charge — Andy James

a sermon on Deuteronomy 30:11-20 and 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
preached on September 13, 2015, at the First Presbyterian Church of Whitestone

At some point in recent months, I came to a startling realization about myself. As I listened carefully to myself speak, as I observed what I said to others along the way, I noticed something that gave me pause: apparently I like telling people what to do. Now this may come as no surprise to some of you—after all, I’ve been pastor here for ten years, so it is inevitable that I have told every one of you what to do at one point or another!

But I was startled and surprised by all this mostly when I realized how I seem to leave every conversation with some sort of imperative sentence. “Email me with the details.” “Let me know how it goes tomorrow.” “Call me later.” “Have a good trip.” “Take care.” In English grammar, we tend to use imperative sentences like these to tell someone what to do: “Take out the garbage.” “Call the plumber.” “Stop hitting your brother.” Somehow these seem a little more intense than those parting words that I catch myself saying all the time, but they are so very similar in grammatical structure that I sometimes wonder if they really feel any different, if my parting words intended to be gentle and graceful come across as more forceful and demanding. I don’t think I am saying all this so much because I like to tell people what to do—I just hope that others leave our encounters with a word of hope, a statement that has movement and motion for what is ahead in life, words of direction for the time and space ahead.

Words of direction like this are very common in the life of faith. The Bible is filled with passages where its writers try to tell us what to do, whether it be in the list of “Thou shalt not”s of the Ten Commandments, among the extensive holiness and purity laws of the Old Testament, or even in the New Testament’s suggestions of different ways of life for the early church. When it is at its best, the Bible’s words of direction are not so much laws laid out for us to follow but invitations for God’s people to lead the world into a new and different way of life. Each week, we embody this important tradition in our worship as we close with a charge and benediction, with words that remind us of how we are called to live out our faith in the world and that share God’s blessing in our lives.

Our two readings today show us two important examples of these parting words of direction from the history of Israel and the life of the early church. First, we heard the conclusion of Moses’ farewell address to the Israelites from the book of Deuteronomy. Moses had led the people out of Egypt, through the waters of the sea, into the wilderness, and to the edge of the promised land. As Joshua prepared to take over leadership of the final steps of the journey, Moses offered them these final words of hope and direction. These instructions were very clear and simple: choose life. The Israelites had chosen life before: they had found a way to survive the horrid conditions of their enslavement in Egypt, they found hope in God to carry them through a difficult journey in the wilderness, and they welcomed God’s commandments as they slowly but surely embraced the covenant of Sinai.

However, in this momentous time, as they approached the beginning of a radically different day in their life together, Moses reminded them that they needed to keep choosing life in the days ahead. For the Israelites, this meant recommitting themselves to the things that had sustained them in the wilderness: loving the Lord, walking in God’s ways, observing God’s commandments, decrees, and ordinances, and holding fast to God’s presence in their midst. Moses knew that other temptations would quickly swirl around them, that the religious practice of their new neighbors would loom large over them, that they would be distracted from attention to God by the challenges and possibilities of life in this new place, and so he reminded them from the very beginning to choose the way of life in God. As the promise of the promised land was revealed, as Moses’ leadership of the people came to an end, these words of direction gave them hope for the transformation that lie ahead.

The early church picked up on this tradition of offering such parting words of direction, too. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians is actually considered by most scholars to be the oldest surviving writing in our New Testament, so these words of direction in our second reading give us a glimpse of how the early church understood their call to new life just twenty-five years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. In that moment, many believers thought that the end of time was very near. The gospel message was so imperative to them because they understood that Christ would be returning soon—if not in a year or two, almost certainly within their lifetimes. Some people took this as permission to live in total freedom, maybe to sit around and do nothing but wait, maybe to act without concern for any earthly consequences, maybe even to be angry with one another, because the things of this world would not matter when Jesus returned.

So when Paul closed his letter to the church with this string of imperatives, he gave them a very different direction for their life together. Even after nearly two thousand years, even when we no longer think that the end of things might come as soon as tomorrow, these words of direction give us an understanding of the ethic of life that we are called to live. Paul’s commands here are an incredible litany of transformational life that has stood the test of time and still are remarkable words of direction for us. Show respect and love to one another. Encourage those who struggle to find a different way. Be patient with everyone. “See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.” “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances…”

Sometimes I wonder if the church had lived like Paul suggested all these years, if our actions had been clear enough for others to see and follow, then maybe the end of things would have come by now after all. No matter how much we might wish that things had already come to an end, regardless of how much has changed in our worldview and our belief since those early days of the church, Paul’s words of direction here can still shape our own lives in this changing age as we seek to live in hope, peace, and love with one another.

Each week, as we close worship in words of charge and blessing, we continue in this tradition of sharing words of direction for our lives. I certainly don’t think that I belong in a class anywhere near Moses and Paul in coming up with such words, so thankfully their words can often stand in for my own—and make me feel a little less like I am annoyingly telling everyone what to do once again! The words of direction that close our worship sometimes need to be specific to where we are as a congregation, maybe lifting up a part of the sermon, maybe even reusing a line of the last hymn, maybe fitting a particular time or moment in the church year. Other times, we need to hear something more familiar from scripture, perhaps something like these words from 1 Thessalonians, to remind us of the long line of faithful Christians who have sought to live in this way of hope, peace, and love. These words certainly call each of us individually to act in a new way, but they also call us as a community to live as God’s people, to seek the well-being of all God’s creation, to embody the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with everyone we meet.

Ultimately, I think that the specific words of direction that we share with one another as our worship comes to an end matter less than the fact that we share them at all. When we offer any words of hope and promise to one another, we are given a reminder of how God calls us to live in new ways in our daily lives, to be God’s transformed and transformative people each and every day in our world that so very much needs new life. So each week, as we hear these words of direction, and each day, as we share these words of hope with one another, may God strengthen us to live in love, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and live in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that is with us today, tomorrow, and always. Thanks be to God! Amen.

a sermon on Romans 12:9-21
preached on August 31, 2014, at the First Presbyterian Church of Whitestone

It could be my personality, or it could just be an occupational hazard, but I seem to like telling people what to do. Now before you start agreeing with me about how bossy your pastor is, let me clarify a bit—it’s not that I like telling people what to do in the sense of ordering them around but more that I tend to end every conversation with a bit of an instruction. “Take care.” “Travel safely.” “Have a good day.” “Call me and let me know how it went.” “Email me and let me know what works for your schedule.”

All these closing words are imperatives, sentences that leave someone with an instruction of some sort, usually and hopefully gentle. When I realized this recently, I started trying to come up with other ways to bid farewell to people, but I came up short. For whatever reason, it’s in my being to speak and act in this way. It might be that I am just a demanding person, someone who wants people to do things, or it might be that I am so deeply influenced by our tradition that I just can’t help but leave people with a parting word that gives some sort of instruction.

Imperative, instructional words are a foundational part of our Christian tradition. The apostle Paul offered some classic imperative instructions in our reading from Romans this morning, instructions that guide us in showing the signs of faithfulness every day. You’ve quite likely heard some version of these words before—they form the core of the traditional charge that I use many weeks at the end of worship—but they are also so rich that they can’t just stand alone there. They need some special attention from time to time.

If anyone thinks I offer a lot of commands sometimes, go count them up from Paul here—one estimate points to twenty-three separate imperatives in these thirteen verses! In this long list, Paul is telling the faithful Christians in Rome about the signs of faithfulness that come from a life of following Christ. Some of these are some very simple commands that almost seem obvious: “Let love be genuine.” “Hold fast to what is good.” “Serve the Lord.” “Rejoice in hope.” They’re so simple that sometimes I wonder why Paul even brings them up—they should just be a given in how we treat one another and others! But when you look more closely, these stand as the basis of more challenging themes of how we show genuine love for one another and how we relate in times of disagreement, and for Paul these things are critical signs of faithfulness for us every day.

The first several verses here all point us to how we can express genuine love as a sign of faithfulness. For Paul, all love needs to be genuine—not scattered about without regard for the evil in our world but love that enables and extends good, that gives space for it to be shared, that demonstrates respect and honor for all people. This genuine love rejoices in hope, shows patience amidst suffering, continues in prayer no matter what, steps up when others are in need, and offers welcome to everyone, especially those who might otherwise be excluded.

Genuine love, though, is not simply to be enjoyed but rather must be shared. This love is not limited by the standards of the world but is extended beyond all human boundaries. And this love is ultimately not a human feeling or emotion but rather an expression of God’s love and care in our actions toward others. Genuine love, then, stands at the center of the signs of faithfulness for Paul, for God’s faithfulness is shown most clearly in the love revealed in Jesus Christ, and so we who follow him are called and challenged to make this love real in our own lives.

Love is a pretty straightforward thing, when you get down to it, but Paul’s second set of commands here starts to get a little more difficult. After laying out genuine love as a sign of faithfulness, he turns more directly to issues of how to live with other people in the world, and I think these signs of faithfulness can be divided into things that are hard and things that are harder. In the hard category, we find things like, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” “Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.” And “if it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Here Paul proposes a way of life that honors the fullness of the humanity of others, that seeks to go where others are rather than demanding that they come where we are, that walks the path with others before claiming that our journey is better than theirs.

These things are plenty hard. It is much easier to take pleasure in the pain of others, to let hurt and division fester, and to promote conflict as we work with others, but Paul insists that we need to look for a different and better way. Just when we’ve started to address these difficult challenges, Paul gives us more signs of faithfulness that are even harder to live out. Five times, in five different ways, Paul instructs us to show kindness to the very people who are dead-set against us. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” “Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.” “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God.” “‘If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’” “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Just when we thought that living the signs of faithfulness was hard, Paul makes it harder, insisting that we seek not the destruction of those set against us but rather their transformation. You can’t say that living all this out is anything less than hard, and Paul knew it. He himself had to struggle with how to treat the Pharisees who had once been his friends and who were now dead-set against his work of sharing the gospel, and he himself surely wondered how to deal with other Christians who objected to his openness to Gentiles. Yet Paul knew that the way of life set forth in Jesus Christ demanded that he treat everyone with kindness and seek to embrace those who disagreed with him.

While he recognized and even rejoiced that these actions of kindness, generosity, and grace might set in motion the destruction of those set against him, he made it clear that transformation, not destruction, was the ultimate goal, leaving any necessary purge of past ways and challenges to God. Paul knew that the way forward is not through negativity and anger, not through answering wrong with more wrong, not even through hoping that God would turn our good acts toward our enemies into their destruction, but rather through a graceful and grace-filled approach to those who have set themselves against us in the hope that they would be transformed to new life.

Living out these signs of faithfulness is never easy, but we are called to walk in this path as we seek to show our faith in our lives and be a part of God’s transformation of the world. As difficult as it is to live out these things, as challenging as it can be to hear these sorts of imperative commands from others, showing this kind of genuine love and broad faithfulness in our lives can be transformative for ourselves and others. Living out this kind of love that shows no boundaries and embraces even the broadest differences can show our broken and fearful world a different way of approaching conflict in days where the emphasis seems to always be on supporting one side at the expense of the other. And seeking the transformation rather than the destruction those who are opposed to us can make our lives a better reflection of the kind of world that God intends for us all.

So while Paul might be a little overbearing in these twenty-three directions of what to do and how to live, may his words pointing to the signs of faithfulness guide us as God strengthens us to make our love genuine, to bless those who persecute us, to live in harmony with everyone we meet, to keep evil from taking over our lives, and most of all to overcome all the evil we encounter with the goodness of God until all things are made new in Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord, come quickly! Amen.

Words of Direction

The Signs of Faithfulness