Sermon 9/2/07
House Rules - Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
(view lectionary notes for this text)
When I’m preparing a sermon, I use something called the Revised Common Lectionary to choose my scripture focus. The Lectionary is a selection of four scriptures for each Sunday, which rotates over a three year cycle, years A, B, and C. Each selection includes an Old Testament Lesson, a New Testament Lesson, a Psalm, and a Gospel Lesson, and each year focuses on one of the Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke, with parts of John’s gospel sprinkled through each year. Right now we’re in Lectionary Year C, which focuses on Luke. The new Lectionary Year starts on the first Sunday of Advent, when we’ll focus on Matthew. Many denominations use the lectionary, and so on any given Sunday if you visited a Catholic congregation, a Presbyterian one, or a United Methodist one, you might hear the same scriptures with the same focus to the service.
For me, I like using the lectionary because I like to let the scriptures for a Sunday choose me, instead of me choosing the scriptures. I’m afraid if I choose the scriptures, we’ll end up with only the same small selection of my favorites, but if I let the scriptures choose me, we’ll find passages to challenge us when we’d rather be comforted! And I’ve found that God has an amazing way of working through the texts on the schedule, so that the scriptures for any given week seem to be just what is needed, even if it doesn’t seem so at first. When I first looked at the scriptures for this Sunday, I wasn’t sure what direction to head. Nothing seemed right for our first Sunday together. But finally, a verse from our readings from Hebrew started to catch my attention. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” That’s it for me, the key.
We have both had a summer of changes and transitions. Life never stands still, and sometimes it seems to move with a speed and force we can’t keep up with. You’ve had changes – a pastor who has been here twelve years has left, along with a family and children you watched grow up here. You’re just starting the second year of the Spiritual Push effort, and still learning how to fit yourselves into this new commitment you’ve made. I’ve just left my first pastoral appointment – the first place I was a pastor, the place where I was when I was ordained, where I had my first wedding, funeral, and baptism. I’m still recovering from a broken ankle and surgery and a long summer of physical therapy. You’ve spent a whole summer with a series of guest preachers and Rev. Matt helping to give pastoral care. We’ve been changing, transitioning – and that’s not even mentioning changes in our personal lives – new jobs or new schools, changes in the lives of our friends and family members. Changes everywhere.
But now, from this point forward, our paths have come together. I absolutely
feel that God has called me to be in this place. When Bishop Devadhar asked me
about coming to Franklin Lakes, I didn’t know anything about this congregation.
I wasn’t even sure I had the name right. But I’ve found in my life so far that
when I’m making the right decision, I have a peace about it, and when I haven’t
yet made the right decision, I have this unsettled anxiety that won’t go away
until I change course. And when I talked to Bishop Devadhar about coming here, I
felt a peace. Nervous, yes. Anxious, yes. Hopeful and excited and a little
scared, yes. But at peace, because I feel like God has moved in mysterious ways
to bring me to this place, to you, at this right time. Our paths, in the midst
of so many changes, have come together.
What path
will we take? I don’t know exactly! We’ll have to figure that out together.
There will be changes. Matthew Peligri already told me one way in which Rev.
Dave and I are exact opposites – I’m a vegetarian, and I understand Rev. Dave
didn’t like to eat his vegetables! But in our reading from Hebrews, we learn
that one thing remains the same – the core, the center. “Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday and today and forever.” That means that at the core, our path
together remains much the same. We serve the same Christ today that we did from
our separate places last Sunday. We are loved unconditionally by the same God
today and forever. We have the same challenging call to be disciples as is ever
and always before us. We have the same commandments to follow – to love God, and
to love one another. When we share in communion today, we remember that we are
still part of that one Body of Christ. The same yesterday and today and forever.
In the midst of so many changes, who we are, why we are here, and what we must
do because of what God has done for and in us – all that remains the same.
We don’t know who the author of this book of Hebrews is – unlike most of the other epistles, or letters in the Bible, there is no claim at the beginning of authorship. And unlike the other letters, we don’t know exactly who the intended audience was either. We don’t know if the author was writing to a particular community or not. But what struck me about this passage is that it seems to be a good guideline for a community of faith to live by – a sort of ‘house rules’ passage. Let love for one another continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers – I have already experienced your hospitality, and while we won’t be strangers for very long, I’ve appreciated all the little ways you have reached out to me already. In this passage there are words of challenge – the author encourages us to remember those who are in desperate need – not just to remember them but to think of them as if we were in their place. The passage calls us to imitate those we see who are faithful, to offer praise to God, and to bear the fruit of discipleship in our lives.
Maybe this passage makes things seem simple – simplistic. But I think that what God seeks from us really is very straightforward. In my closing sermon last Sunday in Oneida, I told the congregation that if they boiled down all the many words of my sermons, they’d find that I’m really saying the same few simple things over and over. God loves us unconditionally, and we are called to love God in return, and love others as God loves us. Very simple. It just takes us a long time, a lot of stumbling and failing and trying again sometimes for us to do even very simple things. But these are our tasks if we are to be disciples of Jesus Christ, and I want us to work on them together.
In the midst of so many changes, I trust that we will find our common ground together. Our paths have brought us to this place, and we stand here, as always, surrounded by God’s love, called by God’s grace. Let’s take this path together.
Amen.