Loving Presence

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC January 30, 2022, the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany. “Shine On!” series.

Texts: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30

Do you have to “go to church” to be a Christian? Evidently there was quite the robust conversation on this topic amongst our last confirmation class. There are at least a couple of solid responses. First, I would pose a follow up question, does showing up for worship and other church activities on a regular basis make you a Christian? If, by Christian, we mean (as we say in our Baptismal liturgy) “a true disciple who walks in the way that leads to life” then the answer is a resounding, “no.” Going to a church makes you a Christian as much as going to a garage makes you a car. It is quite possible to be a card-carrying Christian whose life has little resemblance to Jesus—and perhaps even does damage to Jesus’ good name.

The story of what happens when Jesus goes back to his “home church” in Nazareth is a good example. Jesus reminded them that God’s prophetic work focused on those considered “outsiders” or “other,” implying this would be the case for Jesus’ ministry as well. The hometown crowd couldn’t stand the thought that he wouldn’t just share his gifts with them, they were enraged at Jesus’ implication that the miracle of his love would be offered to people whom they deemed enemies, to people they despised. When Jesus went to his home church to visit the adults with whom he had grown up, perhaps folks who had taught him the Torah, and played with him as a child, perhaps adults whom he had admired…what happened?  They didn’t just damage his name, they tried to kill him. They had somehow missed the part in scripture about caring for the stranger and sojourner, doing justice, and walking humbly with God. They wanted what they wanted for themselves, were looking out for themselves.

But, as Jesus points out and models, the Judeo-Christian story provides a stark contrast to this human tendency. The story we tell is not just about us as individuals, not just about “me.” It’s about “WE.” Our faith is all about relationships, it involves caring about more than just my own needs or desires, it involves being part of a community, it involves attending to the needs of the most vulnerable ones in God’s creation. These relational, communal, other-focused aspects of the faith are not peripheral to our practice of Christian faith. They are at the very core. And here is where we get to another response to the confirmands’ conversation. In short, “there is no such thing as solitary Christianity. Being a follower of Jesus means being in community with other followers of Jesus. We can be…spiritual without the presence of other people in our lives, but we cannot be growing disciples of Jesus Christ without the encouragement, guidance, wisdom, and accountability of other disciples.”

I often talk about the community of the church as the “lab” or training ground for the rest of our lives. It is in our faith community that we get to practice mercy, compassion, leadership, courage, speaking up, holding our tongues, sharing our gifts, honoring others’ gifts, and all the rest. The 1st letter to the Corinthians was focused on helping that congregation get clear about where they needed to do better in their practice. As Pastor Ben pointed out last week, Paul is speaking to the ways that some gifts were being valued more than others, some people being valued more than others. Paul encouraged them to practice a more excellent way of living in relationship and community, the way of love. We practice when we are present with one another.

Weekly gatherings for worship are our most regular, broadly shared communal experience of relating to God and to one another. For those who are new among us on any given Sunday, what they see, hear, and do as part of our worship tells them a lot about who we are and what we’re about. For those of us who worsh