Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

Preached by Winton Boyd on January 13th, 2008

1 John 2:15-17

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world;
16 for all that is in the world–the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches–comes not from the Father but from the world.
17 And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.

Background: In the fall of 2006, Dave Myers purchased the right to choose a sermon topic or passage at a ORUCC fundraising auction. Earlier this fall, the Tuesday night Bible Study group (of which Dave is a part) approached me with this passage from First John and asked for a sermon on it. One of their questions was, “Are we all to be monks or nuns?”

At the back of our New Testament, lies a triplet of letters from the community of John (out of which the Gospel was written) called 1st/2nd/3rd John. Their authorship is mostly a mystery, but they share enough similiarities with the gospel of John that most commentators think they were written about the same time to the same community. Whether or not the letters or the gospel came first, it was probably near the end of the first century.

They are often seen as polemical in style, seeking through strong words and admonishments to remind the early church what it means to be faithful. One of the more often quoted texts from this set of books is the text chosen by the BS.

Is the author commending us to retreat from everyday life into self-preoccupation? How could we “love our brother and sister” if this were so?

The larger context for this passage is the fourth gospel – the gospel of John. By setting against one another, “love for the world” and “love for the father” 1 John recalls the gospel’s view that the world is at once “kosmos, the theater of God’s salvation AND a deluded realm enslaved to wickedness.” (IBC). It was John who said the World was created through the Word, but the “world” did not recognize him.

The question seems to be one of trust, or dependence. I think it was Thomas Merton who once wrote, “we are what we meditate .” Where are, John asks, our loyalties? Where is it that we gain our identity – as a child of God? In John’s view, to “love the world” is to embrace the illusion that has rejected Christ and therefore, been hostile to God.

On the other hand

OT Hebrews – affirmed that God created everything above the earth, on the earth, and under it (Genesis 1:1-2:3; Job 38:1). Four Hebrew words have been translated by “world.”
The word eretz — “earth” or “land.”
Olam — age, or long duration.

The Hebrews, therefore, did not have a single concept of the world but thought that all creation, everything on the earth was of God.

The presence of this passage, the dis-ease that the Johannine community felt around its relationship to the world – contrasted with the Hebrew understanding – provide a snapshot of the uneasy relationship the Christian faith had then, and continues to have, with wider culture, the wider “world.”

• Out of this view that the world is “evil” – we have all sorts of brands of Christianity that “remove” themselves from the world because they find it difficult to practice the faith “in the world.”
o Cloistered monastics (remember not all monastics are removed from the world)
o Fundamentalist sects, counter cultural Jesus communities, progressive alternative lifestyle communities of faith.
• Quite different from this negative view – we have all manner of Christian practice that deeply embraces the marriage between culture, “the world” and faith.
o The Orthodox church in a resurgent Russian culture after years of oppression and official silencing.
o Mainline American Christianity in the post second World War period, as it sought to reach out to emerging and growing families, communities and to adapt to a new cultural and residential landscape.
o The mainline pastor in this community who faced the dilemma last night of a worship service during a Packer playoff game – who wrote to his congregation that there would be periodic updates during worship so that folks could enjoy worship and football, Wisconsin style.

The guiding question for these and many other nuances of the church is - Should we be “in the center of cultural discourse” or “on the fringes?” Should we pull away from “the world” because of its excesses and falsehoods, it’s claim to our time, heart and pocketbook – or should we embrace the specifics of our culture as part of the “eretz” or “olam” of God? Should we embrace the technology and the means of storytelling, the time schedule, and wardrobe of our culture in order that God might be known in all places?

Is it just UCC to say, “it depends?” Is it truly faithful to see this as a “both/and” approach to life.

Recently I told an out of state friend that Tammy and I had discussed buying a smaller house in order to “lessen our footprint” on the earth – through what we drive, where and how we live, how we consume energy. It seemed like an obvious and understandable goal, a “no brainer” to people of faith.

This friend responded that after living an oppressed and double life for years – he was just “finding his footprint” and was really much more interested in “expanding his footprint” to enjoy life, live with compassion and freedom, and make a bigger impact on the world.

As you may, I have friends who don’t have TV’s, or at least don’t watch TV, movies – nor do they care about the internet, youtube, my space or online dating. They find all the content questionable and distracting to the kind of faithful life they want to live. On the other hand, I have friends who love to gather their family for weekly TV shows, colleagues who root sermons or classes in hit TV shows, churches that see the internet as a crucial and faithful tool in sharing the love of God.

We know people of faith who find professional sports an outrageous use of public and private money, a drain on the resources of almost every big city in America and simply a waste of time. On the other hand, there are many midfield or center court gatherings of athletes from both teams to pray after sporting events, pastors and evangelists who see athletes as powerful messengers of God’s presence in our lives, and millions of faithful Christians who organize worship attendance around professional athletic contests.

So, while are numerous way Christians interact with or against the prevailing culture – I think John is asking a more fundamental question. I think John is asking his followers to be mindful, thoughtful, and conscious about our relationship to the world. In his edgy, pastoral way, he is asking, “are the involvements, pre-occupations, possessions and foci of my life drawing me into a more compassionate, God centered life – or are they distracting me? Are they helping me appreciate the beauty of creation, the majesty of the Creator and the enormity of God’s grace – or are they creating apathy, insensitivity, and self-righteousness in our lives?”

Rob Bell, pastor and author of the book, Velvet Elvis, wrote about one of the first times he felt truly in awe of God.

I remember surfing Trestles, the legendary beach between Los Angeles and San Diego – for the first time. I paddled out on a gorgeous day, and as I sat there on my board, a couple hundred feet off shore, surrounded by blue and green and sunlight and quiet, a dolphin jumped in the water next to me. I thought my heart was never going to start beating again. Beauty can be crushing at times, can’t it? (p.72)

But it isn’t just extraordinary experiences when this happens. I was with my friends at one of our favorite restaurants the other night. We had been there at least three hours when I noticed we were the last ones in the place. The employees were starting to stack chairs and vacuum the floors, and we were still talking. I was looking at my wife, whom I just adore, and our friend Shauna, who may be one of the best storytellers on the planet; Tom, who I would take a bullet for, and Tom’s wife, Cecilia, who is one of the most loving, authentic people I have ever met. And I’m sitting…looking around the table, soaking it in, totally overwhelmed with the holiness of it all. The sacredness of the moment. That sense that in spite of everything awful I have ever seen, we are going to make it. I know that sounds like it’s from a greeting card, but I know you know what I’m talking about. Ordinary moments become infused with something else. With meaning. Significance. Hope. (p.73)

He continues with a memory of being in Rawanda, visiting an AIDS clinic in a Kigali slum with his friend Pauline. After hiking for what seemed like miles into the heart of this slum, he writes, “we eventually ended up on a dirt floored, one room shack asbout 6 x 6 feet. A woman was lying under so many blankets that all we could see was her mouth and eyes…as I knelt down beside her on the floor, I watched Pauline (who had befriend her and visited her often for a few months), standing in the corner weeping. Her friend was going to die soon. What overwhelmed me wasn’t the death of the despair or poverty. What overwhelmed me was the compassion. In this dark place Pauline’s love and compassion were simply bigger. More. The ground was holy. (74)

He concludes, Whatever those things are that make you feel fully alive and like the universe is ultimately a good place and you are not alone, I need a faith that doesn’t deny those moments but embraces them. I need a spiritual understanding that celebrates these kinds of transcendent moments instead of avoid them. These moments can be tangents. They can’t be experiences that distract from “real” faith. These moments can’t exist on the edges, because are part of our faith. A spirituality that is real will have to make sense of them and show us how they fit. They are expressions of what it means to live in God’s world. (74)

In his own way, the writer of John is suggesting the same thing. Hold on to what draws you into holy space. Open yourself to that which causes your heart to “spontaneously combust with joy.” Get caught up in something so much bigger than yourself that you couldn’t put it into words.

Be mindful of that which will try to pull you away. Tear you down. Learn from the monks, the surfers, the storytellers, and the football fans. Most of all, listen to your heart and entrust yourself to one who was at the beginning, who was with us in the flesh, and who continues to inspire and guide us with his spirit-infused life. Amen.