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"Those Who Know Must Teach" Sermon Preached By Rev. Richard E. Stetler - May 26, 2002 Psalm 8; Matthew 28:16-20
MEMORIAL DAY
There is something very
powerful in words once used by Jesus. He said, "My commandment is
this: love one another just as I have loved you. The greatest love
you can have for your friends is to give your life for them.."
(John 15:12-13). The impact of his words can evoke strong emotions
when we remember someone who did just that.
Mike Vlk and his wife Rachel
were both members at St. Matthew's before they were transferred to
their new assignment -- an Air Force base in Florida. When we
learned that Mike was in Afghanistan craving homemade cookies, many
of us got to work in our kitchens. We sent him sixteen large boxes
of every variety of cookie imaginable. When Mike and his buddies
received those cookies, many of his friends were surprised to learn
that his "former" church family had done such a kind thing.
It was Mike's company who
handled one of the first casualties of the conflict in Afghanistan.
He wrote to me about how personal the war had suddenly become for
him and his men. He mentioned the strong emotions that filled each
of them as they carried his flag draped remains to one of their
aircraft. He said, "Life is very
different now as we face an enemy we frequently cannot see.
Conflict is strange. I guess it has been this way in every war.
They do not know who we are and we do not know them and yet we fight
because we each believe that the other wants to destroy our way of
life." How should we think about our role as Christians in a world
like ours? Our Scripture lesson for
this morning features what has been called, "The Great Commission."
In this passage, Jesus is telling his listeners to go into the
world and teach all people how to become self-disciplined enough to
integrate what he taught into their lives. How we obey Jesus' request
always creates a tension. On one side of the equation we must
defend freedom, democracy, and civilization itself. On the other
side, we must teach people how to love one another. Even the
greatest spinmisters, regardless of what "pulpit" they use, have had
much difficulty integrating these two themes. One of the major issues facing
Americans is that we appear to be absolutely sure who the enemy is. They
speak a different language and they dress differently. They want to
destroy apartment buildings, bridges, shopping malls and our rail and
bus systems. We have called them cowards
because they fight from the shadows. They refuse to engage our military
because their target is our economy. They believe that if they attack
us spiritually by inspiring our greatest fears, Americans will quickly
lose their confidence in everything. If they strike repeatedly, they
believe that the resulting fall of the economic dominos will bringing
our country to its knees. Most of us have gotten this message. We are very good at targeting
exactly who the enemy is. But are we correct? Think about this. Who was
it that brought about the collapse of Enron, destroying the pension
benefits of thousands of people? What was happening at Arthur Andersen
that caused this multinational corporation to self-destruct over night,
disenfranchising thousands of employees? Just what kind of deceptive
and manipulative practices were being used by several analysts at
Merrill Lynch which caused this major brokerage firm to be fined one
hundred million dollars? Are we sure we know who the enemy is?
It appears that the enemy wears
many masks and some of them are the ones we wear. When we stop to think
about it, just what are the values that our men and women in the
military are giving their lives to save? We proudly speak words like
"freedom" and "democracy" as though we know what they mean. Such words
are worthless if they do not also communicate responsibility,
accountability, and character.
Even the Church is losing a grip
on its core message. Many of us have experienced pain recently for our
brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic Church. Yes, we have our
opinions and have proposed our solutions but any nail driven into the
Body of Christ becomes a wound suffered by all of us. These current moments in history
are not ones where we can sit back and claim that we know the identity
of our enemy. Likewise, if we can claim that "we have Christ" while
the rest of the world suffers and remains in chaos, we are part of the
problem. Everyone of us is part of the
world community but the followers of Jesus Christ have a highly specific
role to play. Are we prepared to own that calling and act on it or do we
prefer to circle our wagons, sit around and praise Jesus? If our
faith celebrates our personal salvation who else benefits? This is
nothing more than selfishness hiding underneath the lofty praise
language of a shallow faith. This is as ugly as Christianity gets. A number of years ago David
Roever wrote a book which described his experiences during a fragile
moment in his life. He emerged from the Viet Nam war with a terribly
disfigured face. This part of his body was damaged when a phosphorus
hand-grenade exploded just six inches from his right ear. David described his reunion with
his physically attractive wife, Brenda, when he returned to the United
States. He said that when Brenda first looked at him she was not sure
that the person lying there was her husband. She checked his wristband
and then the chart at the end of his bed. Then without the slightest
trace of horror on her face, Brenda bent over and kissed him on what was
left of his face. Then she looked at him on the side of his good eye,
smiled and said, "Welcome home, Davey. I love you." He looked at her and said, "I
want you to know how sorry I am." She said, "Why are you sorry?" He
said, "Because I can no longer look good for you again." She thought
for a minute, grinned and said, "Oh Davey, your ego is way too big. You
were never that good looking even when we started dating." After reporting this exchange
with his wife, David wrote these words, "That was the beginning of the
deep psychological and spiritual healing which eventually quenched the
fire of my ordeal so that I could face the world again. I was able to
let go of my wound, knowing that my spirit had not been damaged by the
blast from that hand-grenade." When we understand that
someone loves us in spite of our ugliness, in spite of all the things
that they know about us; when we learn that we do not have to be
beautiful in their eyes to merit their caring, we have hold of something
extremely vital. This is what God's love is like. In order for us to teach what we
know, we must first accept that God loves us warts and all. We cannot
and should not target our enemies as being people we must destroy. When
people live in pain, we are the ones called to listen and respond to
that pain. Those of us who have this commitment will become the channels
through which the power of our Creator can flow. Our incredible military is sworn
to defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Our troops
are prepared to lay down their lives so that generations not yet born
might enjoy what many of us experience today. But we must not rely on
its message as being the only one that America sends. We may be going
after "the bad guys" by using smart bombs, deadly accurate rifles that
we call "JARS," and with troops outfitted with the latest equipment. Is
this America's only message? The military has their job to
do. We must let them do it. Their mission statement is fairly similar
to that of the white blood cells in our bodies. They swirl through our
vascular system attacking everything that threatens the survival of the
body. Always there are deadly bacteria awaiting some break in our
immune system so they can attack and destroy us. We would not survive
without their presence. The spirit within the body also
has a job to do. When we become disciples of Jesus Christ, it means
that we are sworn to teaching everything that he gave us to teach.
Remember the chorus of the song, "They know we are Christians, by our
love, by our love, they will know we are Christians by our love." How
is such love revealed? God works through loving spirits. We must trust
this process even when the history of humankind seems to be in one of
its darkest hours. Benjamin Franklin once said, "When
you assemble a number of people to have the advantage of their joint
wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those people all their prejudices,
their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their
selfish points of view, but we must gather with them anyway in order for
progress to continue." John Wesley, the founder of
Methodism, said it better than anyone else. He wrote, "Do all the good
you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the
places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can as
long as ever you can." This is our role and there has never been a day
more pressing than this one for us to carry the message of Christ into
the world. If India and Pakistan go to war
and they use what is in their respective nuclear arsenals, 150 million
people could die in a matter of minutes. This is insanity and everyone
knows it. Equally, it makes no sense to communicate through suicide
bombers. But this is where we are at the moment.
When pre-school teachers see
children hitting each other during their play time, they frequently say,
"Nathan, please use your words. Tell Sally why you are unhappy with
her." It would be such a blessing if the world's leaders could remember
what they learned when they were children. We are going to have plenty to do in the coming months and years. For the body of humanity to survive, we must teach Christ's message at every level, trusting that God will give us the means and the opportunities to do so. When those doors open, please do not hesitate to walk through them. When you do, you will not be alone. We have to trust that. THE CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER Loving God, we
are experiencing such incredible events as our years unfold. We live in
a world of striking contrasts. We enjoy freedom while remaining guarded
against those who would take it away. We nourish our faith in the midst
of cultures whose values often clash. New ways to fight diseases are
side by side with the results of suicide bombers. We find people
talking and not communicating. Help us understand that it was into such
a world that Jesus called us to be bearers of light. Spare us from
expecting a crop where we have sown no seed. Inspire us to defend and
protect freedom by making it available to everyone both now and always.
Amen. THE PASTORAL PRAYER
Thank you, God, for being the same yesterday,
today and forever. As our lives experience so many changes, we welcome
the good news that your surrounding, loving, consistent presence is with
us always and in all ways.
As we have come for worship, guide us to
enter the temple within ourselves where your spirit also dwells. Teach
us how to turn down the volume of the noise outside, so that peacefully
we can replenish ourselves from the nurturing, quiet springs that flow
within.
We pray that our lives might represent a
signal buoy for others who experience being lost in the sea of their
activity, a weigh station for those who need to know they are valued,
and as a listening post for those who believe their words are not
important.
On this day, we ask that you would bless the
role that Americans play in a world seemingly plagued with so many
events that appear to stand against the way you created us. As we
revisit in our minds the many conflicts and wars and those who died in
them, we pray that a day will soon dawn when mothers and fathers will
no longer have to remember their children on a Memorial Day. Please
help all of us strive for peace. We pray these thoughts through the
spirit of Jesus, who taught us to say when we pray . . .
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