New Love, New Mercy

Lamentations 3:21-24 and Titus 3:3-9
Preached by Linda Jo Peters
November 8, 2009 – Dedication of Pledges and Celebration dinner
Unity Presbyterian Church ~ Terre Haute, Indiana

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE

Lamentations 3:21-24 (read in unison) Love and Mercy is more than just our stewardship theme, it is the way of life for a disciple of Jesus. In the little letter from Jude, we read that during times of conflict disciples are to “…keep ourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” (Jude 1:23 NKJV)
Let us read this passage from Lamentations one more time in unison.
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, God’s mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in God.’”

Titus 3:3-9
Ever since the Reformation there has been a theological struggle over works and salvation. It probably is way earlier for James writes “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” (2:17) Can we earn a place or at least a better place in heaven by the good works we do here on earth? But isn’t salvation by grace alone? Stewardship is so much more than just works righteousness. It is the on going struggle to discern God’s will for our individual lives, our families, our congregation, our community and our world. We have stewardship responsibilities in every area and in every relationship. How we use our talents, our time our treasure that God has entrusted to us is critical to our faith. As believers not only is our world view been changed by our encounter with the risen Christ but our self view is changed as well. Listen to Paul’s message to Titus about our changed attitudes. For God as made all things new. New love, New Mercy. Paul writes:

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. 4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8The saying is sure. I desire that you insist on these things, so that those who have come to believe in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works; these things are excellent and profitable to everyone.
9But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.


SERMON
New Love, New Mercy. Both love and mercy imply action. The emotions of love and mercy are never satisfied with just verbal expressions of affection and a desire for righteousness. They need to be part of our living to have purpose and meaning.

Because we love this beautifully created planet, we gather recycling and all the inconveniences that means. Because we love our families, we often work long hours to earn money even at jobs we hate and then do more work keeping up our home. Because we love our nation, we pay taxes, vote, debate policy and serve in military or peace corp. All of this is stewardship born of love. In the church we love Jesus and want others to know his story and want to be his instruments for peace, hope and joy in the world. So we volunteer our already over stretched time, money and talents.

Because we are moved by those who suffer, we act out of mercy in our support of the food pantry, victims of disaster and violence around the world and right in our neighborhood. We have a generous nature why then are stewardship drives even needed?

Adam Hamilton, author and pastor, writes in his book Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity:
… God designed us to be generous. God created us with the willingness to give – to God and to others. This design is part of our makeup; we actually have the need to be generous. Yet there are two “voices” that war against our God-given impulse toward generosity, tempting us to keep or hoard what we have.
The first voice is the voice of fear, which tells us, If you give, there may not be enough left over for you. We are afraid to be generous because we are afraid of what might happen to us…
The second voice is the voice of self-gratification, which tells us, If you give, you won’t have enough money to buy the stuff you need to make you happy. Our culture tells us that our lives consist in the abundance of our possessions and pleasurable experiences.[1]

Let’s be honest the second voice is greed. So fear and greed tempt us to keep rather than being generous as God has designed us to be. How then do we silence these voices and live out our generosity in love and mercy? First we need to remember who owns what. Have you ever traveled with children crowded in the back seat of a car? After about ten miles the bickering begins. She touched me. He took my book. I want to play with the game boy now. Humans with limited resources and space are often no different that children in the back seat of a car. Love and mercy go right out the window. But when a crisis comes: flat tire, accident, someone gets sick, our attitudes change. We recall a great truth, that we do not own anything. It is all on loan. Our job as God’s stewards is to use what we have been put in charge of wisely and generously.

Here is a prayer to help you recall who you are and to whom you really belong:
I am no longer my own, but yours, Lord. Put me to whatever work you will. Let me be whole or suffer as you see fit. Let me be full or empty. I freely and heartily yield all thing to your pleasure and disposal. Amen.[2]

Such a surrender to God’s authority has to come before we can be stewards of love and mercy.
As many of you know I have a deep affection for butterflies. Not just because they are some of the most beautiful insects but because their transformation is so dramatic they easily can represent new life as well as resurrection. But this year in particular I have seen very few butterflies. Earlier this week I was wearing a red blouse and a monarch flew down to check me out. One wing was damaged but it could still fly. But after the frost the past few weeks what was it was going to eat. I have no idea. Butterflies are a major pollinator. Their decline will affect many others in the circle of life. This one butterfly drove me to search the web for what is wrong. I found articles and comments from as far away as Australia and Scotland. The questions are “What is causing the decline?” and “Can I do anything about it?” Is it climate change, is it herbicides, is it habitat destruction, is it the parasitic black wasp, is it some unknown disease or a combination of several factors? This is how new love, new mercy work together to make us better stewards. We will pay attention to what we love. So a steward is attentive.

Years ago I served in Southeastern Illinois Presbytery. One meeting a group of members of a small Presbyterian congregation came to the meeting and told the presbytery they could no longer keep the church open. It was a shock. Though it was a small congregation – about 20 active members, they had never expressed a concern about their future. For years they had not had a regular pastor. Volunteers handled all the functions of the church leadership. Like the butterflies though one day they just disappeared and I believe their community was diminished by their absence. I have toured great cathedrals in the Czech republic that are nothing more than tourist sites. Unity is a vital and active congregation because of your generosity and the generosity of those who came before you. Let us make our commitments to continue to invest our resources so that the body of Christ here at Unity does more than survive but flourishes. Amen.

[1] Adam Hamilton, Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 2009, p.76f.
[2] Adapted from the “Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition” see The United Methodist Hymnal, United Methodist Publishing House, 1998, p. 607.