Davison's Doodle

Reasonable Oneness: Words for a Sunday

I will not be visiting congregations in-person this fall to ensure that I don’t bring Covid-19 from my part of Oklahoma to another part of the state. Digital worship has materialized as a primary form many of our congregations within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) are keeping the sabbath together. Other cousins in Christian faith are doing the same. i don’t have the presentation skills to be a TV preacher, and I’m not trying to convince someone to make a decision about professing faith in Christ. I am trying to give the hearer or reader an idea to consider, an opportunity for self reflection, and encouragement for their journey in faith.

I’m always honored when I’m gifted the trust of the pulpit by a minister or elders of a congregation. This week I reworked some words I’ve shared in other settings. That may shock some readers, but it is not an uncommon practice for clergy to reuse their words. For me, sometimes I’m just adding a new coat of paint. Sometimes it is a complete renovation. I am a manuscript preacher. I need to polish my presentation skills, but I don’t foresee a time when I won’t have those words I’ve worked on, lived with, and have worked on me in front of me. Below is the text of my sermon. This text is missing my version of Jimmy Fallen’s “thank you notes” and other words of welcome from siblings in faith from Oklahoma.

Reasonable Oneness
Scripture Text: Romans 12

The story goes something like this.  In the first century BCE, a gentile asks two rabbis a provoking question.  “Teach me the whole Torah while standing on one leg.”  One rabbi is angered and hits the gentile with his measuring rod.  The second rabbi responds, “That which is hateful to you, do not unto another: This is the whole Torah.  The rest is commentary and now go study.”

Let us pray.  Open our ears and our hearts, O God, that our meditations, our words, and living are a reflection of our faith in You, who creates, who redeems, and who sustains creation and our lives.  Amen.

This morning I have reminders and a letter about “who we are.” But, as the old joke goes when you put five disciples in a room there are 8 opinions and 11 ideas.  This is a weakness when we think it means we don’t have to be accountable to one another.  And, it’s a strength when we respect the boundaries of covenantal community and hold ourselves accountable to community in our congregations and where we live.

Who are we?

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) celebrates the spirituality that service and study embody when we paint a house, when we discuss how the way of Jesus is lived here in the 21st century, when we provide a meal for a grieving family or help a neighbor.

When the mountains quake or the ground shakes. When the wind blows home away. When rain floods, when fire scorches the land or human failings bring agony and pain, the spirituality of service and study show up locally through our hands, and through the work of Week of Compassion. We can love as God loves. We can and do respond. We can make justice happen.

Service and study strengthen faith and makes life meaningful.  As I’ve grown up in our little frontier movement it seems to me that service and study are a compass, a winnowing stick, and a Geiger counter. Sometimes it takes more than one of these tools to help us reorient, separate noise from truth, and measure our passion to remain grounded in the good news of God.

Disciples understand that Christian unity does not mean sharing the lowest common denominator of belief.  Christian unity means holding all who profess Christian faith to the highest standards of service in the world.  Unity, not uniformity, is the commentary that embraces a curiosity about our differences of belief.  You may remember the old saying that Disciples embraced as a compass: “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity.”  I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but the only kind of unity our culture, and some cousins in Christian faith, can muster right now is transactional. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  But, is that unity?  No.  It is a poor excuse for not doing the work of justice and equality.  

Unity is practiced and pragmatic. It happens when people of good will speak out for, and act on behalf of, the common good: for a local community, a Nation or a congregation.  That kind of unity could be described as reasonable oneness.  I wonder what is it about we humans, even those of us who follow Jesus, that we can only muster that kind of character, that kind of unity in crisis or tragedy or by having an enemy?

Who are we?

We are people who worship on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday, or whenever we engage our community of faith seeking to hear and experience the gospel, the good news: 

that the Lord’s mercies never cease; 
that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning;
and that the Lord’s faithfulness extends beyond our ability to see in a mirror dimly and recognize the image of God in others as well as in our own face.

This morning, I have a portion of a letter from Paul, the Apostle, not Paul the Beetle.  The universal Church and many individual Christians throughout the centuries have thought of the Apostle’s words as “gospel truth” rather than commentary.  Maybe we should hear his words as a voice of wisdom or truth in his time that can inform our own experience anytime, and especially in pandemic time. 

A portion of a letter from Paul, the Apostle, to Christians everywhere: Romans 12 (NRSV)

The New Testament scholar Marcus Borg calls this portion of Romans the so what section as Paul moves from theology about God and Christ to what that theology means when put into practice in our living.  It is counsel about relationships, community, discipleship and being Christian that begins with be a living sacrifice, and “don’t be conformed by this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” 

Is there any doubt that we could use a little renewing of our minds right now?

This is what “renewing your mind” sounded like when I was growing up.

Parent [looking frustrated]: “Why did you do that? 
Me [looking for any reason to not be standing there] “I don’t know?”
Parent:  “Did you stop and think about it first? 
Me: “Umm, no.” 
Parent: “Look, God gave you a mind and the ability to think so use it before you do something like that again.  You’ve been taught better than that.  Go to your room and think about what you did and how you will behave differently next time.” 

That is one of the conversations I carry in adulthood.  Which ones do you carry?  How are you renewing your mind to be reasonable in a culture that, presently, profits from being unreasonable?  How are you renewing your mind in a culture that rewards the unreasonable and the unethical among us?

The greek phrase translated, “spiritual worship,” can also be translated, “reasonable service.” Being a living sacrifice is “reasonable service.” That’s compelling because it challenges the current version of our extra-ordinary, most valuable player, me and my tribe, scarcity driven, red and blue, unreasonable culture.  It seems only tragedy or crisis prevails on our sense of right and wrong: “That which is hateful to you, do not unto another” or maybe, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” resonates better for you. Maybe this is what, “be a living sacrifice” means because somedays, most days, it can feel like carrying a cross.

Hard as it is to imagine, it is reasonable that firefighters and first responders show up when accident, crisis, or tragedy finds its way into life. Because that is what firefighters and first responders do on behalf of strangers they have never met.  You have witnessed it time after time with your own eyes.   Do you ever wonder if you are capable of doing extra-ordinary things?  If called upon, am I capable of following through on that CPR training I received?  Do you ever consider the reasonable things?  Could I let someone with 3 items in their arms go ahead of me in the check-out line when I have a basket full.  Reasonable things in pandemic time: masks and distance, take one mega pack of toilet paper instead of six, share instead of horde. One day we may hear the parable of hand sanitizer and toilet paper.

Reasonable service:

• Let love be genuine, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good  
• Outdo one another in showing honour. 
• Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
• Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
• Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.
• Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.
• Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Reasonable service.  Yes, it requires some risk.  What do you suppose your neighbors find hard to imagine about your reasonable service?  What do you think non-believers say Christians do?

Paul, like the Christ he proclaims, says, change yourself.  Transform yourself and be Christ-like.  Show Jesus the Christ in your living as you interact with people everyday, and you won’t have to wait for the world to change in your 3 feet of influence.  Great!  But, what about the systems that organize our society? What about the systems.

What Paul and Jesus both leave out is, “It’s not easy.”  And in the context of these United States, right now, some days it seems impossible.  But, it is not impossible. Living as a follower of Jesus is a balancing act.  Paul calls it being a living sacrifice.  It was a balancing act for those who began this congregation and for the Christians in Rome to not conform, but to be transformed, to be counter-cultural in our living and not just our worship. 

Paul the Apostle and Paul the Beatle both agree that reasonable service has something to do with love. Be a living sacrifice. That is reasonable oneness, and I think that leads to hearing, maybe even seeing in a mirror dimly, what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 

The rest is just commentary.  Go and serve.  Go and study.