What We Believe - 3

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

February 19, 2017

What We Believe - 3

Matthew 5:43-48

“You’re familiar with the old written law,

‘Love your friend,’

and its unwritten companion,

‘Hate your enemy.’

I’m challenging that.

I’m telling you to love your enemies.

Let them bring out the best in you,

not the worst.

When someone gives you a hard time,

respond with the energies of prayer,

for then you are working out of your true selves,

your God-created selves.

This is what God does. He gives his best—

the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—

to everyone, regardless: the good and bad,

the nice and nasty.

If all you do is love the lovable,

do you expect a bonus?

Anybody can do that.

If you simply say hello to those who greet you,

do you expect a medal?

Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up.

You are kingdom subjects.

Now live like it.

Live out your God-created identity.

Live generously and graciously toward others,

the way God lives toward you.”

(From The Message)

*****************************************

“Love your enemies”.

“If anyone strikes you on the cheek,

turn the other also”

(Matthew 5:39)

“If your enemies are hungry,

give them bread to eat;

and if they are thirsty,

give them water to drink;”

(Proverbs 25:21)

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil.

…Never avenge yourselves.”

(Romans 12:17-19)

These are words from Scripture,

words we know,

so they are words we believe,

words we resolve to do.

…Right?

Let’s be real, let’s be honest:

Love your enemies?

Turn the other cheek?

Feed your enemies?

Don’t seek vengeance?

Is this what we really believe,

much less resolve to do?

Isn’t a more honest response

that we prefer the teaching of the Law

we find in the Old Testament book of Leviticus:

“fracture for fracture,

eye for eye, tooth for tooth,

the injury inflicted

is the injury to be suffered.”

(Leviticus 24:20)

We’ve latched onto those words,

and there we stand.

        

Those words, “eye for an eye,

tooth for tooth”

…we like them, don’t we?

Let’s be honest!

We like them because from our perspective,

they level the playing field,

they bring fairness into any and all relationships.

Turn the other cheek?

We don’t like that because it’s not fair.

Love an enemy?

How can anyone do that?

Ah, but Jesus is calling us to a new life,

a wholly different life,

a life grounded in love,

a life grounded in peace,

a life grounded in grace.

Isn’t this what we believe?

Did you hear our Lord’s words to us

from our lesson:

“You are kingdom subjects.

Now live like it.

Live out your God-created identity.

Live generously and graciously toward others,

the way God lives toward you.”

Isn’t this the new life our Lord calls us live?

And isn’t this the life we are called to live

for more than an hour on Sunday morning?

Isn’t this the life we are called to live

in the world at large,

each day, every day,

all day,

everywhere,

with everyone…

everyone?

                                            

Jesus is unrelenting, unapologetic.

Paul may say, “if it is possible”,

but Jesus just says, this is it,

the life I’ve called you to;

do it:

Love your enemies.

Turn the other cheek,

Don’t seek vengeance.

“You are kingdom subjects.

Now live like it.”

Our Confession of 1967

from our Book of Confessions,

more than any other Confession,

helps us to understand this new life

we are called to:

this life of peace,

this life of love,

this life grounded in the Confession’s 

overarching theme:

reconciliation.

The Confession begins with that premise:

that we are called to lives of reconciliation:

“God’s reconciling work in Jesus Christ

and the mission of reconciliation

to which he has called our church

are the heart of the gospel of any age.”

(9.06)

Reconciliation:  a word

the dictionary defines as

“the restoration of friendly relations;

harmonization;

bringing together;

understanding;

balancing.”

Reconciliation—  with all:

this is the new life we are called to

by God through Jesus Christ.

The Confession tells us that,

“In Jesus Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself.

Jesus Christ is God with humankind,

[who] lived among us

to fulfill the work of reconciliation.

calling us to the ministry of reconciliation.

To be reconciled to God [through Christ]

is [then] to be sent into the world

as his reconciling community.”

9.31

That’s you and me:

God’s “reconciling community”,

called into the world to work for harmony,

peace,

understanding.

Called to bring together,

called to tear down walls that separate.

“This community – the church –

is entrusted with God’s message of reconciliation

and shares God’s labor of healing enmities

which separate men and women from God

and from each other.

Christ has called the church to this mission.”

9.31

This we are called to believe.

And believing, this we are called to do:

taking on joyfully the ministry of reconciliation,

“healing enmities” of any and all kinds –

“enmities” which separate

men and women from God,

and just as important,

“which separate us from each other.”

The way Eugene Peterson words our lesson

also helps us to understand –    

listen again to our Lord’s words to us:

“I’m telling you to love your enemies.

Let them bring out the best in you,

not the worst.

When someone gives you a hard time,

respond with the energies of prayer,

for then you are working out of your true selves,

your God-created selves.”

Don’t you see: when we do this,

do as our Lord teaches us,

we’re working on reconciliation.

“God’s reconciliation in Jesus Christ

is the ground for peace,

justice and freedom among all nations…

The church is called to practice

the forgiveness of enemies

and to commend to the nations

the search for cooperation and peace.”

This is the ministry of reconciliation

Jesus calls us to.

This we are called to believe,

and believing, this we are called to do,

for, as the Confession goes on to tell us,

“God has created the peoples of the earth

to be one universal family.”

In God’s reconciling love,

he overcomes barriers …

and we too are to break down barriers,

remove any obstacle

as we build a community of

reconciliation and peace.

Dr. Diana Butler Bass,

who will be with us next month

to preach and teach,

has written in “Grounded”,

her most recent book,

“If we walk away from fear and isolation

and choose to walk together as neighbors,

we discover that our various

religions and philosophies

make how we treat one another

the litmus test of a meaningful life.

Love of God and love of neighbor are of a piece.

When we practice neighborly relations

as the locus of divine love,

we encounter the God who dwells nigh.”

Or, to use the Confession’s word,

“when we practice [reconciliation]

as the locus of divine love,

we encounter the God who dwells nigh.”

Bass reminds us

that the meaning of the word religion

is “to bind together,”

and that the very essence of religion

is the commons,    

the community:

“that which connects us with God

and with one another.”

Bass also uses the term “creativity” to describe     

our call to community

and she’s right to use that term.

We need constantly to be creative –

to think of new ways to extend community,

to welcome,

to reach out,

to overcome obstacles

that get in the way of community,

including our own resistance,

prejudices,

our own preference for turning a deaf ear

to Jesus’ teaching,

our own eager embrace of the Levitical code.

The Confession helps us to understand, observing,

“The new life does not release [us]

from conflict with unbelief, pride,

lust, and fear.

[We] still [have] to struggle with

disheartening difficulties and problems”,

including our own waywardness,

our own faithlessness.

Still, “Life is a gift to be received with gratitude

and a task to be pursued with courage.”

The Confession of 1967 concludes,

“God’s redeeming work in Jesus Christ

embraces the whole of our lives:

social and cultural,

economic and political,

scientific and technological,

individual and corporate….

Already God’s reign is present

as a ferment in the world,

stirring hope in humankind…

With an urgency born of this hope,

the church applies itself to present task

[of working for reconciliation]

and striving for a better world.”

9.53-55

“You are kingdom subjects,”

says our Lord Jesus Christ,

“Now live like it.

Let your enemies bring out the best in you.

Live out your God-created identity.

Live generously and graciously toward others,

the way God lives toward you.”

This we are called to believe

and so this we must resolve to do,

…for this is the Word of the Lord.  

AMEN  

 

What We Believe - 2

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

February 12, 2017

What We Believe - 2

Selected Texts

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

Lord, when was it

that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you?

Truly I tell you,

just as you did it to one of the least of these

who are members of my family,

you did it to me.

I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.

Lord, when was it that we saw you a stranger …

and did not take care of you?

Truly I tell you,

just as you did not do it to one of the least of these,

you did not do it to me.”

These are our Lord’s words,

words straight from Jesus,

words found in Matthew’s gospel,

the twenty-fifth chapter;

words directed to you and to me:

What we do to the least,

what we fail to do to the least,

we do to our Lord Jesus Christ.

This we believe.

Do you remember what we talked about last week—

that we learned that we state our faith

and bear witness to  “God’s grace in Jesus Christ

in the creeds and confessions

found in our Book of Confessions.

In our creeds and confessions

we declare to ourselves

and to the world

who and what we are,

what we believe,

and what we resolve to do.”

And our Confessions in turn help us

to understand what we believe

and what we resolve to do

as we read Scripture;

as learn from Scripture,

as learn from both the Written Word

and the Living Word.

So we hear our Lord’s words:

what we do,

or what we fail to do to the stranger—

the stranger,

not our friends,

not one another in church,

the stranger—

we do as well to our Lord himself.

These words sound radical,

and yet they were hardly new,

much less radical,

when our Lord spoke them.

Jesus was simply emphasizing lessons

we find throughout the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures,

the books of the Old Testament,

which we have to remember

was our Lord’s Bible,

the written word of God found in the Law,

the Prophets,

the Psalms, and the Proverbs.

Look after the poor,

care for the widow,

tend the sick,

and, welcome the stranger and alien:

This we believe,
and because we believe

this we resolve to do.

Go all the way back to Moses’ time

more than a thousand years before the birth of our Lord.

No sooner had the children of Israel settled on the land

given them by God

following their forty-year sojourn through the desert;

no sooner had they begun to establish their homes,

plow their fields,

harvest the fruit of the trees,

when God said to them:

“When you reap the harvest of your land,

you shall not reap to the very edges of your field,

or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

You shall not strip your vineyard bare,

or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard;

you shall leave them for the poor and the alien.

(Leviticus 19:9)

We can imagine, can’t we,

the reaction from God’s children,

the reaction any of us might have had

to such words:

“Hey, wait a minute.

I plowed that land,

I planted,

I tended,

I weeded,

I cultivated,

I harvested.

Everything that came from that land,

came from my efforts,

my sweat,

my long hours,

my hard work.

And now you are telling me

that I am supposed to leave a portion of my work,

my efforts,

for the poor,

the alien –

people who are strangers to me?”

To that question, that bitter complaint,

God responds simply,

firmly,

unapologetically,

“Yes.

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you to do.

Need I remind you that all you have

has come from me in the first place?”

God leaves no doubt as to God’s concerns,

calling us to holy lives,

and our holiness is reflected in many ways,

including how we treat the poor,

the hungry,

…and the alien:

“The alien who resides with you

shall be to you as the citizen among you;

you shall love the alien as yourself,

…You shall not oppress a resident alien;

you know the heart of an alien,

for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

(Leviticus 19:34; Exodus 23:9)

How often does God make so clear

that God’s concern is with the poor,

the stranger, the alien?

Dozens of times

as we read through the pages of the Old Testament.

The children of Israel

should not have been surprised by this.

After all, the land where God called

the Israelites to settle

was the crossroads of the known world,

where people from every nation,

where people from east and west,

from north and south,

all passed through;

some as quickly as possible,

in a hurry to get from one place to another;

others settling for a short while;

while still others stopped

and settled permanently.

Assyrians from the north who traveled south to Egypt;

Ethiopians from the south

heading north to Tyre or Sidon;

Persians coming from the east,

North Africans coming from the west.

The most recent addition to our Confessional Book is

the Belhar Confession,

a Confession written in response

to the apartheid struggle in South Africa

not that long ago,

the white minority pitted against the black majority,

racism, bigotry,

hatred, violence seething everywhere.

Into this cauldron stepped the church,

reminding followers of Christ

that we are all called to lives of peace,

lives of reconciliation,

holy lives.

Among Belhar’s statements reflecting our lives

as children of God and disciples of Christ are these:

“We believe

• that God has revealed himself

as the one who wishes to bring about justice

and true peace among people;

• that God, in a world full of injustice and enmity,

is in a special way the God of the destitute,

the poor and the wronged;

• that God calls the church to follow him in this;

for God brings justice to the oppressed

and gives bread to the hungry;…

• that God supports the downtrodden,

protects the stranger,

helps orphans and widows;

and blocks the path of the ungodly;

• …that God wishes to teach the church

to do what is good and to seek the right;

• that the church must therefore

stand by people in any form of suffering and need,

which implies, among other things,

that the church must witness against

and strive against any form of injustice,

so that justice may roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream;”

We are to do what is good;

we are to seek what is right;

we are to stand by those in need:

the suffering,

friend and stranger alike;

and we are to witness against,

strive against

any form of injustice,

so that justice may roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

This we believe,

and so this we resolve to do.

We are in the midst of a

furious debate in this country

and indeed throughout the world

over immigrants and refugees—

aliens and strangers.

Men and women who have fled their homes—

more than 4 million just from

the war-ravaged nation of Syria.

On average, 30,000 men, women and children

become refugees each day – each day! -

desperately seeking safety, shelter,

refuge,

food, medicine,

…hope.

What does Jesus call us to do?

What are we as children of God

and disciples of Christ to do?

What do we believe?

What is it we should resolve to do?

The great preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote,

“Vital fellowship with God

ought to make us gracious,

magnanimous, and generous….

If in Jesus Christ … faith has come to us,

through no merit of our own,

…ought we not, humbly,

without dogmatism or intolerance,

and yet with passionate earnestness,

share our best with all the world?”

And isn’t our best

compassion,

acceptance,

tolerance,

grace,

love?

Isn’t this what we believe?

And so,

shouldn’t this be what we resolve to do?

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

Lord, when was it

that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you?

Truly I tell you,

just as you did it to one of the least of these

who are members of my family,

you did it to me.

I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.

Lord, when was it that we saw you a stranger …

and did not take care of you?

Truly I tell you,

just as you did not do it

to one of the least of these,

you did not do it to me.”

Sisters and brothers:

this is the Word of the Lord.

AMEN

What We Believe

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

February 5, 2017

What We Believe

Selected Texts

Jesus was dead – everyone knew it.

His body had been taken down from the cross so carefully,

so lovingly;

carried gently to the tomb,

laid on the rock slab inside,

washed and then wrapped in linen,

all before the sun went down.

That was on Friday.

So, how could anyone have seen him then on Sunday?

Seen him alive?

Seen him in a room with his disciples?

Seen him walking on the road to Emmaus?

Seen him even later preparing breakfast on a beach…

preparing breakfast!

Jesus alive!

Jesus had been crucified;

he was dead, and buried.

Now Jesus was alive?

The idea was preposterous.

The idea is preposterous.

And yet, this we believe.

And what about Mary,

a young woman of no particular distinction.

Are we really to believe

that the angel Gabriel came to her,

to tell her that she – she of all women –

would give birth to the Son of God?

that she would conceive

by the power of the Holy Spirit?

This too is preposterous.

And yet this too we believe.

We began our service this morning,

as we do regularly throughout the year,

by saying, “what we believe,

using the Affirmation of Faith

printed in your bulletin.”

Among the words we said were,

“In life and in death, we belong to God.

Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the love of God

and the communion of the Holy Spirit,

we trust in the one triune God,

the Holy One of Israel,

whom alone we worship and serve.”

This we believe.

We said as well, “In gratitude to God,

empowered by the Holy Spirit,

we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks

and to live holy and joyful lives,

even as we watch for

God’s new heaven and new earth,

praying, Come Lord Jesus!”

Do you hear:

We are watching for

God’s new heaven and new earth,

and praying, Come, Lord Jesus!

This too we believe.

The words we say together when we affirm our faith

come from our Book of Confessions.

The Book of Confessions is part of

the constitution of our denomination,

the Presbyterian Church, USA.

The other part, our Book of Order,

has our Rules of Governance,

Directory of Worship,

and Rules of Discipline.

Our Book of Confessions has

12 confessional statements and creeds,

statements and creeds that span the centuries,

each an effort to try to put into words,

each an effort to try to articulate,

what we believe as children of God;

what we believe as disciples of Christ

within the Reformed Tradition;

what we believe as Presbyterians.

Three weeks ago when we ordained our new officers,

among the constitutional questions

asked of them was,

“Do you sincerely receive and adopt

the essential tenets of the Reformed faith

as expressed in the confessions of our church

as authentic and reliable expositions

of what Scripture leads us to believe and do;

and will you be instructed and led by those confessions

as you lead the people of God?”

I recall responding “yes” to those questions

two different times:

first when I was ordained as an elder

almost 30 years ago,

and then a decade later

when I was ordained as minister of word and sacrament.

The first time I said yes to those questions

I have to admit,

I was not at all familiar with our Book of Confessions.

I knew the Book of Order,

with its rules for governance,

but not the Book of Confessions.

As part of my preparation for ordained ministry,

I read and studied the various Confessions.

I learned from them,

learned what treasures they are –

learned that within them were words

that helped me to articulate my faith,

helped me to understand my faith,

helped me to live my faith.

Our Book of Order tells us that

“The Presbyterian Church states its faith

and bears witness to God’s grace in Jesus Christ

in the creeds and confessions

in the Book of Confessions.

In these statements the church declares

to its members

and to the world

who and what it is,

what is believes,

and what it resolves to do.”

There, in 52 words,

we have what our Confessional statements do:

they declare to you, me,

and all the world

who we are,

what we are,

what we believe,

and, …what we resolve to do.

The Confessions help us to understand

that we begin with belief,

but then we are called to act,

to do,

to work.

As our Lord taught us in his Sermon on the Mount

“Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”,

will enter the kingdom of heaven,

but only one who does

the will of my Father in heaven.”

(Matthew 7:21)

The earliest confessions—

The Apostles’ Creed and The Nicene Creed—

both from the formative years of our church,

seem so simple, straightforward,

and yet both were subject to great debate,

argument, contention

as they were shaped before they were accepted.

The words, for example,

that we say in the Nicene Creed,

“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one Being with the Father,”

those words were the result of more than 300 years

of debate, questions,

prayer, discernment,

and, yes, argument.

The Protestant Reformation 500 years ago—

an anniversary we’ll mark come Fall—

gave us The Scots Confession,

the Heidelberg Catechism,

and the Second Helvetic Confession.

In these confessions, among other things,

we defined the marks of the church

as a place where there is,

“true preaching of the Word of God

and the right administration of

the sacraments of Jesus Christ.”

(Scots Confession, 3.18)

It is through these Confessions

that we determined that Scripture leads us

to observe just two Sacraments

rather than seven.

The turbulence in this country in the 1960s

with the Vietnam War and racial struggles,

led to the Confession of 1967,

a Confession that took as its theme Paul’s words

from his second letter to the Corinthians,

“So if anyone is in Christ,

there is a new creation:

everything old has passed away;

see, everything has become new!

All this is from God,

who reconciled us to himself through Christ,

and has given us

the ministry of reconciliation.”

(2 Corinthians 5:17-18)

As the Confession acknowledges in its introduction,

“God’s reconciling work in Jesus Christ

and the mission of reconciliation

to which he has called his church

are the heart of the gospel of any age.

Our generation stands in peculiar need of

reconciliation in Christ.”

(9.06)

Are we any different?

Doesn’t our generation too stand in need

of reconciliation in Christ?

Listen again to the words we spoke this morning

from the Brief Statement of Faith,

“We trust in God the Holy Spirit,

everywhere the giver and renewer of life.

The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith,

sets us free to accept ourselves

and to love God and neighbor,

and binds us together

with all believers in the one body of Christ,

the church.

The same Spirit who inspired

the prophets and apostles

rules our faith and life in Christ

through Scripture,

engages us through the Word proclaimed,

claims us in the waters of baptism,

feeds us with the bread of life

and the cup of salvation,

and calls women and men

to all ministries of the church.”

“In a broken and fearful world

the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing,

to witness among all peoples to Christ

as Lord and Savior,

to unmask idolatries in church and culture, 

to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,

and to work with others for justice,

freedom,

and peace.”

“In a broken and fearful world

the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing,

to witness among all peoples to Christ

as Lord and Savior,

to unmask idolatries in church and culture, 

to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,

and to work with others for justice,

freedom,

and peace.”

This we believe.

This we resolve to do.

AMEN