Jesus brings out the big guns and says it is a commandment. It is something you have to do before other things can happen. Like, “clean your room or you can’t go out this weekend.” Like, “if you want to pass chemistry or English or math, you must do the daily home work.” There is power and force in Jesus words. “This is my command: Love each other…”
At staff each week we look over and discuss the scripture reading for the Sunday coming, and this week we read this verse from John. A number of us reacted to the strong language of Jesus saying we are commanded to do this, to love others. Most of us don’t like being told what to do, even by Jesus. We want suggestions and options so we can make up our own minds. Wait a minute Jesus, you are COMMANDING me to be loving to others? How can you make me love? Love seems different from the 10 Commandments which say don’t do certain things like murder, steal, worship other gods, and lust after others. Those things are bad to do to each other. To love others seems like it should be optional and up to us.
But Jesus’ words are not to be mistaken – I command you to love one another. And here is another glitch for us. Love others – plain and simple. Not to just love the ones who are like you, or the ones you agree with, or the ones you feel sorry for. But to love the homeless person who may be smelly. To love the bully who has made your life miserable since 7th grade. To love the person who has wronged you. We don’t get to add our criteria that we will love everyone except those who are of a certain nationality, or who have a different way of seeing life politically, sexually, religiously, nationally, or any other “ly” that we can think of. Nope, it ain’t an easy one for us. We are told to love. Period.
Therefore, in logically argument, we have to determine what Jesus is telling us to do by examining what it is that Jesus does when he loves, for the commandment is to love others as Jesus has loved us. When I think of Jesus’ kind of love, words begin to flood my mind like: generous, abundant, unconditional, happy, extravagant, complete, wonderful, unselfish, and the like. But let’s admit it; too often words are just that – they are letters that can mean little without some help in understanding those words.
Let me tell you about a woman who made a huge impression on my wife and our friend Sue, who visited a remarkable woman while they were in South Africa last year. Her name is Annalee and she is an older, tiny white woman who had given her life to others. Her mission is giving hope and opportunity to the poor and needy of a slum, shanty town near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. One particular story about Annalee stands out to me.
Annalee was summoned to impoverished community by friends of a woman who had just discovered she had AIDS. In the poor, black communities this is usually a death sentence. The woman, whom we will call Thule, had given up and expected to die alone. She took to her bed and refused to get out.
Annalee went to see Thule and told her that God was with her and that God would never leave her alone. Annalee persisted that God had sent her to love Thule and bless her and help her. Annalee told Thule that her coming was to tell her that she mattered to God because God sent her to deliver that message – Thule, God loves you. So, insisted Annalee, it was important for her to get out of bed.
“No, no,” insisted the Thule, “I will not get out of this bed until they remove me at my death.” She insistently pulled the covers over head.
“Thule,” Annalee said, “You must get up and live. God wants you to be strong and to set an example for others who are ill.”
Thule persisted, “Leave me alone. I am not getting out of bed.
Go away old woman.”
But Annalee is not a going away kind of woman. Plus, she was certain God was directing her to be with Thule.
“If you don’t get out of that bed, Thule. I am going to climb in there with you.”
Thule didn’t – and Annalee did. Annalee jerked open the blankets and squeezed her tiny body into the bed next to Thule and held her and told her how much God loved her and that her life was not over.
“I will stay with you, Thule, until you are strong enough to get out from this bed and become well.” And she did.
Finally, perhaps in embarrassment, and certainly with some assurance that God was with her, and proving his presence through this little woman, Thule did get out of bed. And she joined Annalee’s program, a program that works with the women of these impoverished villages and give them work and a purpose. Thule is not on medicine and doing quite well. And today she is working for God in these poor communities, reaching out to others.
What kind of love gives a person the vision and desire to do such things? To deny oneself and make room for others? The love I think Jesus is talking about is called compassion.
Compassion is a special type of love that gives us a sense of sympathy for others – not pity, which looks down upon the poor and helpless, but sympathy, which seeks to understand the needs and lives of others.
Compassion is the willingness to put yourself in someone else’s shoes in order to understand their life. So you think about what it means to get only one meal a day, or to lose half of your income because your spouse just walked out on the marriage, or to be embarrassed by a teacher or another student while at school. Compassion takes the focus off of YOU and puts that attention upon other people by imagining what their predicament would be like. And on top of it all, compassion insists we do all of this while feeling love for others.
It has been said that compassion has two parts to it – intention and action. Intention means you open your heart to others and action means you figure out what to do about it. So Annalee opens her heart to the AIDS woman who will not get out of bed, and then she shows her love in the action of getting in bed with her to share the woman’s sorrow.
So now it falls to you, my friends of the Federated Church Confirmation Class of 2009. People are not going to think that you look like a minister. You’ll hear that you are too young or too inexperienced to understand. You’ll find that people will make excuses for you and assume that you are not interested in reaching out to others. I know better. So do Bob and Tony. We have worked with you for a year now. We know that you are extremely gifted and wonderful.
So the question comes to you, each of you individually. How will you love? How will you let the world know that Jesus still matters and that Jesus’ kind of love still works. There will be obstacles to you because you are young. As I said, some people may not like what you are up to and they may feel you are getting too big for your britches, as my grandpa used to say. Some of your friends may think you are becoming a fanatic, taking this religion stuff too far. But still the scripture tells you, me and all of us:
This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you.
I have selected for each of you a reminder that we are all to be ministers by the gift of this box of band-aids. The package says that this kit is “First aid to go!” This is to remind you to take your compassion and love with you into every part of life. You can be the healing, the change, the encouragement. You are called to be the one who makes a difference. You can be the love of Christ for those who feel unloved. You can be the one that reaches out and turns it all around.
I also have for each of you a Sponge Bob Square Pants character complete with gum. This is to remind you that the Christian life – a life of following Jesus – is massive fun. It is rewarding and it will define you. You will be so fulfilled in becoming deeper in your love for God and your service to others.
You are equipped for the work that God brings your way. You have your band-aid kit to remind you to be a healer of others, calling upon the kind of love that God had for Jesus and Jesus has for us. And you have your silly character to remind you that our work as Christians is something that is filled with joy and wonder. We are to be child-like, healing lovers as we reach out with God’s hands and heart.
I believe in you – each of you. I know you will wow our world and I feel so privileged to be in the position to watch how it all unfold. God bless you.
Amen