For where two or three are
gathered in my name, I am there among them.
[All the] commandments are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Well, here we are!
After months of waiting and anticipation since the Vestry called me as your Vicar back in May, here we are together as people and priest for the first Sunday morning at St. Francis.
Let me start by saying how grateful I am for the welcome I have already received from so many of you, beginning when Judith, Coral and I were here last Sunday and continuing this week.
Many of you have dropped by the church or called to say hello, and have helped with the practical work of getting settled into the parish. You have begun to orient me to the practices and traditions of the congregation – though I know will be learning about those for a long time to come. And now for the first time we have gathered for that central act of our life as a Christian community – the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. I am glad to be here together with you.
And if we are here together, then, our Gospel tells us, someone else is here, too – Jesus. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. What an extraordinary promise Jesus makes to us! For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
I think we Christians often don’t get quite how extraordinary that promise is. We’ve heard these words so often that we aren’t stunned in the way we should be by Jesus’ promise – so let me try to stun you a bit.
Jesus is here.
Jesus is here.
Jesus is here, right now in the midst of this congregation known as St. Francis, Dunellen.
Speaking broadly,
Jesus is here in us as a community. We,
the baptized people of God, are the ears, eyes, hands and feet of Jesus in this
place. Together, we are one small
instance of the Body of Christ. That is
a rather stunning thing to say about 50 or so people gathered in a town in
More particularly, Jesus is here in each one of us individually. Jesus is here in the person next to you and across the aisle. Jesus is here in the people you are please to have as brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus is equally here in those people in the parish whom you find off-putting and who drive you a little bit crazy. Jesus is here in all of us. Hardest to grasp may be that Jesus in here in you. Jesus is here in each one of us, in you and in me. Take a moment right now to look around this church and see Jesus here among us, here in yourself here in the people around you.
… Silence …
For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
That Jesus is here among is
stunning and wonderful. It is also
challenging. It is challenging because it tells a vital truth about how we are
to treat one another. Since we are
Christ’s Body, we are to treat each other as members of one another. Since Jesus is here in each of us
individually, we are to treat each other as we would treat Jesus. In short, we are to love one another. As St. Paul wrote to the church in Rome over 1900
years ago, Owe no one anything, except to
love one another; [All the] commandments
are summed up in this word, "Love
your neighbor as yourself."
Sometimes that’s easy. Often it is easier said than done. Loving your neighbor can be challenging. Listen to how
In other words, loving means treating others with care and respect; it means seeking another’s well-being above your own; it means being honest, generous, and compassionate. This kind of love isn’t so much about what we feel; it’s about what we do. Sometimes that’s easy. Often it is easier said than done.
That is why love in the Christian community also includes forgiveness-- because a lot of the time, we are not going to get it right. We are going to fail to love one another because we are flawed human beings, AKA sinners. In the Gospel, Jesus gives instructions about what to do when a brother or sister in the Church sins against you. Note that Jesus assumes that we will sin against one another; he knows it will happen. So do I. I can tell you right now that in the years to come, I will sometimes fail to love you; at times, my human flaws might wound you; I will disappoint you and maybe anger you.
Sometimes when I do something you don’t like, it will be because I believe the good of the parish or faithfulness to God requires it. But often it will be because I am a sinner who loves as imperfectly as anyone else. When those times come, I hope you will heed Jesus’ instructions in today’s Gospel: If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If I do something that distresses or hurts you, come talk to me. Tell me what is at issue. Let me hear from you and, together, let us find & offer the forgiveness that may be needed. Do the same with one other and I will seek to do so with you. Since Jesus is here among us, we owe it to each other to do the best we can in loving and forgiving one another.
That Jesus is here among is wonderful and challenging. But Jesus is not just here among us. Jesus is in all the people who do not belong to this small part of the Body of Christ – and that tells us something about how we are to act towards these neighbors. The Baptismal Covenant in the Prayer Book teaches that we are to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves. Loving Jesus in our neighbors is not reserved for our fellow parishioners. To the contrary, we are to love Jesus in our neighbors outside the church with the same love that we seek to give one another.
Loving Jesus in these neighbors can begin right here in the hospitality we offer to visitors –
for when we welcome a stranger, we are welcoming Jesus himself. Perhaps you are familiar with the Celtic Rune of Hospitality which I learned from Elizabeth Geitz, one of your former priests:
“I saw a stranger
yestere’een;
I put food in the eating
place,
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening
place;
And in the blessed name of the
Triune he blessed myself and my house, my cattle and my dear ones.
And the lark said in her
song,
often, often,
often goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise;
often, often,
often goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise.”
When we welcome a stranger who enters these doors, we are welcoming Jesus himself.
And our love of Jesus in our neighbor is to extend beyond these doors to people in need around us. For Jesus is there, too – and we will meet him when, in our actions, we love these neighbors. In the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, the risen Jesus says to his followers:
“Come,
you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to
drink, I was a stranger and you
welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in
prison and you visited me.”
Then
the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or
thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and took care of
you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one
of the least of these who are members of my family,
you did it to me.”
When we act in love towards people in need, we love Jesus himself.
Jesus is here among us.
Jesus comes to us in the stranger.
Jesus waits for us to come to him in the needy people of the world.
And in all these places with all those people, we are to love Jesus in our neighbors with generosity, grace, honesty and compassion. As I’ve said already, that kind of love can be a challenge – I would call it a spiritual challenge. I’ve learned over the years that the best thing I can do when facing a spiritual challenge is to ask God’s help in prayer -- and I know of no prayer that does a better job of asking God’s help with this challenge than the Prayer Attributed to St. Francis, our Patron. It is hanging is on the back wall of this Church – and it is also in the back of the Prayer Book. So I’d ask you, please, to turn to page 833, and join with me in this prayer, that with God’s help in the years to come, we may learn to love Jesus in every neighbor we meet, here in this Church and in the world beyond.
Lord, make us instruments of your
peace.
Where there is hatred, let us
sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt,
faith;
where there is despair,
hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness,
joy.
Grant that we may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to
understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we
receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen.