04/21/2024 ~ Fourth Sunday of Easter ~ *Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/939559887

Action

“My children, our love must not simply be words or pure talk. It must be true love, which shows itself to be true in action.” — 1 John 3:18.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away— or at least at a considerable distance from Harpswell— I worked in an imaginary place called Wall Street. Of course, there really is a street which bears the moniker “Wall Street.”

I’ve labeled “Wall Street” imaginary because we should realize when a reference is made to (quote:) “Wall Street” this is the nationwide investment industry. People who work in the investment industry live and work everywhere from Maine to California and beyond. Which means “Wall Street” is not a reference to just a place.

So saying Wall Street is just like saying “the White House.” Often White House does not literally mean the place the President lives. It can mean anything from those who work closely with the President to the entire Executive Branch, nationwide.

It twists my knickers when I hear a reporter— and they do say this repeat the words, “The White House says….” My reaction is I did not know we could teach houses to speak.

“Wall Street” and “White House” are not locations but are constructs of language not meant to be taken literally. Now, this next thought is a little more difficult to catch.

While the “Wall Street” might be a linguistic construct, since I was on the inside I know several things about the so called investment industry most people don’t. Let me illustrate that with a couple of stories. (Slight pause.)

I had a supervisor who said an illusion people have about Wall Street is, since this business trades billions of shares a day, people think the industry needs to be and is super organized. How do you keep track of billions of items except by being organized?

The executive then spoke this truth: “The reality is this business is it’s nothing more than chaos— organized chaos— but chaos is still chaos.” Think about that: Wall Street, where the investments of Americans rests, described as chaos.

Yet another executive at the same firm once pointed to a large room filled with clerks and said the job of every person there relied on one thing. Mistakes will be made and will be made often! Take mistakes out of the system and thousands and thousands of people become unemployed, he said. Mistakes? Chaos? On Wall Street? Oh, no!

That Wall Street talk takes me to something, believe it or not, which happened in Seminary. My Senior class, filled as it was with destitute seminarians, needed to raise money so we could give a gift to the Seminary.

Many of us went to businesses and stores around town, Bangor being the town, and asked for donations of goods or services. We, in turn, set up a raffle and sold tickets for these goods and services in order to raise money for that gift to the Seminary.

When we first talked about setting up a raffle, the Methodists in the class were dead set against it. After all— a raffle— that’s gambling.

They said the Methodist Book of Discipline— yes, the methodical Methodists have a book filled with rules— the Methodist Book of Discipline does not allow for gambling, especially among the clergy. And, they claimed, a raffle is gambling. We cannot participate, so said they.

I responded to that, and could respond in part because of my Wall Street background. “Do Methodists have a pension fund?” I asked.

They looked at me as if I had landed from another planet. One of them said, “Why, of course we do.”

“And is a good amount of that money invested on Wall Street?” I asked.

“Why, yes,” was the answer.

“So,” I said, “please explain to me how putting United Methodist Pension Fund money in the hands of Wall Street firms is not gambling?”

There is, of course, no answer to that. It is gambling. And there is nothing (with the possible exceptions of death, taxes and Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown) which is more of a given than Wall Street is a place gambling happens.

No matter how safe or sound things feel in the stock market, there is always a risk. You do not invest money in Wall Street. You place it there, as in ‘place your bets,’ in the hope the risk involved produces reasonable return. But it’s a risk, a bet, a gamble. (Slight pause.)

These are the words in First John: “My children, our love must not simply be words or pure talk. It must be true love, which shows itself to be true in action.” (Slight pause.)

Any competent professional investment manager will tell you there is no such thing as a foolproof investment but their goal to reduce risk. The problem is while you can never reduce risk to zero, you can reduce it so much that any gain, any benefit, becomes close to impossible. Indeed, a competent professional investment manager will tell you if you want to get anything out of your investment, some risk is necessary.

I think for we moderns risk presents a particular challenge. Why? We like to reduce risk. And reducing risk makes for the possibility of smaller returns. Or so it’s said. Increasing risk makes for the possibility of larger returns. Or so it’s said.

I therefore want to suggest the smallest risk comes when we do… nothing. A larger risk comes when we do… something. Action involves risk.

Which brings me to the season of Easter. Easter is not simply about some kind of euphoric joy. And Easter is not about some reward in the sweet by and by. Easter is about action. Easter is about risk.

Easter is a season which aims at being a guide to a transformed life, a transformed life of shared caring, a transformed life of action among people. And notice, this ethic of caring, this ethic of action, is grounded in God’s action, God’s risk.

God’s action of loving us is found in the truth of the resurrection, God’s risk of love for us in Jesus. Hence, Easter not only assures us with the idea that risk can be taken; Easter authorizes and empowers us for risk. Easter issues not some new knowledge about life, but empowerment for that life, empowerment for life lived out in fullness.

For me this means Easter celebrates the idea that we are invited by God to action. But therefore, a logical question would be to what action does God invite us? (Slight pause.)

Here’s what I think about the kind of action to which God invites us. Unconditional love is the greatest risk we can take. And it’s obvious to me that God invites us to love unconditionally.

Unconditional love, you see, means a risk of 100%. When unconditional love is offered, at that very moment, when we take that step to love unconditionally, there is a 100% risk in place since at that point, the point when unconditional love is offered, there is absolutely no possibility of return. To restate this, while we may get a return on the investment of unconditional love— we might get that return— there is no guarantee. We are just called on to give. (Slight pause.)

It confuses me that we often miss or don’t understand this simple idea about love: love is an action, not a feeling. And unconditional love is the most amazingly supportive action we can take, in part because when we offer it the risk factor is 100%. (Slight pause.)

As you know, I am ordained in the United Church of Christ. One of our slogans is in the denomination is (quote:) “Be the church.” (Slight pause.)

Be the church? That’s a tall order. Why? To be is an action. Being takes risk. Or as is says in First John (quote): “…our love must not simply be words or pure talk. It must be true love, which shows itself to be true in action.” Amen.

04/21/2024
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 an précis of what was said: “Here’s another slogan, another saying, this one from the Catholic theologian Richard Rhor: ‘We will never change the world by going to church. We will change the world by being church.’ Again, be the church— I think that defines risk, doesn’t it?”

BENEDICTION: We are equipped by the grace of God to help others on their journeys. God leads us beside still waters and restores our soul. God’s love in Jesus, the Christ, has blessed us and we shall dwell in the house of the true shepherd. Amen.