Delivered by Hawley Todd TSSF at the Celebration of Wholeness and Healing on July 15, 2012.
This morning the homily will be on Grace Church’s Values and in particular focus on treating each person as a child of God.
First of all I would like you to read Grace’s values with me. However with one slight change.
Preface each one with saying “I, your name, will ....”
I ____ will ...
- Treat every person as a child of God.
- Grow and awaken continually to God's presence in our lives.
- Be guided always by honesty and integrity.
- Be nourished by people of every cultural background.
- Honor everyone's age, race, economic situation, sexual orientation, family configuration and religious approach.
- Serve God by sharing with those in need and by working actively for social justice.
What does "I will treat every person as a child of God" mean to you? What might that mean to God? And how does that impact our life as the body of Christ – as Grace Church?
I would like to start with where we are in our individual lives.
I can’t speak for you so I will share with you a little of where I am. I would truly love to see each person I meet as a child of God. Yet to be honest (which is another of our values) I fall short of doing that. Given my personal history, there are some people I look upon with mistrust and in some cases for good reason. There are people we naturally are attracted to and others that seem to push our buttons and rub us the wrong way. There are some folks we truly enjoy being with and others who require patience. Yet regardless of our personal inclinations and reactions to another, the Grace Values call us individually and corporately to treat each person as a Child of God. That is our goal. That is our primary value.
Yet given the fact that most of us are not fully there, how to we live into our values? We are making an excellent start by raising them up and explicitly discussing them. And at least for myself, it helps for me to look at where I am and be honest.
One of the spiritual practices that helps me the most is to ask God to transform my heart and mind into the heart and mind of the Lord’s. “Dear God take my thoughts and feelings and transform them into your thoughts and feelings so that I may truly be present with each person I met as you would have me be.”
The passage from Ephesians in this morning's reading says:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ
God destined us for adoption as his children. We – each one of us – is a child of God. We did not earn it. We did not buy a stairway to heaven. We did not choose God. God chose us! God chose you - specifically you - to be God’s child!
I personally find it to be extraordinary Good News that we are adopted as God’s children. As I was growing up, I assumed that parental love was strongest for biological children. Yet having done youth ministry and worked with families for many years, I came to realize that way too often there is a disconnect between being a biological parent and being a real parent who loves, cares for and nurtures a child. In fact, both of my children, Tina and Josh, are adopted. It took years of blood, sweat, and tears for Barbara and I to bring them into our lives. Adoption is a conscious choice that requires work and effort on the part of a parent. It doesn’t come easy and is never a mistake. I absolutely love and adore my children!
When God says that I am God’s adopted child, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God wants me as God’s child. I know that there is a clear intention on God’s part that I am part of the family. And here is the critical point. Not only did God choose me and you, but God chooses each and every one of us!
We are all part of God’s family and God wants us truly to treat one another as brothers and sisters. We are precious in God’s sight. We are family. No wonder Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves!
What does all this mean to us corporately as Grace Church? It means that we treat everyone who walks through our doors as loved by God and not only the ones who come here. Everyone is to be treated as a child of God. No wonder our values speak of "Honoring everyone's age, race, economic situation, sexual orientation, family configuration and religious approach." How could we do less?
No wonder our values say "Serve God by sharing with those in need and by working actively for social justice." We are caring for our brothers and sister when we do so! That seems like a given to me!!!!!!
All of our values grow out of the first one. And they all give flesh and bones to the commandments of Jesus: To love the Lord our God with all our heart mind and soul and to love our neighbors as ourselves!
As we seek healing today, may we seek to allow God to remove anything in our lives that keeps us from being the persons God created us to be – persons who honor and treasure one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
I would like to close today by having us re-affirm our commitment to living the Grace Church values. At the beginning we said them individually. Let us close by saying them corporately.
Please join me in praying the values by saying “We the family of Grace Church will…” before each line.
- Treat every person as a child of God.
- Grow and awaken continually to God's presence in our lives.
- Be guided always by honesty and integrity.
- Be nourished by people of every cultural background.
- Honor everyone's age, race, economic situation, sexual orientation, family configuration and religious approach.
- Serve God by sharing with those in need and by working actively for social justice.
Amen!
This morning's reading is Ephesians 1:3-14
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
1:4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.
1:5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,
1:6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace
1:8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight
1:9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,
1:10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
1:11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,
1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.
1:13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;
1:14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.
