I am not hopeful like I was on our last due date. In fact, we conceived our son a week after my last due date, but, like the first baby, he died too. All my babies are dead, and I have since discovered that without genetic testing of an embryo before implantation, we have a slim chance of ever having a living baby, especially because I can't get pregnant easily in the first place.
And yet, as I preached from Paul's Letter to the Romans 5:1-5 and Rebecca Solnit's bookHope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities just two Sundays ago, hope is not the same as positivity and optimism. That kind of hope disappoints, as I have suffered three years to receive the gift that I have known I wanted since I was twenty-months-old and became a big sister for the first time. I know that no matter how much I may hope to bear a child, I may never become pregnant. And I am comforted that the medical end of our journey to become parents is in sight. But hope is really about action; it is about living into possibilities that we cannot begin to imagine, but that we can still influence in one way or another. As we begin this journey in our new house and new city with new jobs, we continue to act to build our family. Because those actions may influence us to become better parents and better Christians and better activists and more authentically ourselves. Because those actions may be a glimmer of light for someone else who is struggling. Because those actions are ways we can move forward in love for ourselves, love for others, and love for God.
I didn't notice until after we bought the house, but there is a maple tree and a scraggly pine tree framing our home. Both are the trees I remember my autumn and Christmas babies by.
If
I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have
love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic
powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my
body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
...
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come
to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will
come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in
part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I
reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to
childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will
see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully,
even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide,
these three; and the greatest of these is love.
2
Corinthians 13:11-13 (NRSV)
Finally,
brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my
appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love
and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All
the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of
God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Sermon:
Let
us pray:
Patient
teacher, we give you thanks. We should always start with thanks
because no matter how weak our faith or how slim our hope, we always
have your love. So we thank you. And we ask through the words of my
mouth and the meditations of our hearts this morning that you may
help us always to name that love and be part of that love ourselves
this day and always. Amen.
How
many of you like love stories? Me too! In the famous romance story
Star
Wars,
the first time Han and Leia express their love for one another, it
went a little something
like this:
That
is true love right there. What does it have to do with our scripture
from 1st
and 2nd
Corinthians? Nothing, I just wanted to make a Star
Wars
reference in my goodbye sermon to all of you.
Anyway,
love stories have been on my mind as I prepared to say goodbye to all
of you. Not romantic ones, except for Star
Wars
of course. Even though this 1 Corinthians 13 passage is frequently
used at weddings, the love it describes is not a romantic love in the
least. The apostle Paul who wrote this letter to the early
Corinthians church was not the most romantic guy. He wanted us to
understand at least a little bit the kind of love that God has for
us. You see, romantic love may inspire us, spark something within us,
but it is not stable. It must be grounded in commitment if it is to
endure any length of time, and even then it does not always last. But
that doesn't mean love, the love that God has used as the foundation
of our being, the love God has taught us through the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, the love that God offers us each and
every day through the movement of the Spirit, is not stable. In fact,
the scripture verse that keeps coming to mind is the last from this
chapter: And
now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of
these is love.
I
talked about faith not long ago. I said that it was more than just
believing something to be true. Intellectually, we may know something
to be true, but that doesn't always mean that we no longer have
doubts in our hearts. Nor is faith the trust that the storms in life
will pass or reveal a greater gift. Faith is about leaning into the
presence of God even when we are afraid.
And
yet, that is easier said than done.
I
talked about hope just last week. About how hope can disappoint us,
but when it does it is not the hope God is calling us to. God is not
calling us to a specific outcome, to be postivie or optimistic. God
is calling us to act into the possibilites for good that God is
constantly creating.
And
yet, still it is hard to hope.
But
the greatest of these is love. That's what Paul tells us. In fact, he
writes that is all you have is hope, that is not enough. He writes
that if all you have is faith, you are nothing. He writes, If
I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have
love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic
powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my
body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
It almost sounds harsh. But my experience is that this love is what
sustains us when our faith slips. Love is what holds onto hope when
we no longer can. Love can transform us in the darkest hour of our
lives because love never ends.
In
the last four years I have been your pastor, I have seen the
transformational power of love through this church. I have watched
when I bring one of you with me to see someone in the hospital or at
home, and I have seen their whole faces change. Sure it means a lot
to have the pastor come visit, but to have a fellow church member
come visit, someone you have known for years, that means something
even more. I have watched as you have offered help to one another,
whether it is a ride somewhere or letting someone stay with you. One
person told me this week that even though she doesn't have biological
family in Edgewood anymore, people in church have adopted her and
become her family, taking her to doctor's appointments, bringing her
meals, and helping her find someone to help around the house. Another
told me he introduces members of the church as his siblings because
that's how connected he feels. I have been witness to the
transforming power of love as our youth have gone on mission trips
and as our children have played with a Muslim youth group. I have
watched people sit and listen with our guests experiencing
homelessness at the shelter, offering them anointing for healing. I
have watched you love one another as Jesus loved us, which was the
commandment he gave to us before his death and resurrection in the
Gospel of John.
I,
too, have been on the receiving end of that love. When I came to
Presbury, I'd like to think I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready
to work. Deer Creek and Mt. Tabor had taught me how to pastor, and
helped me to fall in love with the church again, and I was ready to
get to know you and jump right into ministry. You put up with my
hare-brained ideas, indulged my geeky-ness, and cleaned up after me
when I threw confetti around everywhere. You welcomed Aaron, and even
though he still considers himself to be a Baptist, he knows you are
his church home. He felt included and valued and discipled here. And
when we had the worst year of our lives, you were there, laying hands
on Aaron to ask for his healing, sending us cards and sharing your
own stories of loss so we did not feel so alone, and continually
telling me you were praying for me. You caravaned to Washington D.C.
to celebrate my ordination. You hugged us, laughed more with
us that at
us, cried with us, and continue to cover us in prayer. That love has
lifted us up, kept us floating above water when we have struggled
with our grief and anxiety so much that our own faith and hope have
waned. God poured love into you, and you poured it out onto us.
Maybe
using the Star
Wars
clip about love was not so disjointed after all. Me telling you that
I love you may make you want to say, duh, we know. But I don't think
you do
know
how much your love has carried us through. You might say that it is
your work as the church to love. And it is. But churches are not
often described as loving places, but rather as places of judgment
and hypocrisy. But even when we fall short here at Presbury, we are
still a loving community, trying to learn to love better. So thank
you--- which incidentally was my response to Aaron when he first told
me he loved me. But that's another story.
Love
doesn't always get the words right, the way that faith tries to. Love
doesn't work toward vision of what the future will hold, the way
faith does. Love is.
We know only in part, as Paul reminds us. But love reminds us that we
are fully known by God, in all our struggles, in our defeats, in our
joys, and God loves us.
God
expresses that love to others through us. Our world is in such need
of the love that is crammed into the people in this building. After a
week of news of mass shootings at even a congressional baseball game
wondering when it will be difficult for people who should not have
guns to get guns, of yet another trial in which a murder of a black
man is seen as inconsequential when the officer who killed Philando
Castile was acquitted, and yet another trial that reminds us why so
few people report sexual abuse that ended with a deadlocked jury
because can women be believed over a rich, powerful man? And that's
just the news. What hurt is here in our church, here in our
community? Such hurt cannot be healed except with love. You have
shown it to me and to one another. You have shared it in service and
in mission. And you need to keep on sharing it now, with your new
pastor Tiffany, with your siblings in this new church partnership at
Cranberry, and with all of Edgewood. Because you never know who is
feeling drained of their faith and hope and in need of a little love
to remind them why they are on this earth in the first place. You
yourself may be in that position. Your faith may feel a little shaky,
like mine has, especially since Aaron's mom died. Your hope may
flicker like it is going out, like mine has through this whole
journey of infertility and miscarriage. As you face this new
transition with a new pastor and a new partner church, your faith and
hope may be solid but you may still be nervous and anxious. But love
never ends. You only have to turn to one another to find the love
that God pours out through us.
Thank
you for the ways you have been part of my love story with God. And
for allowing me to be part of yours. I look forward to seeing how the
story continues with Pastor Tiffany and continues as Aaron and I go
to Calvary. When Paul wrote the second letter to the Corinthians, he
gave them farewell advice. It's short advice, and good, but my advice
for you is simply to love one another. For, as Paul wrote to the
Corinthians and I am sure is true for you, the
God of love and peace will be with you.
Always. Amen.