THE MORE WE LOVE, THE BIGGER WE ARE

A sermon for Maundy Thursday
by Pastor Laura Gentry

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

We gather this Maundy Thursday as part of our Holy Week journey. It is our symbolic walk with Jesus to the cross. And we pause this night to hear again the story of the last supper Jesus shared with his disciples. It is the Passover meal they are celebrating. They would have retold the great story of how God delivered their ancestors from slavery in Egypt.

It would have been an ordinary Passover, except Jesus does something shocking: he strips off his robe and kneels down to wash each one’s feet. It is probably impossible for us to understand just how outrageous this was for his disciples to witness. Not only were feet literally unclean—what with all the dirt and donkey droppings they’d have to endure in the course of a day—feet were also symbolically unclean according to their religious traditions. Feet in those days definitely needed to be washed, but religious people didn’t wash their own. They had slaves do it for them, and not just any slave, but the lowest slave in the household. It was an embarrassing chore that nobody but nobody would have volunteered to do. So when Jesus decides to take on the task of foot washing, it causes an uproar.

Why would he do such a thing? Why? Because it is an object lesson, an example for them and for us. You see, Jesus is well aware that this is his last night with the disciples and their is one final lesson he aims to teach. He says to them: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Not only is his foot-washing stunt an example of humility and love for us, but it foreshadows his ultimate act of love: his self-sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus is very clear because he knows his time is limited. He commands his disciples to love in the same way that he has loved. That is what it’s all about. Everyone should be able to tell that we are Christians by the way we show love for all people.

Love. In action. That’s the whole lesson Jesus offers us in his final hours. Are we focused enough upon this all-important task?

There is a Family Circus cartoon created by Bill Keane that speaks to this. The children have crept into their parents room to watch them silently sleeping. One of the kids points at the parents and says to his sisters, “They look so sweet and peaceful when they’re asleep. You wonder how they could ever yell at us during the day.”

This is laughable, yes, but does it make us wonder what kids say of us—what those most vulnerable in our society say about the way we treat them. Jonathan Swift, the 17th century satirical writer, said: “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” The Amerian poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was quoted to have said, “I love humanity, but I hate people.” And the commedianne, Lily Tomlin says, “If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?”

Jesus’ commandment to love is clear. It is we who are not clear in our focus to follow this teaching. This annual service of Maundy Thursday is always an important reminder that love—showing itself in humble service—is our highest calling. So tonight, I bring you quotes of inspiration and stories of love.

In First Corinthians, we hear that:

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
(I Corinthians 13:4-8)

Here are some other quotes to make us think about love:

ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING:
Whoso loves, believes the impossible.

GEORGE SAND:
There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.

SØREN KIERKEGAARD:
Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.:
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH:
The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person's life.

ELBERT HUBBARD:
The love we give away is the only love we keep.

OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN, II: (from the musical, Cinderella)
Do you love me because I'm beautiful,
or am I am beautiful because you love me?

I once heard a story about a woman who went to a marriage counselor all by herself to complain of her failing marriage. “I can’t do this any longer. My husband has no regard for my feelings. He is the most insensitive, uncaring person in the whole world—he doesn’t do anything for me anymore. What should I do?”

The therapist quickly replied, “Well it seems obvious that you must leave him. You cannot seem to get your needs met at all and he doesn’t seem to care. In fact, I don’t think he’ll even care that you leave him. I have an idea. Why don’t you get him back for all the emotional trouble he’s given you. Make him sad that you’re leaving him. That’s right. For the next month, I want you to be the perfect wife. Love him, praise him, make his favorite dinner, do his favorite activities with him. Whatever you have to do, make him feel that you are totally in love with him. Just pretend. Then, after a month, leave him with no warning and he’ll be devastated.”

“That sounds remarkable! That’s the best solution I’ve ever heard. I’ll make him sorry he never loved me.” And so she went home and did just that. Every possible thing she could think of to demonstrate love for her husband, the wife did.

The weeks wore on and at the end of the month, the woman came to see her therapist again. “So, how are you doing now that you’ve left that horrible husband of yours?” he asked with a smile.

“Leave him??? Leave him? Why would I want to leave him? Ever since I started showing love for him, he’s become the most loving husband in the world. Not only am I not leaving him, but we’re going on a second honeymoon next week to celebrate the new passion in our marriage.”

What this wise therapist was banking on was the fact that when we show love for others—through action—they feel loved and secure, and generally treat us differently in return. All this woman did was pretend that she loved her husband, which made him love her, which made her fall in love with him again. That’s the power of the action. Jesus showed love in action by washing feet and he asks us to do the same kind of action-oriented loving.

And yet following Jesus’ command to love one another in this way is perhaps the most difficult undertaking of our lives. And it is easy for us to get hurt in the process.. It is a dangerous business—we cannot do it without God’s help. In the wonderful children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams, there is a profound conversation between a toy rabbit and a skin horse:

“What is REAL?” asks the Rabbit one day. The horse replies, “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” “Does it hurt?” The Rabbit asks. “Sometimes,” responds the horse with honesty. “It doesn’t happen all at once,” says the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

Like the Velveteen Rabbit, we too can get pretty ragged in the business of love, but when we are in God’s will for our lives, it doesn’t matter. It is worth it!

And finally, I share with you a story from A Cup of Chicken Soup for the Soul:

A kindergarten teacher read her class a story called, “Big.” Then she asked her students, “What makes you feel big?”
“Bugs make me feel big,” yelled one young student. “Ants!” hollered another. “Mosquitoes,” called out one more.
The teacher, trying to bring some order back to the class, started calling on children with their hands up. Pointing to one little girl, the teacher said, “Yes, dear, what makes you feel big?” “My mommy,” was her reply.
“How does your mommy make you feel big?” quizzed the teacher. “That’s easy,” said the child. “When she hugs me and says I love you, Jessica.”

The late preacher William Sloane Coffin, Junior adds to this message with his enduring quote: “Love measures our stature: the more we love, the bigger we are.”

Jesus is the supreme example of this: by humbling himself he became big. By loving us, he makes us feel big. And the more we love, the bigger we are. May we follow his example by sharing God’s love every day. Amen.

© 2009 Laura Gentry

WHEN BEING RIGHT IS WRONG

A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
February 1, 2009
Pastor Laura Gentry

1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him. Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one." Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords-- yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall. (NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

There’s an old story about a man who was put on a very strict diet—he was to have no sweets and very little fat. And everything went well for him for the first week. Then one morning, he showed up at work with a large, decadent, half-eaten coffee cake. One of his co-workers questioned him, “I thought you were on a diet?”

“Oh, I am,” he replied, “but this is a very special coffee cake because God wanted me to have it.”

“God wanted you to have it?” the coworker asked skeptically.

“Well yes, I was driving down the street minding my own business this morning, when I heard this coffee cake calling out to me from the window of the bakery I was passing. It called and called, ‘buy me, buy me.’ So I prayed to God and said, ‘God, if you really want me to have that coffee cake who is calling out to me, let there be an open parking spot right in front of the bakery.’ And you know, sure enough, on the fifth time around the block, there was an empty parking spot right there in front of the bakery!”

Many of us have been on diets and have struggled to avoid those tempting treats that seem to call out to us. Yet, we would rarely consider our diet a religious issue as the man in the story with the coffee cake did.

But that’s exactly what is going on in our second lesson for today from First Corinthians. The issue was not about losing weight, however, it was about losing faith. You see, most of the meat available at the local butcher shops was leftover from sacrificial ceremonies in pagan temples. What do you do with all those sacrificed animals? You sell it for meat. Therefore, trying to find non-pagan meat was difficult. It’s not like your waitress would say to you, “Hamburger, and a large Coke, okay...oh, did you want that burger pagan or non-pagan?” It would be kind of like trying to find a meatless steak at Sizzler—believe me, I know how difficult that can be. Non-pagan meat was simply hard to come by. But according to the Jerusalem agreement (Acts 15:29) Gentile Christians were supposed to abstain from meat sacrificed to these gods because it was considered idolatry.

Now this may sound like a little technicality, a silly issue to you and me. But to the Christians in Corinth, it was a huge matter. Corinth, you must understand, was a dominantly pagan city. The Christians were the minority in this culture. It was a large metropolitan area in the center Greece that was known for its wealth and its impropriety. On a hill overlooking the city, there was a temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. It is said that there were about a thousand prostitutes who worked out of the temple. And in addition to the prostitution, there was an abundance of alcohol abuse. Indeed, Corinth was “Sin City” in those days.

Many Christians in Corinth were converts from paganism. And for them, to eat meat which had been sacrificed to the pagan idols was a big struggle. It made them feel like they were slipping back into their old religion—that they were moving away from the God of Israel and back into their pagan ways. And of course, being a Christian requires that you give all your allegiance to God, not to any “false gods” and certainly not to any idols of the pagan religions. To do this, the Christian converts simply had to stay away from all thing pagan, including the bargains at the pagan meat counter.

Meanwhile, however, there was another group of Christians in Corinth. They believed they had every right to eat this meat. Why? Because, they claimed, these idols do not really exist, only God does. So, therefore, food sacrificed to them has not meaning. There is only one God, so what’s the problem? “We can eat it and it doesn’t compromise our faith one bit!” they argued. Since they were so strong in their faith, they didn’t have the issues with pagan meat that the new Christians did.

So all of this led to a division in the Christian church. Can you imagine that— Christians having differing opinion about matters of faith? Indeed, Christians have always had trouble navigating the do-s and don’t-s of the faith. So the Apostle Paul is called upon to help them figure out how to solve this disagreement. That’s what today’s scripture is: a letter Paul wrote to these Christians of Corinth. He explains that yes, the strong Christians are right: the idols don’t exist and since there is only one God, there is no real harm in eating this food. But he goes on to explain that they are also wrong. Because they are eating meat sacrificed to idols, and oftentimes they are eating it right in the pagan temples, they are leading others astray. These new Christians see them doing so and feel that perhaps it is okay to stray from the Christian faith and return to pagan worship. So, Paul plainly states: by having such great knowledge, by being right, you are wrong because you are leading people astray. Thus—and I love this part—he arrives at a vegetarian conclusion to the problem. He writes: “If food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.” Isn’t that great?

But actually, I must admit, the modern application of this teaching has nothing to do with meat. We no longer have the issue of meat sacrificed to idols. But we do still face the issue of the secular world being pressing in on our Christian faith, just as the Corinthians did. What worldly activities can we safely participate in without compromising our faith?

What we must remember is that what’s okay for you might not be okay for someone else. So Paul urges us to really examine what we do. “Are my behaviors becoming of a Christian?” We must ask ourselves. “How does it look to others? Might it lead them to stray from their faith?”

But then you may say that if we refrain from every activity that might lead someone into sin, we’d end up locked away doing nothing and then we’d have no ability to witness to the Gospel! And Paul would have agreed with that. We are bound to offend someone at some point, even if we are trying not to. So are there some hard and fast rules about what we can and cannot do as Christians so that if we just stick to them we’ll be okay? If only it were that easy! Paul believed that each Christian should use his or her own judgment on these matters. “Let everyone be convinced in their own mind.” He writes in Romans 14:5. In each circumstance of life, we are to be sensitive to the needs of others around us and make a judgment call about what behaviors would be appropriate to engage in and what would not be.

Really, what this all boils down to is love. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” If we go around smugly doing what we believe is theologically and morally permissible based upon our great wealth of knowledge, we could be hurting others in the process. Exercising our rights as a Christian could well wrong another. It is not being right that counts—for there are times when being right is wrong. What is important is our love and concern for others, especially others who do not share our values and perspectives. God deals so graciously with us; and so in turn, we are to be gracious toward others.

The only problem with this is that love is difficult. There is a Buddhist saying that goes: “He who loves 50 people has 50 woes. He who loves no one has no woes.” So love is woe? I’m afraid so.

We have trouble loving. It’s hard to love others and it’s hard to love ourselves. The spiritual teacher Pema Chodron wrote: “The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.” His point is that to be open and loving with others requires being open and loving with ourselves—looking upon ourselves as God looks upon us.

When we can do this, we find that love is joy. It is the whole thing. When we come to die and we look back at our lives, what we’ll be able to hold onto is the love we have given and received. Everything else pales in comparison. That’s why Jesus came to show us how to love. And that’s why Paul urges us to use our Christian freedom in a way that is loving. Even though we have to curb our behavior, it is worth it. What matters is not how much we know, but how much we love.


Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

© 2009 Laura E. Gentry

SHOES & SERVICE

A Sermon for Maundy Thursday
March 20, 2008
by Pastor Laura Gentry

John 13:1-13, 33-35
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”


Shoes! Don’t you just love shoes? I do. I confess I have a particular weakness for shoes. I especially love the bold and bright, the interesting, whimsical as well as the comfortable. In fact, I’ve brought a few of these tonight—just my favorite ones, the ones that really demanded to make an appearance.

First, my newest: fuchsia Crocs. They just arrived yesterday and I’ve already got them mostly broken in. I’ve resisted getting Crocs because, frankly they’ve been a bit too popular and on most people they look rather silly. But after reading a review that says even podiatrists are now recommending them because of their extreme comfort, I broke down and got a pair. Of course, the fact that they were available in fuchsia was also another plus.

I’ve also got these fuchsia shoes, which I painted myself nearly 15 years ago. I had a dress this color and couldn’t find any other shoes to match so I painted these. As you can imagine, they went splendidly with my dress!

There are also my orange Keen shoes, which helped me walk comfortably all over Bulgaria and slip off easily while in the car or airplane. I’ve got these patent leather red Danskos, also known for their great comfort. Professionals who are on their feet a lot, like nurses and chefs tend to wear them. They helped me stand in museums all over Scandinavia without any back pain.

Now even though comfort is important to me, so is style. That’s why I have these patterned boots (and I’ve got a matching suit and handbag for them). I’m also a sucker for polka dots and so I’ve got the red polka dotted gardening clogs and the retro polka dotted sandals. And while these are perhaps my most uncomfortable shoes, they also get the most compliments and look fabulous with my polka dotted apparel.

As I look at this portion of my shoe collection, I am reminded of all the places my shoes have taken me. I think of that old saying about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. And as we have come to Maundy Thursday, we take upon ourselves the task of walking the way of the cross in Jesus’ shoes. We hear again the passion narrative with all the painful steps and we remember how much his journey means to each one of us.

And tonight, we hear how this journey to the cross continues from where we left off on Sunday. We heard of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The cheering crowds, waving palms and shouting “Hosanna” was certainly an exciting part of Jesus’ walk. But now, he dines with his disciples for what he knows will be the last time before his death. It is likely the Passover meal they are celebrating. They would have retold the great story of how God delivered their ancestors from slavery in Egypt.

But suddenly, Jesus does something unexpected: he strips off his robe and kneels down to wash each one’s feet. Feet? Why does it have to be feet? This is such an important night—their last supper—and he has to drag feet into it.

Feet are perhaps the most unglamorous thing about us. They are kind of funny looking, they can give us pain, they are hard to reach because they are way down at the bottom of our bodies and worse of all, they stink! Well, at least after a day of use, they tend to stink. One year for Christmas, someone gave me a bottle of “Albert Einstein’s ‘No More Smelly Shoes!’” spray. A hint? Perhaps. There are many such products because, well, foot smell is a reality. Even my new Crocs advertise that they are built with an antibacterial material as well as ventilation air holes to keep your feet smelling nice all day.

Now in the time of Jesus, feet were even more problematic. They didn’t have any great products like this Einstein spray or stinkless rubber shoes and people wore open-toed sandals and walked through dusty deserts and messy downtowns where people drove donkeys instead of SUVs, so you can imagine the mess that their feet would have been through in any given day. Yet, here is Jesus grabbing up those day-old feet and lovingly washing them.

It’s a bit difficult for us to understand how outrageous this was for his disciples to witness. On top of the hygiene issue, feet were symbolically unclean according to their religious traditions. Yes, feet needed to be washed, but religious people didn’t wash their own. They had slaves do it for them, and not just any slave, but the lowest slave in the household. It was an embarrassing chore that nobody but nobody would have volunteered to do. So there is, no doubt, shock when Jesus decides to do this task himself.

Why would he do such a thing? Jesus explains a few verses later when he tells them: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Not only is his foot-washing stunt an example of humility and love for us, but it foreshadows his final act of love: his self-sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus does not beat around the bush. He commands his disciples to love in the same way that he has loved. And why wouldn’t he? His whole life centered around this message. The love of Christians for all people should be the distinguishing mark by which the world recognizes them as followers of Jesus.

So if Jesus’ commandment is so clear: that we are to love one another, why aren’t we Christians more focused on that task? Why is it that this priority sometimes take a back seat to less important issues—even within the church? How is the world going to know that we are Christians if we do not love? This annual service of Maundy Thursday is always an important reminder that love—showing itself in humble service—is our highest calling.

How that service plays out in our daily lives is up to us, but the commandment is clear: serve. And so we ritualize this annually at our Maundy Thursday worship service. Last year, I decided that instead of just talking about foot-washing, I should give you the opportunity to come forward and have your feet washed. There were a couple of “plants” in the congregation that I had arranged with ahead of time. They promised me that even if nobody else came forward, they would do so. Even just a couple of foot-washings would be a sufficient object lesson. To my surprise, however, most people came forward and let me wash their feet! It was a powerful experience for all of us and so we’re doing it again tonight.

Many of us feel rather self-conscious about our feet, even if we are wearing nice shoes on them. To come forward and take off a sock and let it be washed, demands that you let go of those inhibitions and come as you are. This is not about how your feet look, though. This is about experiencing what the disciples got to experience. It is about being served in a symbolic, humble gesture so that it will empower you to go out and do likewise.

Our feet carry us so many places in the course of our lives. Jesus wants to have control of those feet. He wants to wash them in his love and self-sacrificial death on the cross and he wants to empower them to continue his work so that we walk in “his shoes” in the light of God.

I urge you to think about your feet in this Holy Week journey. As they are washed tonight, may you listen carefully to what the Spirit is saying to you. Where exactly are your feet supposed to take you? Perhaps it is to that family member of friend with whom you have a conflict. Your feet need to go make peace. Perhaps it is to that person in physical pain. Your feet need to take you to their bedside. Perhaps it is to that outsider whom everyone else has forgotten. Your feet need to include them, to take you to them so they can feel included. Perhaps it is to those people across the globe in need. Your feet need to serve them through the funding of missionaries or perhaps even becoming one yourself. There are endless possibilities for your little feet. They have great journeys to make. To walk in Jesus’ shoes means that we must always be eager to help, to uplift, to comfort, to support and to serve. That’s what being a disciple is all about.

On this Holy Thursday, our feet are compelled to take action. Jesus calls us to love one another, generously, recklessly, without counting the cost. That’s why Jesus spent his very last evening on earth washing his disciples feet and emphatically issuing this new commandment—a commandment which speaks to us as loudly today as it did then. May we walk in the light of Christ, polka dotted shoes and all. Amen.

© 2008 Laura Gentry

A GRACE-FILLED LIFE

A Sermon for The Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 10, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Luke 7:11-17
Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!” This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country. (NRSV)


Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Before this scene in our gospel lesson from Luke, Jesus has healed a highly valued slave of a centurion. But it is the faith of the centurion himself that is most impressive. He believes if Jesus just says the word, his servant will be healed. And sure enough, he was right. Jesus says, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” (Luke 7:9)

Now, Jesus arrives in the town of Nain. As he enters the gates, Jesus notices a funeral procession leaving the town. They are carrying out a dead man. He is the only son of a mother who has already been widowed. Now she has no men to protect her and provide for her financial well-being, as these were the rules of her patriarchal culture. The scripture doesn’t tell us just how devastated this woman is, but given her circumstances, we can be sure she is immeasurably grieved.

A pastor friend of mine officiated at a funeral of a baby that was stillborn. The child’s mother knew from early in her pregnancy that the child would not live, but still she carried the baby for many more months, hoping for a miracle. Alas, when delivery time came, her child emerged into the world fully formed, beautiful, but not alive. At the graveside service, the tiny casket was placed into the hole in the earth because it was too small to sit on top like they do with adult-sized caskets. The mother was so overwhelmed with grief, that she jumped into the hole to embrace the casket of her tiny child once more. It was a devastating moment for everyone. Sometimes grief is just too horrible to even witness.

So it must have been for the mother of this adult child in Nain. Then, along comes Jesus. He sees the mother’s intense grief and he says to her, “Do not weep.” How can she not weep? It almost seems like he is mocking her pain.

But then he moves toward the dead body and he says, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” (Luke 7:14) The dead man sits up and begins to speak. Resurrection! Before everyone’s eyes.

I have always wanted to witness something like that, haven’t you? I remember when I was a child, one of the first visitations I went to was for an elderly woman named Mrs. Zurcher. She was a dear friend of our family. I was somewhere around third grade when she died and as I stood before her casket, I just could not believe Mrs. Zurcher was gone. She looked so lifelike. I was absolutely determined that if I watched closely enough, I would see her chest rise and fall. I kept a close eye on her throughout the time we were at the visitation because I had concocted an elaborate fantasy that she would suddenly open her eyes and begin to speak to us, saying something like, “Oh for Pete’s sake, dry your eyes everyone! I’m not dead anymore.”

Knowing how much I wanted Mrs. Zurcher to reawaken from her slumber of death, I have a sense of how relieved and amazed the people of Nain must have been when the man was resurrected. How surprising! How amazing! What a miracle! I don’t even think they could have put into words what they were feeling in that moment.

Let’s think for a moment how different this healing story is from the one just before it. In that instance, the centurion dazzled Jesus with his great faith in his request to have the servant healed of his illness. Here, the woman is minding her own business, going along with the funeral procession of her son. She doesn’t ask Jesus to heal him, she doesn’t demonstrate any faith. We don’t even know if she harbors the hope of her son waking up as I did with Mrs. Zurcher. Maybe she’d like Jesus’ help very much but she doesn’t feel worthy to ask for it. We have no idea what was going on in her head. All we know is that her only son has died and she is weeping.

Unlike the centurion, the mother has demonstrated no faith—at least none that the gospel writer saw fit to mention. And when her son is raised, there is no report that she even thanked him.

So, it doesn’t seem to me that this story is about faith. It doesn’t even seem to be about gratitude, though both of these things are wonderful. No, I think what Luke is trying to teach us by including this miracle story is that our God, as demonstrated by Jesus Christ, is a God of grace. Grace—the unearned, unwarranted, unbelievably lavished-upon-us love of God—comes to us not because we are faith-filled or particularly thankful but because God is good, because God simply wants to love us. The resurrection in the story doesn't happen because of a mother's strong belief. It happens because Jesus has compassion for her. This story is not about the woman or her son, but about the amazing compassion and grace Jesus offers. The point is that when grace comes into our lives, it requires nothing of us but to receive it.

How have you experienced grace? In my years in ministry, I have heard some pretty remarkable grace stories. Some people have beat cancer or other life-threatening illnesses. Others have even been pronounced dead and seen the light and heard God’s voice and then been brought back to life—to have a second chance. Some people have come out of a deep depression to find joy and wholeness. Some have found reconciliation in a relationship they thought was entirely over. Still others have found the strength to move on with their lives after a tragic loss. And a great many haven’t had anything dramatic happen, but they have experienced the grace of knowing Christ as a Savior who walks with them throughout their lives.

You see, this story teaches us that God’s grace is all around us at each and every moment. That we are alive is itself a miracle, a gift of God. We cannot do anything to make God love us any less because God is just that loving. God is a God who zealously seeks out and snatches up the lost sheep. And so grace is not just some abstract concept, some idea we like to toy around with in the church. It is a concrete reality. It brings life out of death. It brings hope to the hopeless. It forgives the unforgivable. It promises us eternal life with God. And it has to power to so transform us, that we can offer grace to others as a natural outpouring of the delightful grace in our own hearts.

In this season of Pentecost, we focus upon the Holy Spirit—how it is at work within our lives and how it seeks to develop deeper, more substantial faith in us. And today, as we witness the miracle of grace in our gospel story and we are invited to ponder anew the amazing power of grace at work in us. How is grace working in and among us? How completely loved do you feel? And how does this grace compel you to take bold and loving action in the world? May these questions draw us to an even more grace-filled life. Amen.

© Laura E. Gentry 2007

NO HANDS BUT YOURS

A Sermon for Maundy Thursday
April 5, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry


John 13:34-35
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (New Revised Standard Version)





Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

There is an old story about a statue of Jesus that stood outside a small village in Normandy. It was wrecked by the shelling during the war . Well, it wasn’t totally destroyed, but the hands were. And this statue was the pride and joy of the village and so after the war, the villagers debated at length on what to do about the damage. One group argued that it was so badly damaged that it should be trashed and a new one erected it its place. Another group objected, arguing that the village artisan—whose specialty was the restoration—could easily take care of the job. Finally, a third group came up with a proposal that ultimately carried the day: that the statue be cleaned up, but remain handless; and that a plaque be placed at its base with the inscription: “I have no hands but yours.”

When I think of this Maundy Thursday gospel lesson from John, I always think of this story. This is, indeed, Jesus’ message to his disciples and to us: I have no hands but yours.

It is clear from John’s Gospel that Jesus knows exactly what is about to befall him—not one of the coming events will take him by surprise. Knowing it is their last evening together, Jesus has a lot to tell his disciples in these final hours. So how does he begin this important last supper together? By washing their feet! This is an unbelievably humble thing to do—for to do so, Jesus behaves like a slave and not just any slave, but the lowest slave in the household. It is shocking for the disciples to see Jesus take on such a lowly role. So why, why would he do such a thing?

Jesus explains a few verses later when he tells them: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Not only is his foot-washing stunt an example of humility and love for us, but it foreshadows his final act of love: his self-sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus does not beat around the bush. He commands his disciples to love in the same way that he has loved. And why wouldn’t he? His whole life centered around this message. The love of Christians for all people should be the distinguishing mark by which the world recognizes them as followers of Jesus.

So if Jesus’ commandment is so clear: that we are to love one another, why aren’t we Christians more focused on that task? Why is it that this priority sometimes take a back seat to less important issues—even within the church? How is the world going to know that we are Christians if we do not love? This annual service of Maundy Thursday is always an important reminder that love is our highest calling.

There was a movie that came out in 1996 called “Marvin’s Room.” Diane Keaton got an Oscar nomination for her role in this film. Her character, Bessie, is a middle-aged woman who has spent twenty years of her life being the sole caretaker of her ill father and an ailing aunt. Then she finds out that she, too, is ill—she is suffering from leukemia, and with no available bone marrow donor, she realizes she won’t be able to care for her family by herself anymore. Even in this moment of painful realization, Bessie’s voice trembles with joy as she says to her sister, “I have had so much love in my life.” Her sister patronizingly responds, “Yes, Bessie, there are a lot of people who love you.” But Bessie says, “No I mean, I have given so much love.” Bessie’s life was full—it was overflowing with love because she had given so much love. She became the hands of Christ to her family and friends, she took on the servant’s role and this is what filled her life with meaning and love.

Following Jesus’ command to love one another is perhaps the most difficult undertaking of our lives. And it is easy for us to get hurt when we strive to be loving. It is a dangerous business—we cannot do it without God’s help. In the popular children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams, there is a profound conversation between a toy rabbit and a skin horse:

“What is REAL?” asks the Rabbit one day. The horse replies, “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” “Does it hurt?” The Rabbit asks. “Sometimes,” responds the horse with honesty. “It doesn’t happen all at once,” says the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

Like the Velveteen Rabbit, we too can get pretty ragged in the business of love, but when we are in God’s wonderful will for our lives, it doesn’t matter. It makes us real!

There is no greater calling than to be Christ’s hands—to love one another, generously, recklessly, without counting the cost. That’s why Jesus spent his very last evening on earth washing his disciples feet and emphatically issuing this new commandment—a commandment which speaks to us as loudly today as it did then. It compels us to invite God to fill our hearts with love, that we may share it with our hurting world.

As we move further into our Holy Week journey with Jesus to the cross, may we recognize that the central ideal which he held up was this mandate to love. May we seek to promote this ideal with our lives, too. May we have the courage to embody the compassion of God wherever and whenever we can, for Christ has ascended and it now up to his followers to carry on his work. And so tonight, he says to us, “I have no hands but yours.” Amen.

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.


© Laura E. Gentry 2007

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Tonight's theme is love. I've created this painting with the cross embedded in a heart, symoblizing that Christ's act of self-sacrifice was an act of love. And there are figures embracing beneath the cross, showing how followers of Christ are called to share his love. The following scriptures upon which to ponder are all from the New Revised Standard Version.

Isaiah 54:9-10
This is like the days of Noah to me: Just as I swore that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 43:1-7
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; I will say to the north, “Give them up,” and to the south, “Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth— everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

John 15:9-13
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Isaiah 30:18-26
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like filthy rags; you will say to them, “Away with you!” He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures; and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water—on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the injuries of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

Ephesians 1:3-13
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;

1 John 4:7-11
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.