07/30/2023 ~ Ninth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Proper 12 ~ Genesis 29:15-28; Psalm 105:1-11, 45b or Psalm 128; 1 Kings 3:5-12; Psalm 119:129-136; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 ~ https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/850935259

The Love of Christ

“What will separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble? Hardship? Distress? Calamity? Persecution? Famine? Hunger? Nakedness? Peril? Danger? The sword? Violence?” — Romans 8:35 [ILV]

The late Rev. Dr. Glenn Miller, was my Church History professor in seminary. Glenn was a Southern gentleman and very laid back. Nothing ruffled him.

I was once standing next to Glenn when a student approached and asked a very silly question. “Dr. Miller, you’re offering a survey course in Church History this semester.” Glenn nodded. “What does that cover?”

Dr. Miller remained calm and said, “Well, it’s a survey course… in Church History.”

“Yes,” the student insisted on pursuing this strange line of inquiry. “What does that survey cover?”

Glenn smiled. There was a twinkle in his eye. I could tell mischief was afoot. Glenn reached out the left hand as far as possible. “Jesus, was resurrected over here— about the year 30 of the Common Era.”

Then reaching out the right hand as far as possible Glenn offered this. “Jesus will come back sometime over here… we don’t quite know when.”

Glenn then looked back and forth across the imaginary line created by the distance between the two outstretched hands and made a pronouncement. “A survey course in Church History covers everything in between.” (Slight pause.)

I was reminded of that story because of an article in the magazine The Christian Century. It reported American students don’t know much about the history of our nation.

When tested, most sixth graders can’t explain why Abraham Lincoln is important. Only 2 percent of high school seniors could name what the Supreme Court addressed in Brown versus the Board of Education ruling.

Lendol Calder, of Augustana College in Illinois, the article said, had been exploring this issue. At the start of a survey course in American History this professor asks students to write a short paper on the history of the United States. They are required to do it in the first class of the semester but write it without using any resources— just work from what they remember, what they think they know.

The students think they are being tested on factual knowledge. They are not. Calder’s goal is to find out what the students think the story of the United States says.

Over the 15 years Calder has used this exercise, the number of students who see this country’s past as a story about gaining freedom has consistently and constantly dropped. It is now less than 20 percent. And that’s not even the real problem.

The real problem is this story has not been replaced by another story— for instance, a story of specific groups gaining freedom. Over 80 percent see the American past as just one thing after another— a jumble of disconnected events. Calder wonders if the American narrative cannot be seen as any kind of unfolding story, not even one about freedom, but simply a set of facts, then does it wind up as seeming to be meaningless?

Indeed, if there is no narrative framework, is it possible students cannot and are not able to see themselves in that story, unable to see themselves as inheritors of freedom. If people have no narrative sense of the American story and its movement toward freedom, is it possible they will be susceptible to ideologues who weave their own versions of the past in order to manipulate emotions? (Slight pause.)

That Church History professor, Dr. Miller, insisted history is not about dates and facts. History is about narrative, about story, and more specifically about movement over the course of centuries, like the still ongoing American movement toward freedom.

History is, therefore and paradoxically, personal. It is personal because we, now, are a part of the story. But history cannot be personal unless we can see ourselves as a part and as a continuation of a story.

Further, a story can span years and does not happen overnight. Lincoln was president from 1861 to 1865, a fairly short span. But the Era of Lincoln — that specific story about enslavement and freedom, ran at least from 1840 to 1870, the era when slavery was contested and overcome.

Brown versus the Board of Education, separate is not equal, happened in 1954. But the work of equal rights continues even today. It is a human struggle. And we need to see all of us together— here, now— as a continuing part of a story about freedom.

Unless we come to grips with any narrative and how it effects us, personally, see ourselves within its framework, we are left thrashing around wondering who we are, as we try to figure out what’s happening around us. Unless we see history as part of our own story, there are only disconnected events. Indeed, unless we see ourselves in the context of the story we lose a part of ourselves. (Slight pause.)

These words are from the work known as Romans: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble? Hardship? Distress? Calamity? Persecution? Famine? Hunger? Nakedness? Peril? Danger? The sword? Violence?” (Slight pause.)

Can we, do we see ourselves as a part of the story about the relationship between God and humanity? (Slight pause.) One premise with which I approach the Bible asks this: what does the Bible mean beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation— the whole arc?

Here’s my take: the narrative of the Bible says God loves each of us and wants to be in covenant with all of us. That’s the whole thing, the whole story in one sentence.

Hence, to ask what this verse says over here in Leviticus or to ask about this verse over here in Romans is always inadequate. We need to ask how a verse in Leviticus or a verse in Romans fits into the basic story— the story that says God loves each of us and wants to be in covenant with all of us.

Indeed, if we look at one of those verses and decide it says God does not love someone or that someone is outcast, we’ve not just misread the narrative. Either we really do not know the narrative or we’ve twisted the narrative beyond recognition.

Further, the narrative needs to be personal. We need to see ourselves in the narrative, this story which says God loves each of us and wants to covenant with all of us. So to say it again, the basic narrative, the basic story of the Bible is really this simple: God loves each of us. God loves all of us. (Slight pause.)

So, “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” If we do not see ourselves and everyone else as a part of the narrative of the love of God, all of those aforementioned things— trouble, hardship, distress, calamity, persecution, famine, hunger, nakedness, peril, danger, the sword, violence— will separate us from the love of God. They will separate us— and note: not God from us but us from God— there’s a difference— we are the ones forcing the separation— these will separate us from what God has done for us in Christ.

I need to be clear about something else. What I am not saying is that trouble, hardship, distress, calamity, persecution, famine, hunger, nakedness, peril, danger, the sword or violence will cease to exist because of the love God offers. You see, as Christians, we believe the peace of God is with us.

But the peace of God is not the absence of trouble, hardships, et cetera. The peace of God is, rather, the presence of God.

And, as Christians, we believe Christ lives. We believe the presence of Christ is with us, the presence of God is with us— here, now.

A relationship with God is like any other relationship. It’s personal. And once we realize that nothing can separate us from Christ, once we see ourselves as children of God, as a part of that story, then the relationship becomes very, very personal.

Why? Because we then see ourselves as loved by God in Christ, Jesus, and we see ourselves as a part of the story— part of the story called the love of God. And I think the love of God is the greatest story ever told. Amen.

07/30/2023
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “Two things: remember Mr. Frog. Second, Another seminary student, not the one from the earlier story, once said to me that the reason the professors wanted us to write so many papers is they wanted us re-write the Bible. ‘No,’ I said. ‘They want to empower us to know the story of the Bible so well that we can tell others what Bible says using our own words.’ I think that illustrates the relationship we need to have with Scripture and with God. It’s about God so it’s about relationship. It’s personal, therefore.”

BENEDICTION
Let us recognize that the transforming power of the love God offers is forever among us. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.