Romans 12:9-21
“Living Out Generosity: Presence”
Preached on Sunday, September 3, 2023I believe that baptism is one of the most beautiful things we do in the church. Whether we baptize an infant or an adult, there is something in the mystery of the baptismal sacrament that touches me to my core. When we gather around the water, gather around the child of God - whether that person is a child or in the 90’s - it doesn’t matter the age, in Baptism we are all children of God - and we claim that title of beloved together for them, when they are sealed forever as children of God - wow. Is there a more beautiful thing we do in the church?
And the thing about it is, we do it as a community. I’d invite you to turn to page 33 of the hymnal as I talk and look at the liturgy. Notice how it is something we do together. The bolded and not bolded words. There is this back and forth between pastor, congregation, the baptizee, their family and sponsors - and the whole thing is surrounded, saturated, in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We gather together in worship, we bless the water together, we proclaim the title of baptized, as beloved child of God, together. This togetherness is important. In the baptismal liturgy we reaffirm that we are not in this alone - and that we will never be alone in this. We recognize the belovedness in each other. We promise to support each other in the faith, to share the good news, to live according to Christ, to surround each other in a community of love and forgiveness - to be Church - together.
And that is why, in The United Methodist Church, our baptismal vows and membership vows are found side by side together in the liturgy. When you are baptized as an adult, you also take the membership vows of the church. When you are baptized as an infant, you get the opportunity to reaffirm and take those vows through confirmation or later in life. Because we are in this together. And we need each other. To fully live into our belovedness as children of God, to fully live into our call as Christians - we do it together. And so we have these membership vows that are part of our baptismal liturgy, these membership vows we take, as part of the local church, and the whole congregation affirms them together. The congregation says these words to those who were just baptized and/or welcomed into membership in our church. Let’s say them together now - you’ll see them on page 38 of your hymnal or on the insert in your bulletin. All right, now that they’re before you, say these words with me:
As members together with you
in the body of Christ
and in this congregation
of The United Methodist Church,
we renew our covenant
faithfully to participate
in the ministries of the Church
by our prayers, our presence,
our gifts, our service, and our witness,
that in everything God may be glorified
through Jesus Christ.
These vows of our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service, and our witness - our generosity of living them out out, our giving of these things openly and freely, is what makes us the Church. They are what makes us a community. We are spending the next handful of weeks as part of our Stewardship campaign looking at these vows. Sometimes we just focus Stewardship on gifts - the finances of our church. And that’s important as it’s a topic that the church needs to help guide us through as individuals and as a community - AND this series will take a more holistic approach because our vows to God and to each other are not our prayers OR our presence OR our gifts OR our service OR our witness - it is “and.” Our prayers, presence, gifts, service, AND witness. And when we begin living generously into one of these areas, we also begin to live generously into the others.
And so today, to start our series off, we are looking at living out generosity by our presence. Because of this I decided to mix it up and preach here today, so that, as your eyes are on me, your eyes are also on the Eucharist behind me, the elements of bread and the cup, that will be for us the body and blood of Christ, the presence of our God with us this morning. Christ is present in this meal and Christ is always present where two or three are gathered in his name.
Through our baptismal and membership vows, we promise to be generous with our presence - Another way to phrase this is this: we promise to show up. Show up with and for God. Show up with and for each other. Show up with and for neighbors.
Now, I do believe that maybe even more than demands for our wallets, which are pretty high, especially with inflation - our world puts just as much, if not more, demands on our time. Almost more than ever before. There are a lot of demands on our time. We have our jobs, which more and more bleeds out into non-working hours because of technology; family commitments - from trying to foster a relationship with your spouse, caring for an ailing parent, running the kids around, babysitting the grandkids, and so much more...trying to balance a social life with it all...and don’t forget being human! You know, sleeping, cleaning, grocery shopping, working out, etc, etc. And then, oh yeah, church! There are a lot of demands for our time and it’s easy to let all the hours of our days be sucked up. So when I talk about being generous with our presence, I am not talking about adding extra things to our to-do list. Those are full enough, trust me, I know!
I am talking about prioritizing how we spend our limited and valuable time. And when we prioritize being generous with the gift of our presence to God and each other, we are prioritizing love for God and love for neighbor - essentials in our lives as Christians.
Our schedules are already fit to burst - it is a very common response to “How are you?” to say, “Busy!” and today’s sermon and the idea of being generous with your presence is not about adding more busy-ness to your life. Actually, as we purposefully and consciously consider how we can be generous with our presence, it may involve stepping back from things so that we can be more attentive to God and others - resulting, perhaps, in being less busy. Giving generously of our presence to God and the church can simplify things because we know where our commitments lie: with God and neighbor. It becomes easier to say yes to what God is calling us toward and to say no to other demands based on where they align with our commitments...and, of course, necessity, because we don’t live in an ideal world!
And so, today I don’t want to make the concept of presence any more complicated than it needs to be either. So I am going to talk about presence as simply as I can in two ways: First, God’s presence with us through this meal of Holy Communion and secondly, us being present for others.
So first, Christ being present with us through this meal...The Road to Emmaus, the Gospel lesson from today is actually one of my favorite Bible stories. It is Easter day, the day of the resurrection, and the resurrected Christ walks beside two men, former followers of Jesus, who were discussing Christ’s death and all that had occurred. And these disciples don’t recognize him. And what strikes me is these disciples, they don’t see Jesus for who he is, the Christ, in his face. They don’t see him in the quoting and teaching of Scripture. They don’t see him in the ways we’d expect them to see him. They finally see the Divine that was there all along, by pulling up chairs to the table, offering hospitality to a stranger turned friend, and breaking bread together. It is only then that they see Jesus for who he is, Christ. Their resurrected Lord. Their friend who they shared bread with many times.
We know that on the night in which Jesus was betrayed and arrested he gathered with his disciples in an upper room - took bread, broke it, blessed it and said “Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you.” We know many times in his ministry, Jesus sat at the table with his friends and sinners and anyone who could pull up a seat - so many times that in the Gospel of Luke, one of the chief complaints hurled against Jesus is that he was a glutton and drunkard! And on the day of his resurrection he did what he had done many times, he blessed and broke bread, and Christ was made known.
Jesus told us that when we gather we should break bread, share the cup, and remember him. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, every time we do that, we experience Christ.
Think of it this way: at his ascension, Jesus promised to always be with us through the power and presence of The Holy Spirit. And we can see God in many places, situations, and people. We can see God, we can encounter Christ’s presence with us, in sunsets and waterfalls; in a cup of coffee and conversation; in hymns and a sermon; in feeding the hungry and caring for the poor. We can encounter God in all those things. And they are GOOD things. And, what sets this Holy Meal apart, is that God makes a PROMISE in this holy meal to always show up.
It’s the difference between running into a friend in the grocery store aisle and stopping to chat a while versus each of you putting a date on the calendar and promising to make each other a priority, to be fully present with each other. So we encounter God all over in our world. AND, in Holy Communion, it’s a date with God. It’s written on our calendars. God has promised to be there - and so have we. The intentional gift of being present with God - on all our parts. Isn’t that actually really awesome? We have a standing date with God in this meal, to be fully present with and for each other.
Through this meal God is intentionally generous with God’s presence with us. It is a priority for God. God shows up in this meal for us. Because God wants to be with us. And, to be clear, God is ALWAYS with us, but we don’t always reciprocate God’s generous gift of presence by being aware of it. By sharing in Holy Communion, by worshipping, we are opening ourselves up to the awareness of God’s presence with us, as those disciples were made aware of the resurrected Christ’s presence with them as he broke bread. God longs for us to set aside time for God, to be in the presence of God - to reciprocate God’s generosity of the gift of God’s presence by being present with God. For us to intentionally set aside our time, a valuable resource with many demands made on it, to be with God - to share in the sacraments, by worshiping, by praying, by reading Scripture, by intentionally being in Christ’s presence.
For the more we reciprocate God’s generous gift of presence to us by making ourselves aware of God’s presence with us, by giving God the gift of our intentional efforts of being in God’s presence, the more our hearts and lives are transformed to be like the heart of God.
And that brings us to the second part about presence - the part that is a lot less mystical and is a lot more straightforward: us being present with and for each other and our neighbors.
It’s amazing that about 75% of discipleship is just showing up. Showing up to church, to worship, to Bible study, choir practice, committee meetings, church events, mission opportunities - and showing up for each other.
As I said, the more time we spend in the presence of God, the more our hearts are transformed to be closer to the heart of God. To show up for each other as Christ shows up for us. To BE the presence of Christ with someone else. Our presence with others can be the presence that makes them aware of God with them. A pivotal part of this is, as our Scripture from Romans says today: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” Being generous with our presence with each other is being generous with our rejoicing, sharing in the joys. And being generous with our tears, sitting and crying with those who weep. Being generous with our presence looks a lot like baking casseroles, holding hands, offering a listening ear. To encourage each other. To support one another. To lift each other up.
We are called and we have promised - to give generously of our presence - in the highs, the lows, and the in-betweens. To just be there.
We, who gather in worship together and experience the very real and mystical presence of Christ in this bread...we are called then to go out and be the body of Christ to the world. So when we show up for each other - we are being the body, the physical presence of Jesus in this world, to each other. This ministry of presence is the power of just showing up.
As a pastor, I think about this a lot. As a 32 year old woman, I have already been to a couple dozen or so death beds within either days, hours, or minutes of someone dying. In those moments, I may not always have the perfect words to say. And it isn’t a comfortable experience. But it doesn’t matter. Because my ministry at that time is my presence. To sit there. To hold someone’s hand. And by my very presence reminding them that God is present. And that they are loved by God and by a whole community of faith.
We do not have to be pastors though to give the ministry of presence to those who need it. We simply have to show up.
I think of the women at the cross of Jesus. When Jesus was crucified, most of his followers deserted him...but all four Gospels talk about the women who stayed at the cross. Their staying is a testament of their faith, their love for Jesus, and their love for each other. They are the exemplars for us too. That in the midst of even the most painful and hardest of times, we are called to give generously of our presence to one another.
Friends, through this meal, in the breaking of bread, Christ gives his presence generously to us. We are then called to give our presence generously back to God and to each other. To put it simply: to show up. Show up to church. Show up for each other. Show up and be Christ to one another.
How will you commit yourself to giving generously of your presence to God and to the local church? How will you prioritize love of God and love of neighbor in all areas of your life?
I believe this is not something that just happens. There are SO many demands on our time. In order to say yes to intentional time with God. In order to say yes to intentional time to show up for each other - we have to say no to other things. In order to be generous with our presence, as God calls us to do, as we promised to do in our baptismal and membership vows, we need to take several steps back and look at our commitments. Look at our calendars. Do they reflect the ability to be generous with our presence - with God and each other? And let it be known, I am not casting stones. I too fall into our wider culture’s glorification of “busy.” Too often I fail to be intentional about my time with God. I preach to you and I preach to myself.
And so today, as we intentionally come to this table, a set date with God, where God has promised to be here and so have we… let us bask in God’s generous presence with us, letting it be a step toward our own examination, our own look at how we are generous with our time - and having been recipients of God’s generous presence, may it spur us on toward rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep, and showing up as the generous presence of God with others.
May we all be found as generous.
Amen.
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