Eat, Pray and Build

April 20,2008 The Fifth Sunday of Easter Sermon: Eat, Pray and Build Texts: I Peter 2: 2-10, John 14: 1-7 Today is a wonderful day for celebrating life with the baptism of Samuel Paul and all that is involved in the rhythms of life. We are aware that our Jewish friends celebrated the first night of Passover last night and for them it was a celebration of life and never forgetting that this blessing was gift from God, just as Samuel is a gift from God. Listen to this wonderful poem that begins to tell us what that might be about: A rabbi scattered hope like seeds beneath a desert sky; He knew in every waking plant a sacred force would rise to break the ground, to reach for life, to search with leaf and root, and draw the strength of earth and sky to bear the promised fruit. The rabbi saw the desert bloom, the Eden of his prayer: a garden ripe with hope and life and also ripe for care. "So come," he says, "my friends, with me to tend, to sing, to plod: the Earth cries out to celebrate the greening love of God." (by Michael Hudson, Episcopal Priest, Alive Now, Sept/Oct 2002, p 64) Greening is about process, rhythm, patience, fortitude, what else? It is about hope. If there is anything we learn from the letters of Peter, it is hope. If there is any message from the gospel reading, John 14, that resonates with all of the letters from the early church faith, it the hope and promise of Jesus to be with us and never leave us. The poem reminds us that a garden is blooming ripe with hope and life and the poem invites us to tend, to sing, to plod. It is invitation to be attentive to the rhythm of life; eat, pray and build around God's greening in your life. We are grateful for these encouraging letters from teachers of the early church and we ask what message is there for us in these letters. Let's start by remembering that the letters, Peter, James, John and Jude, are tractlike messages written to fellow Christians in their time. Today we have letters written from leaders in our churches that are similar. These letters, different from the letters Paul wrote that were more specifically addressed to individual churches are persons, were general and could have a message to all Christians. So, we find that the letter of James may address works, the letters of John address love, the letters of Jude address pure faith and the letters of Peter address hope. They all address our need to belong to Christ, for the church to be a spiritual temple, for the church to be God's people in word and deed. Aren't we glad we had people who wrote letters so long ago and some copies survived so we could learn about what the early church was like and the problems they had to cope with in their faith communities. Recently, I was going through some letters and files, getting them ready for my ongoing scrapbook projects, and I found a letter my Dad had written to my young son Paul when he was about five year old. We lived far away in Bangkok, Thailand, so we had to depend on written correspondence for most of our communication. No email for us at that time although we did lots of audio taping and sent tapes back and forth. The reason for this letter was that my mom and dad had just been to visit us in Thailand and my dad wanted to report to Paul that he had stopped smoking. He said, "Now I have stopped smoking Paul and remember our agreement. If I stopped smoking you would stop throwing temper tantrums." This letter brought back lots of emotions for me; I had forgotten my son threw temper tantrums and forgotten when my dad stopped smoking. Letters have a wonderful way of helping us to remember what has shaped us and made us the people we are. I've got to remember to share that letter with my 28 year old son n.....he'd really appreciate it knowing that his grandfather took time to write and give him words of wisdom. These words of I Peter can help us remember what shapes us and helps us to be the best Christian community we can be. Letters are treasures; they cross the boundaries of time and place like nothing else. The great Swiss Reformed Protestant theologian Karl Barth wrote letters to French Protestants during the Nazi occupation in France. They were messages of comfort, assurance, exhortation and sympathy that crossed battle lines and gave all Christians a sense of unity in their faith, hope, love and good works. (p 86, "I Peter" Interpreter's Bible Commentary) So, friends, if there is any message you take for your reading these general letters from Peter, take the word "hope." In our rhythm of life, our eating, praying, building, Christ is our hope. The greening of God within us means we are making something, working toward something, becoming something special. Whatever it is that keeps you away from God and God's church, let it go. Remember that if you are to grow, you must be fed. Yes, grace is a free gift of God, but as Peter tells us, it is also something we develop and grow. "Like newborn babies, long for pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation." Paul said it in a different way: Philippians 3:14, "Press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Here in the poem I read earlier is the reminder of the "sacred force that rises to break the ground and reach for life." "A rabbi scattered hope like seeds beneath a desert sky; He knew in every waking plant a sacred force would rise to break the ground, to reach for life, to search with leaf and root, and draw the strength of earth and sky to bear the promised fruit." We know that our responsibility to each other is just this...planting seeds of hope. Why do we have programming, worship, opportunities at our church for all ages, not just for children? Because we want to provide the spiritual nurture and care that we all need to grow in Christ. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (for goodness, for the kindness of our Lord) for they shall be filled. Our families nurture this desire to taste the kindness of God. Parents pledge to bring their children into the life of the church. Why? To develop a rhythm, a routine, a commitment to growth in God's Spirit of being together and talking about things of the Spirit. They allow other Christians to teach their children and live with their children in the pathways of Christ. It is a great gift for parents to fulfill the pledges to their children they have made at baptism. It is not just about the ritual, the morals, the system of philosophy or the obligation, it is about coming to know the living God. That bring us to the second part of the teaching from our reading from I Peter. It is the teaching about the role of the church. Certainly, we know that the church is to be a genuine community of living disciples of Christ. Christianity comes to us through the Christian community. There is no disembodied Christianity. It is a social faith for it embodies itself in a unique and organic community of fellow believers. That's why it is important to be connected to the church if you are a Christian. As Peter describes, Christ is the living cornerstone and we are the living stones that build our lives around the person of Christ. Our covenant with God through Christ is the same as it was in Peter's day. Christians are not perfect but they people who strive to possess the qualities of the Christian life. We believe our spiritual house will be what God wants if we remember to focus on our faith in Christ, not just each other or the world in which we live. That means we constantly put emphasis on these things: Attitude, Prayers, Joy and Witness. That's another sermon but suffice it to say that when we claim "we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people," we mean that we are serious about the function of the church. We are serious about our growth and the greening of God within. From 1903-1908, German lyric poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of remarkable responses to a young, would-be poet on poetry and on surviving as a sensitive observer in a harsh world. We still read them today because they reflect what we feel we want for ourselves in our own relationship to the world, to the church, to God. In the first letter he says, "I want to advise you to keep growing quietly and seriously throughout your whole development; you cannot disturb it more rudely than by looking outward and expecting from outside replies to questions that only your inmost feeling in your most hushed hour can perhaps answer." (p 18, Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet) Surely, Christianity comes to us through the nurture of the Christian church that teaches us how to be the people of God. As we are reminded today, it starts with our parents, our sponsors, our family, the church, the people of God. Once a young student of Karl Barth asked him to sum up what was most important about his life's work and theology in just a few words. The question was posed with gasps from the audience. Is this possible, they were thinking? Barth just thought for a moment and then smiled, "Yes, in the words of a song my mother used to sing me, 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.'" The hope we share in our life together in Christian community is hope for the greening of God, for eating, praying, building a community rich in the Spirit of God to nurture each other. "The rabbi saw the desert bloom, the Eden of his prayer: a garden ripe with hope and life and also ripe for care. "So come," he says, "my friends, with me to tend, to sing, to plod: the Earth cries out to celebrate the greening love of God." May it be so, Amen.