Spread the Love

Spread the Love
Rev. Alan Claassen
Pentecost Sunday May 11, 2008
Acts 2: 1-13 John 4: 7-21

Four weeks ago I began a sermon series on the “E” word. Acknowledging that many people are uncomfortable with the idea of evangelism, I suggested that our “E” word be “Enthusiasm.” Which is a perfectly good replacement of a word, because enthusiasm comes from the Greek words , en theos, en-god-ed.
The source of actions, the source of our mission in life, in church, in work, in family, in retirement, is God. Our enthusiasm comes from experiencing being loved by God.
Beginning in the love of God, we see that our mission is to bring more kindness, love and honesty into every action and choice that we make. When we practice the presence of God in our actions and choices we begin to deepen our experience of God, our trust in God, and we also deepen our knowledge of ourselves. We gain in self-confidence as we gain in God confidence.
We realize what it means to be called children of God, as in said in the first letter of John, we are called children of God because that is what we are.
We are children of God, when we love one another. We abide in God when we abide in active love for our fellow human beings and for all of God’s creation. So the mission of the church is not to get more more people to join the church. The mission of the church is not to convert or to save others.
The mission of the church is that we become a spiritual community, abiding in God, seeking to live lives of compassion for one another and for our community. Where our actions are grounded in, planted in, nourished in God. And so we can grow in love, with confidence, in faith. The mission of the church is to receive God’s love for us so that we create a spiritual home where we feel safe and en-God-ed.
Now, today, in this final sermon in the enthusiasm series, we focus our attention on the third part of our mission, which is to
exercise that Talent which you particularly came to Earth to use,
in those places which God has caused to appeal to you the most,
for the purposes which God most needs to have done in the world.

So far we have been talking about the mission that we all share, grounded in the presence of God we make the world a better place. The third part of the mission is to ask where you are particularly called to be God’s active verb of love in the world.

We affirm in the church why Jesus came to earth, to be God’s word of love to humanity and to restore our broken relationship with God.
Well God had a reason for sending each one of us to Earth too. Can we remember what that reason was? What if we thought of people like Carroll Lang for a moment and thought about this, it wasn’t that he was that extraordinary, he just had a good memory, he remembered why God put him on this Earth.
Carroll’s purpose was to push the earth with his bulldozer and to people with challenging questions.
We all have a reason for being here. We just suffer from amnesia.
Let these words of Psalm 139 help remind you,
“For you formed my inward being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for you are to be reverenced and adored. Your mysteries fill me wonder! More than I know myself do you know me; my essence was not hidden from You, when I was being formed in secret intricately fashioned from the elements of the earth.”
Remember?
Let these words of Jesus from the Gospel of John help remind you,
“As the Father has loved me, so I love have loved you; abide in my love. Keep my commandments, and you will in 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.”
Ringing any bells, yet?
Let these words from the first letter of John remind help remind you,
“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as Jesus is, so re we in this world. There is no fear in love...”
We love because God loved us first.”
There is our source and our mission, because John goes on to connect the love and the commandment to love.
We cannot say that we love God if we are not bringing more kindness, more truth, more gratitude, more love into the world.

Now that we are reminded of our purpose as disciples of Christ, what is our particular mission, in the place that God has caused to appeal to us the most, for the purposes which God most needs to have done in the world?

“God has written this into our hearts, first in the talents given to us and secondly in the guidance given to us in our hearts.” “Even as an anthropologist can examine ancient inscriptions, and divine from them the daily life of a long lost people, so we by examining our talents and our heart can more often than we dream divine the will of the Living God.”
(pg 43, Richard Bolles, "Your Mission in Life.")

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.

Where?

Let these words from the great writer, Frederick Buechner, guide us.
“ There are different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than the voice of society, or the hyper-critical ego, or self-interest. By and large a good rule for finding out is this:
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (pg 48, Richard Bolles, "Your Mission in Life")
In other words, abiding in the love of God, who knows you better than you know yourself, how can you bring more love, kindness, truth, beauty, gratitude into the world and have a good time doing it?
To be connected to de-vine of God’s love and having complete joy.

The place that God calls you to is that place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
The world hungers for a kind word. The world hungers for a kind heart. The world hungers for a kind teacher. The world hungers for a well played soccer game. The world hungers for a beautifully stitched quilt. The world hungers for a sharpened pencil, good food, justice, a loving home, a repaired fence, a painted house. The world hungers for happiness and compassion in times of grief.
The world hungers for peace based upon economic justice not brute force.
Our mission, is where we meet God in confidence and joy. Our mission is where we remember what God fashioned us to do.

Remembering I think is the difficult trick.
Remembering why we are here. And then remembering what we remembered.
I have so many times made great self-discoveries only to have forgotten them a few weeks later. Then coming back to my old notes, journals, or sermons, and saying, “Oh I already knew that, how could I forget.”
Some missions that we embark on require diligent attention because the goal is not achieved in a day, but it is achieved by daly practice and remembering.
And I see in the passage from the letter of John to helpful suggestions for our spiritual practice, for our enthusiasm campaign, in which we seek to make this church and our lives a place where God’s love is experienced.
It’s in verses 19 and 20 of the fourth chapter of John’s letter.
First, We love because God first loved us.
Secondly, Those who say, “I love God” and hate their brothers and sisters are liars.”
To help us stay the course we need to begin and end the day in prayerful rememberance of God’s love. What we focus our attention on we become. If we focus our attention on God’s love and grace and desire for all of creation then we can hep make that real.
The first step of our mission is to be grounded in the presence of God.
How else can we do that without daily prayer or medititation. Done in whatever way suits you best. There are many different approaches to prayer, the approach doesn’t matter as much as the fact we each decide to begin and end the day in dialogue with a love and power greater than ourselves. Approaches to prayer include reading scripture or it may be walking in nature or it may be listening to music. It may be silence or reading devotional literature. Regardless of the path chosen, the central meditation is, God’s love is in me.
The second source of remembrance is to keep the commandment to love one another. Our love is known in our actions, our compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves. It is also known in being aware of our feelings when we are angry or feeling hateful to someone else. To remember God’s self-giving and forgiving love as we seek to let go of our hatred and find the source of love as best we are able with guidance of the strength of the Holy Spirit.
When we engage in acts of love for our brothers and sisters, and we do this from a place of remembering God’s love, we begin to take risks. And in taking risks, in moving out of our comfort zones, we begin to experience God’s love.
In praying and in loving, we know God’s love.
In loving and praying, we gain the strength and confidence that is beyond our own imagination.
In loving and praying, we see a course of our lives that brings joy to humanity and to ourselves.
When we pray as if everything depends on God, and act as if everything depends on us, we are getting at the heart of this mission.
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Where can I be of service and be joyful?
What form of prayer is right for me in the morning and in the evening?
Who do I know that needs the kindness that God has given me the gift to offer? How can I bring my prayer life into the world and show my brother or sister a little bit of love, a little bit of God?

God is love. and we love because God loved us first.
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
God loves us into loving one another. No force of will. Self-giving, self-sacrificing love. As Jesus said, I gave my life because it was mine to give. We were each given a life to give.
And as Jesus also said, If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete.
Connected to God, doing what were called to do, no matter big or small, doing what brings us more happiness and the world more kindness,
that is something to be enthused about.

To be spiritually borne is to remember why God brought you here to life.
How will you choose to pray?
How will you choose to love your brother and sister?
How will your great desire help serve the needs of this church, which seeks to meet the needs of this community?
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

I think that there is a need for a spiritual community where people are encouraged to make a personal connection with God that gives them the confidence to serve humanity.
A community centered around the words,
“Do this in remembrance of me.”
Pentecost is the moment when we realize, when we make real, that we are called to Spread the Love that God placed on this earth in Jesus Christ.

Are you ready to be the First Congregational Church of Murphys, United Church of Christ?
Are you ready to be yourself in this community?

Let the people say,
Amen