Keeping the Faith

Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

A Sermon Preached by the Reverend Rob Lee

Leasburg United Methodist Church, August 28th, 2016

Won’t you pray with me?

Changed from glory into glory, til in heaven we take our place, til we cast our crowns before thee lost in wonder, love, and praise. Oh God may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight for you and you alone are our strong rock, and our redeemer. Amen.

I am an National Public Radio fanatic. If you get into my car with me on any given day you will undoubtedly see that the radio is tuned to 91.5 WUNC, and it stays there especially during the 10:00-Noon range of time. While my fiancee Stephanie is a huge fan of On Point and Tom Ashbrook, I am a big fan of the Diane Rehm Show. This show has been on the air for 38 years, longer than I have been alive. The other day, I discovered that Diane would be just down the road in Pittsboro so my friend Natalie and I got in my car and drove down there to hear her speak on her new book, “On My Own.” This book chronicles narrative of her experience with losing her husband John to Parkinson’s Disease, and the difficult decision he and his family made to stop taking treatment for the disease so that he might die with some sense of dignity. It’s a moving read, but what stands out to me in this book is in one chapter, Diane writes about John’s final weeks and says, “Nevertheless, I wanted him to know how much I loved him and how I didn’t want to lose him. Even in your weakened state, I wanted to tell him, you are precious to me…” Hold onto that image of a wife losing her husband and grasping to each moment as if it was his last. We’ll get back to it, in a moment.

Today we hear words from Paul’s letter to Hebrews. Paul declares that God will never leave us or forsake us and we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid, what can anyone do to me?” Harkening back to the Old Testament, Paul is intertwining the beauty of Old Testament promise with New Testament realities. You see this text is a lesson in faithful fortitude, in keeping the faith. In a world that seems hell-bent on destruction, war, and heartbreak God says that there is another way. God promises through Paul’s words to the Hebrews that we are not alone in life, in death, and in life beyond death. God’s grace is sufficient for us all. No exceptions, and no return policy. God has brought us out of Egypt and given us a place where we are not fearful of what life throws at us.

That isn’t to say that we aren’t scared of life or of life’s tragedies. Being scared or anxious are natural human emotions. But to allow that fear and anxiety to consume us to the point where we do not live our lives to the fullest is the paramount tragedy. So how do we stay away from fear and anxiety in our lives so that we can avoid the sharp cliffs of despair?

We do so in community. Paul is clear in today’s lesson that mutual love and sharing in one another’s joys and sorrows is the ultimate reality for which Christians can strive for. The poet George Herbert said, “There is no greater sign of holiness than the procuring and rejoicing in another’s good.” Think about it, can we do this thing called life alone? Can we face life’s greatest challenges by ourselves? God did not create us to be people who live lonesome lives. The challenge of modern Christianity shouldn’t be to stay relevant, it should be to stay in community. For in community we see that God is working, God is moving, and God is able. I think we’ve messed up as a church, people are looking for answers in our world, and we’ve tried to be relevant instead of God’s abiding word in Hebrews for mutual love to continue.

In our world and in the United Methodist Church we are debating hard issues, tough issues that will determine the future trajectory and course of our world, nation, and church for this century. In all of the infighting and Facebook posting, in all of the tweeting on Twitter and civil and not-so-civil discourse maybe if we stuck to Paul’s opening words in chapter 13 we’d be onto something… Let mutual love continue, for you might be entertaining angels unaware. I’m not so sure what it’s like to encounter an angel, but I think I’ve come close one Easter morning years ago.

I was acolyting for my home church, Broad Street United Methodist Church in Statesville, North Carolina. As I carried the candle in for the light of Christ on that glorious Easter morning I’m sure all the attention would be on the light of Christ and the mature young man who was holding it. But as I carried the candle in I realized everyone’s attention was on someone else. As the congregation sang their way through Christ the Lord is Risen Today! a man, who appeared homeless and looked nothing like the demographics of our congregation entered our sanctuary with a backpack on his back and an umbrella in his hand. Before the ushers could give him a bulletin or guide him to a seat he had had made his way down to the altar of my church where he prostrated himself down on the altar rail and was in tears. He stayed there through the hymn and then left. I looked for that man after the worship service but never saw him again.

I don’t know why that image has been emblazoned in my memory but I think it was for a simple reason that I’ve come to believe in my heart. That man represented more to me than just a person experiencing homelessness. He represented all the people who desperately need this institution called church, who, for whatever reason are so broken that there only way to get to God is to prostrate themselves on the altar on Easter Sunday. Those people, the people that we have forgotten are angels unaware. For they beckon us and our world toward wholeness. They remind us that mutual love is more important than divisiveness and church policy. John Wesley, an Anglican priest and founder of the Methodist Tradition said simply, “If we may not think alike, may we not love alike?” You hear echoes of Paul’s words to the Hebrews in Wesley’s words. We are bound together as a community, whether we like it, or not.

So what does that mean for you sitting here in your pew on a Sunday morning in August? It means that you must be the church for this broken and hurting world. You won’t always get it right, nor will you always succeed, but point of church isn’t perfection; the point of Church is this great Wesleyan ideal of “going on to perfection.” The idea that every day, we work further and further toward God’s intended purpose for the world. Every day we start afresh toward God’s unfolding future, and we do so in the confidence that God will never leave us or forsake us.

Back to what I first told you about Diane Rehm and my encounter with her this past week. Diane said she wished that her husband could know just one more time how precious he was to her. Diane Rehm lost her husband on June 23rd, 2014. Diane told us that day in Pittsboro that when she got home from her first day of volunteering at the local radio station some 40 plus years ago,  her husband John declared, “One day you will be hosting that show.” She said at the book signing that “John saw in me something I had never seen.”

Friends that’s what this text is about. God sees in us something we could never possibly see for ourselves. God is like the persistent and loving spouse who sees in us something we might never fully realize. God sees that we are headed for glory, that in glory and power we will one day join the resurrected and welcoming Christ at a banquet table meant for the children of a King. So if you’re struggling today, if you’re doubting the complexities and realities of this life, remember that God sees something in you that is extraordinary. Just as Diane wanted her husband to know that he was precious, God too wants the same for us. So go and be the church for the world, let mutual continue, for you are the broken body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, because God like John and Diane Rehm sees in us that we are destined for the greatness meant for his children, children of the living and loving God. Thanks be to God. Amen.