Community Church Sermons
December 4, 2005
I grew up in “the church where strangers become
friends.”
That was the motto of that church, and the motto was
more than mere words.
Before the ecumenical movement was the
ecumenical movement, the people and pastor of that church were reaching out to
form a relationship with the people and pastor of the Roman Catholic church
down the street, and with the Jewish synagogue on the other side of the city.
“The church where strangers become friends.”
Before the Civil Rights movement was popularly
embraced, the people and pastor of that church were sending buses into a nearby
housing project where many black people lived in what I would describe as the
North’s silent version of segregation. Dozens of people would come to worship
with us in what became a racially integrated congregation, and together we
stood and fought for justice for all.
“The church where strangers become friends.”
Our pastor, George Seale, would often stop his car
by the side of the road in Brittain Square on the cold and snowy nights of
winter. He would swing open the passenger side door and call for the old man in
the gutter whose life was gripped by alcohol abuse to come and sit and warm up
for a while. And there they would sit by the side of the road in the warmth of
George’s car, getting to know each other and talking like old chums.
“The church where strangers become friends.”
This was the church where my father was welcomed
although he was not yet a person of faith. And this was the church where he met
Jesus, and became reconciled to God.
The church where even those estranged from God
become friends with God.
I didn’t know it then, but I know it today – I grew
up in a church that was a living expression of the Second Sunday of Advent.
Today we lit the Peace Candle, and sang the song of
the Christmas angels: “Peace on earth, good will toward men…and women…and
kids…and ALL!” We heard God call out through the prophet Isaiah that his
exiled people have endured enough pain and shame for their disobedience. The
Lord himself will come and rescue them. He will tend them like a shepherd, and
gather them like lambs, and carry them close to his heart, and gently lead those
with children.
And we heard from St. Paul that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself, and entrusting to you and me the message of
reconciliation - the message of strangers becoming friends through our
Lord Jesus Christ.
The second “R” in our Advent sermon series stands
for reconciliation. To reconcile, Webster tells us, is to
restore to friendship or union. And this gives us a wonderful and perhaps
surprising glimpse into the underlying principle of reconciliation, and how you
and I can become involved in the experience of strangers becoming friends.
Reconciliation, you see, is not really about a black
hand and a white hand reaching out to form a new friendship. It is not about
Christians and Muslims and Jews discovering some new relationship. It is not
about Democrats and Republicans learning to get along, or Rush Limbaugh and Al
Franken finding a new way to dialogue and converse without the help of talk
radio. It is not about you and your estranged family member finding a new way
to relate and become a family again.
Reconciliation is not about building something new.
Reconciliation is about restoring something old!
And here’s where it starts: “Be reconciled to
God!” the apostle says.
There was a time in your life when there was no distance
between you and God. There was a time in your life when you heard God’s voice,
and knew God’s will, and when you and God were best of friends. There was a
time, Genesis 1 poetically tells us, when we used to walk with God in the cool
of the evening through the garden, and God delighted in providing for all our
needs, and when we were truly whole and happy.
There was a time when you were best friends with
God. You may not remember it now, but there’s still some glowing ember of that
friendship - something that burns in your heart, calling you back to God. This
is why most of us come to church, and why we try to pray, and why when we go
outside on a starry night we look up and wonder about God. It is our way of
looking back to what once was.
Prophets over the ages tell us that somewhere along
the way, something happened that changed that friendship. Some blame it on Adam
and Eve and their decision to disobey God way back in the Garden of Eden.
Others say, whether or not we can pin it on Adam and Eve, each of us –
somewhere along the line – has decided to go off on our own, becoming our own
gods, clinging to our own will rather than God’s will. The Bible seems to want
us to know that the most basic problem in our lives today is that we who were
created as the friends of God have somehow become strangers to God.
I don’t know if that rings true for you, but it does
for me. Most of the time, I want the Marty way more than I want the God way. I
have questions for God and about God that I just can’t resolve. I am often mad
at God for the tragedies experienced by the families of this church, and for
the terrible things that people do to each other in this world. Faith does not
come easy to me. It is a daily struggle to trust God with my life. I am a long,
long, long ways away from the time when God and I used to walk in the garden in
the cool of the evening together as close personal friends. How about you?
“Be reconciled to God!” That’s the invitation of
Advent.
Come home to the friendship that you and God once
had. And the doorway into that friendship has been provided in the coming of Jesus.
Paul says, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” The
whole point of Christmas, the deepest meaning of the Jesus experience is that
God reaches out through Christ, reclaiming old friends who have become
strangers. So in his lifetime, Jesus goes out and finds calloused fishermen,
prostitutes, lepers, overwhelmed parents, blind people, deaf people, demon
possessed people, people of every sort, and what does Jesus do?
Jesus makes friends with them! And in Jesus, this
rag-tag group of very human beings once again experiences the friendship they
had with God at the beginning of the world. And they are filled to overflowing
with joy!
Jesus is the doorway back to what once was and what
can be again! In his life, Jesus shows us how to live in relationship with God
again, helping us like a parent teaches a child to ride a bicycle again after
falling down. He tells us to put the old rules away, and replace them with this
one - love God, and love one another! And he urges us to never forget that God
loves you so much that he himself has taken care of all your sins. There is no
payback waiting for you back home. There is no sucker punch waiting to be
delivered! There are only open arms of love just like the father opened his
arms to the prodigal son!
“Comfort, comfort, my people!” God declares through Isaiah
the prophet. “Declare to them that their warfare is ended…their sins have
been paid for…” and the Lord himself is coming to tend his flock like a
shepherd, and gather them like lambs, and carry them close to his heart, and
gently lead those who are with children.
And just as the prophet predicted, Jesus came.
Peace on earth! Good will toward all!
Strangers becoming friends again!
And when you set your sights on Jesus, and come into
the experience of God’s friendship as it is expressed in Christmas, you will be
challenged to discover one more wonderful and surprising thing!
Gathered around the Christmas manger, the Bible
shows us, are people of every stripe and color – a young girl cradling what
seems to be an illegitimate child, a confused husband not knowing what to do,
an innkeeper who just wants to make a buck, some not-so-religious shepherds,
and later, some wise men from the East. If we were to re-create that scene in
our day, we would see in it a refugee or welfare family, a capitalist, some
agnostic Jews and a bunch of Muslims from Iraq. We would see black and white
and Asian-looking faces, men and women, local folks and foreigners, all
gathered together around Jesus.
Because, you see, the birth of Jesus brings all
people together – JUST LIKE WE USED TO BE. For there was a time in our lives at
the foundation of the world when we ALL lived together in peace and harmony in
the new creation of God.
Oh, what have we done to those who were once our
friends? How have we become so estranged?
And what can we do to reconcile ourselves to
our brothers and sisters in God?
“The church where strangers become friends.”
That’s one way to bear the message of reconciliation
– by becoming such a church.
Please notice that this requires initiative on our
part. We are the ones who have to take the first step. And notice that this
requires a willingness to forgive others for past sins in order to have a
chance at finding renewed friendship. And please remember that this requires
facing the truth about ourselves and our own sins so that we can be forgiven by
our sisters and our brothers.
Could WE be such a church?
It will be a great challenge to take on such a
mission. It will require complete trust in the love of God for both ourselves
and others. And it will require looking at others differently – not in terms of
their sin, but in terms of WHO they are.
God’s precious children.
Our brothers and sisters.
Christmas only becomes Christmas when strangers
become friends!
Peace on earth! Good will toward all! That is our
mission.
Amen.