Cultivating A Life Together

Sermon notes for a sermon given at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH on September 16, 2012.

We are united in cultivating Christian sympathy in feeling, justice in our dealings, and courtesy in speech.

Cultivating

“And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

in April and May when we're sowing seeds, we're paying close to attention to the words on the seed packets. Perhaps we're even, the more diligent among us, consulting other books on the particularities of the seeds that we're planting. We want to know how to get it just right. We want to know how to create the conditions for tasty, sweet, cherry tomatoes. Not only that, but we recognize that the food will be tastier and more healthy the better the soil conditions are for the seed. So we take good care prepare our soil so that we might have a good harvest.

It's hard work. You have to take out the rotatiller or rent one or borrow one or – if we're ambitious enough – grab a spade and spend a few days doing it by hand.

We get special amendments to aid the soil's fertility.

And we have to do a lot of planning ahead and a lot of waiting.

Here is the work of cultivation.

If we are going to build up a harvest of righteousness – it will require patient and slow peace-work.

And, friends, that harvest can come among us, I truly believe it, if we look closely at the instructions on the seed packet.

What are the instructions?

Elsewhere in James' letter we read the following proverbial statement:

“You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.”

If we are going to cultivate a harvest of righteousness in our own hearts, if we are going to cultivate a harvest of righteousness among ourselves here in this congregation, if we are going to cultivate a harvest of righteousness among all people here in this community, we must take seriously these words from James.

For a “harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

To sow peace requires patient loving cultivation of the soil of human relationships.

And this is exactly what our faith and covenant sentence is bidding us do this morning:

we read, “We are united in cultivating Christian sympathy in feeling, justice in our dealings, and courtesy in speech.”

1. Christian sympathy in feeling

fellow-feeling – literally to feel together

we've all felt sympathy

we usually feel it towards people that are close to us, either in our immediate family or close friends that we have shared much of our lives with.

When Jesus shares the story of the good samaritan – we aren't willing to hear this as a story that would translate in modern language perhaps into a fundamentalist Muslim helping a beat-up Christian.

Jesus bids us to expand the scope of our compassion, expand the circle of those whom God loves and therefore we ought to love. Paul thinks in terms of walls coming down – he calls them walls of hostility – there is no longer jew or greek, male or female – Christ is the one body that Christians belong to and that body is not only powered by unconditional love on the inside, but radiates and produces unconditional love outwardly to the neighbor whoever they may be.

So in Christ our distinctions fall apart.

There is a degree of moral imagination required if we are going to be able to have sympathy of feeling.

But not only that – we are going to have to expand our circle of who we consider worthy of our care.

Christ gives us an expanded circle of care:

Paul in Ephesians 2:

“...remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.”

and so the congregation, the brother and sister that we see on a Sunday morning is the innermost circle of an endless series of concentric circles that make up the boundless love of God. And we as free recipients of that love, give that love freely to one another.

2. [Christian] justice in our dealings

Relationships require a reciprocity. Love has built into it a mutuality. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31)

To have justice in our dealings is to live according this principle. Do not ask of others what you would not be willing to give. And the reverse is important as well do not give more than you would be willing to receive. Some people can be mooches, but the other extreme can be just as destructive of community – to give and give and not be willing to receive often shows a heart that wishes to be a perpetual benefactor, enjoying the prominence of place that gives them.

3. [Christian] courtesy in speech.

James 3: the tongue is a force, a power – put it to the right purposes.

A bridle, a rudder, a fire ---

bridle -

rudder – steers a ship through difficult waters/weather conditions

fire – destructive but also productive when put to proper uses, ie. Woodstoves, etc.

power. Fire is a powerful element in ancient times. It was thought that fire was the element that drove all change in the cosmos, at its deepest level – and modern science shows that their speculations weren't far off.

“let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29)

“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. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” (Col. 3:14-16)

“But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Eph 4:15-16)