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“The World Is Our Parish” First in a Five-Part Sermon Series on the United Methodist Social Principles

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“The World Is Our Parish” First in a Five-Part Sermon Series on the United Methodist Social Principles “The World is Our Parish” First in a five-part sermon series on the United Methodist Social Principles. 2nd Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Isaiah 49:1-7 Rev. Kelly Love January 19, 2014 Davis United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church has a long history of concern for social justice. I stole that sentence. That is the first sentence of the preface to the United Methodist Social principles. The United Methodist Church has a long history of concern for social justice. There is a reason we are talking about social justice in general, and the United Methodist Social Principles in particular, at this particular point in the church calendar – in this season after Epiphany. Epiphany is the holiday in the Christian calendar that marks what is said to be the day that three magi arrived in Bethlehem to honor the Christ child. Epiphany falls every year on January 6th. The span of time between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday is called the season after Epiphany. Epiphany has come to mean a variety of things in the life of the church. The significant thing about the magi was that they were foreigners and gentiles. So here we have a Jewish community in Israel 2,000 years ago that was looking for a savior, looking for the arrival of a messiah. The expectation, which was reinforced by prophets through the ages, was that this would be a savior for Israel – a messiah who would help the Hebrew people triumph over their enemies. When Jesus was born, there were some who believed that he was this messiah. There were Mary and Joseph and Elizabeth and Zechariah, who believed Jesus was the messiah because angels told them he was the messiah. There were the shepherds, who also learned about this messiah from angels. These folks were all part of that Jewish community in Israel, the community with a tradition of looking for this messiah according to what the prophets foretold. So all of this is going along pretty much as one would expect – at least, to the extent one can expect visits from angels. But then comes the surprise: the magi. If God sent a messiah to the people of Israel, then what are these foreigners doing getting involved? If God sent a messiah to the Jews, then what are these gentiles doing, coming to pay homage? We don’t even have to wait for Jesus to start preaching or teaching. From his very infancy, scripture shows us that Jesus is sent to a much larger circle of folks than anyone had expected. God’s salvation, it turns out, isn’t for one nation or religion, but for all. And this aspect of the story shook people up all through Jesus’ life. It still does. God’s salvation – God’s vision and God’s reign – isn’t for one particular nation, or one particular religion, but for all. 2 So every year Epiphany reminds us how wide God’s embrace is. It reminds us that God’s concern is not narrowly for one people, but for the world. And this complicates everything. It means that somehow, God calls together people who are different, who don’t see things the same way. God calls us to look beyond the circle of what is familiar, to include more and different people and places in the sphere of influence encompassed by our faith. Someone asked me just this week why I am a United Methodist. And I had the Social Principles and my knowledge of the discussions and debate that go into producing the Social Principles at the forefront of my mind when this friend asked me why I am a United Methodist. And part of my answer is that I cherish the hope of a church where we come together with people who are different from us, including people who don’t see things the way I do – people who might disagree with me on important issues. And that’s not easy. It’s really, really hard, and when the discussion of issues becomes polarized or hate-filled, I think how nice it would be to be part of a denomination where everyone agreed with me. But the vision of a church big enough to bring together different kinds of people is still a vision that stirs hope in me. And the preamble to our Social Principles casts a vision of faithfulness that includes earnest and courageous discussion of difficult issues – a vision that captivates me. And so I am still a United Methodist. Beyond the story of the magi, all the scripture readings for Epiphany reflect these themes of including all peoples and touching on the concerns of the wider world. This morning’s reading from the Psalms is actually one of the readings for Epiphany. Hear these words again: “Give the king your justice, O God...May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice…. May he defend the cause of the poor…give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor. …he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper. He has pity on the week and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life.” The words of the Psalm paint a picture of God’s justice applied to human affairs. Issues of justice and oppression are issues of faith. Our reading from Isaiah this morning has God speaking to Isaiah, and God says this: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” We have again that Epiphany theme of God’s care for the whole world, beyond any tribe or religion. And what does God’s care look like? Salvation reaching to the end of the earth. Many centuries later John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, expressed a similar belief in describing Christians as called to “spread scriptural holiness over the land.” Methodists have always embraced this as important. John Wesley said this in one sermon: “there is no religion but social religion; no holiness but social holiness.” This means a couple of things. One is that there is no such thing, for a Christian, and especially for a Methodist Christian, as being faithful alone, apart from community. Our religion is social, not just individual. It also means that what we might call holiness is only as good as our ability to take it into community. 3 And this doesn’t just mean the community of a few people who worship together on Sunday mornings; it means the world community. Another often-quoted statement from John Wesley says, “the world is my parish.” Our “religion,” our “holiness,” are meant to influence the world. One line from the Introduction to the Social Principles particularly caught my attention. It says: “In many instances the Social Principles actually urge us not only to make a difference in this world, but to make a different kind of world.” We want to make a difference. We want to change the world – to make the world a better place. When we think about the three central components that make church church, making a difference in the world is one of the core components. We do this through direct, hand-on service, and through our mission giving, and through advocacy. The Social Principles speak to this aspect of the church’s life, this aspect of the practice of faith. It is fitting that we begin this season of exploring the intersection of our faith with issues of social justice on this Martin Luther King weekend. On June 6th, 1966, Martin Luther King, Jr. preached a sermon called “Guidelines for a Constructive Church.”1 I want to share just a very short excerpt from that sermon, in honor of this weekend, and because it reflects so many of the concerns also addressed in our Social Principles. Dr. King said: “… the church, if it is true to its guidelines, must preach the acceptable year of the Lord. You know the acceptable year of the Lord is the year that is acceptable to God because it fulfills the demands of [God’s] kingdom. Some people reading this passage feel that it’s talking about some period beyond history, but I say to you this morning that the acceptable year of the Lord can be this year. And the church is called to preach it. The acceptable year of the Lord is any year when [people]2 decide to do right. The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when [people] will keep their theology abreast with their technology. The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when [people] will keep the ends for which they live abreast with the means by which they live. The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when all of the leaders of the world will sit down at the conference table and realize that unless mankind puts an end to war, war will put an end to mankind. The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when [we] will beat [our] swords into plowshares, and … spears into pruning hooks: and nations will not rise up against nations, neither will they study war anymore. The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when [we] will allow justice to roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
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