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LOVE LETTERS An October 26th Sermon for the Great Hall Congregation Have you gotten or sent or read a love letter lately? When I hear the phrase “love letter” I think of a Shakespearean sonnet, a silly song or a tear-jerker movie. Love letters are not something we might associate with the Bible. But believe it or not, St. Paul – who was at first so furious with Jesus’ followers that he rounded them up to have them stoned to death; Paul, the same apostle who wrote that women should keep silent and slaves should obey their masters – Paul, a sinner turned saint, wrote love letters. Today’s epistle is one of them. I want to do something different with you this morning. I want to read you a letter I have written in the style of St. Paul. Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica was very personal – being a love letter and all – and what I have to share with you this morning is also very personal. My letter is also a love letter. But before I share mine, I want to think with you a bit about Paul’s letter. Like other New Testament epistles, First Thessalonians is first and foremost a letter, written after Paul has received a report from Timothy . Timothy has just returned from the church at Thessalonica, a church Paul founded along with Silas. After hearing Timothy’s report, Paul sits right down and writes that church a letter. Many scholars believe this letter to be the very first piece of written, Christian literature. This means, of course, that the fellowship in Thessalonica had no gospels, no creeds, no hymnals and no prayer book. They had nothing to go on, nothing except each other and whatever encouragement Paul and his friends could give this little church – encouragement like this letter. We can be pretty sure that the Thessalonians were not used to getting letters of any kind, let alone love letters. Try to imagine for a moment what it was like for them – a small community, probably frightened, uncertain about their future, now gathered in someone’s home to listen, as one of their members reads them this thing from Paul called an epistle, a letter. A love letter. Love letters can be very powerful. Usually they are written in absence, which, as the old cliché goes, makes the heart grow fonder. Paul wrote from Corinth, 363 miles away, and someone else read his letter. But I am right here today, to read my letter to you. Paul called his little fledgling congregation “Thessalonians” because that is where they lived and worshiped. If you don’t mind, I will call you “GreatHallians,” because that is where you and I worship. And so. . . From: Father Tom (a/k/a Father Mom) To: The congregation in the Great Hall of All Saints’ Episcopal Church Dear GreatHallians: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! I give thanks to God for all of you. And I remember the first time I worshiped with you, nine months ago. I felt the power of the Holy Spirit! I knew God was alive and well and living in you, in your worship and music, in your enthusiasm and liveliness. I love seeing the children, eager to help out and be part of the community. I love it when a baby cries and disturbs the peace - for isn’t that how life is, how it’s supposed to be? I love your willingness to try new things, your freedom from the we’ve-always-done-it-that-way mentality. I love the freedom of spirit that I so often find emerging here. I especially love it when we gather in a circle to share Holy Communion. Surely the Spirit of the Lord is in this place! You have only been a congregation for about thirty years, not even two full generations. I say “only,” because All Saints’ has been around a lot longer than that. After all, God’s church measures time not in years, or even in generations, but in centuries. And so, in the relatively short time GreatHallians have gathered to worship God in this place, you have had dynamic leaders, priests and musicians and others, who helped shape and form who you are as a worshiping church family. Now, it seems to me, you have come to a crossroads. Now, God is asking you to consider once again: Who are we, as a people of God, as Great Hall Episcopalians? Just who is God calling us GreatHallians to be…to become? Churches, congregations, families - even individual people go through times like these, times of transition, times of wandering and pilgrimage and journey. Paul and all the churches he served certainly went through those times. Take the church at Thessalonica. The Thessalonians became a church during Paul’s second missionary journey. Paul and Silas visited Thessalonica, the capital of Macedonia, in northern Greece. They preached, and a few Jews and a good number of Gentiles became Christians. But after about three weeks, Paul was accused of rebelling against the emperor by the religious authorities. Some mob violence occurred, and Paul left. Sisters and brothers, I am glad that, while we may have had our differences, we have not behaved that way! In the short time Paul was with the Thessalonians, he developed a deep affection for them, like they were members of his own family. He addresses them fourteen times as sisters and brothers in this letter. He also says he feels “like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children” (2:7). A few verses later, in a part of the love letter we didn’t hear today, Paul says he is “like a father with his children, urging and encouraging…and pleading…” (2:11). So, Paul is like their father or their mother – like their “fathermom.” But it is not just Paul who feels this way. It is Paul and Silas and Timothy. Paul and his Christian brothers had such affection for the Thessalonians that they were really concerned about this new congregation. Paul wanted to be with them, but he could not. So he sent Timothy, to encourage them – as a mother or a father would, tenderly and firmly – to help them in their Christian faith & life. Here at All Saints’ my colleagues and I have great affection for you. I can’t speak for them, but I suspect their feelings are much like mine. As for me, I feel like your father or your mother. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. As you know, I can’t be with you all the time, the way you or I might like. But when I am not here with you, it doesn’t mean I don’t love you. Don’t ever think that I love you as a congregation any less when I am absent from you. It’s kind of like the way it is with me and my wife Eyleen. I think you know Eyleen is also a priest. She and I are not living in the same city these days. She’s still in Memphis, and I’m here. We see each other for about a week each month, and we just had a good visit together. We’ll be married four years next month, so, as far as I’m concerned, we’re still newlyweds. Eventually Eyleen will have a new call to a church in Maryland, but a job has been slow in developing here. Meanwhile, it’s hard for us to live apart. Sometimes, I think: Does she worry about us? Does she think I love all of you more than I love her? And then I spend some time with her, or she calls me or writes me, and I know. I know her love is big enough to allow me to love you. And my love is big enough to love both you and her. Thank God our love is big, like God’s love. There is another quality to real love, God’s love, and it’s this: love speaks truth. Sometimes we are afraid of that, afraid that if we tell the truth, love will go away. But as Paul told the Ephesian church, love demands that we speak the truth in love (4:15). Dear friends in Christ, trust this wisdom! If you have truth you need to speak, tell it directly to the one who needs to hear it. My colleagues and I here at All Saints’ are always willing to hear what you have to say in love – even if it challenges us or disturbs us. Love can bear these and all things, as Paul reminded the church in Corinth. There is that firm, harder, tougher kind of love. There is also the gentle kind, the kind Paul talks about today. Paul says he loves the Thessalonians like a nurse, tenderly and deeply caring for them, because they have become very dear. And so have you, for me, GreatHallians. You have become very dear to me. Now, if you are thinking that this Christian love business is challenging, you are right! But remember: if God could figure out what to do with the likes of Paul, God can surely figure out what to do with you and me. Eyleen tells a story about one of her spiritual directors once saying that her prayer sounded like it could be, “God, I am not capable of loving this way, but if you want to change my heart, I’m willing.” Maybe that could be our prayer too. That’s what conversion is, it seems to me. Conversion, repentance, turning away from sin and turning to Christ – it’s all about a change of heart. It might mean a change of mind, but it doesn’t have to. When we love a person or a family or even a church, we allow for a change of heart, both within us and within them. Like a loving mother who tenderly holds her crying son one more time, like a loving father who firmly corrects his daughter again and again, when we love our children, when we love others, we do not let our hearts get hard – at least, not for very long. We work to keep our hearts open and flexible. We sometimes even let our hearts get broken – one more time. A heart broken apart into a million pieces is one thing. But a heart broken open, to be filled with love again – an open heart is another thing altogether. A God thing. Sometimes you and I will disagree. You might become frustrated or disappointed. I might let you down. And sometimes I might get frustrated with you! Not because it’s what we intend. It’s just what happens, when people really, truly, deeply love each other. So when we love, God wants us to try and keep our hearts open long enough to understand each other, then forgive each other. In our own way and time, God calls us to forgive. There is no love without forgiveness, no forgiveness without love. God is forgiveness. God is love. Johann Goethe, Germany’s greatest man of letters, said, “When I go to hear a preacher preach, I may not agree with what he says, but I want him to believe it.” Dear friends in Christ, Dear GreatHallians, please believe this: I love you. You are my beloved sisters and brothers in Christ, and I, like Paul, want to give you, “not only the Gospel of God but also (my) own (self)”– my own life, my own heart (2:8). GreatHallians, God is calling us to be a congregation that loves. When we do this, when we love, that will be our love letter, God’s love letter, to the world. In the name of the God who is love. The Rev. Thomas A. Momberg |
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