Latest / Belin Memorial UMC / Rev. Will Malambri - "No Loitering"
Transcript
- Belin Memorial UMC: Before I read the scripture today, I want to acknowledge that usually I'm pretty good at identifying songs. Sally would tell you that I would annoy her on rides early in our relationship because a song would come on the radio and I would say, Quick, name the artist in the title. And hopefully she couldn't, and then I could show that I was better at that than she was. It's no longer fun because now they just put on the screen in the vehicle the name and the artist, and she hardly ever misses these days. But last week I missed the title, the author, the tribute. I'm sure you caught it. Lots of you caught it, because I caught it from you after I missed it. So Jim and Sissy, you've got to watch them. They'll sneak these tunes in there. And last week they put in the offertory, I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton. And I somehow heard it What a Wonderful World. It made more sense for them to play Dolly Parton last week than that. One of our younger choir members wanted to help me out. She thought about mouthing to me, I will always love you. But she could tell in my confusion that that would really have confused a lot of things. So she left me in my own little wonderful world. There's been a lot of attention given to Dolly since she passed, and for good reason. She was known to be such a generous and kind person. We we honor that. One of you told me that from all you had heard about her, it sounds to you like she really was an embodiment of the fruit of the spirit, that in her you could see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those seem like good descriptors to me as well. And I think we could add another. Did not loiter. That's not the same as did not rest. I I hope she rested. We're commanded to. God modeled that on the seventh day of of creation he rested. God commanded that we take a day of rest each week. Too many of us have ignored that as if the world would stop if we were to. Maybe we'll give rest more attention now that the gods of the medical world have added it alongside exercise and diet to how to get to better health. So rest is good. But loitering is not, not for people of faith. God rested and God was on the move. God led the people of Israel through the wilderness. Jesus moved about so much that in the Gospel of Mark, that 16 chapter book, 26 times the word immediately is used. It's just so how eagerly Jesus went about doing his ministry. The book of Acts is filled with examples of how the Holy Spirit was moving Peter, Paul, the early church, them, us, pushing us to not loiter. We don't use the word loiter too often anymore. We we usually just see it on signs and shopping areas, something for a store manager to point to when he's trying to push somebody on out of the store or parking lot. But I'm not thinking of no loitering today as a means to throw someone out. I'm thinking about it as a way to throw ourselves in. How can a follower a follower of Jesus be someone who stands by idly? As if he has no purpose. How can someone be passive about his discipleship after hearing Paul's admonitions, including these from Romans chapter thirteen? Owe no one anything. Except to love one another. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is already the moment for you to wake for sleep. From sleep, for salvation is nearer to us than when we became believers. The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desire. This is word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Sheavy load for a Labor Day weekend, isn't it? But that's the thing about discipleship. We don't get to take a day off. Time to rest, yes. And Jesus even took time to rest. We're worse disciples when we are trying to do that on physical or emotional or spiritual fumes. Rest. Yes. Loitering, idleness, purposelessness. Days off from discipleship. Absolutely not. Rest for a disciple is neither idleness nor being without purpose. It's about taking a break from relentless work so that we can honor God. Restoring our energy so we can be part of ministries in ways that are more energetic. Getting perspective, living out what we say we believe, which is that God created this world and God can handle this world, and God doesn't have to have us in order to handle this world, and God has other people with whom God can. Help make things happen so that we can rest and let God and others handle it from time to time. That's a purposeful rest. That's part of being a disciple. Let today, let tomorrow, Labor Day, be that. But don't think any day, even days of rest are days off from loving your neighbor as yourself. I've been to a few synagogues for Sabbath services. They know how to handle the Sabbath. They know the rules, they know the requirements, they know the preparation and the experience. So I think it's instructive to know that I have never gone to a Sabbath service and they've said to me, We want you to come back on another day, but this is our day of rest, so we're not going to be kind to you today. We're we're we're taking the day off from loving our neighbor today. It's always been the opposite. Warmth and hospitality and welcome and accommodation. They've insisted that I stick around and enjoy the food after the service with them. Fellowship. Sabbath is a day of rest, but not rest from loving one's neighbor. It's another reminder, the perpetual call on our lives to do that. It's the way, Paul says, to fulfill the law. The apostle Paul was convinced there's no time to wait. No putting it off. We're closer to the day of Jesus' return and his judgment than we've ever been before. He wrote that 2,000 years ago, so we could say smugly, well, I guess he got that part wrong. Or we could recognize we're 2,000 years closer than we were the day he. Closer than we've ever been before. Wake from sleep, he tells Jesus' followers, the way a parent might say to a child, get up, it's time to leave. Wake from sleep. There is something urgent before us. Idleness will not get it done. Wake from sleep, throw yourself in. You have a purpose, and living a passive life with your faith will not accomplish your purpose. What will? It does not have to be giving away millions of books so people can learn how to Or a million dollars so that a vaccine can be prepared. You don't need fame or fortune to love your neighbor. You don't need much, really. If you did, Jesus would not have commanded his followers to do so. Paul would have not written to the Romans that this is how they would fulfill the requirement of the law. Maybe Most of the Christians of this world would not be able to accomplish it if you needed much in order to fulfill the law. We don't need fame or fortune to fulfill the law because we don't need fame or fortune to love our neighbor. We need conviction and commitment. Conviction that Jesus is the way and that his ways are the ways. And commitment to live in light of his way. Commitment to not loitering. Your way will be different than Dolly's way. Your way may be different than my way, but your way needs to be in line with Jesus. You know, the way of the one who said, You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. That is not someone who waited to see how he would feel about someone before he decided whether or not he would love that someone. That is someone who wants good for others, whoever they are. However they are. That is someone who wants good for them so much that he is willing to do something about it. Actively, intentionally, showing love. You know, things like feeding them, healing them, teaching them, going the extra mile for them, giving his body and his blood for them. Actively looking to serve God. We would not be talking about Jesus today. If he wandered aimlessly, helping some, hurting others, indifferent to many. If Jesus were a loiterer in the faith None of us would be Christians. And the places where Majority of his followers are loitering in the faith. are not growing in terms of people who follow. But and this is why you are a Christian. This is why the people around you are or have the potential of becoming Christian, followers of Jesus, wherever his disciples are intentional, wherever we are deliberate and consistent in seeking to love God and neighbor, not based on how we feel about them. Based on Jesus. On his calling on our lives, on his mercy in our lives. Wherever that's the case. There are more If you follow Jesus, you cannot loiter. Because as Dolly said, a peacock that rests on its feathers is Is just another turkey. And God knows there are more than enough turkeys