The Sunday Sermon: February 13, 2022 – Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Scripture: (Isaiah 11:4-9) Luke 6:12-16
Life in Community: Gathering Up
It should not, of course, be lost on any of us that we are starting a new unit in our Follow Me: Biblical Practices for Faithful Living curriculum entitled “Live in Community” at a time when Mother Nature seems to be working so hard to keep us from living in community – be that through our two years and counting accommodations to the COVID pandemic or this past weekend’s Winter Ice Storm. We’ve emphasized from the beginning of it all that “being in community” and “being community” does not require being physically together all the time, but … come on.
Let’s pray together (that will help). And … let’s begin again to listen, talk, and learn something about “community” in these next three weeks, some things that we may not have thought of before. To begin with, how about this: In order to have community and be part of a community, the very first thing that needs to happen is … we have to “gather up.” (Again … “Ha, ha.” Together in Spirit …?)
As we begin this conversation on community, no doubt we’re all thinking about our church, but the practice of living in community is not particular to Christians, or any other religious gathering. It seems to be part of our human nature to live in community with others, to live in communities with others. Yes, we are a community at Pewee Valley Presbyterian church. But we are all, also, part of other communities – social clubs, school clusters, graduating classes, Social Media pages, activist groups, and more. All true. And … as we made clear last month, we are all part of a community called the Body of Christ, in its universal incarnation and in a very particular incarnation here in Pewee Valley. So, we are going to explore what is distinctly Christian about the practice of community, what makes this community that we are all a part of, different from the others. We turn to our sacred writings first.
Scripture testifies to the importance of community in its broadest sense from the very beginning. It is not good for humans to be alone, Genesis 2:18 says. And in Revelation 21, we read of a vision of the new heaven and a new earth as a city where God dwells with mortals, in community. Between that first and last book, the Bible is filled with stories and teachings about life in community, with God and with neighbors. Some of these stories describe beautiful, idyllic communities. And other stories provide examples of abusive, exploitative ones. We are challenged with understanding the kind of community that the God revealed in the Bible desires for this world, and we are further challenged to do all we can to bring that community to life, on earth as it is in heaven.
This is what makes a Christian community different from the other groups or communities we are a part of. We are to use this community to transform the world. Other groups are philanthropic and many work for change through charity. We do, too. But we are supposed to go further as a Christian community, working not just for change, but for transformation. What might the community that we are supposed to embody look like, then?
A good place to find the kind of community that the God revealed in our bible desires is in the writing of Isaiah, chapter eleven:
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, they’re young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the whole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my mountain; For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Isa 11:4-9
We really should read those verses every day to remind us of what is distinctive about this community, our faith community. So that we may be reminded of why we are a community to begin with and be empowered to bring this peaceful Kin-dom to earth.
I like to imagine that there was someone very important to us who read it regularly, if not daily, once upon a time – let’s say about two thousand years ago. The scrolls that contained this vision were part of his faith community as well, the writings only about 750 years old in his time.
I like to imagine that this someone read this scroll, and others like it, looked around him, and realized that the world he lived in was about as far from this vision as it could be. That peace was not coming through justice and righteousness, but from violence and dominance. That community was not desired. Commodity was. That wolves, leopards, and lions were not “lying down” with lambs, kids, and calves. Quite the opposite, they were devouring them; and, that little children were being bitten regularly by the poison all around them, dying because of it or becoming just as violent as the world that taught them that survival is for strong – the rich and the powerful. Even his own religious tradition was articulating a God of rewards and punishments that could only be appeased by monetary sacrifices too great to make for most of his family and friends.
I like to imagine that having read passages like the ones in the Isaiah scroll from his faith tradition, he caught an ancient vision and decided it was time to try again. He began to teach the ancient ways and to heal the sickness of the world by loving it. Loving it to death, it would turn out. But at first, loving it back to life. At least part of it. His “Way” attracted the attention of others, some who may have genuinely understood it, and most who probably saw just another way to get some power and control, but … the followers, the disciples, of this someone grew in number. And he chose a few to be a small community that would be the start of a larger community that would grow to a size he could never have imagined.
Listen now for the Word of God from Luke, chapter six, verses, twelve to sixteen. Read Luke 6:12-16. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Jesus himself – the “someone” I like to imagine who remembered the true reason for communities of faith – gathered a community. I’m not sure he intended to do this when he began his counter-cultural life-turned-ministry. He started out alone in the wilderness and began his ministry alone, according to Luke, by sitting alone in the synagogue in Nazareth and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor fulfilled by reading another section of the Isaiah scroll. He started alone, but his movement became a community because putting God first, engaging and challenging the status quo by lifting up the poor and marginalized, crossing divides that keep us apart from one another, and making Love the dominant feature of everything, draws a crowd, brings people together under a common belief and common mission.
The second testament in our bible, our New Testament, provides four lists of the twelve disciples/apostles. Luke is the source of two of them. Unlike Matthew or Mark, though, who write of Jesus selecting twelve for work which is described, Luke describes nothing but the choice of twelve from among “others.” Matthew and Mark have Jesus “summoning the twelve and giving them authority and power” and sending them out. Luke simply says, “When the day came, (Jesus) called his disciples and chose twelve of them …”
And he does this in Luke after spending “the night in prayer to God” – verse twelve that we read. No other Gospel writer is more attentive to the prayer-life of Jesus than Luke. We are to understand that in this moment, on this day, prayer – not “need” has led Jesus to the selection he made. The choice of the twelve, Luke is saying, is not just to expedite matters because the job is now too big for one person. The choice of the twelve, after a night in prayer, makes this an act that is part of the larger purpose of God – that all be done in community. He gathers the twelve – and the twelve will gather many more – because life must be lived in community and the “Community” must live for the full Life of all.
Is that why you’re here? Is that why we’re “gathered up” this morning (few as we are) or why we gather up any time we do so? To empower ourselves to offer full Life to all and to transform the world as it is? Maybe … sometimes, to some degree or another, that’s why we come here, why we come together. Mostly when we’re reminded of it by a sermon, or a prayer, or a hymn. But if were’ honest, we more often “gather up” out of some sense of obligation to an institution we’ve committed ourselves to, or with a desire to see friends we’ve grown to love, or a need to make sense out of our own lives, or because of a God who is “watching” so we better “gather up” – once in a while, at least! But do we gather, are we gathered by God, to be a community that lives for the full life of all others – the poor, the hungry, the oppressed, the most vulnerable? Sometimes … when we’re reminded to do so. But more often … not so much.
Now don’t get mad. Don’t tune me out, or tune God out, because of this rather harsh criticism. It only took the Church itself about four centuries to return to “orthodox belief” as the primary prerequisite of faith, leaving trust, fidelity, and the way we live our lives in service to the humble and meek behind once again. A City on a Hill, a place for our personal healing, a community to maintain a set of buildings and an assemblage of staff is pretty much all we’ve known for a millennia and a half. And all of these things are important (says one whose livelihood depends on it). They are all important, but they are not the primary reason that we “gather up” as a Christian community.
We “gather up” as community “in here” so that we may walk together as Community “out there” and bring this world closer to the only vision that can promise a future for all of God’s creation on earth … as it is (motion to heaven) …
So, we’ll gather up this month in service to understanding more deeply not just who we are as community, but why we are Community in the first place. Your Elders will be gathered next Saturday morning to take a deeper dive into who we are and who we may be. We all have decisions to make in our (almost) post-COVID world. If nothing else, this worldwide pandemic has shown us how connected we truly are as citizens of the world. Communities such as ours in its Presbyterian expression in Pewee Valley have much to speak to such a connected world.
Let’s start talking. Amen.
Reverend Joel Weible, Pastor
Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church / February 13, 2022