Many of you were able to live stream this sermon via Instagram or Facebook. Thanks for joining me for the live proclamation. If you didn't catch it live, check out Trinity Lutheran Robesonia on Facebook or follow us on Instagram. Neither Pastor Bill nor myself have pastored in a Pandemic before, so we are learning as we go. Trinity's social media accounts will continue to help people connect right now and my sermons will be uploaded here after I preach.
Thanks for reading, dear friends, and I hope you know of God's love and presence in your life this day and all days. Air high five!
March 15, 2020
3rd Sunday in Lent
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
Please pray with me,
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and suitable in your sight, O God, our rock, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
It was my first weekend serving at Trinity in Robesonia, but I wasn’t here. I was knee deep in music, games, laughter, and worship at the Harrisburg YouthQuake. Gosh, as I think about it, still, it was the best first weekends that I have ever had a at a job. I remember sitting in the gathering space outside of the ballroom on Friday night saying to Katie Hammaker and Kayla Aulenbach, look, I’m new, like brand new, I’m trying to get to know everyone in our group, so please do me a favor. If you see me mixing into another group, trying to get to know them, please just bring me back to the fold. They nodded and agreed to help me out.
On Sunday as we stopped at Chocolate World for lunch & milkshakes, I was on my own scoping out lunch options and saw one of our youth who looked a bit unsettled. Aubrey, I said, are you okay? She looked up and said, you know my name? I said, yup, I’ve been working hard all weekend to get to know you all. Is everything okay?
It turns out she had misplaced her wallet and had no money for lunch. We covered her lunch and the wallet was in another bag in the car, so it all worked out, but what sticks out for me is her reaction to knowing she was part of Trinity’s group and knowing her, by name.
“For to be known is to be loved and to be loved is to be known.”
In our gospel lesson today, we find ourselves side by side with Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. Through a short conversation that shifts from personal information to a theological discussion, Jesus reveals himself to this woman…as the Messiah.
When Jesus reveals details about the woman’s life, he shows her that he knows her….and in that knowing, Jesus reveals who he is, the savior, the Messiah. Barbara Brown Taylor says this, “By telling the woman who she is, Jesus shows her who he is. By confirming her true identity, he reveals his own, and that is how it still happens. The Messiah is the one in whose presence you know who you really are – the good and bad of it, the all of it, the hope in it.”
When Aubrey realized I knew her, she knew something about me. That I was an adult who knew her cared about her. When Jesus says things about the woman at the well, he reveals his true self to her.
It is in knowing one another that we reveal our true selves.
I talked about this last week, that being fully known or being in the light can sometimes be a tricky or uncomfortable place to be., yet this week, as Jesus interacts with this woman, in broad daylight, when her full self is revealed, and seen in his eyes she cannot help but tell the story. She leavers her jar – at the well – to go and tell others to come and see.
How incredible is that?!?!
Transformed in a holy way through knowing Jesus and knowing that Jesus loves her, she runs away from the well, leaving her bucket – the only way to get water - and shared the good news of Jesus!
For to be known is to be loved and to be loved is to be known.
This was the refrain of one of our speakers at the National Youth Gathering in Houston, and it kept resonating though my head and heart as I was preparing this sermon.
For to be known is to be loved and to be loved is to be known.
We are known by Christ and that shows Jesus’ love of us and for us.
And, AND to be loved by Christ shows us that Jesus knows us, like REALLY knows us and that’s okay isn’t it. It’s more than okay, really, its life changing, life transforming.
And it’s a message that’s needed – I think more than ever – in our world today. The deep desire that each of us has to be known and loved. To be loved and known.
That looks different for each and everyone of us. But it’s the desire to be seen for who God created us and calls us to be (even if we ourselves are still trying to figure that out). It is being seen and recognized.
It is being called by name.
It is being prayed for about a specific need or concern – and naming that need.
---Okay, now here is the place where you can see that I wrote this sermon on Thursday, before we realized that worship would not be happening at Trinity this weekend. ---
Maybe today is a day, or this week is the week, to re-introduce yourself to someone or to pick someone and get to know them, or even follow up with someone you haven’t seen in a while. And to take that opportunity to address someone by name, so that they know that they are known.
****But here's the thing, especially when our situations mean we cannot get out and physically connect with others, we are called even more so to connect in new in different ways. Maybe it is through writing letters or notes to family or friends across the nation or across the county. Maybe is video chatting with family or recording happy birthday to send to birthday folks this week. Maybe it is calling someone up, or sending them a text to remind them that they are known AND loved. What does reaching out through God's love look like for you this week?****
It’s a powerful outreach.
It’s a deep connection.
It's the mission and call of Christ.
The way Christ knows us and loves us is deep, and intimate, and holy and beautiful.
We may not be ready to know one another that deeply, yet, but we can take those first steps.
Being transformed by a God who loves us deeply and takes the time to be with us and know us intimately changes us and opens our hearts to reach out to others to share time with them and know them more fully.
Here at Trinity we have an incredible opportunity to do this across a wide range of people. We have the opportunity to cross economic lines generational divides, we can cross school districts and political differences.
The one thing that draws us all in…the one thing we all have in common…is the love of God for each and every one of us which is God’s deep desire to know us and to love us.
God wants us to know we are loved and known, known and loved.
For to be known is to be loved and to be loved is to be known.
You are loved.
You are known.
You are known.
You are loved.
And now may the peace, which surpasses all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and let all God’s people say, amen.
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