The Rev. Dr. Timothy Ives

First Congregational Church

Chappaqua, New York

February 11, 2001

Luke 6:17-32

Garrison Keillor once wrote: “Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted. We know that as we remember some gift that was given to us long ago. I remember as if it were today my Uncle Al taking me on a fishing trip. It is all so vivid. Suddenly it is 1951; I’m nine years old, in the bow of a green wooden rowboat. It is five o’clock in the morning, dark, I am shivering; mist comes off the water, the smell of the lake and the weeds and Uncle Al’s coffee as he puts a worm on my hook and whispers what to do when the big one bites. I lower my worm slowly into the dark water and brace my feet against the bow and wait for the immense fish to strike. Utter anticipation and joy. There is nowhere I would rather be.

Thousands of gifts, continually returning to us. Uncle Al thought he was taking his nephew fishing, a trip he never gave much of a thought, but I know his love made a permanent work of art in my head, a dark morning mist, the coffee, the boat, rocking, whispering, shivering and hoping for the big one. Bliss.” Love is powerful stuff that creates a world far better than the one we live in too much of the time.

I believe that what Garrison Keillor says is true about children that nothing we ever do for them is wasted, also goes for the whole human race. Nothing we ever do for one another is ever wasted. This is of course true for those big efforts we make on behalf of others but it is also especially true about all the little loving kindnesses that we can concoct for one another. The things we do for one another create a world that was not present before we started to act in love.

It is simply the most important single thing that we can do, to love someone. And yet I am not sure that we realize or always remember how eternally special it is to love. Perhaps we are too much like Garrison Keillor’s Uncle Al who had no idea what kind of world he was creating by his simple loving act toward his nephew.

I think we have a wonderful example today of this point. Today we installed many people into volunteer positions in the church. Now I know it seems like no big deal, becoming a board member or an officer of the church. But it is something special especially in these times. No one has a moment to spare and yet these people whom you just saw all said they would give of the time that they didn’t really have. They have decided to love in a unique and much needed way.

And that decision is one that makes all the difference. Love is what we are here for and this like all loving acts is not wasted. Which is good for all of us because every one who has entered this church today has said in one way or another that they have decided to love God and love their fellow humans in a new and unique way. That is this church is about. So I congratulate and thank all of you because there is no telling where this act of love can take us.

But in the Gospel of Luke today we get a glimpse of where our love for God and our love for God’s world might take us if we are serious about loving. And it is a far different world than we live in now.

“Blessed are the you poor for yours is the kingdom of heaven.’

“Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.”

“Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh.”

Jesus describes a world that is almost opposite of the world where we live. In the world we live in those who are poor mostly stay poor. Those who are hungry usually are never satisfied and too often die hungry and the sadness of this afflicted world has continued unabated for most of its history.

Our world, the world described in The New York Times every day, is not the world of blessing that Jesus describes in this sermon read from Luke. The kingdom is the place of such blessing and the question through most of Christian history is about how to get from here to there. But today we celebrate the very vehicle that can get all of us to this place that sounds so foreign and yet so desired. In this passage the key is apparent and it is so germane to the subject of this day and the commitment made by many of our members today. After describing groups of people who Jesus was quite sure who were going to be blessed, the poor, the hungry, the persecuted (for a longer list go to Matthew 5) but don’t seem at all to be blessed in terms of this world, the sermon turns to the activity that might bring this kind of blessedness to bear in this world.

Love. A radical kind of love is what he talks about. Love your enemies he says. Do good to those who hate you, pray for those who abuse you. Give both cheeks to the one who would attack you. Give more than your coat to those who would ask it of you. And finally and most simply do unto others, as you would want them to do unto you.

How do you live in this world of blessedness? You love. You love a lot. You love like you have nothing to lose and just see what you will gain. It is a bold commitment, like giving time you don’t have but that is hardly where it stops.

We have such an opportunity here to love one another. We have an opportunity here that is unusual in this world. When do any of us have the chance to sit down in a group together and just talk about ways we can do good for people? That happens here. And you might not think so but that is love at work. How many of us get the opportunity to work toward building real community in our lives, community that feeds your soul and feeds others? We envision that and work toward that here. Again that is love at work or play. How many places in our lives is there to learn about love and commit ourselves to being a loving presence in this world? We pledge ourselves to such activity all the time here, in church. I hope you realize how special that really is.

Now you might have noticed that there is a little cautionary note in Jesus’ sermon. Along with his talk of blessings is talk of woe. And those of us committed to and aware of the love and the joy of our God might wonder why Jesus takes time to threaten people. It sounds like beginnings of that institutional exclusiveness that I am so suspicious of.

I read it this way. Jesus speaks to those who believe that they are filled now. Those who think that in loving they will be losing, they will be giving away that which they cannot afford. They will be risking too much. Jesus says woe to those people because to believe that you cannot afford to love is to be truly poor, to be destitute. And that is a waste, which is a sadness that he would rather not anyone bear. It really is nothing less than tragic. And so he warns his hearers about such an understanding. Hording does not bring blessedness it only brings woe. Giving, loving freely and completely brings blessedness. A new world.

We are blessings to one another. But the truth is that we are not quite there yet. We have not blessed enough those who are poor even though we have great riches. We have not fed the hungry enough to save all who are starving. We have not comforted enough to make this the kingdom. So there is still much to do. But that is all for the better because God has given us each other to accomplish this task and everyone here can be a blessing if not an angel. And each of you has the chance now to be a greater blessing and maybe earn those wings because here is a room full of people who need love and beyond that is a world full of people starving to be loved. And when we have loved them all we might just glimpse that Kingdom. Then you will know what it is to be a blessing and to be blessed because the two go hand in hand.

And I am sure you will know when you have arrived at such a spot because when you see the Kingdom, when you feel the Kingdom, when you get a whiff of the Kingdom it is unmistakable and in that moment there is no way to deny God’s wonder and grace and there is no way to keep from feeling filled with love and light. Let’s go there together. In Christ Jesus. Amen.