Separation (Ro. 8.26-31) Montevallo Presbyterian Church

 

“SEPARATION”

Wayne McLaughlin

JULY 26, 2020 

Given at Montevallo Presbyterian Church

[live-streamed on Facebook]

Romans 8.26-39    Inclusive New Testament

26 The Spirit, too, comes to help us in our weakness. For we don’t know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit expresses our plea with groanings too deep for words. 27 And God, who knows everything in our hearts, knows perfectly well what the Spirit is saying, because her intercessions for God’s holy people are made according to the mind of God. 

28 We know that God makes everything work together for the good of those who love God and have been called according to God’s purpose. 

29 They are the ones God chose long ago, predestined to share the image of the Only Begotten, in order that Christ might be the firstborn of many. 

30 Those God predestined have likewise been called; those God called have also been justified; and those God justified have, in turn, been glorified. 

31 What should be our response? Simply this: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” 32 Since God did not spare the Only Begotten, but gave Christ up for the sake of us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that God will freely give us everything. 

33 Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? Since God is the One who justifies, 34 who has the power to condemn? Only Christ Jesus, who died—or rather, was raised—and sits at the right hand of God, and who now intercedes for us! 

35 What will separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble? Calamity? Persecution? Hunger? Nakedness? Danger? Violence? 36 As scripture says, 

“For your sake, we’re being killed all day long; we’re looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.” 

37 Yet in all this we are more than conquerors because of God who has loved us. 

38 For I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, 

39 neither heights nor depths—nor anything else in all creation—will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Savior. *

SERMON TEXT:

Paul, in Romans eight, asks the question: Who/what can separation us from the love of Christ? Who? Who can separate us?

1.

Who is it that separates children from their parents?

Who grabs a screaming little child from its mother’s arms—

taking it somewhere not known to the parents?

Who separates people at the border from a place of safety?

Who refuses to accept those who seek asylum because of

the danger to their lives back home?

Who separates the endangered from a place of refuge?

Who separates black from whites because of the

                                                    color of their skin?

Who promotes segregation in this time of enlightenment?

Who looks upon another human being as inferior?

Who separates women from positions of authority

in the church?

Who stands in the way of a woman who has received

a call from God to be in pastoral ministry?

Who stands in God’s way?

Who looks upon half of the human race

as inferior?

Who separates people who love each other because

of sex or gender?

Who does not understand the fluidity of sexual

and gender identity?

We remember how Jerry Falwell used to try and be

clever by telling us, “It says Adam and Eve,

not Adam and Steve.”

I wish he were still alive so that one of our

bisexual friends could say to him, “Jerry, it

says, Adam and Eve, not Adam or Eve.”

Who wishes to stay in the darkness of the past

rather than enter the dawn of the present?

Who hasn’t read the words of Paul in Galatians:

In Christ there is no longer male AND female—

i.e., gender has been relativized in Christ. 

Paul asks the question: 

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?

Paul’s question echoes through the centuries. To be separate, or not to separate—that is the question. In most cases separation has been sinful. Xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, patriarchy—these are all terms that involve putting asunder that which God has brought together.

2.

Now we live inside a paradox.

A tiny, microscopic entity called a virus

has made it necessary

for the purpose of good health

to separate ourselves from one another.

It’s extremely contagious.

People who call it a hoax

                        are dying from it.

We now love our neighbor

by separating ourselves from our neighbor.

But even Covid-19 cannot separate us

from the love of Christ.

This is no distance in the love of God.

The New Testament clearly tells us

that the Ascended Christ is everywhere.

Paul says, “Christ fills all things.” **

There is no place where Christ is not.

Christ is the magnetic field of love through

which everything and everyone is connected.

We live in a giant Web of Love.

It’s not just the World Wide Web,

it’s the Universe-Wide-Web of Love.

Everything is connected.

Physical distance is transcended

by spiritual reality.

Of course we all yearn for physical touch.

I want to hug people.

I want to hug you!

But at this time God calls us to patience

for the sake of love.

This viral separation is temporary.

In the meantime, we who live in Christ

are part of one another.

That’s why we can celebrate Holy Communion

at a distance.

We would not normally do this.

We only do it in an abnormal circumstance.

But not being legalistic,

and not being blind to the unseen communion

between us,

created by our omnipresent God,

we dare to believe in

the communion of the Holy Spirit,

as the medium through which we

commune from a distance.

3.

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?

One way to understand our spiritual situation

is to tell the story of Adam and Eve.

They lived in perfect harmony.

But in the middle of night they got hungry,

tip-toed down to the fridge and got something

to eat.

God had told them: do not eat in the

middle of the night.

But they did anyway.

Sin entered the picture.

Sin slithered in between the humans

and God.

Separation!

Fast forward…

God sent Jesus.

Jesus died on the cross.

He became the Bridge, over-coming

the gap, the separation,

and now there is no separation

between us and God.

I wonder how much this traditional way 

of understanding our human dilemma

finds its source in the psychological dynamic

called         “separation anxiety.”

We all start out as part of our mother’s body.

We are intimately connected to her insides.

Then we are born—we are separated from

her, and we become a person.

And from that moment on, we experience

a low-grade or exaggerated “separation anxiety.”

Perhaps this natural anxiety translates itself

into a religious narrative about a separation

that took place in primal paradise—

    the Fall of Humanity, caused by sin.

Deep in our psyche our shame of

being human 

morphed into a feeling of anxiety—

                                    separation anxiety.

And we imagine our heavenly Parent

moving away from us because of our 

lack of perfection.

The author and theologian William F. Lynch

(d. 1987) wrote:

It is possible that the fear of separation

is the single basic fear in life,

in which all other fears somehow

participate. +

But there is another way to understand

the Christian Story.

I refer you to Father Thomas Keating,

one of the founders of the modern

Centering Prayer movement. ++

Fr. Keating saw Centering Prayer as a kind of 

divine therapy that God uses to bring us peace.

I like this quote from Fr. Keating:

The chief thing that separates us from God is the thought that we are separated from God. If we get rid of that thought, our troubles will be greatly reduced. +++

In other words, our sins do not separate us from God, 

or God from us.

What happens is that Sin tricks our brain 

into thinking or feeling that God has moved 

away from us. 

God doesn’t literally separate Herself from us.

After all, God is everywhere.

It is a psychological trick that evil plays on us.

Sin creates an optical illusion of separateness.

But the truth is, as Paul says,

    Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

4.

If Paul were here with us today, he might write something like this:

What can separate us from the love of God? Can a virus? Can being quarantined? Can bigotry or prejudice or the White Supremacy movement? Can bad leadership in high places? Can Fox News? Can the hacking of computers or false political posts on Twitter or Facebook? Can confusion in schools and stadiums? Can masks or anti-mask idiocy? 

And Paul would still say: No. None of this can separate us from the love of Christ.

The love of God cannot be quarantined. 

There will come a time when you and I

can hug one another again.

In the meantime we are called to be patient;

to persevere; to be wise;

to look out for our health,

and to do nothing that will endanger

the health of others.

We are called to try and understand

our sisters and brothers who are angry,

who are afraid,

who are misinformed,

and those who are troubled by differences.

Nurture those around you.

Let God love you through your pets.

Open your mind and heart

to the all-embracing love of God.

The Lord is with you.

Give thanks.

 ___________________

*Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation (p. 736). Sheed & Ward. Kindle Edition.

**Ephesians 1:22 God has put all things under the power of Christ, and for the good of the church he has made him the head of everything. 23 The church is Christ’s body and is filled with Christ who completely fills everything. (CEV)

+  William F. Lynch, Images of Hope: Imagination as Healer of the Hopeless (Baltimore: Helicon, 1965), 58.

++  A monk and a Catholic priest. When Fr. Keating was the abbot at St. Joseph’s Abbey, a Trappist monastery in Spencer, Massachusetts, he began to wonder if he could help contemporary Christians experience a closer harmony with God through meditation. He knew that many Westerners were turning to the East, especially toward Buddhist practices of meditation, not knowing that since its earliest existence the Church had been using various methods of meditation. Thomas Keating decided to reach way back in our tradition and retrieve one method of contemplative practice and bring it forward into the twentieth century. He called it Centering Prayer. It’s found in a late medieval writing called The Cloud of Unknowing, and is very similar to much older forms of meditative prayer. He and others began the Centering Prayer movement which has spread all over the world. (There is a Centering Prayer group that meets weekly at IPC.) 

 +++ Quoted by Dave Tomlinson in his book, How to be a bad Christian (London: Hodder, 2012), 203.

words = 1435

time = 11:30

Will the Seeds Succeed? (Leeds)

Sermon: “Will the Seeds Succeed?”
wayne mclaughlin

Leeds Presbyterian Church
July 12, 2020 – worship through Zoom

_________________


Psalm 119:105-112 Contemporary English Version (CEV)
105 Your word is a lamp
that gives light
    wherever I walk.
106 Your laws are fair,
    and I have given my word
    to respect them all.
107 I am in terrible pain!
Save me, Lord,
    as you said you would.
108 Accept my offerings of praise
    and teach me your laws.
109 I never forget your teachings,
    although my life is always
    in danger.
110 Some merciless people
    are trying to trap me,
    but I never turn my back
    on your teachings.
111 They will always be
my most prized possession
    and my source of joy.
112 I have made up my mind
to obey your laws forever,
    no matter what.



Matthew 13.1-9 and 18-23 NRSV
13 That day Jesus went out of the house and sat down beside the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he climbed into a boat and sat down. The whole crowd was standing on the shore.

3 He said many things to them in parables: “A farmer went out to scatter seed. 4 As he was scattering seed, some fell on the path, and birds came and ate it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where the soil was shallow. They sprouted immediately because the soil wasn’t deep. 6 But when the sun came up, it scorched the plants, and they dried up because they had no roots. 7 Other seed fell among thorny plants. The thorny plants grew and choked them. 8 Other seed fell on good soil and bore fruit, in one case a yield of one hundred to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of thirty to one. 9 Everyone who has ears should pay attention.”  […]

18 “Consider then the parable of the farmer. 19 Whenever people hear the word about the kingdom and don’t understand it, the evil one comes and carries off what was planted in their hearts. This is the seed that was sown on the path. 20 As for the seed that was spread on rocky ground, this refers to people who hear the word and immediately receive it joyfully. 21 Because they have no roots, they last for only a little while. When they experience distress or abuse because of the word, they immediately fall away. 22 As for the seed that was spread among thorny plants, this refers to those who hear the word, but the worries of this life and the false appeal of wealth choke the word, and it bears no fruit. 23 As for what was planted on good soil, this refers to those who hear and understand, and bear fruit and produce—in one case a yield of one hundred to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of thirty to one.”



SERMON TEXT:


We are all dirt, aren’t we?
From dust you came, and to dust you shall return.
It sounds rather gloomy.
But—we are not mere dirt.
We are inspired dirt—dirt that God has breathed into.
We are finite creatures made of dirt and spirit!
We were created to hear the Word of God.
We’re special dirt.

The parable of Jesus is about the Word of God.
In the parable the Word is compared to a seed.
The Word is spread—like a farmer casting seeds
in the field.


THE PATH

Now, some of the seeds go outside the boundary of the field
because God is an enthusiastic farmer.
Some seeds land on the path that goes around the field.
They don’t grow well, as you would expect.
The path is for walking.
As the farmer, and perhaps other people,
have walked on the path,
it has been packed down.
The seeds don’t have a chance.

There are some of us who have been trampled on.
People have walked all over us.
Because we have let them.
We have allowed ourselves to become a doormat.
Those of us who have allowed this to happen to ourselves
definitely have a low self-image.
We don’t stand up for ourselves.
We let people walk all over us.
We have become a path.

I understand this because I grew up with a 
very low self-image.
I don’t know why.
Perhaps it’s in my DNA.

I played tennis in high school.
I played the number one spot on our team.
It was a large school, and I was the best tennis player
in the whole school.
I had never had lessons, so parts of my game
were weak,
but I compensated by my speed and agility—
my ability to
run all over the court to return balls
that others could not reach.

My style of playing was defensive.
The offensive part of my game was weak,
but my defensive play was really good.
I could keep on returning that ball
until the other player got worn out.

My style of play reflected my low self-image.
Instead of aggressively going after my opponent,
I passively stood back and returned the ball.
I didn’t have enough confidence in myself
to go on the attack.
I let the other player attack
and tried to wear him down by my
defensive skills.
Sometimes I won that way.

Some seed falls on the path.
Path dirt is not receptive to the Good News of God.
It’s too worn down.

When we loathe ourselves,
when we think we don’t have any worth,
we have trouble believing the Good News
that God has made us worthy and precious.

If we find ourselves hardened by a low
self-image, or depression,
we need to find someone to help us
get off the path
and back onto the field
where we will find ourselves more open
to receiving God’s Word—the Word
of unconditional love.

Michael Gerson, a columnist for The Washington Post, spoke at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. in 2019 about his experience with depression and hospitalization. I found his words beautiful and moving. Here is an excerpt: 

Like nearly one in ten Americans — and like many of you — I live with this insidious, chronic disease. Depression is a malfunction in the instrument we use to determine reality. The brain experiences a chemical imbalance and wraps a narrative around it. So the lack of serotonin, in the mind’s alchemy, becomes something like, “Everybody hates me.” Over time, despair can grow inside you like a tumor. 

I would encourage anyone with this malady to keep a journal. At the bottom of my recent depression, I did a plus and minus, a pro and con, of me. Of being myself. The plus side, as you’d imagine, was short. The minus side included the most frightful clichés: “You are a burden to your friends.” “You have no future.” “No one would miss you.” The scary thing is that these things felt completely true when I wrote them. At that moment, realism seemed to require hopelessness. 

But then you reach your breaking point — and do not break. With patience and the right medicine, the fog in your brain begins to thin. If you are lucky, as I was, you encounter doctors and nurses who know parts of your mind better than you do. 

Over time, you begin to see hints and glimmers of a larger world outside the prison of your sadness. 

In my right mind — when I am rested and fed, medicated and caffeinated — I know that I was living within a dismal lie. 

In my right mind, I know I have friends who will not forsake me.

In my right mind, I know that chemistry need not be destiny. 

In my right mind, I know that weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.  

[Source: washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/02/18/i-was-hospitalized-depression-faith-helped-me-remember- how-live]

People who feel like everyone walks all over them are not hopeless. They need to find a psychological “coach” – which we call counselors and therapists. Through them, Christ heals.


THE ROCKS

Jesus says that some of the seeds fall on
rocky ground.
The seed penetrates the soil, and does okay
for a while,
but the rocks are an obstacle,
and the roots can’t go deep to get nourishment.

Some people are like rocky ground.
I’ve seen folk who enthusiastically believe
in the gospel for the first time:
they get excited.
They go around trying to convert everyone.
They have a great testimony.
But they can’t make it for the long haul.

For our faith to last
we must have deep roots.
There is a shallow form of religion.
It has no depth.

To be a person of faith takes perseverance. 
Faith is not a sprint—it’s a marathon.
To be deeply rooted in Christ means that
we have to be serious about our faith.
It means gathering with other Christians
to worship God.
It means studying and praying daily,
and finding a way to serve others.

Recently we have all seen what happens
when the rocks get into the way.
When just below the surface of our faith
is something hard—hard-heartedness
or hard-headedness
takes the form of bigotry and racial prejudice.

I recently saw a video clip of a Black Lives Matter
protest.
On the other side of the street were a few people
shouting slogans against Black Lives Matter.
In that group were three people in a pickup truck.
One of them—a woman—was in the bed of the truck,
waving a large Confederate flag and shouting, 

“I hate you! I hate you! And I’m going to teach my
children to hate you!”

Somebody had taught her to hate certain kinds of people.
No one is born into this world as a hater.
No little baby has hate in its heart.
Somebody has to teach that child to hate.

In order for the rocks of hate to be dug up
and thrown out of the soil,
a person has to unlearn their hatred.
They have to break through the rocks.
That kind of breakthrough comes only through
the grace of God.

Megan Phelps-Roper is a young woman who grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church,protesting at funerals of soldiers who were killed in Iraq;protesting at funerals of gay people.This church taught their members to hate.But this young woman was converted to love.She went on Twitter in order to spread her church’s message of hate.But there were a few people who responded to hermessage with kindness toward her as a person.The Holy Spirit, through the kind words of a few people,broke the rocks in her heart.She left the Westboro Baptist Church, which meantbeing ostracized from her family.But she found another family—the real Church,the Church that spreads the love of God for all people.

The hard rock was broken by the softness of kindness.



THE THORNS

Jesus says that some seeds fell on soil where there
were thorn bushes and weeds.
This is like people who hear God’s Word
and receive it, and begin to grow.
But the thorn bushes and the weeds choke it to death.

The little plant cries out, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!” 

Jesus says that what chokes the plant is
anxiety and greed.
Greed is never satisfied.
You get $100,000 and you want $500,000.
You get $500,000 and you want a million.
You get a million and you want a billion.
Greed brings no happiness,
and it chokes your heart.

Anxiety kneels on your neck.
Anxiety or worry literally chokes the body.
I used to have anxiety attacks.
I learned that what was happening to me during
those attacks was that my body was literally squeezing
me.
My blood flow was constricted.
My muscles were contracting.
My body was choking itself,
and I felt like I was dying.
I had trouble breathing. 
I felt like I was dying!

That is literally what anxiety does to the body.
I went and talked to a counselor about my anxiety,
and that helped a lot.
But what really helps me is a little pill
I take every day.
It changed my life.
It was like being born again.


GOOD DIRT

Finally, says Jesus, some seeds fall on good dirt.
This is the person who is receptive to the Good News—who
has gotten off the beaten path,
and has dug up all the rocks,
and has cut down the weeds,
and is able to grow and put down roots.

We’re all dirt.
What we should strive to do is to be
good dirt.
Then our lives will be productive.
We will be able to feed others with what
has grown in our hearts.

Our lives will be fulfilled.
We are not on this earth just to live for ourselves.
We are here to allow the Spirit
to nourish others through our lives.