Sunday, October 6, 2019. Rev. Jen Dunfee, preaching.Scripture Readings: Lamentations 3:19-26; 2 Timothy 1:1-7, 13-14

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SERMON TEXT

For

those of you expecting a continuation of our sermon series on the Book of Ruth,

come back next week for Part 3.  Today we

join with churches all across our country and, true to its name, our world, to

celebrate World Communion Sunday.  A

quick google search shows that other churches in McLean, including the McLean

Baptist Church whose softball team our Lewinsville sluggers beat handily in a

double header last Thursday night) others in the Northern Virginia area and

across denominations, will hold World Communion Services today. 

This

is the 86th year of World Communion Sunday; the first service was

held in 1933 at the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, and from that

one church it spread to other Presbyterians, then other denominations, then

across the country and beyond.   In 1933,

a pastor at Shadyside Presbyterian, surveying the news of the day, ongoing

global strife and suffering after a war, divisions leading to hatred and

violence over nationalism, race and religion, sought a way forward through

celebration.   Celebration of this

sacrament, where Christians near and far, regardless of any category that might

have divided them, consider their unity with Christ and with each other. 

It

is a Sunday where we employ our Holy imagination.  We prayerfully think about all those who call

on the name of Jesus, and as a part of worship today will be served in their

seat, or walk to a chancel or altar, to receive the same two things.  Bread and Cup.

The

bread might be (like this), gluten free, baked by a member of the congregation,

bought

at a local store, packaged in a box of wafers, somewhere in the world it might

not look like a bread that you recognize, but it will remind those who partake

of it in that moment of  the broken body

of our Lord.   Whether it is white or

purple grape juice, red wine or rose, it will remind those who drink of it in

that moment of the shed blood of our Lord.   

Ever

pull a piece of bread off the loaf that is so small you can barely get the

juice on it?  Or you just drop it

entirely in the cup? Ever pull a piece off the bread that is so big it is

difficult to fit it in the cup?  I

remember one Sunday here where Tommy was younger and he took about 1/3 of the

loaf because he was hungry and going straight to baseball.  I think we were singing our final hymn by the

time he finished it.  (told with

permission from Thomas Sharp.) 

We

can imagine any variation for the bread, the cup, the logistics, the songs sung

and prayers prayed before and after, the language spoken, the location, but we

can know one constant, “on the night he was betrayed Jesus took the bread, and

after giving thanks he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying take, eat,

this is my body broken for you.  Do this

in remembrance of me.”  And similar with

the cup. 

All

the churches celebrating Communion on this day will use the words of scripture

to remind the people gathered, 10 or 10,000 red, blue or purple political

beliefs, people in countries in the headlines, people in countries on America’s

radar: China, Ukraine, Iraq, all colors of skin, all kinds of families, will

hear the same words about why we do what we do here. 

My

Holy Imagination can only get me a little way towards considering what God does

not need to imagine but can see, people everywhere telling each other the story

of Jesus, God’s beloved son.  And I

wonder if God is pleased whenever we remember, and tell again this most

important of God’s redeeming stories, because it is about the only begotten

son.  

This

is the Joyful Feast of the People of God, but not because we leave behind our

worries here, not because we cover up our messes, not because we hide what is

broken.  This is the Joyful feast because

Jesus sh

Sunday, July 28, 2019. Rev. Scott Ramsey, preaching.Scripture Readings: Colossians 2:6-15; Luke 11:1-13

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SERMON TEXT

Today we are concluding our 4-week summer sermon series, “Bearing Each Other’s Burdens.”  We began the series by considering the Apostle Paul’s command in Galatians 6 to ‘bear each other’s burdens, which fulfills the law of Christ.’  We saw how bearing each other’s burdens leads us to the awareness that Christian freedom is not freedom from other people, but is actually freedom for other people, always oriented towards the common good – with our hearts turned especially towards two groups of people: those who are suffering and those with whom we disagree.  Last week, Pastor Annamarie preached on the story from Luke 10 about Mary and Martha, about how the work we do to bear each other’s burdens – the work of mercy, of justice, of hospitality – must be grounded in our prayerful love for God and listening for the Word of Jesus, or else we will become anxious and distracted and resentful.

This morning our text from Colossians 2 embraces all of these within the comprehensive umbrella of our life in Christ.  Bearing each other’s burdens is not something additional that we have to do on top of everything else.  It flows out of our life in Christ.  Our life in Christ is something that has already been established, and it is something towards which we are always growing.  We do not need to do anything to justify or deserve our life in Christ, but you and I know that we are not yet fully living out our life in Christ.  We need to become what we already are.  Our life in Christ has already been established, but it is not yet fully embodied.

“Life in Christ” is the central focus of our text from Colossians 2.  The prepositional phrase “in him” or “with him” occurs 8 times in this little passage.   As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith.”  Our whole lives, from beginning to end, from the time we were rooted, through being built up and developed, all the way through being established, it’s all in Christ.  Your entire life already takes place in Christ.

Christ is the soil in which our lives are planted, Christ is the blueprint according to which our lives are designed, and Christ is the goal towards which we are journeying. You are not on your own, trying to figure out what to do with your life; you are not on your own, trying to figure out how you belong in the universe.  Our direction is found in Christ; as we build a relationship with him, he will lead us to know what we are to do and how we are to live.  Our lives are in him.  We just need to become what we already are.

When Paul wrote to the Colossians, he appears to have been writing to people who were being told that they still lacked something.  Other leaders were telling them that they lacked something, they needed to do something else to be complete, needed something else to be secure.  Whatever this other teaching was, it was beginning to seduce the Colossians away from their sense of being sufficiently rooted and grounded in Christ.  Scholars argue about exactly what this teaching was, but Paul wants the Colossians to know that they already have all they need to be secure.  “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.”  You are in Christ, Paul tells them, you have come to fullness in Christ, so you do not need to chase anxiously after other sources of approval, or other sources of security or control or power.  If you try to build your sense of worthiness on anything other than God’s love for you in Christ, if you try and build your sense of worthiness on your good behavior, or the size of your portfolio, or your professional su

Sunday, July 14, 2019. Rev. Scott Ramsey, preaching.Scripture Readings: Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37

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SERMON TEXT

We’re continuing with our summer sermon series this week,

entitled “Bearing One Another’s Burdens.”  The summer theme comes from last week’s reading

from Galatians 6, where Paul tells the Galatians to bear each other’s burdens,

which fulfills the law of Christ.  Last

week, we talked about how ‘bearing each other’s burdens’ leads us to understand

that Christian freedom is not freedom

from other people, but is actually freedom

for other people, always oriented towards the common good – oriented

towards those who are suffering, and towards those with whom we disagree.

Bearing one another’s burdens fundamentally involves a turn to your neighbor.

Colossians 1, which Pam just read for us, describes the Christian life as “bearing fruit.”  Paul writes, “Just as the gospel is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard the gospel and truly comprehended the grace of God.”  Paul wants the Colossians to “bear fruit in every good work as you grow in the knowledge of God.”

Bearing fruit means that you and I are like trees or vines, which are planted in the love of God, nurtured with prayer, fellowship, study, and service, and pruned by the daily challenges that come to us in life.  Anyone who has done any gardening at all can tell you that the process of ‘bearing fruit’ cannot be rushed.  It’s a process, a journey. You do not force fruit to come out of the tree; you cannot yank fruit out of the vine. You’ve got to patiently tend the vine, give it time, and allow the underlying forces of life within the vine to bring the fruit forth.

Bearing fruit is an image of

growth, of abundance, of energetic life and vitality. That is what God wants to do in your life.

Little Collin, who was baptized

today, has joined up with the fruit-bearers, an ancient stream of people who

seek to bear fruit for the world.  From

this point forward in Collin’s life, he is part of a people who are trying our

level best to align our lives with God’s will in the world, which will, over

time, yield fruit for the well-being of the world.

Just as we are wondering what it

might look like to bear fruit, Jesus drops the parable of the Good Samaritan

into our laps.  And this parable teaches

us that, for disciples of Jesus, ‘bearing fruit’ – just like bearing each

other’s burdens – involves a fundamental turn to your neighbor.

A lawyer stood up and asked Jesus

what is involved in eternal life, abundant life, the life of heaven.  As a good rabbi, Jesus directs him to the

Torah.  “What is written in the law?  What do you read there?”  This lawyer is a good student, for he gives a

good answer:  “Love the Lord your God,

and love your neighbor.”

Love God, love your neighbor.

That’s the heart of it. It’s as simple as that, and it’s as demanding as that.

Eternal life, for the disciple of

Jesus, is inextricably tied up with your neighbor. There is no eternal life

apart from our neighbors.  Eternal life,

according to this text, is not an individual matter.  A question about eternal life is what

triggered the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Eternal, abundant life is not something we can

get on our own. We get there together.

For the disciple of Jesus, the neighbor is sacred.  The neighbor and the neighbor’s wellbeing are

tied up with our own.  Other texts in the

New Testament go even further to identify Jesus with the neighbor.  “As you have done it to the least of these,

you have done it to me.”  For disciples

of Jesus, the face of your neighbor is like the face of God.

The Greek word here for ‘neighbor,’

plesion, is derived from the word for

“close by.”  As in “your neighbor” is the

one who is close by.  We are to love whoever

happens to be close by. That is the one we are

Sunday, June 7, 2019. Rev. Scott Ramsey, preaching.Scripture Readings: Luke 10:1-11; Galatians 6:1-6

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SERMON TEXT

When the staff was planning for the summer worship theme for this year, we were reflecting on the deep and profound polarization that we are living through these days. More and more, we sort ourselves into our various tribes, and we mainly affiliate with, and click through to read, people who reinforce our own views. We face significant challenges as a society and a world, yet we are deeply divided about how to respond to those challenges.  We can feel the tension between feeling called to cross lines to embrace those with whom we disagree, and feeling called to draw lines to be clear about what we believe.

As we were thinking about how God might be calling us to respond to this, we noticed that the lectionary epistle readings for July begin with our remarkable little passage from Galatians 6 this morning, in which we find the phrase, “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.”   “Bearing each other’s burdens” struck us as a thread worth pulling on, as we try to find our way forward. We’ll be exploring other texts through the month, but Galatians 6 is our launching pad.

The letter of Galatians, as a

whole, is a full-throated defense of the freedom

to which the gospel of grace releases us. Freedom is always a good place to

start. “For freedom Christ has set us free,” Paul says in chapter 5; “Stand

firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”  On the cross, Jesus set people free from all

the evils of every age.  We are no longer

bound or subject to any imperial or coercive regime.  We have been set free.  As we like to say here at Lewinsville, “We do

not need to be afraid, of anyone, or anything, anymore.”

But in chapter 5 and 6 of this letter, Paul makes it clear that the freedom to which we belong has a particular shape to it. We need to be clear about this, because Christian freedom is distinct from what the world often means by freedom. Christian freedom is not some kind of unbridled, unrestrained autonomy, as if we are free to do whatever our tiny, self-absorbed egos might want to do.

Some years ago, I was on a mission trip in the Dominican Republic with a group of adults from another church. During that week, as our group was reflecting on the beautiful work we were doing alongside families and children who were living in profound poverty, I shared with the group how embarrassed I was to realize that there was a big part of me that just wanted to get away from other people. In that context, I had the horrible realization that there was a part of me that dreamed of living in a great big air-conditioned house, all by myself, with TV on all the time and an endless supply of Dr. Pepper – never having to interact with other people. My seminary-trained, but deeply un-reformed, self thought that sounded like a great way to live! That part of me wanted freedom from other people, but Christian freedom, freedom that is shaped by the cross of Jesus, is the freedom to be for other people. Christian freedom is freedom to pursue the common good.

According to Galatians 6:2, those in the church are to bear one another’s burdens, which suggests that we have responsibilities for each other.  Disciples of Jesus are not radical individualists.  Our love for Jesus binds us to our neighbor, whether it is our neighbor in need or our neighbor with whom we disagree. When another person is broken, we are to step in.  When another person has been sinned against and hurt, we are to walk alongside them, and not to abandon them.  When another person has committed the sin, we are to walk alongside them, and not abandon them.  When another is weak, we are to help carry the load.  Christian freedom is not freedom from other people, but is the freedom to be for other people.

But t

Sunday, June 30, 2019. Summer Mission Project Team.Scripture Reading: Mark 2:1-12

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Speakers in order of appearance:

Scripture Reading:Elizabeth SteelSermon Stories:Lindsay Trout & Linda BenderSarah SenichBrenden Mabus