Erl Purnell Sermon

bEaster 6 ~ May 21, 2006 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT

Acts 11.19-30; Psalm 33.1-8, 18-22; 1 John 4.7-21; John 15.9-17

“So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians.’”

I count myself a Christian. Though that thought often terrifies me, being Christian is the light that guides me. I am a Christian because I try to follow the Way Jesus lived and taught. And, the Way can be difficult. In the true spirit and example of Jesus, to be Christian, calls me to stand against the domination systems of our day, just as he did in his day; in other words to call for justice in the community, the nation, and the world. To be Christian, to have the courage of a true Christian, is accomplished by accepting that the kingdom of God is here, right now. And, the grace of God’s kingdom is manifest by loving God with my heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving others with the same value as I love myself.

As a Christian, I celebrate all of God’s Creation. The metaphors are plain and powerful: death and resurrection; food enough for everybody.

As a Christian, I die with Jesus to what’s hurtful, to neglect, to pride and prejudice, to economic, social, sexual, racial, religious, class and political oppression, and so to all manner of inequality and injustice. As a Christian, I practice forgiving and accepting forgiveness. As a Christian, I am resurrected with Jesus through my baptism to a life of proclaiming by word and example the good news of God in Christ.

As a Christian, I welcome all people to my table with the faith and commitment that there will always be enough to eat. There will be enough bread and wine to nourish the belly, just as the Lord’s Prayer hopes for, and the bread and wine will always remind me that I participate with Jesus and with God in bringing Divine justice and peace to this world.

I count myself a Christian whose inspiration is rooted in the true story of Jesus of Nazareth. I count myself a Christian who cannot and will not tolerate those who subvert and use Jesus in order to accumulate power, or to hurt others, or to exclude anybody from the love of God in Christ.

When Eric Elnes and the CrossWalk America folks decided to challenge the public face of Christianity in America, it was a kick in the head. Of course! How could I stand by any longer and watch as Jesus was thrown out of fundamentalist church after fundamentalist church across this land. Besides, the Jesus I know from the Gospels doesn’t live in the church anyway. Jesus lives on the city streets, on the farms, in the work place, on ships at sea. Jesus lives in the hearts and minds and souls of people willing to have prophetic voices—that is, people who name the injustices that ravage God’s people and God’s Creation and who do all they can to mend those ills.

The Phoenix Affirmations summarize my own personal thoughts, and I am grateful for them. They begin with Christian love of God. As a Christian walking fully in the path of Jesus—in the Way of Jesus—you will be open to God revealing divine wisdom to humanity in many voices. You will listen for God’s Word … through prayer, meditation, and study, and by paying attention to what’s happening around you. As a Christian you will boldly affirm that all of Creation, including the earth itself and its ecosystems, are sacred, and you’ll strive to protect them. So too, you will honor the secular, non-Christians, and the non-human critters of the earth. And, in the deep humility of your love for God, as a Christian you will find exciting and artful ways to worship and celebrate the Divine.

As a Christian, your love of neighbor, as Jesus commands, requires honesty and authenticity, not playing insincere games or trying to lord it over others. This great love calls for the open acceptance of all who have been made in God’s image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class. To love your neighbor fully is to stand with people who are not like you, who are often unloved, whose lives invite compassion and generosity. So too, it is to listen genuinely to those who disagree with you, maybe even hate you, and to allow them to have their voice. It is to be humble and aware of your rough edges and to admit your shortcomings. And, while always taking time to hear others and to bring out the best in them, Jesus’ commandment to love your neighbor includes speaking in the public arena, when it’s your turn. That is, in the words of the Phoenix Affirmations, “preserving religious freedom and the Church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of Church and State.”

As a Christian, who takes seriously Jesus’ commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, you will care for your own body, mind and spirit, for to do so is to remember God’s wild and unconditional love for you. To do so also allows you then to care for others, to work and be productive, to serve your family, friends, and those who are strangers to you. As a Christian, you will be curious about the world around you and educate yourself and others in the wisdoms you discover or that are taught to you by way of strengthening respect for God’s Creation.

Because I say I am a Christian is not to say I do it right all the time. It is to say that I intend to try as best I can. It’s to say I always need the help of God, brother Jesus, and folks like you. God’s not done with me yet.

My real message, then, is to emphasize again and again, just as John’s Gospel does, Jesus’ commandment “that you love one another as I have loved you.” To see the church—the Body of Christ in the world—as anything other than the manifestation of Love is to fundamentally misunderstand the good news and Jesus’ radical message of transformation.

Please. Please be proud that you’re a Christian. Be called a Christian. Stand up and tell your neighbors and the world through your words and actions that you are a Christian, the kind of person who gives away God’s love generously and eagerly, always welcoming and feeding All, both your neighbor and the stranger. Speak out. Act out. Don’t accept fundamentalists’ claims to ownership of Christianity; rather be a bright light for Christianity in the true spirit of Jesus.

In at least one way the task is very simple: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13.35).

Amen.