I'm a little reluctant to confess that I had a really hard time choosing a scripture for today’s service. I mean, there are so many to choose from, you’d think it wouldn’t be a challenge--but what could be right for this time? This time together, yet also apart from so many. A time to offer the reassurance and hope of Christ, while also not denying the pain, loss, and heartache we have experienced in the last 5 months.
My brain sort of zigged and zagged through all kinds of options...and I kind of just wanted us to sit and be together---to stare at one another and see one another, and experience being seen again. Not just seen in passing, but seen by people who love and care about us--people who want to get to know us--people who want to be known by us. We have new people to the church! Did you know that? Covid happened
and it felt like things came to a screeching halt, but people still moved here and people still looked for a church home...online...but with the hope of one day being back together as a church. And they found us!
So, we’re here together, and the sociologist in me just can’t help but have us do something about it. So, we’re going to pause...yes, right here in the middle of the sermon, and we’re going to soak at the moment. We’re going to look at each other. We’re going to feel what it is to be seen by others.
Now, this isn’t a time for “oh my goodness, can you believe they wore shorts and a t-shirt to worship time...or dude, they seriously need a COVID haircut” This isn’t that. It’s not a time for judgment or scrutiny. This is a time for community and relationships. Today, this is the church. We are two or three, or a few more, gathered in the name of Jesus. We are the church. We are all sinners in need of grace and today, you get to see each other. Smile at each other. Wave to each other. It’s ok to giggle or laugh a little. It’s ok to cry. Feel whatever you feel. Just be present. Put down your phone. And soak in the moment. Look at each other. Look around you. Take in the beauty of our vista. Listen--for the birds, or frogs or crickets, or the kids. Take in the beauty of this time together.
(music) When we all get together
In a lot of ways, being together is likely what will speak most loudly this weekend. The way God moves between us and the goodness of being together, even with its challenges and differences.
It may be the subtlety of the Spirit that speaks most clearly to you. But I don’t want to miss the chance to underscore the power of the passage Dan read for us.
I’ve been asked, “What scripture passage is the foundation of your faith?” and the one I come back to time and again in Romans 8. Who [or what] will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? No, nothing can separate.
What a wonderful reminder. What can separate us from God’s love in Jesus? Nothing. Not a pandemic. Not school closures. Not the loss of a job. Not crazy politics. Not the uncertainty of the future. Not loneliness. Not stress. Not depression. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Absolutely nothing.
For me, that’s the assurance that I can lean into no matter what. and ...I need to be reminded. It’s there. It’s constant. It’s promised. We don’t have to find it or earn it, it simply is. But it can be easy to forget. It’s tempting to become unconvinced. Because we want to believe, or maybe are even invited to believe that if God’s love were a constant that we wouldn’t have things like pandemics, or uncertainty, or fear. But that’s not the truth God offers. God offers to love us and journey with us, through whatever we face. Not to stop it. Not to shelter us from the realities of life, but to be right there with us no matter what.
Do you see that distinction? It’s one that matters. God and faith and Jesus don’t keep the horrors of the world away, but they do promise that we always have a companion on the journey, one who loves us and supports us and offers us strength through the storm.
Maybe you don’t need a reminder. But I know I do. God has not forsaken us. God has not left us to our own devices. God is eternally invested in us and has already proven that through Jesus. And if you need a reminder, if you need some assurance and hope, and promise that someone sees you and hears you and absolutely will not give up on you, then please hear this today. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ Jesus. Nothing. Not pandemics, or virtual school, or uncertainty, not fear, or isolation, not stress or depression or grief. Nothing can ever stop God’s deep abiding love for you.
Amen.