"Loved Beyond Our Wildest Dreams"
First Congregational Church -- Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
7th Sunday after Pentecost -- June 29, 2008
Rev. Steven A. Peay, Ph.D.
[texts: Genesis 21:8-21/Romans 6:1b-11/Matthew 10:24-39]*
I bring you greetings from fellow Congregationalists from around the country and, with the missionaries present, the world. We gathered in Plymouth, Massachusetts - as Domine Buchman said, "the place where it all began, at least on this side of the water" - for the fifty-fourth annual meeting of the NACCC. I'm happy to report a fairly non-controversial meeting; we have a new Dean for the Congregational Center for Leadership at Olivet College, the Rev. Elizabeth Mauro, D.Min. (more on this later) and a deficit budget, though there is hope. I wish I had been "playing," but after leading a full retreat day and then a half one, giving back-to-back one hour presentations on the Cambridge Platform, chairing a two hour meeting of the Institute for Congregational Studies, and so on...it didn't feel like play. Was it good? Yes. Play? No.
Now, all of that said, I am grateful to Dick for filling the pulpit in my absence. As his age and tenure give him license not to use the lectionary, my position gives me freedom to pick up the lections he dropped - which I do this week, because they're gorgeous. I would also add, gently, lovingly, irenically, that Deuteronomy 6.4 has never been viewed, at least by standard theologians, as in conflict with the concept of one God manifested in three persons - i.e. the Trinity. Oh, and I agree with his professor that the primary source is the Bible - all of it. So I approach things using all four gospels and the writings of Paul because to me that constitutes the whole of the primary source. Yes, Dick, you did a mitvah - gave me a chance to offer a little doctrinal teaching. Blessings on you! Now, on to the text!
Ian Maclaren tells stories of the Scottish highlands in his book Beside the Bonnie Briarbush. One of the stories is about old Lachlan MacDonald and his daughter Flora. Lachlan was a typical highlander: spare with his purse, his praise, his words and his whisky. After the death of his dear wife, he raised their daughter Flora with her working beside him in their "wee croft." Flora, however, longed for something more, something better, though her father would hear nothing of such "daft notions." Flora, amid her father's recriminations and threats, went off to Edinburgh to seek her fortune.
Lachlan never mentioned her to the neighbors again. Some said he even crossed her name off the family Bible. He just tended his sheep and his garden, he faithful dogs his only companions. Years passed and Flora, who had done well for herself, longed to see her father and the little cottage she called home. Her father never returned any of her letters, but the neighbor, an Englishwoman, did. She encouraged Flora to come home, since Lachlan seemed to be folding in on himself more and more.
Reluctantly, fearfully, Flora came home. She came through the gate at dusk, just as the lamp was being lit. Her hand was on the latch and she was just turning to leave, when the dogs, who never forget began to bark. The door flew open and, as Lachlan saw his dear daughter, he grabbed her, hugged her, kissed her, and brought her inside. The next day as she was talking to the neighbor, she recounted her homecoming, "It's a pity you don't have the Gaelic," she said. "There are a dozen words for 'darling' and my father was calling me every one of them last night when I came home."
If Lachlan MacDonald responded like that, just imagine what the Creator God, who desired to be revealed to us as "Father," will do. You see, we are God's darlings; we are loved beyond our wildest dreams. The Father cares very deeply for us and that is why God has shared his life with us through Jesus the Christ. When no one else cares for us, when we are absolutely alone, the love of God is there for us. The God who knows when a sparrow dies, who knows how many hairs crown the top of our heads both cares for and loves us. As Jesus says, we "are of more value than many sparrows."
It's a reality, I'm afraid, that most people----- even every-Sunday churchgoers -----just don't seem to comprehend. We've taken the message of a vital, loving, growing relationship and reduced it to the level of dogma, rules, and regulations, to the point that people can't find the truth anymore. They don't want to come to church, which they say is boring or holds nothing for them. I don't believe the truth of God's love and care for us to be boring it must be the way we offer it, or fail to show it by example.
Many who are believers come to their faith with a sense of indifference. Frank Layden, the former coach of the Utah Jazz, had an exchange with one of his players which could easily describe what's happening in main-line churches. "Son," he said, "I don't understand it with you. Is it ignorance or is it apathy?" The player replied, "Coach, I don't know and I don't care!" A different kind of indifference is illustrated in the wonderful anecdote (which I’ve used before, but it’s still good) about the gentleman who finally understood the truth of God's love one Sunday morning and began to shout in praise. An usher came over to him and told him that his behavior wasn't appropriate. The man replied, "But I've got religion!" With a stern look the usher said, "Well, you didn't get it here! Please be quiet."
Jesus tells the disciples that to follow him means to put the whole self into it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the martyr to the Nazis, spoke eloquently of this in his book, The Cost of Discipleship. Bonhoeffer writes about the cost in terms of 'cheap' and 'costly' grace.
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance,, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God. [Emphases are Bonhoeffer’s]
It's costly grace Jesus is talking about when he says that not even family ties can get in the way of our relationship with him. It's costly grace Paul is talking about when he reminds us that our baptism was "into Christ's death" and our "old self was crucified with him so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin." The history of Christian faith is loaded with examples of those whose decision to enter deeply into the relationship with God has altered their relationship with family and friends. When reminded that his father owned the clothes on his back, Francesco Bernadone dropped them in the midst of the public square of Assisi. He embraced Christ fully, even in absolute poverty, and Francis of Assii --Il Poverello/the little poor one -- and his prayer, "Lord make me an instrument of your peace," still inspires Christians. Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Bunyan, and many more also walked the way of costly grace. Why? Because they knew they were God's darlings and God was with them.
God's 'costly grace' demonstrates God’s his love for us beyond our wildest dreams. In Jesus we are invited to radical, at the root, inclusion in the life of God. This inclusion in God's life brings liberation from the oppression of short-sighted self-centeredness and selfishness. However, this liberation also brings an obligation. The freedom of the Christian is not a freedom from but a freedom to. As we approach our annual celebration of Independence Day it’s good to remember why our Congregational forebears – those who came to Plymouth in 1620 and those to Massachusetts Bay in 1630 – came to these shores. It was for the freedom TO practice and TO to live their faith. They came seeking the freedom to believe, not a freedom from it!
Our freedom is to love God completely and to give our lives over totally to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, who has brought our new life to us by his incarnation, self-giving death, and resurrection. That is the essence of what our Christian faith teaches and what we’re taught. It is a freedom to serve God by serving our brothers and sisters, seeking to make the kingdom of God evident in the here and now, and not just in the hereafter. It’s faith that then shows itself in the life we lead and the works we do – both/and, not either/or. The recent NACCC meeting had as its theme, “Thy will be done.” We pray it, probably, daily: “thy will be done, thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” But do we think what it means – to live God’s will here as well as hereafter? In short, it is the freedom to enter into what the great teachers of the early church call entheosis or divinization.
What is this process, what does it mean, and how do we enter it? Listen to the wise words of the contemporary Greek spiritual writer, Christophoros Stavropolis.
The Theosis of man, his perfect union with God made possible by grace, will be realized completely in the future age after the resurrection of the dead. However, beginning in this life, this union which divinizes people can be made more and more real. Our corrupt and weakened nature ought to be transformed little by little and adapted to eternal life.
God has given us this good in the Church. The work of our Theosis, our union with God, is not transmitted to us in some kind of mechanical fashion. Our weakened human nature will not be transformed magically. It will happen in conjunction with our own efforts. It will be realized with the "cooperation" of man and God. This subjective aspect of our union with God provides the way of Theosis which we must follow. This way is none other than the life in Christ. The true purpose of the life in Christ is the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
Through the Holy Spirit the faithful become sharers of divine nature. They are formed in the new life. They put off corruption. They return to the original beauty of their nature. They become participants of God and children of God. They take on the shape of God. They reflect the light of Christ and inherit incorruptibility. Thus, the contribution of the Holy Spirit is always a finalizing action. God the Father, before all ages, conceives of the work of salvation and Theosis. He realizes it in time in the Son. The Holy Spirit completes and perfects and adapts this work to the people. In the sphere of the Church, the Holy Spirit mystically sanctifies and unites the faithful with Christ, thus creating and giving life to the mystical body of the Lord. Here, in this mystical body, the Holy Spirit's sanctifying energy shines forth.
Entheosis, divinization, partakers of divine nature, God's darlings, we share in God's life and are called upon to reflect that life to the world. To never forget that God has done something wonderful for us, is doing something incredible in us, and we are to do the same for others. Sarah received a miracle, but she didn't internalize it so she became the opposite of what God had done for her. She who had been liberated from childlessness became an oppressor herself. She didn't help Hagar or Ishmael, she didn't show forth God's freedom or love to them, she just wanted to keep her liberation to herself.
God worked in spite of Sarah. God can still liberate even when the community of faith forgets itself. It doesn't mean that we should become complacent, "I don't know and I don't care," we should indeed keep on striving to more and more reflect the fruit of Theosis to the world. However, we should also understand that God can always write straight with crooked lines, taking our missteps and using them to care for God’s darlings.
God, remember, is no Lachlan MacDonald; so we need not put off seeking God’s love nor approach God’s door with hesitant steps. God's love is among God’s people. God, whose eye is on the sparrow, watches out for God’s people, and looks with love upon them calling them, “ his darlings.” We who are loved beyond our wildest dreams need to remember that God loves all those other folks, his darlings to God, through us. By our participation in the Divine life, we become God’s hands, God’s feet, God’s mouth, God’s eyes in this world. We are God's darlings: feel God’s embrace, hear God call you “beloved.” Then leave this place of worship to make a difference for those who do not know that they are loved beyond their wildest dreams. Amen.
*readings are from the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, year A.