Please note: The following sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.

Forty years ago and more, in order to be “with it”, one invariably had to sing a song that is still heard once in awhile:

                         We are one in the Spirit,

                         we are one in the Lord....

                         And they'll know that we are

                          Christians by our love.

Much of the time it seemed to be sung back then without much thought or understanding of just how difficult a thing it is to accomplish that.

Smile, be happy, trade in all our hymns for ditties with snappy refrains.

Don't think too much about depressing subjects like “sin”,

and then we'll all get along with each other, and everything will be “groovy”, as folks used to say.

I never much cared for the song years ago, and as I've bumped into it over the years, there continue to be some good reasons for being uncomfortable with it.

And they'll know that we are Christians by our love, the song goes.

Will they?  That is the disquieting thing.

What will the world see when they look at us as a world-wide grouping, or a regional denomination, or as a local congregation here in Williamsport?

Will they see love in action,

             or something far less wonderful?

The problem with “love your neighbor' was ruefully stated by Linus in a Peanuts cartoon: I love mankind; it's people I can't stand.

As long as we keep it all to generalities, we can maintain the discussion, but when it gets down to specifics... then we have a lot of trouble.

Let's look around the world:

--in Ireland, there is still hatred and violence between Roman Catholic and others.

My family gave up on it and left County Omaugh, Northern Ireland, 200 years ago this summer, but folks back there are still at each others throats.

In South Africa, Lutheran churches divided by apartheid for several generations had to be threatened with censure from Lutherans elsewhere before the back and white Lutheran churches would begin to talk with each other.

Our Lutheran denomination has been drifting toward a division over these past 20 years as one side accuses the other of intransigence, mule-headedness, and in return is accused of heterdoxy, misleading others about the faith.

Within any congregation, including ours, there are forever tensions among leaders and committees and pastors and staff and other members.

Sometimes it is truly significant, other times it is petty when we get miffed at one another.

And we ought to choke whenever someone asks us to sing

             And they'll know that we are Christians by our love.

Would anyone be convinced of that by listening to us when we snipe at each other? Ouch!

Of course there is another side to it all.

--there is our support of Bette McCrandall in Liberia as she works hard in helping those folks reconcile and rebuild after so many years of civil war.

--there is our support for homeless families right here in Wmspt. through Family Promise that opens tomorrow.

--there are the college students who do more than party; who tutor, or serve as Big brother or Sister, or volunteer in other ways.

--there are those who give of themselves in leading Sunday Church School classes through the year, and the dozens who help in some aspect of our Vacation Bible School in June.

--there are those who are struggling with difficult home-life, trying to live out a loving life when not everyone wants to do that.

--there is the memory of that frail but determined little woman Mother Teresa, who, when asked by a skeptical Washington DC official “And how are you going to feed ten thousand hungry people in this city?” replied: “One by one.”

So we do have good and positive examples, but how are each of us going to appropriate them for ourselves?

How are we going to make them happen?

But upon reflection, we come to realize that this is the wrong question.

We will not force such things to happen.

What we can do is to go back to the beginning, back to the source in the Bible, and listen again to the voice of the Holy Spirit who is ready to lead us.

Back at the source, we encounter the spiraling language of St. John's Gospel:

The glory that you have given me

             I have given them,

             so that they may be one

             even as we are one,

             I in them and you in me....

When we get that all untangled, perhaps it comes out like this:

any oneness or unity that we have,

any love that we share,

             is not something of our own making.

We don't construct it;

             we reflect it.

Any love which we exercise or unity in which we live is a reflection of the mutual love and unity of the Father and the Son in the Spirit.

In every situation in life, what we are called to do is to remember this pattern of love and faithful service that was the mark of the relationship between the Father and the Lord Jesus,

and then to ask:

What kind of word or action that I can do would best reflect that love and service that God shares and gives so freely to me?

It is a good question, but not an easy one.

In ways that we cannot predict or control, the Holy Spirit will be at work trying to pry our eyes  and ears open to see and hear the best answers to our question.

One writer sees it this way:

             I believe that acting is one thing that sets Christians apart from the world. 

The worldly person is always reacting to whatever situation he finds himself in and looks for personal advantage, while the Christian plays a role.

That was what Paul was referring to when he said,

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

When we follow Christ's example and walk in his footsteps, we are actors playing the role that we believe Christ would play.

That does not mean always that everyone as being smiling and agreeable, going along with whatever comes down the road.

Jesus, after all, did not simply pat everyone on the head and say “You're just fine the way you are.”

Jesus regularly challenged people, shaking them out of their complacency.

“Go and do likewise,” he says after telling the parable of the good Samaritan to the lawyer who asked him “who is my neighbor?” [Luke 10:37]

To the person with a bundle of excuses for not following him, Jesus says “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” [Luke 9:62]

“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Jesus reminds the woman who wanted to flatter him.

             [Luke 11:28]

Jesus does not please all who hear him: the young man who was possessed by his possessions went away sorrowful when he heard Jesus' admonitions.

             [Matthew 19:22]

And Jesus became so angry that he drove the moneychangers out of the Temple with a whip of cords. [John 2:15]

We can recall that old adage:

God afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted.!

We must remember that God speaks two different words to us; law and gospel, and not one without the other.

The love of God expressed in Christ's death and resurrection is always accompanied by the law (1) that regulates society, (2) that convicts us of our sin and  driving us to Christ, and (3) that regulates our lives together in Christ Jesus.

Love does not mean utter independence, but instead means being willing to be guided into ways of acting that glorify God and aid our neighbor.

It involves law and Gospel each doing their proper job in and among us.

Every day each of us is faced with decisions about how we will respond to one another.

Each of us is tempted to ask only “What's in it for me?”, a lawless attitude.

Each of us may wish “What is easiest and most comfortable for me?” which springs from a false gospel.

Instead, the thing for us to ask is:

             What shall I do that fits the pattern of the love and unity of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, and how Jesus extends that relationship to include us?...and then get busy and do the things that fit the pattern!

We will speak the admonitions of the law firmly, and the blessed joy of the Gospel with even more fervor.

We're going to sing about it in a moment:

     Fill us with your love; Heal our wrongs, and help our need.

     Grant our hope's fruition:

     Here on earth your will be done.  [LBW364]

And perhaps we need a big one-word change in that 60's song we remembered at the beginning:

We are one in the Spirit...

And they'll know that we are Christians by God's  love.  AMEN.

St. Mark's Lutheran Church

142 Market Street

Williamsport, Pennsylvania

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