Love One Another

Sunday, March 22, 2020
Intern Teleen Saunders

Mark 12:28-34

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.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.
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Grace and peace to you, our faithful community, wherever you may be. Our Sunday scripture readings are taken from what is called the “Narrative Lectionary”. It is a four year cycle and we at Augustana generally follow the assigned readings for each week. When we looked at what was assigned for this Sunday, we all knew this scripture fit our strange and uncertain circumstances. The setting takes place in the Jerusalem temple where Jesus is teaching with
parables. A religious scribe approaches Jesus with an honest question. He asks, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Now, Mark’s gospel is gentle on the scribe. This isn’t a lawyer who is out to “test” Jesus like Luke’s gospel writes. This is a simple question asked to a man who teaches with authority. “Which commandment is the first of all?” What our curious scribe really wants is direction for living life. “Which commandment is the first of all?” What should we
do?

Many of us are asking the same question during this pandemic where we are continually becoming more and more isolated. We see empty store shelves, empty schools, and empty church pews. We worry about our health and our economy. And we too ask Jesus, what should we do? “Which commandment is the first of all?” And Jesus answers us the same way he answered the scribe. “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.’ And ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
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So let’s do this. Let’s love God through the chaos. Our pews may be empty, but our worship continues as we gather in new and innovative ways. We will love God with our heart as we lean into scripture and prayer. We will love God with our souls with rituals like gathering in some way on Sunday morning and lighting candles. We will love God with our minds knowing the eternal God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is our God too. And we will love God with our strength as we actively cling to hope even when we are afraid. Loving our neighbors is simply an extension of loving God as we live out our calling to follow Christ. A friend of mine calls it physical distancing combined with social solidarity. We will continue to reach out to each other through online communication, phone calls, and
letters. We will continue to support our faith partners locally and abroad. And we will continue to physically distance ourselves, not out of fear or overreaction, but out of love. We have a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable among us and if this means limiting physical contact with society, then that is what we will do.
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Finally, when Jesus says love your neighbor as yourself, he means it. We are to love our neighbor as WELL as love ourselves. This pandemic brings many emotions, some of them intense. Loving ourselves means being gentle with ourselves. Breathe, pray, listen to music, take a walk in the park, and keep connected as much as possible. We are all in this together. Perhaps we are finally realizing that we are interconnected beings separated by the smallest of differences. What affects one affects all. The first commandment means living in a world of love. We shall love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our
soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength. And love our neighbor as ourselves. Worship. Reach out. Breathe. This is the kingdom of God. And this is how we get through life – together.
Amen.

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Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

The book of Romans is a letter. An actual letter. Like, a letter written by hand and then sent to someone else for them to read. Paul, the author of this letter, wrote a lot of letters. Paul was an apostle, that is, someone who is sent – in this case, he is one who is sent to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to the furthest reaches of the known world. He’s really, really good at it.

At the time that Paul writes this letter to the church in Rome, he’s been doing this work for probably twenty years and is at the peak of his career. He’s developed a great pattern in his work: visit a place, get to know the people, continually share his faith with them, help gather a community of believers from all walks of life, and stay with them while they learn how to be followers of Jesus. Then Paul leaves – after all, he’s got other places to visit and more people to teach. He is an apostle – he is sent. But he doesn’t leave the church abandoned. He writes letters back to these churches, especially when he hears about crises or conflicts. Sometimes they need comfort, sometimes challenge, sometimes critique, but always he writes as one they know and love. They welcome his input.

The letter to the Romans is not like that. Paul has never been to Rome. There is already a Christian church there, one brought over likely from Jerusalem very early in the faith. And the church in Rome has recently seen conflict. A few years before the writing of this letter, the Roman emperor expelled all the Jews from Rome. Because Christianity was effectively a form of Judaism at the time, Christians were also exiled. After the emperor died and the Jewish Christians returned, they found a church that had continued to grow and develop – this time with Gentile Christians.

It’s hard for us to understand how shocking and despicable this would have been. Two weeks ago I preached on Acts 10, and how Peter’s vision of God calling all animals clean and good to eat flew in the face of millennia of culture, history, and society for Jewish Christians. Jesus himself was Jewish and kept these laws – surely if anyone else wanted to be Christian, they could likewise follow these rules. Peter’s vision and the general movement of the church revealed otherwise.

That didn’t mean it made things easy. It is hard to let go of tradition and expectation and legislation as the Spirit moves us to new places. I hear people struggle when someone sits in their pew or wears sweatpants to church. Let’s be honest: those are enormously trivial things. If still we grind our teeth at the thought of these worthless infractions how much more might faithful people be driven to despair by moving on from the purity laws ordained by God?

This is the faith community to which Paul writes. He writes to a church redefining and fighting. It is a church that feels a deep rift, a painful split, one that goes deep into matters of identity and righteousness, one that threatens to dissolve into name-calling and condemning and finger-pointing and disgrace to the very name of God in whose name they mean to gather – and if we’re honest, we know how that feels. Those fears are not unfamiliar.

So how does Paul start his letter? He has no standing in that church in Rome. They don’t even know who he is – and if they do, it’s possible that they might still remember him as he was in his youth, an aggressive persecutor of the early faith. What can he say that would possibly invite them to listen to him, to hear the word he will share, to receive the message that he hopes will join them together in the work of the gospel?

He keeps it simple: he tells them the truth. He tells them who he is, and it is fully wrapped up in who Jesus is. His self-introduction is the story of the gospel. Nothing he can say about himself means more than who he is in Jesus Christ.

He tells them he wants to come see them, that he wants to be with them, that he hopes he can share some spiritual gift – but even more than that, so that they might mutually encourage each other in faith. He doesn’t want to come to them because he’s better than them, because he can fix them so they can get things right, because they’re obviously sinful mess-ups who just haven’t been taught the truth. No, he wants to join them for mutual encouragement in faith. He wants to walk with them. He hopes he has something to offer them in his teaching and leadership, but just the same, he knows he will grow by being with them as well.

What if that’s how it’s supposed to be? What if we’re supposed to talk about what we believe and why, not because we’ve got it right and we want to establish our superior knowledge, but because we know that God works through our mutual encouragement in faith? What if we were not ashamed of the gospel, not afraid of getting it wrong, not worried that someone would think we were weird for talking about what we believe and why and then asking others the same? What if we trusted that the power of God was at work in this mutual encouragement? What if we were not so proud and short-sighted as to think that the way we see God is the only way God works in the world? What if we actually believed that God is at work in the world, that God has already been working long before we showed up, that we arrive as much to learn as to teach?

Ah, but I know the argument against it: we’re supposed to keep polite conversation, right? What don’t you talk about at the dinner table? Religion and politics, right? Look where it’s gotten us. It’s gotten us to a place where we can no longer have civil discourse, where we are more likely to condemn than to seek to understand, where we claim a Christian can only look one way, live one place, vote one direction, take one moral position. It’s gotten us built up and walled off and fighting against our own beloved members of the family of God.

So don’t do it. Take Paul’s example. Tell people who you are. Tell them where you’re from. Tell them what you believe. And then invite them to do the same. Make your story of faith as natural a part of your introduction as where you work and where you live and who’s in your family. And when someone’s story is different, listen to it. Hear it. See God at work in it. Be amazed. Allow for the mutual encouragement of faith, because this is how the gospel is shared.

No matter where you go from here, no matter where you find yourself, no matter what comes next for you – you can do this. You are called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel which is the power of God for salvation for everyone who has faith – no matter what. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Love One Another

Sunday, March 22, 2020
Intern Teleen Saunders

Mark 12:28-34

Past Sermons

Reclaiming our Place as Creatures of God

Living a New Life with Christ

The Power of God’s Love

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

Past Sermons

Reclaiming our Place as Creatures of God

Living a New Life with Christ

The Power of God’s Love

About Augustana

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Contact Us

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Love One Another

Sunday, March 22, 2020 Intern Teleen Saunders

Mark 12:28-34

Past Sermons

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019 Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

Past Sermons

About Augustana

Quick Links

Contact Us

Worship Hours

Sunday, March 22, 2020
Intern Teleen Saunders

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson