Love Actively
Notes
Transcript
On February 5th 2017 the New England Patriots made football history by erasing a 28-3 deficit to secure a second straight Super Bowl title against the Atlanta Falcons. It was an amazing feat that solidified the fame of Tom Brady and his team forever.
Unbeknownst to almost anyone at the time, another man was making history. In a nearly impromptu fashion, a man named Meir Kay, who is a now rather prominent Jewish social media influencer and activist, began a movement that has changed the meaning of the Super Bowl for many.
Meir encountered a man experiencing homelessness on the streets of Manhattan, and he was struck with a sobering truth. While he was preparing to watch his favorite team in the Super Bowl, there were many in NYC who had likely not seen a Super Bowl in a long long time.
So he got a crazy idea to throw what is now considered the “Super Soul Party.” He took to the streets inviting as many unhoused friends as he could find to come and watch the game at a nice location that he had secured. He supplied them with Patriots gear, hot meals, haircuts, and whatever else was needed to make sure that they had an unforgettable night. The first Super Soul Party was such a success that Meir continued to host them each year, and now they are happening all across the US every time America’s favorite unofficial holiday rolls around.
What Meir has done is he has found a way to make his faith something that actively engages the world around him and creates community amongst some of the most unseen persons in New York City.
The very first time that I told this story I was preaching to a group of High School students at Warren Willis camp in 2019. And I asked them… what would would your world look like if this was the approach we took in our lives and in our schools when we left the safety and predictability of a Christian summer camp?
And honestly the question is really the same for us as people called Methodists. What would it look like if we lived in a way that saw all of God’s people — truly saw them — and then did something about it.
We are in our 5th and final week of our series “Rooted” where we are looking at core values that drive us and identify us as United Methodists. Today is the culmination of all of these parts of our faith that we have worked through over the last month. We’ve looked at what it means for us to Grow Deeply in our spiritual lives, what it means for us to read scripture faithfully, how we can embrace widely, and serve impactfully. And these are all ways that we fulfill the greatest command of Jesus which we find in
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?”
Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Love God. Love Neighbor. So today, we are going to explore the core value of “Loving Actively.” What this really means for us is that we don’t just think of Love as a warm fuzzy emotional feeling that we get. Love is something that we both feel in our hearts and something that we do with our hands.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had this conversation:
You’re in the middle of some kind of relational argument — with a spouse, partner, child, sibling, parent, whatever. And these words are spoken:
“I love you, you know that I love you.”
and the ever so stinging response you hear back
“Well, you sure have a poor way of showing it”
Oh the agony of coming face to face with that one right?
Well here’s the deal. That’s the accusation that is frequently made of followers of Jesus. And yeah maybe sometimes it’s exaggerated. But other times, it’s probably a legitimate claim. We haven’t always been the best at practicing what we preach which makes us really hard to take seriously. It is hard to trust someone who does not turn out to be the person that they claim to be. Actions speak louder than words.
But take heart my friends, for we are living within a long legacy of people called Christians who have struggled to live this faith out in a way that screams: “They Love Actively!!” For a lot of our history we’ve gone through times where the church wasn’t known for actively loving. Actually that’s one of the main reasons that the Methodist Church was born.
John Wesley, the founder of our movement, was deeply convicted by the poverty that areas of England faced and was even more saddened to see that these persons were generally excluded from the life of the Church of England. So he set off to bring the good news of the Gospel to places where alcoholism and other destructive forces had taken over as Lord of the land. And Wesley preached in fields and town squares. His brother Charles took the tunes from familiar pub drinking songs and wrote hymns to them. Together these brothers and their comrades brought the good news of the real Lord, Jesus Christ, to all who would hear — regardless of their current life situation.
The result was that a largely unchurched population became people who followed Jesus. And this was the result of a few people who fell in love with the people of England and lived that love out in ways that changed individuals, families, and societies.
Now John and Charles weren’t the first people to see the poor and underserved. They were following in the footsteps of a long legacy that traced all the way back to Jesus and beyond through Israel’s ethical system. It was that system that Jesus functioned within and that Jesus interpreted when teaching and preaching. So it’s probably no surprise to you that he would give some instruction in the matter of what it looks like to love actively.
Once, while Jesus was attending a party (yes Jesus partied) he came in and was kind of turned off by the behavior of the people. They were trying to exalt themselves by trying to sit in a place of honor. And he also noticed that the only people invited were prominent people from the community. And he didn’t like that at all either. So he said “why don’t you invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind? Do this and you’ll be repaid.”
And then this is what happened next:
One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many.
At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’
But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’
Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’
Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’
So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’
Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.
For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’ ”
Now there’s lots of points being made here by Jesus, but for today the focus is really on this point:
The Kingdom of God is for people who want it.
You see in the story — which is a parable that Jesus uses to illustrate the invitation that God makes to this world — everyone is invited and welcomed. But what happens is that some of those people that were invited first — for whatever reason — decline the invitation. They’re too busy, they’ve got too much going on at the moment, life is just a lot. There’s no time for a party. Maybe next time.
But then the unexpected happens. The invitation goes out even further to everyone. He brings in the people that no one wants around. Once they all show up, he realizes there’s even more room, so he goes out to continue to bring everyone in who will come.
Now we can really spiritualize this thing and make the point that Jesus invites everyone to salvation. Which is true. But I don’t think Jesus is only telling this story to tell us about the spiritual reality. I think Jesus is really telling us what it looks like for the church to love actively.
We are called to go and to invite people. And we don’t just invite them with words. Jesus says compel them. What he means is to urge or convince them. And people aren’t convinced by words alone. People are convinced by the encounters that they have with people who show them the kind of divine love that has been missing in their lives.
The Kingdom of God is for people who want it. But people need to know that they are wanted in the kingdom of God. And that is just not something that people are born knowing, it is not something that people — particularly in our cultural climate — come to understand without having the loving hand of actual people reaching out to and holding onto them in a loving embrace.
We are living in times where people learn a lot more about the church and Christians and Jesus from short videos on social media and from political rhetoric. And what they are getting just can’t be trusted to be the reality of what Jesus wants them to know. All of the negative publicity and sentiment that the church is facing creates a real uphill climb for us when trying to reach and compel people to join the party that is the Kingdom of God.
People believe that the church isn’t for them. And not always because the church is bad. People believe that the church isn’t for them because they’ve come to believe that the church is only for certain types of people. They believe that they’ve messed up too much. They believe that their lifestyle excludes them from belonging. They believe that the way they vote excludes them. They believe that no one else wants them… so why would the church?
And it’s the job of the church to rewrite that narrative. And loving actively means that we can’t afford to just wait around and hope they walk in the door so they can hear the pastor tell them a really good sermon. John Wesley went to the people and compelled them to join the Kingdom of God. Not just with really great sermons — which friends, I love this guy John. But I’ve read so many of his sermons. And been bored to tears so many times. So it wasn’t spectacular preaching that brought the ghettos of England to faith. People — for the first time in their lives — saw that the Church cared about them because this man rode in on his horse and had compassion for them and then did something. He got people sobered up. He created orphanages and relief agencies for the poor. His work showed his love. His work showed them that they were wanted in the kingdom of God. And the people decided that they wanted the Kingdom of God. They wanted it because it was what they’d been looking for in all of the wrong places.
I feel like I’m preaching to the choir because we are really really good at this here. And getting better at it every single year. We are in more places and spaces now and touching more lives than we were just 3 years ago. We are living out our Wesleyan roots. And my challenge is for us to collectively continue to dream about how we will make sure that we are living a Christian witness that compels people to want the Kingdom of God.
Maybe you’re kind of still on the fringes, wondering about if the outreach work of the church is really worth it. Friends it is worth it. Come and see. Or dream up a way to meet the people who you see with the active love of Jesus. What can we do to show them just how loved and wanted they are in God’s Kingdom?
I think about Meir Kay all the time, and the idea of the Super Soul Party. Isn’t that what we are trying to do each and every day? To have a party where every single soul understands how super God made them to be and how incredible life is in the kingdom of God? Isn’t it the most wonderful thing ever when someone who thought they weren’t wanted anymore finds their way home — to the place where they are wanted the most?
And so… what would would your world look like if this was the approach we took in our lives when we left the safety and predictability of a Sunday Morning Worship? Maybe it would look like this:
There’s a story set back when electricity was first introduced in a little Scottish village and almost everybody in the village switched from propane lanterns to electricity as soon as it could be hooked up. There was one couple that had to wait longer for the poles to go up and the wires to be strung. In the meantime, they continued using the propane lanterns. When the day finally arrived, that electricity was connected to their home, almost everyone in the village came to see their lights come on. They waited until it was completely dark outside and then the wife turned and flipped the switch. When she did, the light filled the room, and everyone cheered.
What if when the light of God’s love finally came on for those who have struggled, people turned to see and hear an entire community cheering for them? And what if that community was us?