FIRST READING—I Peter 4: 8-11 (NIV)
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
SECOND READING—Matthew 22: 34-40
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
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Holy and Faithful God, we come to you today and ask for your grace…your grace so that we can hear and believe and act. May the words spoken today and the thoughts and prayers of all your people be an expression of our love and devotion to you. Amen
How many of you, when a vacation is in danger of being rained out turn to the old faithful pastime—the jigsaw puzzle? Me too, and because I love a good mystery, I enjoy a good puzzle. But how many of you have gotten almost to the end of that 500 or 1000 piece puzzle only to find what? That’s right—a piece is missing—doesn’t that make you want to scream. What we tend to do instead is to shake the obviously empty box a ge-jillion times as if the piece is suddenly going to appear and drop miraculously from the box. We may crawl around on the floor, look behind the cushions, force everybody to empty their pockets in case a jokester has gotten into the room. And sometimes it shows up, but often it doesn’t and we are really frustrated and maybe even angry. Altogether a significantly dissatisfying experience.
I wonder if some or even many of you are in that same place as you think about growing your faith life or becoming more active in this church. Is there a piece or two missing that hinders you from seeing what the whole picture might look like? I want us to think with excitement and expectation over the weeks between now and Thanksgiving about the path of spiritual growth, the developing and celebration of faith, and the discernment of God’s will for each and every one of us. For you are all here for a reason and it will be a wonderful experience together to find the missing piece of the puzzle.
I hope that all of you noticed the word “diversynergy” that appeared in the newsletter and again on the front of the bulletin. And, no, you won’t find it in any dictionary, made it up all by myself, I did; but it brings together two elements of our communal faith practice that will guide us not only in the weeks to come but in the foreseeable future. Let’s take it apart.
“Diverse”—we often talk about how different each one of us is and how we experience our spiritual life and gifts in very different ways. But what does that truly mean? It means that God gives to each of us a wonderful variety of gifts, interests, and life circumstances. And though God doesn’t make all of us the same (trust me, being tall has to be a good thing in the average kitchen), God loves us all the same. We are not the same creatures, but we are all equally created by God in the image and likeness of God. Loved equally, created with joyous differences and uniqueness.
“Synergy”—those of you who know group dynamics or systems theory know that synergy is the principle that says, in my grandmother’s words, “two or three or four or five heads are better than one.” Well, that is how I understand it—that we, all of us, created and drawn together by God can do far more when all of our energies and gifts come together into one explosion of faith, than the sum of what we could all do as individuals if it were somehow added up at the end. In a way—1 + 4 can equal 10 when our individual faith and unique gifts are multiplied exponentially in our shared journeys—thus, diversynergy.
We seek the guidance of our scripture passages as we begin this journey together. Looking to the teaching of Jesus, it is clear that the foundation of all our faith work and growth is present in Jesus’ response to the Pharisees. When asked for the greatest commandment of all the law, Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Everything is about these two commandments.”
That’s it—love God with your whole self—everything about you—your gifts, your skills, and even your faults; and, love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. Nothing complicated here. Well…fortunately, Peter comes to the rescue. He tells us quite clearly what this love looks like in a Christian community—a Christian community very much like this one: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.” Peter definitely helps us put Jesus’ commandment into concrete reality and shows us quite clearly who is to receive the glory when it all comes together—God through Jesus Christ.
The phrase “love each other deeply” brings us to another level of caring for each other. This is the kind of love that enables us to look beyond our own self interest and care more about meeting the needs of others than our need to be right or first or important. This is the kind of love that puts us in our place, knowing when love abounds, it is God’s grace working through us. This is the kind of love that enables us to speak the very words of God—think for just a moment what that means—when we are in the place where we love each other deeply, where we offer gifts to each other in true servanthood with no thought for repayment or recognition—this is the very love and word of God. We use whatever gift we have received to serve others—to bring God’s grace to each and everyone with whom we interact.
Seems like a tall order until you place it in the context of ‘diversynergy’. In this context we are not alone, we are doing this together. And because we are doing it together, our efforts are multiplied by God’s gracious infusion of the Holy Spirit in all our work and practice. In this context we encourage each one to find their own path. We do not demand that they walk ours. This is true servanthood—loving those we serve as much as we do ourselves—enough that their needs are put first since we are faithful stewards of God’s grace in all its various forms. And in this way, we welcome and celebrate those who are very different from us indeed—those whose faith walk looks nothing like ours and those just finding their way. We come to know that we can learn from each other—that we can trust, and try, and flounder, and grow. And we do it in our own unique ways—finding our own path towards the God who loves us and gives us the gifts with which we are to love each other. There is an old Nicaraguan proverb: “You make the road by walking on it.” And we are doing this as people of God and as The People of God. We search within the safe haven of this deep love that grows for each and every one as it grows for ourselves. Joan Chittister says: “The grail we seek is God alone. We must seek God in the right places: within the sanctuary of the centered self.” And we find this centered self in the midst of other centered selves—selves centered on doing the will and work of God.
So why does this take us so long? For one thing, Growth that comes patiently over time is the growth we seek—the spiritual growth centered in this deep love for each other and this total and all-encompassing love we have for God, our parent, our creator, our source. And yet, in some miraculous way, we are not all the same and so we seek ways to live in this wonderful, scary place where we must learn two things: to accept God’s great love and grace to us, allowing us to love ourselves however we are made and wherever we have been on prior paths. Just the same, we learn to love those who walk as unique individuals along side of us, who grace us by allowing us to serve and be served and who call us to be more than we ever thought we could be just as we call to them for the same.
God calls us to break down the barriers inside this circle we lovingly call open. God calls us to open it and open ourselves wider and wider—to allow more of God’s acceptance and gracious love into our hearts and minds and souls, and to love each other—all the each others in a way that moves beyond the tolerance of difference to the celebration of all that those differences mean for us—for learning, for growth, for spiritual new life. As we spend the next weeks studying together about the people God is calling us to be may we prayerfully search our own hearts, find the missing piece and walk this pathway with all the other searching and growing children of God. Let us be the people God calls us to be. Amen and amen.
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