Never Alone

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

May 21, 2017—Confirmation Sunday

Never Alone

Selected Texts

There she stands,

pensive,

almost frozen,

her head tilted slightly up

her mouth set firm.

It’s moment captured by countless artists;

a moment every one of us can picture.

Eve, at that fraught moment

as she stood beneath the branch of that tree,

that tree in the Garden,

that tree about which God had said,

“Do not touch”;

that tree about which the serpent had said,

“Go ahead. Help yourself.”

Eve looks up, the fruit within her reach,

the fruit within her grasp.

She ponders.

She raises her arm slowly,

higher, higher;

She stops, silent,

still looking up.

And then in one quick move,

one quick moment of firm resolve

she plucks;

she takes;

she eats.

Then Eve does something so ordinary,

so ordinary we don’t even think about it:

She stretches out her hand with the fruit,

the fruit she just plucked,

the fruit she just took,

stretches out her hand toward Adam,

and offers him the fruit.

Adam — Eve’s silent partner,

takes,

eats,

neither of them uttering a word,

even as God’s words surely echo in their minds:

“of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

you shall not eat…”

The serpent’s competing words also echoing

 “…God knows that when you eat of it

your eyes will be opened,

and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil.”

How easy it is to overlook the fact that

once Eve took the fruit,

she shared it with Adam.

Why did she share?

why?

                                   

Why didn’t Eve take the fruit —

which was a delight to the eye,

which would make her wise,

which might even make her a god herself—

why didn’t she just keep it for herself?

Why didn’t she say to Adam,

“If you want fruit from this tree,

get it yourself.

I’m not sharing.

I plucked,

I took.

I made the effort;

you didn’t.

My effort, my reward.

You want fruit from this tree?

Get it yourself.”

After all,

isn’t that how we often think,

our focus on ourselves:

my effort,

my work,

my reward.

Eve shares.

No hesitation.

Eve shares because,

that’s how God created us:

to share;

not to be selfish and self-centered,

but to share with others.

God created us for community.

God created us for one another.

God did not create us to be alone,

to be solitary,

focused only on ourselves.  

God says as much right in the

first chapter of Genesis:

“It is not good that the man should be alone;

(Genesis 2:18)

Or, as the writer of the book of

Ecclesiastes puts it,

“Two are better than one.”

(Eccelsiastes 4:9)

We are better together, you and I,

in community,

better together,

sharing all that life offers us,

sharing all that life throws at us.

Better together,

because that’s how God created us.

It’s a lesson we’ve heard many times:

that we are the body of Christ,

each of us a part of the body,

each of us necessary, vital, essential.

From my perspective,

it’s one of the most important lessons

we teach in the confirmation class.

It’s one of the most important lessons

we teach and reinforce in church.

Our confirmands have been been

part of our community

for as long as they and their families have been here.

But Confirmation shines a light on community,

the importance of community,

on how we are better as community

for receiving these young people,

formally acknowledging

our bond of community with them.

We ask them directly

“Will you be a faithful member of this congregation,

share in its worship and ministry,

through your prayers and your gifts,

your study and your service,

and so fulfill your calling

to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?”

We ask them,

just as we ask anyone who joins our church community,

will you be an active, faithful

part of this community?

In turn,

we welcome them into the community

make them part of the community

as brothers and sisters in faith.

If you are familiar with the books of Anne Lamott,

you know that she sings the praises

of her church community

out in Marin California,

just north of San Francisco.

She sings the praises of the community

that welcomed her,

not when she was the successful author she is now,

but when she was struggling with addiction,

addiction to drugs and alcohol;

struggling as well as a single mom…     

struggling.

Her church community embraced her,

made her part of community.

Her church community helped her find

“a path and a little light to see by.”

She saw the people of her “funky little church,”

as she calls it,

as men and women who “follow a brighter light

than the glimmer of their own candle.”

(Traveling Mercies)

“When I was at the end of my rope,” she writes,

“the people of St. Andrews

tied a knot in it for me

and helped me to hold on.

The church became my home.”

The church became Lamott’s community.

We can easily lose community,

lose a sense of community that binds us

in churches and in our society

when we fail to work at building community,

strengthening community;

when our focus turns, for example

to the types of things

that so dominate our conversations today:

things like winners and losers,

building walls,

keeping people away,

separating ourselves,

living in fear.

None of that is the stuff of Jesus, of course.

Jesus is all about community,

all about embracing,

welcoming,

reaching out, nurturing,

building up.

It is in community that we learn about Christ.

It is in community that we learn Christ,

learn what it means to follow Christ,

learn the ways of Christ,

learn compassion,

mercy, goodness,

kindness, patience.

It is in community we learn holiness.

It is in community we learn

we are called not to be served,

but to serve.

In my Wednesday morning Bible Study class

we’ve been learning about the Muslim community.

We’ve been learning how much we have in common.

We’ve been learning that Muslims and Christians,

along with our Jewish brothers and sisters,

are part of a community

that goes all the way back 4000 years

to Abraham and Sara.

We’ve been learning that the Quran

does not sound all that different

from the Scriptures that bind our community.

We read these words from the Quran,

words that speak beyond the Muslim community:

“God is our Lord and your Lord;

We have our works and you have your works;

there is no quarrel between us and you;

God shall gather us together,

and to Him is our homecoming.”

(Surah 42:15)

Two months ago we invited brothers and sisters

from the First Baptist Church to join us

in packing meals for Rise Against Hunger.

We expanded our community to feed the hungry,

and as a result, we packed twice as many meals

as we had the year before.

What if we expanded that community

yet again next March,

and invited the community of the Manassas Mosque

to join us as together we work to feed the hungry?

                          

“Anything that leaves you more fearful,

more isolated,

more disconnected from other people,

more full of judgment or hatred,

is not of God…”

writes Anne Lamott

(Hallelujah Anyway)

Anything that does not build community

is not of God.

Anything that does not build community

within, and without,

here in the church,

and in the larger world,

is not of Christ.

                                            

It is not good for us to be alone.

Two are better than one.

Scripture tells us again and again,

we are called to community:

“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,

clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,

humility, meekness, and patience.

Bear with one another and,

if anyone has a complaint against another,

forgive each other;

just as the Lord^* has forgiven you,

so you also must forgive.

Above all, clothe yourselves with love,

which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

to which indeed you were called in the one body.”

(Colossians 3:12)

To which we indeed are called

in one body.

To which we indeed are called

in one community.

This is the Word of the Lord.

AMEN