Worship
Sermon Teachings
I John 4:7-13, 15-21 – My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love – so you can't know God if you don't love. This is how God showed Divine love for us. God sent the only Son into the world so that we might live though him.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and God's love becomes complete in us – perfect love. This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in Christ: he's given us life from his life, from his very own spirit. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of fear on judgment day – there is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life – fear of death, fear of judgment – is not yet fully formed in love. We, though, are going to love – love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. Christ first loved us.
If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating a brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he cannot see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.
Matthew 23:1-12– Jesus addressed his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and teachers of the Law are competent teachers. You won't go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don't live it. They don't take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It's all spit and polish veneer. Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help.
“Don't let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let God tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title ‘father'; you have only one Father, and that One is in heaven. And don't let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them – Christ. Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”
Do you pay enough attention to religion to know if it is good for you? Do you travel through life buoyed up or burdened down by religion? Does it help you get to the heart of your being when you come back to the three questions that comprise life's great dialogue: first, what do I sense that I am naturally called to? Second, how am I made for this world? And, finally, what is my essential nature??
A rabbi in Elie Wiesel's novel, The Oath, responds with these words to a young survivor struggling to find his way in a hostile world, “I am not, nor shall I be, a maker of miracles or a dispenser of indulgences. Don't look upon me as a substitute for study or prayer or as a mediator between you and heaven. If you are seeking someone to lighten your task of being a Jew, then look elsewhere. Easy solutions are not my way. I warn you: I shall not tell you what to do, nor shall I tell you which goals are desirable and which are not; I shall not give orders nor shall I provide remedies. All I promise is to be present. And listen.”
Perhaps it would seem much easier for spiritual leaders to simply point the way, set and enforce the rules, and talk with God for us. Of course then we would not be spiritually free and alive, and we'd end up with clergy who, as the Pharisees in Jesus' diatribe, controlled all aspects of life and faith. “All I promise is to be present. And listen.”
The first Sunday in Lent begins what can be a quiet, rich, delightful time of self-reflection on the important questions, a spiritual season akin to the winter when much of creation is fallow on the surface but ready to burst forth at the first signs of spring. CNN religion correspondent and congregational rabbi, David Wolpe, spoke in Marin in November on his literary inquiry, Why Faith Matters. The Lenten Teaching Series responds to his themes and the discussions that follow focus on his book. Rabbi Wolpe writes of the exploration of faith and history, faith and science, and the function of faith, “Underneath all the exploration lies those ultimate questions of wonder and anguish: What awaits me after I die? What do I transmit to my children? Why are we here? Can I believe that we all live in the presence of God?”
We begin our series with Rabbi Wolpe concluding, least intimate, and shortest chapter, “Is Religion Good for You?” The chapter opens with his personally revealing apologetic for the current spate of writings by the cultured despisers of religion, “Religion may be good for you and still not be true. Religion may create a more stable society, a happier person, a more secure family, and still rest on illusions. One must wonder why believing falsehoods would prove to enhance life, but it is at least possible. But is it good?”
The argument he sets forth for the value of faith is reasonable on the surface but arguable because it implies that religion is a placebo, a Freudian illusion, and Marx's opiate of the masses. To be certain religions have earned some of the critical attention, but just so we are really clear, let's begin with an essential distinction in the face of those generalized and hostile assaults on religion. ‘Religions' are always hierarchical institutional expressions of belief, dogma, doctrine, and creed. ‘Faith,' on the other hand is a personalized collection of trusted tenants that inform one's life, guide values, and define or describe helpful spiritual practices. This distinction is lost on the book – one of its few shortcomings.
For Christians, faith is confidence in an experience of Divine love and Christ's presence. Faith is not about religious propositions or institutions, and faith is not a destination. Faith is an exploration of life and being predicated on experience, a route for a life long journey rich with meaning, purpose, principles, serenity, and compassion.
The jury will be deliberating for eons on the value of hierarchical institutional religion. So, is religion good for you? Maybe yes, maybe no. If you are in recovery from being an Original Sin Calvinist Presbyterian, a Guilty Papal Roman Catholic, or a no-frills fundamental hell-fire Baptist, the answer is likely to be a resounding negative. If you grew up in a religion of love, respect, and openness that was user friendly toward your doubts and questions, the answer is likely to be affirmative. If you are a C & E Christian (you know, Christmas and Easter Christians), religion and faith are probably more cultural than lifestyle. If you're grounded in a beloved church community, faith will be central to your meaning and connection. If you regularly practice prayer, meditation, reflection, study, and loving kindness, all of the studies say that you are likely to be satisfied if not outright happy about your affiliation.
Here are a few responses to the rabbi's question about what is good in a religion assuming that the religion fosters inquiry into the three questions of life's greatest dialogue and is rooted in a constructive and healthy spiritual trust. Through Westminster we try to practice a faith and embrace a religion that are GOOD because in them:
1. We find abundant reasons to be consistently thankful.
2. We sustain a Christian love that holds differences and honors dissenting views and varied lifestyles. The Third Love – Christ's love -- unites us and is greater than any difference that might otherwise divide.
3. Generosity and charity are grounded by worship that inspires and empowers us to give back, hold ideals, and live into dreams and visions. Generosity and charity flow from soul not guilt.
4. Faith encourages us to be physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy; good stewards of the body God entrusted to us – the temple of flesh and blood, sinews and synapses.
5. Through our practice we embrace 7 qualities essential for an abundant life: (1) self-reflection, (2) personal growth, (3) self-love, (4) self-governance, (5) discernment into wisdom, (6) personal responsibility, and (7) the combined qualities of grace and forgiveness.
6. Our foundational trust is Divine love that welcomes us as we are, unconditionally, a love that lifts us from brokenness to wholeness.
7. Our foundational trust is the practice of loving kindness and compassion that lead to health, security, wellbeing, and peace for us and all people. This trust opens our hearts, removes fear, fosters empathy, and supports understanding, cooperation, and mutual respect.
To be certain, ever so many hierarchical religions have long exceeded the expiration of their “sell by date” and might best be placed on hermetically sealed museum shelves. But our experiences point beyond the rabbi's view that religion is merely good for society and individuals and beyond the modern critics. Our experiences confirm the truths of religions that are daily demonstrated in the lives of those who embrace an intimate faith that is constructive and healthy, that leads to abundant life, loving kindness, and peace.
Hear the Latest Sermon
Listen online or download to your MP3 player!Â
