Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Original Manuscript:
My first year of my adult, that is post college life, was a pretty terrible one. The burner in our apartment was slowly dying, and this was during the second snowpocalpse of my time in Maryland. Our landlord was out of the country at the time, and wasn't very helpful when we were able to contact him. I wanted to do something and confront the landlord about this. My roommates did not. I was stuck feeling alone and helpless.At the time I was taking Education for Ministry or EfM, a class that provides lay people the opportunity to learn more about Scripture and Church History. Our group met out of the church I attended at the time, and we opened each week's session with a check-in. When I told my fellow EfM classmates about what was going on with my heat, immediately everyone jumped in to try to help, from legal support to housing and shelter.
Soon after, our landlord returned, the burner was fixed, and the winter let up. But the offer for help remained with me. At my lowest, the church was there for me. My community was there to support me.
That is what our readings today are primarily about. In the Psalm we hear "how good and pleasant it is when brethren live together in unity."
And Acts shows what that community, a Christian community, should look. As in my experience with my EfM, this is a community that is there for each other. They provide for the needs of one another. When one has less, they make sure that one is taken care of.
The Christian Community does this for the same reason 1 John tells us. We are bound together in Christ Jesus. He forgives us our sins. He cleanses us, as 1 John says, through His blood. His body, as we hear in the Gospel, is not left unmarked, but Jesus, knowing the scars He would have, still died for us. He did so out of love.
We are a community that has been forgiven. We are a community that has been loved. We are called to show that same love to one another in our community. We are called, just like the early Christian Community in Acts, to bring others, new people, into our community. We are called to help and support all who we come into contact with to provide the love and services they need.
As St. Paul's, we have worked hard to serve those within our community and to be one as a community. We saw that through the love and support given by so many who were present for Reid's funeral. We see the draw of this community from all who return from the far corners of this country to be present for the great feasts of Christmas and Easter. We see it in our support for one another as neighbors, often times in the literal sense.
We see our love for the wider community in our support of Horseshoe Farm, Colonial Haven, and Sawyerville. My hope is that support will continue to strengthen and grow.
But is it enough? As children in Jesus Christ, we are all continuing to grow as individuals and as a church. We can always do more. We can always be better. We can always grow in reflecting the love Jesus has for us to each other and the world, and we can always do more to show that love.
Thomas Joyner, before my coming here, once asked us that if St. Paul's was gone the next day, would we be missed? Would we be needed? If the answer is yes, then good. We should continue to grow. We should continue to be better. We should continue to be an even more vibrant part of this community.
In growing stronger in our love for one another, we can be even more supportive of those around us, our neighbors. We can strengthen our commitment to local programs we are already involved with. We can look for new ways, new needs to provide for, in order to bring more in to our community.
This is what Scripture is challenging us to do today. We are called not only to keep doing what we are doing, but to do more. We are called not just to love, but to continue to grow in our love. We are called to love one another in order to reflect the love Jesus had for us.
We are called to live into, as we spoke of at Maundy Thursday, not just the wonderful and good Southern Hospitality, but we are called to go the step further with Jesus Hospitality. We are called to give to and serve for others out of nothing less than the same love Jesus showed for us. That self-sacrificing, self-giving love.