Covenant Living

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

August 31, 2014

Covenant Living

Romans 12:9-21

Let love be genuine;

hate what is evil,

hold fast to what is good;

love one another with mutual affection;

outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not lag in zeal,

be ardent in spirit,

serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope,

be patient in suffering,

persevere in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints;

extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you;

bless and do not curse them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice,

weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with one another;

do not be haughty,

but 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.

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you,

live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves,

but leave room for the wrath of God;

for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine,

I will repay, says the Lord.’

No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them;

if they are thirsty, give them something to drink;

for by doing this

you will heap burning coals on their heads.’

Do not be overcome by evil,

but overcome evil with good.

Paul does love his lists!

Where Jesus preferred to teach through parables,

lessons taught in a way that leaves it

to the listener, leaves it to each of us,

to figure out what we are supposed to learn,

Paul is direct, blunt, to the point:

“Do this, don’t do that.

Live this way, don’t live that way.”

There is a sermon in every sentence in our lesson:

“Let love be genuine;

Be ardent in Spirit;

Do not claim to be wiser than you are;

associate with the lowly;

if your enemies are hungry, feed them.”

Paul wasn’t preaching a sermon;

he wasn’t standing on the side of a mountain

speaking to a large and diverse group of people.

He was writing to a group of Christians,

followers of Jesus Christ,

speaking to them through a letter,

a letter written to advise them,

steer them, enlighten them,

help them, guide them.

Paul wrote the letter

to help the Christians in Rome learn how

to become more faithful followers of Christ.

After all, Jesus left no instruction manual,

and it would be another 2000 years

before someone would publish,

“Christianity For Dummies.”

Thirty years after the crucifixion of Christ

there was no shortage of so-called prophets,

who claimed to speak for Christ,

who claimed to know the gospel of Christ.

Most were the Elmer Gantrys of their day:

frauds, con-artists,

men and women

concerned only with their own power and riches.

Those who wanted to follow Jesus

didn’t know who to listen to,

what to listen to.

So Paul traveled, spoke,

and wrote letters,

letters to Christian communities

in Rome, Corinth

Galatia, Philippi and other places

throughout the Mediterranean

to help followers understand the gospel of Christ.

In the first eight chapters of his letter to Rome,

Paul speaks of the grace of God

revealed in Jesus Christ.

In chapter 9, where our text comes from,

Paul shifts his focus,

saying in effect,

“now that you understand

the gift of grace you’ve received,

you need to understand

how to respond to that gift.

You need to understand that your response

should be nothing less than

embracing a wholly new life,

a life transformed.”

He wanted those listening to

the words of his letters

to understand that following Christ

wasn’t about abiding by rules,

following canonical laws and regulations;

it was about living in grace,

living in love,

it was about learning to live as Jesus taught,

learning to live as Jesus himself lived.

                                   

“Turn aside from the world you know,”

Paul is saying to the Christians in Rome,

Turn away from it

and embrace the new life in Jesus Christ.”

Paul is saying the same thing to us,

to you and me.

It is a message we’ve struggled with for 2,000 years,

as we’ve struggled with what it really means

to be a follower of Christ.

                 

Surely there is more to it than personal salvation

in response to a profession of faith;

our entrance ticket to heaven punched,

leaving us to continue down the path that we find

most comforting.                     

And surely it isn’t admittance to an elect club

where we on the inside

can then feel free to judge those on the outside.

No: Paul makes it clear—

in following Christ,

we are called to transform our lives,

we are called to a wholly new way of life,

a way of life that often may be at odds

with the world around us,

a life that may lead us from the road we’d been on.

We – all Paul’s listeners –

we want specifics, though.

“Tell us what we need to do.”

And that’s just what Paul does with his list.

His list, for as long as it is,

isn’t meant to be complete or exhaustive.

But the words in this letter help us to focus,

focus on what it means to be a disciple of Christ:

Let love be genuine;

love one another with mutual affection;

outdo one another in showing honor.

We have to remember that in the Greek language

that Paul used when he wrote his letters,

there were different words for “love”

depending upon the context.

Here in this letter he speaks of love

not as a married couple might feel for one another,

but what the Greek language called “agape” love,

love between friends, between neighbors,

even between strangers,

love that Paul explains in his letter to the Corinthians,

is patient, is kind,

doesn’t insist on its own way

bears all things, hopes all things.

(1 Corinthians 13:4ff)

Agape love is love turned outward,

love shared with all,

not just a select few.

                          

The Reverend Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine,

begins his newest book with a searing indictment

of our contemporary society,

a society in which agape love seems to be

in danger of disappearing.

“Ours is a shallow and selfish age,” Wallis writes,

“and we are in need of conversion –

from looking out just for ourselves

to also looking out for one another.”

We need to embrace anew Paul’s call

to outdo one another in showing honor

respect, courtesy,

graciousness,

thoughtfulness.

Wallis goes on, writing,

“Christianity is …a call to a relationship

that changes all our other relationships….

It’s time to hear and heed a call

to a different way of life.”

That’s the essence of Paul’s message

to the people of Rome,

and to us,

sitting here in a church

in Manassas Virginia on Labor Day weekend 2014.

You and I are called to a new way of life

in which we take seriously Paul’s admonishment

that we are to let love be genuine

and outdo one another in showing honor.

We are called to a way of life

in which we extend hospitality to strangers,

understanding that that includes those who may

have entered our country illegally.

We are called to a way of life

in which we are to feed our enemies,

give them something to drink,

“heaping burning coals on their heads,”

a striking image of how our grace and love

can burn away anger and hatred inside another.

Paul is no fool;

he isn’t naïve.

He understands just how difficult

living this way can be.

He even gives us a qualified call:

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you,

live peaceably with all.

What Paul calls us to do,

what our Lord teaches us is, try,

try,

work at growing in discipleship

which means work at growing in love.

We have one another to help,

and we also have God’s help through the Holy Spirit.

As our Brief Statement of Faith reminds us:

“The Spirit…sets us free to accept ourselves

and to love God and neighbor….

In a broken and fearful world,

the Spirit gives us courage…”

So we can take “thought for what is noble

in the sight of all.”

Noble in the sight of all:

what is good, righteous,

honorable, decent,

unselfish, generous –

all synonyms for “noble” –

in the sight of not just a few,

but all.

That’s how we are to live our lives,

This new life will often confront us

and call us to change our ways,

change our thinking,

change how we do things.

The great preacher William Sloane Coffin

gives us wise and helpful words

with his simple observation,

“It is a good time to change your mind

when to do so will widen your heart.”

That’s covenantal living –

living in the covenant

given us by the grace of God in Jesus Christ

Living in covenant with one another

all God’s children,

a covenant of love,

The Reverend Frederick Buechner has written,

“To pray for your enemies,

to worry about the poor

when you have worries enough of your own,

to start becoming yourself fully

by giving of yourself prodigally

to whoever needs you,

to love your neighbors

when an intelligent fourth-grader could tell you

that the way to get ahead in the word

is to beat your neighbors to the draw

every chance you get –

that, Paul is telling us,

is what God asks of us.”

So, “Let love be genuine;

love one another with mutual affections;

outdo one another in showing honor;

Rejoice in hope

persevere in prayer

live in harmony with one another

and take thought

for what is noble in the sight of all.”

This is covenantal living.

This is living by the Word of the Lord.

AMEN

Lessons Learned

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

August 24, 2014

Lessons Learned

Selected Texts

I am hoping you can’t tell by looking at me.

It happened to me very quietly

a little more than a week ago.

In fact, a week ago Saturday:

I began my seventh decade.

20, 30, 40, 50….

and now at age 60

I stand on the threshold of my seventh decade.

I was born in 1954.

Today we live in a world of electronics

and screens

but back then television was in its infancy,

small black and white screens

in large, heavy boxes.

We watched Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo,

the Jackie Gleason Show,

and, of course, Ed Sullivan.

Every adult smoked cigarettes;

it wasn’t until 1964 that the surgeon general issued

his now famous report linking cigarettes and cancer.

As a small child I could sing jingles

from a half dozen different cigarette commercials.

In fact, jingles were popular for many products,

and I still remember a surprising number of them.

My formative years were the 1960s.

The soundtrack of my adolescence came from

the Beatles,

the Beach Boys,

the Supremes,

the Four Tops.

                                   

As I went through high school my 8-track tape player

blared the music of The Who,

Jimi Hendrix,

and, of course, Led Zeppelin,

a group that grated on the nerves

of most adults back then,

but who recently were recipients of

Kennedy Center honors

as a seminal influence on rock music.  

                          

I spent most of my 20s in school –

finishing college,

than graduate business school,

and finally law school.

By my early 30s I was married,

living and working in Buffalo.

I’d come home to Buffalo,

and bought a home in Buffalo.

I was ready to settle, make a home,

be home.

I went to church most Sundays,

but I skimmed the surface;

I didn’t put much effort into my faith

and so I got little out of it.

Back then I put more stock into hard work –

my career, especially.

But as the years went by

I learned that hard work can often be undone

by events over which we have no control:

illness,

a spouse’s addiction,

a failed business venture.

At age 40 I left Buffalo

and moved to New York City for a job

as editor of management and finance publications

for the Economist Group, the British company.

I settled in quickly at work

and found a wonderful church home

at the Brick Presbyterian Church

on Manhattan’s upper east side.

For all my schooling, all my education,

it wasn’t until I was in my early 40s,

when I began to think about seminary

and the ministry,

 that I really began to understand

what I had always known,

but never truly grasped:

that what life was all about wasn’t money,

position, or things.

Life was and is about goodness,

and family and friends,

and love and compassion,

and caring and sharing,

building up riches and treasures of the heart.

It wasn’t until I was in my early 40s

that I realized

that for all the places I’d lived,

all the places I had called home,

I was still longing for home,

still searching for home,

a home not built of wood or brick,

but a place inside me,

a place of peace and contentment.

Our ancestors in faith

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

were wanderers, nomads,

men of no permanent address.

Abraham living as an alien, an immigrant,

Jacob on the move

trying to put distance between himself and Esau,

the brother he had cheated out of his birthright.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews

says of these men:

They confessed that they were strangers

and foreigners on the earth,

… that they were seeking a homeland.

If they had been thinking of the land that

they had left behind,

they would have had opportunity to return.

But as it was for each of them,

they desired a better country,

… a heavenly one.

(Hebrews 11:13-15)

These men had homes,

places they lived with their wives,

their children,

their extended family,

their livestock;

but still they sought a different home;

a special home,

a home with God.

This is not home in the sense

we sometimes hear the word used –

a reference to heaven,

a place we’ll know only in the next life.

I’ve never much cared for the euphemism

some use when a person dies:

that “God called him home”.

We’re home here, in this life

for God gave us this life

and calls us to live it richly and fully.

But the life we are called to live so richly and fully,

the life that creates a sense of home for us,

a sense of belonging,

of being settled,

isn’t a life filled with chasing things;

it is a life following Christ,

Home is where Christ is.

Home is a place of peace,

of assurance,

of presence – God’s presence,

Christ’s presence.

“Do not fear,” says the Lord,

“for I am with you.”

We think about home more and more as we age.

In fact, I am convinced that we are created 

with a nostalgia switch in our brain

that turns on automatically when we turn 50.

Memories become more and more important,

and especially memories of home,

the homes we grew up in,

homes of friends

homes where special celebrations took place.

The home that I often find myself revisiting

in my nostalgic moments is my grandparents’ house.

It was a big house in downtown Buffalo,

big enough to hold all the Ferguson clan

on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

It was a house old enough to be filled with mystery,

even a little spookiness up under

the eaves on the third floor.

It was a house that had things we no longer find:

a coal chute,

an incinerator,

an opening in the back off the kitchen

for the ice that kept the icebox chilled.

It is a home that in many ways grows more vivid

in my memories

even as those family celebrations

drift farther and farther away in time.

As nostalgic as we can get

as memories flood our minds,

I don’t think any of us want to go back.

We live in the present

and God calls us into the future.

Paul was so right when he said

for now we see only through the glass dimly.

(1 Corinthians 13:12)

But with every passing year,

that glass can grow a little clearer,

our understanding can grow a little more.

With every passing year we can understand

with greater clarity

that Paul was right when he said that only

faith, hope and love abide,

that everything else will turn to dust.

Faith, hope and love –

they are what matter,

and the greatest is love.

(1 Corinthians 13:13)

Love that comes from God

love revealed in and through

our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Jesus of the Gospels,

the Jesus who ate with the sinners,

the Jesus who said, “Do not judge.”

(Matthew 7:1)

The Jesus who said,

“Let anyone among you who is without sin

be the first to throw a stone”

(John 8:7)

The Jesus who taught us that

all are our neighbors,

not just those we know,

those we like,

those we accept,

those we approve of,

those we let in.

(Luke 10:25ff)

The Jesus who taught us that God will forgive us

anything and everything;

and if God will do that for us,

then we should do that for one another.

(Matthew 6:14)

The Jesus who Paul tells us said,

“it is more blessed to give than to receive”

(Acts 20:35

a lesson that sounds so upside down

and so out of sync with our

“me-first”,

“don’t step on me” society.

There are lessons here

I have learned over the years,

learned as I have longed for home,

learned as I’ve looked for home,

remembering Augustine’s famous observation

that our hearts are restless

until they come to rest in God.

But to say they are lessons I’ve learned

is to suggest that I have mastered them,

and of course I haven’t.

Even as I begin my seventh decade

I know I am still learning,

still learning all these lessons and more

as I continue to learn

what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ,

what it means to live

as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

“Now I know only in part,”

wrote the Apostle Paul,

and he is right.

I still have more to learn,

as we all surely do,

more to learn about not throwing stones,

more to learn about giving,

more to learn about forgiving,

more to learn about faith, hope and love.

Frederick Buechner writes of a lesson he learned,

“I have it in me at my best to be a saint to other people,

and by saint, I mean life-giver,

someone who is able to bear to another

something of the Holy Spirit,

And sometimes, by the grace of God,

I have it in me to be Christ to other people.

And so, of course, have we all”

                                   

This is a lesson for all of us;

certainly, it is a good lesson for me

as I continue to learn,

standing as I do

on the threshold of yet another decade,

and sitting at home

at the feet of Christ.

AMEN