6 Easter A May 25, 2014
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie G. Hutson
Acts 17: 22-31 + Psalm 66 + 1 Peter 3: 13-22 + John 14: 15-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
A couple of weeks ago I was talking with some folks about Luther Memorial. They noted that we’ve been through a lot in our history here, but here we are…a reminder of the presence of the risen Christ on this corner of Greenwood and 132nd. A sign and symbol in the neighborhood of service and compassion. A place where the hungry are fed and those without homes find safety for a night beneath our wings. A place where children come to know God and where they learn about God. And where adults do the same. A place of laughter and music and fellowship. So, it was easy to answer their next question: What are your hopes for Luther Memorial? I said that my hopes are that we will continue to be the presence of the risen Christ in this place.
In our reading from Acts today Paul is in Athens, which is no longer the power city it once was. Power now belongs to Rome. And Paul has arrived in Athens, a city of Gentiles or pagans, to find objects of worship that seem to cover every single base. Even one altar with the inscription “to an unknown god.” So Paul has a tricky task before him. To share the good news, that the God who created them and created all the nations has never left them. That they have not been abandoned, even though they are no longer in power and their lives have changed forever. Paul’s task is to tell them about the God who is present in Jesus Christ.
Insider language won’t work in Athens; they are Gentiles and they won’t have any knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. Scholars and others sometimes criticize Paul’s speech in the Areopagus because it doesn’t contain any Scripture, but what Paul knows is that in order to reach the people of Athens, he needs to remind them of what they do know. Of what their own poets have said, that in God “they live and move and have their being”, that they are God’s offspring.
Sometimes we Lutheran tend to beat ourselves up for not being more adept at the “e” word….evangelism. Let’s face it, most times if someone knocks on the door of our homes to share a religious word or invitation, it is probably not a Lutheran. There’s an old joke that goes like this:
What do you get when you cross a Lutheran with a Seventh Day Adventist?
Someone who goes door to door but has no idea what to say.
The other day I was out front in the Giving Garden, looking at all that is growing there. I was talking to one of our gardeners and he told me that he had grown up Lutheran, although another type of Lutheran, and that he could not ever imagine himself going to church again. He went on to say that if he ever did go, he would come here, because he knew that we would not judge or condemn him. After assuring him that he would always be welcome, and not judged or condemned, I asked how he knew that we wouldn’t condemn him. He said “You allow anyone to come and plant in your garden. Every day I see people here of different faiths and different languages and different nationalities. You don’t have to tell me about your beliefs because I can see, plain as day, what you believe because of what you do.”
In Paul’s speech to the people in Athens, he reminds them and us that people are searching for God, and groping for God. I don’t think much has changed. People in our world are searching for meaning – they are groping for some way of knowing where and how to find significance in life. And more times than not, like our gardening friend, they are not going to walk into our doors. Instead, they are going to come to know God through our actions, through our ministries, and through the way we live and exist in this neighborhood.
Some days, I wish that all of you could be here in this building to see the great difference our ministry makes in this community. Even on the hard days, the days when my frustration at the overwhelming hopelessness that seems to exist in our world threatens to overtake what I know is happening. That people are searching for God…they are groping for God.
Last Friday a young man was here who had been to worship several months ago. Maybe even a year ago. His story is one of many sad ones we hear and see daily in this place. And it was getting harder. He’d been robbed recently, his parents had written him off, and he was hoping to be hired as a dishwasher. But he didn’t have the right clothes to even do that and his feet were afflicted with a terrible infection. His challenges are so complex that I confess to you my frustration with my own limitations. I am a pastor, I thought, trained in theological ways that don’t address or fix what he needs right now. I can’t cure his addiction or find him work or track down the person who took the one bag containing all of his worldly goods.
But he trusted that the ministry of this place was somehow going to be able to help him. He had walked….walked….from Burien to this corner of Broadview, because, he said, he knew that God was here. Searching for God, groping for God, brought him to this place. And do you know, God is here. And because you support the mission of this congregation…to actively share Christ’s love in community….I could give him a lunch, which he devoured at once. I could give him new socks, which will let him walk with more comfort. He could use our phone to call his parents, who actually talked to him this time. It brought tears to his eyes. I could give him a bag to replace the one that had been stolen and I could put soap and water and lotion in the bag so that he could wash his feet. I could give him money to buy clothes to wear to the interview to get the job he needs.
Before you think that this was a beautiful thing in the way the world thinks of beautiful things, it was not. It was a hard place. But it was a God place.
This weekend we remember and give thanks for those men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. No matter how we feel about war in general or a war in particular, those who made the ultimate sacrifice deserve our thanks; they deserve to be honored. Even so, we pray for peace.
Memorial Day began after the Civil War ended when, in 1868, an organization of Union veterans established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Other groups and places claim the origin of Decoration Day, which later became Memorial Day, as their own. The first large observance was held in 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery, with various Washington officials presiding over the ceremonies. But my favorite story about this day is out of Columbus, Mississippi, about 40 miles from the Alabama town where I went to Jr and Sr. High. There, in 1866, a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Moved by Christian love, it is said, they decorated those graves with flowers as well and sang hymns of faith over them.
Sisters and brothers, all around us a hurting world is searching, for God. They grope for God in the midst of all of their losses. In the loss of loved ones who have died. In the loss of a feeling of security that comes from knowing our parents are there for us. In the loss of the idea that a church shares love rather than judgment. In the loss of lives and livlihoods and very selves to the ravages of addiction. In the loss of relationships and jobs and self esteem. In the loss of health and hopes and dreams.
How will they know that God has not left them orphaned? How will they experience the presence of Christ in the world? In more cases than we want to admit it will very likely not be through what we do here in this space on Sunday mornings. We are going to have to consider our work in the world, our presence in this neighborhood, and the ways we use what we have been given to serve others as our evangelism. As our sharing the story. As our seed planting. So that God, for whom we are all searching and for whom we long, might be made known. This is my hope for this place and for us as children of God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.