Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · May 17, 2009

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Prayer of the Day

Dear One, who loves us so deeply and graces us with the comfort and challenge of loving one another: we treasure the love made manifest in Christ, in the Body of Christ present in this world and in this particular body of Christ known to us in and through Broadway Christian Church. We place ourselves in the welcoming embrace of your Spirit and seek your encouragement as we live into your future with us. Amen.

Scripture

Romans 12:9-18

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Message

Held in Sacred Relationship

Kim Gage Ryan

She said to me, “We’ve looked at about a million Scriptures to find this one.”

When Heather Turner and her fiancé, Josh Sumowski, and I were planning their wedding for February 14 of this year, their one-in-a-million Scripture was the one I just read, Romans 12:9-18. I will tell you; that was a first for me. In 25 years of conducting weddings, that was the first time anyone had chosen that particular Scripture to be the heart of their wedding ceremony and their promises.

One of the things I love about ministry is it is never predictable. Every day is a new day, and nothing needs to be routine. I had told them, being the great wedding expert that I am, about the typical wedding Scriptures. You know… First Corinthians 13 (“Love is patient…”). Maybe from Ruth (“Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God.”) Maybe from Colossians 3, or a Psalm. But they didn’t choose any of those. They actually went into their Bible and searched, and searched, and searched until they found their one-in-a-million Scripture and chose this one for their own. It was perfect. I want to ask you to hear it again, but this time with ears as if you are gathered for a wedding. My guess is that isn’t how you were listening to it just a few moments ago. So, you are the guests at Ken’s daughter’s wedding in a couple of weeks. Hear these words.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty…

(Now last service, a wife said she was going to put that on her refrigerator for her husband.)

… Associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

And I did add in their February 14 ceremony, “…and especially with each other.”

Heather and Josh had chosen a Scripture that beautifully describes what I would call “a sacred relationship.” By that, I mean a relationship that evidences God at its core, at its very center, by the very tangible characteristics of genuine love, holding fast to the good, mutuality, honor, hope, patience, perseverance in prayer, hospitality, blessing even your enemy, keeping in mind noble and common values, living peaceably, being there in joy and sadness. Isn’t that lovely for a wedding?

Somewhere in the midst of that wedding, somewhere in the midst of the planning, and the preparations, and the rehearsal, and the celebration itself, and my looking into their eyes as they were looking into each other’s eyes, and committing themselves to this beautiful ideal, somewhere between then and the cutting of the cake, it occurred to me that this would be the Scripture for us today. This would be our Scripture for this morning. I have been holding on to it since February 14 for us.

These words were lovely. They were fresh in the moment of that promise-making for a wedding, but they are also words of beautiful encouragement for all kinds of relationships. That is so because we know that even with the best of intentions, sometimes two don’t become one. And the sacredness of our relationships sometimes are found in other relationships, in friendships, in family, and even in church, especially in church, we hope. 

In fact, this piece of Scripture is a part of a letter that was written by a beloved pastor to a beloved congregation encouraging relationships of these qualities. Because where else can we learn such vital truths for living life if not in the community of faith? Where else can we practice, and practice, and practice some more these life-giving, death-defying truths for surviving and thriving in relationships, if not in the community of faith. Where else can we be held accountable to live from a center of love and grace rather than from a center of fear, or self-absorption, or mistrust, if not here in the community of faith?

So, what I need to say this morning – what I want to say this morning is, “Thank you.” “Thank you” to this congregation for being a source of sacred relationships. “Thank you” for being one who offers these kinds of relationships to each other. You have offered them to me, and hopefully, together, we have offered them in ministry with each other beyond ourselves.

You know… I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has said to me in the last 20 years, “But don’t you want your own church?”

Usually, I would smile and would say something like, “Oh, you know, I love my job. I love the flexibility and the diversity of ministry.” The truth is (I don’t tell them this part), I probably have had six different jobs over the last 20 years. I was just fortunate enough not to have to go find a different congregation to find a different job. Thank you for that.

I would say to them, “Well, you know, I love working with Rick Frost, who just so flew under the radar as one of the finest senior ministers ever. He was the best colleague and partner in ministry anyone could ask for. But always I said to them, “You know, Broadway Christian Church is a great church.”

What I wanted to say to them when they said, “But don’t you want your own church?” was, “Are you crazy? My own church?”

For one thing, no church belongs to the minister. We sometimes forget that. But let me tell you, few ministers have been blessed to serve a church like Broadway as I have been.

The first person who asked me that question just a couple of months after I got to Broadway, “Don’t you want your own church?” was a fellow pastor. And that church and that pastor have struggled and struggled and struggled, and that church closed a few years ago.

Friends, there are a lot of dying churches out there. There are lots of unhealthy, unfriendly, not growing, not interested in growing, living out of fear and self-absorption, and mistrust. This is not one of them. Thank you, Jesus, and thank you, Broadway Christian Church.

This congregation knows the meaning of sacred relationships. This congregation knows the importance of relationships characterized by genuine love, holding fast to the good, mutuality, honor, hope, patience, perseverance in prayer, hospitality, blessing not cursing one’s enemy, keeping in mind noble and common values, being there for each other in sadness and joy, living peaceably as much as is possible.

Are we perfect? No. Have we made mistakes? Not many. Maybe one or two, but God has redeemed those. Have there been some bumps in the road recently? One or two, and God will redeem those as well. But at the core, at the center of Broadway Christian Church is the DNA of sacred relationships. From that core, and from that center, has come and will come dynamic life, and love, and ministry. I am sure of that.

When a congregation nurtures and claims and insists upon the sacred center of shared life, amazing things happen. We’ve seen it. We can anticipate more. Lives are changed and people are reborn. Hope is clung to and thrives. Such a church becomes a center that draws others into that force-field of sacred living and relationships. Then from that center, life can be affirmed. Life can be treasured. Life can be guarded. Life can be faced. Life can be shared. Christ’s life.

I can’t begin to count how many hospital rooms I have been in. I can’t begin to count how many living rooms I have sat in as we have prepared together for memorial services. I can’t begin to count how many times I have been in my office with someone in the midst of heartbreaking conversation. And someone there will look at me at say, “What do people do without a church like this? What do people do without a community of this kind of love and support?”

And my answer is always, “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

Then, when we would pray together, with hospital monitors beeping in the background, or not, with tears and laughter in the same breath, with memories and regrets and hopes intertwined, we always said, “Thank you. Thank you, God, for this. Thank you, God, for this community of faith. Thank you for being held in such sacred relationship.”

Initially, when I was thinking about this sermon and planning it, I wanted to share three stories of three people who had been drawn into Christian communities in other places and other times. One of those is the story that Anne Lamott tells in her book Traveling Mercies. Another one is the story Sara Miles tells in her book, Take This Bread. And the third one was the story that Barak Obama tells in his book, Dreams of My Father. All three of them describe having been skeptics, not believers really. Not trusting Christianity or the Church. They each tell a story of the magnetic pull of a community of faith, of sacred relationships, and where they discovered, because of and within that community, a relationship with God much to their surprise. They are great stories. You can find them. You can read them. I just don’t have time to do them justice this morning.

I have to tell you about one of my reoccurring nightmares. It’s not the one where you have the final and you haven’t been to class. Who has that one still? This one is a reoccurring preacher nightmare. It is where I cannot get to the end of the sermon. I’m preaching, and my pages are here. Then they get mixed up. Then I can’t find the end of the sermon. I think I’ve told you about this one before. Once in this dream, I could not get to the end of the sermon, and someone goes out and gets fried chicken and brings it back. Actually, I think that person was Jack Miles. It is just like Jack to be taking care of us while the preacher is going on and on and on.

Well, I’m not going to go on and on and on. So, I’m not going to tell those stories. But I encourage you to hear and find those stories on your own. The story I most want to tell you is one of our own stories about two people here at Broadway. 

They showed up already having decided they didn’t need or they didn’t want a church. They didn’t need, and they didn’t want God as God had been presented and represented to them. They came because of an invitation. They came because of a sense of obligation to a friend, a single Mom who wanted her little girl blessed on Mother’s Day here at Broadway. They happened to be this little girl’s godparents. They came telling the Mom and telling themselves, “This is it. This one time, and we are only coming because we love you so much, but don’t expect us to go back.”

They came. They experienced the Broadway Spirit. They experienced something they had never experienced before. They left, and in the car on the way home there was a stunned silence until Belinda said, “What was that?”

And Chuck said, “I don’t know.”

And Belinda said, “Do you think it was a fluke?”

And Chuck said, “Maybe.”

And Belinda said, “Maybe we should go back and see if it was a fluke.”

And Chuck said, “OK.”

And they came back the next Sunday. And they came back the Sunday after, and the Sunday after. Then in less than a year, they were baptized.

Many of you know the rest of their story. You know how they immersed themselves in everything we had to offer them, into A.B.I.L. which was this intensive two-year Bible study. They got into it right after their baptism. I couldn’t believe it. Small groups, Life Focus, Worship and Wonder. In fact, they created our Worship and Wonder for our two-year-olds. Elder, deacon, mission trips, pilgrimages to South Africa. They sponsored every Pastor’s Retreat since their own. And on baptism Sunday in this congregation, Chuck Davis leads our children into the waters of baptism, and Belinda Davis embraces them as they come out of the waters of baptism.

Last Sunday I wished Belinda “Happy Mother’s Day,” because she and Chuck have mothered and fathered so many of our babies. I believe that Chuck and Belinda were drawn to the sacred relationships they saw evidenced here. They were held. They have been held, and they are held. Now, they are doing the holding from that center of sacred relationships so present in this congregation, as have so many of us have been. I know I have been held in that center, and I thank you.

I want to close with another selection from a letter from the New Testament, written by a pastor to a beloved congregation. These are some of the very first verses in Chapter 1 of the letter to the Philippians. 

I thank my God in all of my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy…

[Editor’s Note: Kim had begun to cry as she was attempting to read this Scripture.] 

OK. Time out. I use to read my sermons to Bill ahead of time. One time I was reading a sermon ahead to Bill, and I got teary like this. He said, “Oh, you can really move yourself.” It’s true. But I would think if I could cry ahead of time, that maybe I wouldn’t cry in the midst of the sermon. But, it’s not working today.

…thankful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure that God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at that day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel thus about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of God’s grace… in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:3-11 RSV)

Amen. Amen.

Benediction

Good Teacher, thank you for blessing us with this community of faith. Here in this place we find genuine love from you, for you, and for each other. This love is the sustaining power in our lives and of the world. Thank you for teaching us to honor you and hold one another. Be with us as we carry this love into the world. Amen.