Sermon delivered by David Burrow August 11, 2024 - First Congregational Church, Algona, Iowa
Click here for an audio version of this sermon (16 MB - .mp3)
At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.
What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one
of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in
search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more
over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of
these little ones be lost.
So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another.
Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.
Those who steal must give up stealing; rather, let them labor, doing good work with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.
Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.
Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
When I agree to speak at church it’s always a
bit of a struggle to figure out just what I’m going to preach on. It’s
traditional to choose one or all of the readings in the weekly lectionary to
guide a sermon. When I checked out today’s lectionary, though, I didn’t get a
lot of inspiration. The suggested readings included three I chose not to include
in today’s service: a passage from Samuel about the death of Absalom (a
character I have to admit I’ve barely even heard of), a psalm that began with
the words “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord”, and a gospel reading from
John about bread (which seemed a bit out of place in a week we’re not having
communion).
I chose to replace those readings with a couple that are found in the daily
lectionary for the coming week, and the only one of today’s readings I kept was
from Ephesians. That’s what I chose to make the basis for today’s message.
The key phrase in this scripture is “Be imitators of God”, and much of the rest
tells us how we can go about doing just that. Do good work, and share with the
needy. Speak good, rather than evil. Be kind and tenderhearted. Put away all
bitterness, and do not let the sun go down on your anger.
Being imitators of God means we can’t just say we’re Christians and call it a
day. We need to put our beliefs into action.
Being imitators of God is especially important as our world becomes more
secular. A survey by Pew Research in 2023 found that for the first time the
majority of Americans did not describe themselves as religious. 22% described
themselves as “spiritual, but not religious”, and an additional 30% said that
they respect religion, but not religious people.
When further probed, many people said they liked Christianity in theory, but
they found that most Christian people they knew were hypocritical. They also
said they felt Christians were too political and that they wanted to impose
their views on other people, but they didn’t want to treat others with respect.
When that’s the view people have of Christianity, is it any wonder church
numbers and respect for the church keep going down.
Too many Christians seem to think that being an “imitator” of God means being
fake. Instead it means we should strive to have as many of the same
characteristics of God as we possibly can have. As the scripture tells us, we
should be tenderhearted, we should walk in love, and we should offer forgiveness
to other people.
There’s a big need for people to act like God in today’s world. We seem to be
full of divisions, and far too many people hear only the echo chambers of social
media. Too often we see things as two extreme sides, without looking for a
middle ground. Too many politicians cash in on anger; they want us to be mad
about everything rather than seeing the good that’s all around us. This leads to
hate speech and to people questioning the very humanity of others. That’s not
being tenderhearted or walking in love, and it's anything but imitating God.
I just got back from a road trip vacation. I spent a lot of the time I was
driving listening to audiobooks, and there were two of those books that stood
out, both of them autobiographies. One was called Kicking and Dreaming, the
memoir of Ann Wilson, the lead singer of the rock group Heart. One thing that
intrigued me was that she grew up as a member of the Congregational church in
Bellevue, Washington, and she still credits the U.C.C. for a lot of her
background and beliefs.
Mostly, though, Wilson’s autobiography is a story of overcoming things. It tells
her journey from being taken advantage of as an inexperienced woman in a
predatory industry to becoming a calm and happy grandmother. She replaced hate
and anger with joy and love, precisely what today’s scripture directs us to do.
The other book that stood out while I was on vacation was The Answer Is, the
autobiography of the late game show host Alex Trebek. In reflecting on his life
and career, Trebek notes that he always tried hard to avoid being political in
any way or perceived of as having any sort of an opinion, but he said the advice
he would give to everyone is summed up in a song from his youth: “What the World
Needs Now is Love”.
Trebek’s advice was echoed by a bumper sticker I happened to see on vacation. I
spent an afternoon hiking in Delaware Water Gap on the border of Pennsylvania
and New Jersey, and when I came back there was a car parked next to mine that
had a message on the back that said “Believe in nice”. That’s really what Paul
is telling us in our scripture today, and if there’s nothing else we get out of
it, I hope it’s that. May we all “believe in nice”.
(C) 2024 davidmburrow@yahoo.com