RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - October 12, 2008

“Learn, Believe, Live”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Philippians 4:1-9

Paul was in prison when he wrote this short letter to the women and men of the new Christian church in Philippi. Our passage comes near the end of the letter and consists of Paul’s "last words", his final reminders to his beloved readers.

If we listen carefully, we will hear that the tone of the passage is reassuring, yet it is filled with clear directives – Paul’s instructions to the church folk. We hear Paul as pastor and teacher handing out words of lasting advice. (Alice Murphy)

It is interesting to realize that Paul could have been bitter when he put pen to papyrus this time – being imprisoned and all. He could have focused on all that had gone wrong and been terribly negative about his own experience. God knows - that might have been how any of us would have reacted to the dire circumstances he was in.

But Paul did not. He made a conscious choice to do otherwise. Instead, as he wound down his prose and ticked off the instructions that he would leave with this congregation, he chose to encourage his readers to rejoice always in God, again he says, rejoice!

Like Paul, we too are free to choose how we will respond to our own life experiences and to what goes on in our world. And I want us to remember that as we focus now on the fact that today is World Food Sunday. It is a time to pause and ponder, at the request of the United Nations, the issue of hunger both here in our own country and around the globe.

I know these past days have been scary times for all of us as the stock market teeters and sways like a house of cards, as phrases like credit defaults swaps seep into our vocabulary, as Barack Obama and John McCain argue back and forth about how to heal the economic meltdown, which in what seems like overnight has become a global financial crisis as well.

Hey - my pension and retirement are as much wrapped up in all this as yours is. I too have read the newspaper headlines. Each one of us has had plenty of time to worry about it all and speculate how it will affect us personally.

And yet, today, it is World Food Sunday and so, for a few moments, we are going to set aside our fears and remember instead those whose fear has gone on for decades and even centuries, who have always lived in poverty, who for generations have abided where food is scarce and where crops are sometimes harvested first for our benefit.

We are not here today to forget our fears but rather we are here to remember the fears of others that are too often rooted in unstable and unjust economies throughout the world – and even here in Raymond.

And we are also here to reaffirm that in God and in this church family there is comfort and solace for us – you and me – as we face an uncertain future, but there is also a commitment to embrace and transform that uncertainty into an opportunity to serve in the name of Christ.

I think Paul had just that in mind as he wrote his letter to the Philippians. In this wonderful reading, Paul points the way to those who want to be members of the kingdom and embark on a new relationship with God.

Paul tells the people of Philippi that those who have chosen to follow Jesus are called to forget the old egocentric way of life and rather to think on these things: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise.”

As Alice Murphy wrote, “The words from Philippians prod us forward, reminding us that we are not to live life only for our selves and our own ego needs, but for others. We are required to learn to see beyond our own noses and to consider a broader view.” In fact, Paul would say that, as Christians, that is our responsibility.

So - what would happen to us, if we thought only about just and true and pure things? I suppose we could not help but change. For one thing, glasses would always be at least half full, and the grass would be the greenest just where we are standing.

Even in these gloomy economic times, we would not hope for more than we need – and we would begin to understand that what we need does not always have a monetary value and is perhaps not what we have always pursued.

If we tried to think only about just and true and pure things, we would not wonder if there was enough to go around. Rather we would live with the joyful presumption of abundance and not the corrosive fear of scarcity.

If we tried to think only about just and true and pure things, we would forge onward committed to three ideals – learning, believing, and living.

We would ponder carefully all that Jesus said in his brief three years of ministry. We would think about his stories and reflect upon his words. “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” - from the Gospel of Luke. “Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow” – from Matthew. “If you lend only to those from whom you hope to get it back, why should you receive a blessing? Lend and expect nothing back.” Give to others and God will give to you. Love your neighbor as yourself – the second great commandment. And so on and so on.

If we tried to think only about just and true and pure things, we would learn those stories and sayings of our faith until they were part of the very fiber of our hearts and souls.

And when we learned them, we would believe them. As crazy and unreasonable and unrealistic as the Gospel message might seem, we would not give it lip service – picking out those bits and pieces of it that fit comfortably into our lives. We would believe that those things that Jesus preached – and that Paul taught even as he tried to be a role model himself – have the potential to be paradigm shifting and earth shattering and life transforming and world renewing.

If we tried to think only about just and true and pure things, we would not only learn and believe but we would also more than anything else strive to live the words of the Gospel message. We would walk the talk. Like Paul in his own life, we would insist that word and deed go together.

Brian Jensen once said, “When compassion dies, the church dies.” Does this mean that we who claim to be a vital part of the Body of Christ are under pressure to care – even when we have so much to worry about and fear in our own lives? Is it as Susie Craig, our own Maine Conference United Church of Christ Associate Conference Minister wrote in an e-mail on Friday? “Where is God leading us? How can we support one another? Together let us listen, reach out, and walk forward in faith. Hard times can be powerful times for the church.”

We are called to care - and today in particular we are called to care about the world food situation – even if all we want to care about is how much further the Dow can drop and how that will affect us personally.

We are called to care deeply about the 923 million people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition. We are called to care about the grossly unfair distribution of food that has us consuming way more than our fair share.

As George MacLeod, the founder of the Iona Community, wrote: 'The greatest community problem of our modern world is how to share bread.” We are called to recognize that “although enough food is produced globally to satisfy all the hungry people, food supplies are under greater pressure today than ever before.” We are called to affirm that the right to food is indeed a human right.

Kathleen Galloway has written that hunger in our world of plenty is not caused by lack of food. It is caused by lack of compassion and justice. Inequality is not just about economics; it's about moral choice. It's about compassion, community, and getting personal.

Even as we fear for our own financial security, we are called to care about others. OK – so what are we to do? What are we do in the face of the needs of the world? What are we to do in the face of Christ's demand that we care for one another?

Perhaps at the least, as Richard Fairchild wrote, we are called “to do what we can as the opportunity arises.” For us here in this church, that means doing what a few of us did just last week when we baked bread and bought bread at our Bread Fair after worship – and can now contribute nearly $150.00 to Bread for the World. Surely those who participated were thinking and doing the just and pure and true things that Paul spoke of.

It also means taking Andy at his word when he says the Food Pantry here in Raymond needs your donations – and will need them ever increasingly in the months ahead – not in a couple of weeks or when you get around to it. People here in Raymond need food now – and paper products!

And it means contributing our canned goods and fresh vegetables and all that will make a Raymond family happy on Thanksgiving this year – and deciding we are going to make more Thanksgiving baskets this year than last because of the likelihood that more people in our town are hurting this year than last. RVCC is such an important institution particularly in tough times like these as we increasingly become part of the fabric of the Town of Raymond once again.

OK, you might be saying under your breath - all this sounds just and true and pure, but what about when our fears get in the way and our rational self tells us to take a break from caring, get a respite from thinking about those things that Paul espoused, take care of and insulate ourselves from the haunting possibility of a really bad recession?

Well, remember that hand in hand with Jesus’ demand to care for others is the promise that through Christ we are given grace sufficient for the task if we are but willing to follow where he has led the way. Learn….believe….live.

As John Bell once wrote in a song, “Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear. Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger, and I shall promise, promise to be always near.”

Go forth then, learning Christ’s message of hope rather than fear. Go forth, believing in abundance rather than scarcity. And go forth, living not as someone whose only interest is Wall Street but as a Christian whose greater interest, in the end, is the message of the Gospel to love one’s neighbor, to share one’s bread with the hungry, to treat others as you would hope to be treated if you suddenly found yourself unemployed, stripped of credit, the value of your stocks shrinking away. Go forth, trusting that God is with you always – and rejoice, I say, rejoice.

Sermon - October 12, 2008

“Learn, Believe, Live”

By Rev. Nancy Foran Philippians 4:1-9

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Philippians 4:1-9