Sermon for 2nd Epiphany
Quid Pro No
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
Until the last six months or so, I’d venture to say that many of us had hardly ever heard the phrase “quid pro quo!” That, of course, has changed in the past year with “quid pro quo” in the news most every day.
All the attention on “quid pro quo” (which means a favor or a favor, tit for tat, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, one hands washes the other), all this talk about “quid pro quo” got me thinking about our faith as Christians.
Many people of many faiths, including some Christians, practice a “quid pro quo” kind of faith – you do good and God will reward you. You have heard it, I’m certain, words such as “I am doing this so that I can go to heaven after I die.” This can involve worship and prayer, study and actions, especially good actions to others, especially good actions for the poor and needy. I am earning my salvation may not be said that clearly, but that is the feeling behind many people’s actions.
And, that is not our faith.
Our faith teaches that God loves and saves us, something we do not earn by good works or attending worship or anything else, something that just is how God operates. As I shared last Sunday, we are beloved and saved by God simply because that is how God operates.
The generosity of God is sometimes hard to understand and accept. Perhaps it might be easier if we could earn our salvation by our actions. That’s something we could understand – I do so many good deeds and so many of my sins are wiped away, tit for tat, quid pro quo.
Instead, as today’s Gospel lesson tells us, we are simply invited by Jesus to “come and see.” See Jesus, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Through no actions of our own, we are forgiven, we are the anointed ones.
Think how miraculous this was for Jesus’ disciples. Names were changed, lives were changed, the long-awaited Messiah was found.
And that is the invitation for us today also, to come and see. Not to come and earn something but to come and be changed by God.
Our actions in response are not tit for tat but are in response to God’s unconditional love for us. What we see in Jesus is something we want to emulate, to share, to live, to invite others to experience. Not because of some quid pro quo – I invite five people to church and five of my sins will be forgiven – no, but because God loves us so much and because of that love we want to respond in love to others.
This is foundational for Lutheran Christians. Martin Luther rebelled against the practice of his time of paying for the forgiveness of sins. He recognized that we are all saved, “justified” is the word he used, saved by God’s grace, God’s love. We are not saved by anything we do or have done.
So, just bask in that thought for a moment. We are saved by God’s love. This is promised to us all once and for all time in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven, our salvation assured. We respond to this by worship and service and study and so much more because the love of God is so strong in us that we want to share it with others.
I titled this sermon “Quid Pro NO,” but perhaps a better title would be “quid pro YES.” God has said YES to us, to all of us, to all the good and bad in us. Our response is to say YES to this world that God loves and to share this love with the world.
This past holiday season I have spent some time reflecting on what sort of congregation we are, especially who is welcome here. This is a place of wide welcome for all and all really does mean all – men and women, young and old, gay and straight and transgendered, people of all races and nationalities and income levels and much more. Mt. Olive is a place of wide welcome and acceptance, based on God’s wide welcome and acceptance for us all in Jesus Christ.
Once again, that free gift from God – we are welcomed, beloved, saved, changed.
And, God’s grace, God’s unconditional love for us, frees us to work for justice in this world.
This is the weekend over which we celebrate the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the only religious figure who has a US national holiday in his honor.
The time is 1955. The place is Montgomery, Alabama. The issue is forced segregation on city buses. Local pastors are gathered at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church--strategizing. Rosa Parks has recently been arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. Her trial will be coming soon.
There are a lot of ideas going back and forth, but nothing clear emerges. Until--the most unlikely thing. The young pastor of the church, new to town, unknown to the city fathers (and, some say, not yet intimidated by them) – a guy then just in his 20's - raises his hand. The boycott has a leader.
A very young Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is this new leader. He is a newcomer to Montgomery, but King knows God’s love in his life and that helps make him be unafraid to risk his own life for what he knows is right. God’s grace and love for him frees him to work for justice.
Many years later, now very well known, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would describe his glimpse of what such a world filled with God’s grace and justice might look like. Dr. King said:
". . . one day (he said) every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low . . . and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
". . . one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. . . my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”
With Martin Luther King's words, through his actions, according to his dream, we could see it, too. Because he had raised his hand, had stepped up to walk in that place of God’s love and justice. Because he stepped up to walk with Jesus, it turned out that "one day" was unexpectedly closer than we thought.
Earlier in his life, from the unlikely location of the Birmingham jail, King wrote about a letter he had just received from a white brother urging caution, who said:
King’s white friend wrote, "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but. . . The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth."
Dr. King responded, "Such an attitude stems . . . from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually . . ." he said, "Human progress . . . comes through the tireless efforts of (persons) willing to be co-workers with God . . ."
". . . When early Christians entered a town . . . in the conviction that they were 'a colony of heaven,' called to obey God . . . Small in number, they were big in commitment . . . By their effort and example they brought an end to . . . ancient evils . . .
" . . . The time is always ripe to do right."
The time is always ripe to do right.
Martin Luther King, who we celebrate this weekend, helped a whole generation see where the ways of heaven begin to get an unlikely foothold on this earth. He helped us remember that walking with Jesus means working for justice - revealing in our midst already a world where love reigns, a realm of God's shalom - of wholeness - where nothing is broken and no one is missing, where a table is spread and all are welcome.
A world where love reigns. And what is our response to such love? Not to try to earn our salvation – that’s already been taken care of. God’s love, God’s grace, is so strong that we are freed to work for justice in this world. Our call is to love God, love neighbor, do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God.
Amen.
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
January 18 & 19, 2020
