Sermon
If I were to say, “Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,” you might be tempted to finish the phrase with “And bathed every veyne in swich licóur, Of which vertú engendred is the flour;” 3 If you did, you would be part of a very small group of English Literature geeks who know the prologue to Canterbury Tales by heart. It is more likely that you are checking your speakers or earbuds on your electronic device right now, wondering exactly what I just said.4
If I say, “We the people of the United States,” you might be tempted to finish the phrase, “in order to form a more perfect Union…” If you did, you would be part of a uniquely American group who have memorized the Preamble to the Constitution.
How about “Four score and seven years ago..” are you tempted to say “Our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty….” Did you have to make a group school presentation in 3rd grade memorizing the Gettysburg Address? And are you wondering why you still know it even now?
“The Star Spangled Banner” for instance – some of us hear “the land of the free and home of the brave” and want to call out “play ball!” – and some of us would never think of doing that. That song ties the one singing and the listener together with strong ties – whether it's through the American sport of baseball, or the history we share as Americans when we are feeling patriotic. The patriotic association has been called into question lately as history and current events clash. But the association is still there because the story is still there.
“I pledge allegiance….”
There are things that we know, that other people know, and can join in when we begin to speak. When we meet in person, I'll invite you to call out anything like that that you can think of. For now, feel free to write something in the comments section. Maybe a song, more often a pledge or promise, or something heartfelt that raises some kind of emotion in us. “What that Aprille” not so much. “We the people of the United States,” maybe a little more. How about something less national and more personal. What about a school fight song? Or the scouts pledge? Or the Doxology? What kinds of things do we have patterned in our minds that remind us whenever we sing or say it, of the others we know who know the same song, the others in the room saying the same thing, the others at the reunion repeating the class motto in unison. These kinds of things aren't the same as remembering words to a favorite song and re-living the 50's, 60's, 70's and so on. These kinds of things stir stronger feelings of belonging in us.
I'm thinking of the Ruth group. I'll bet all of you can sing that song now (in your heads). How about this dear community here at Bethany? When I say “Go out into the world in peace.” What do you think of to say next?
Go out into the world in peace. Have courage! Hold on to what is good. Return no person evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit!
What are you feeling?
When you say these words, you are saying more than the words. You are looking around the room maybe, thinking about the people who are typically in the room when you are saying them; or your eyes are closed; you are thinking about how much you have been through over the years; you are thinking about the people missing from the room; when you hear these words when you're not here, you might have the feeling again that you have had here.
When I say “Our Father in heaven” what comes to mind to say next?
In the time of Paul, the words “Abba, Father!” were the start of many traditional Semitic prayers. The audience for this text in the letter to the Romans, might have been tempted to finish the phrase with any number of the prayers that they spoke together, just as we can finish any of the above.
That feeling we get when we repeat familiar meaningful words together with others who know the words and feel the same way, is exactly what Paul is talking about when he says, “When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit”
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While Romans is the first of the Pauline letters in the Bible, it is actually the last of the letters that Paul wrote. By the time he wrote this he had a much clearer idea of what he wanted to say, and how to say it. Never known for being easy to understand, Romans contains the most robust apology for Jesus of Nazareth that Paul has written. We have read much about Peter recently, who was considered the evangelist for the community in Jerusalem. Paul on the other hand was considered the evangelist to the gentiles. The message would be slightly different for each audience primarily because their relationship to the law and scripture would be different. Jewish folks would have knowledge of Jewish scripture and temple activities and the laws stemming from scripture. An audience of gentiles would need more explanation about the cultural use of laws from scripture to inform daily life.
Commentator Paul Meyer tells us that the audience for Paul's letter to the Romans “is not some enemy or heresy; it is not gentile Christianity, of which Paul is rather the advocate; nor is it Judaism, as though this were a rejected alternative left behind. It is, instead, in large measure the Hellenistic Jew that Paul himself was: a religious person in his highest aspirations, in his self-esteem but also his devotion to God, in his full knowledge of what God requires of human beings, in his loyalty to the Jewish Torah.”2
What Paul had come to understand was that life with God was rich with possibilities for relationship, and a relationship with God through Jesus and the Spirit would bring not only new life, but an eternal life.
That same feeling that we get when we share words that have deep and generous meaning come from the Spirit. That Spirit through Jesus is what brings us the filial relationship with God. A relationship that is not that of a slave – someone taken, someone powerless, someone removed from their own context by force, someone now required to be the footstool for someone else. We are invited into a relationship of adoption – someone chosen, someone who will be cared for, someone with a family, someone with siblings who share that same family, someone who will get the benefit of a strong, loving, wise, compassionate parent for help through struggles throughout life.
This is the relationship that we recognize when we participate in baptism, either our own or that of another. We are called “child of the covenant” as our new surname. Our new family name. When we participate in the liturgy of baptism, we often read words that have been read by other congregations and families when participating in even other baptisms, back through the centuries. In Christ we are not just part of a single child family; we are adopted into a family that has been planning for us, loves us, knows us, and goes back centuries.
I know that we have stories of adoption in this congregation. I have stories of adoption in my family. We know how deeply stories of adoption affect us. Whether it is the reason for, the process of or the outcome of, adoptions are at once loving and stressful and challenging, and beautiful and complicated and sad and joyful. The facts of adoption are the reality of being imperfectly human and being involved in society as a whole and interacting with other imperfect humans. But the spirit of adoption is always one of loving choice and promise of commitment to life.
If being obedient to and living according to the flesh means that human choices are the ultimate destiny for our lives, then Paul is telling us, reminding us, that our human choices are not the ultimate destiny. Our adoption as children of God means that we are not our own ultimate destiny. We are together a part of each other's human destiny, but only a part. Being led by the Spirit through Christ, our adoption means that we are heirs of that promise of life.
What we do with that information will be important, and fun, and meaningful, and life giving. This whole year has been so unique for so many people. Across the world people are still dying from COVID-19 in tragic numbers, yet here in the US and especially here in the bay area we have been blessed with a pause at least in COVID cases, enough that plans are being made to move out of our shut down phase. At this point in the year+ of the pandemic we are in the position of reflecting on where we stand in many ways. I feel like we are in the position of assessing the situation after a tornado and checking to see if we have been injured, if the roof is still there, are the roads passable. We check out ourselves, our immediate family, our neighbors and our community. After we assess our own needs we figure out how we can help. For us at Bethany, we have fared mostly well. I don't want to make that a blanket statement because the difficulties from this past year-plus have come in different sizes and shapes.
Here we are today, outside, seeing each other in person for worship for the first time since our last outdoor service in August of 2020. Back then, we had had enough of being away from church on Sundays. And now look at us, still having had more than enough of being away from church on Sundays! But we're moving in a completely different direction this time.
The direction we are moving now brings us hope, and hope enlivens our imaginations and brings us energy. We have an opportunity now to receive this message from Paul as an exciting invitation to use that energy in remarkable ways. What does it mean to live led by the Spirit? I have no doubt that we have a good idea of that. Our question is then What does it mean to live led by the Spirit today?!
Today is more than a year into a global pandemic; today is doing well in the middle of a world that is not; today the care we have for each other incudes decisions about masks and hugs; today we cannot unsee the crimes of racism, crimes against our democracy; today we live in a severely divided nation where poverty, access to health care, housing, a living wage are blinking like neon lights all around us.
We have so much to be thankful for. There is so much we can do. We don't need to be fearful, or tentative, or shy. As we consider how to come out of our COVID shells, remember Paul has said, “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.” The Spirit bears witness with our spirits to remind us that we are children of God and heirs of the promise that leads to life.
Amen.
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1 Paul W. Meyer, Harper Collins Bible Commentary, p.1058-1060, 2000
2 ibid, p.1040
3 The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue
4 My knowledge ends here! I don't know the entire prologue!