Love in Truth and Action - Fourth Sunday of Easter
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick, Deacon Sarah Kretschmann
April 21, 2024
The
4th century theologian Jerome tells a story about the Apostle John, who was old
and frail and unable to walk. His disciples would carry him each week into
worship, where his words to them were: “Little children, love one another.” This
went on week after week, until they were more than a little weary of these same
words. “Master, why do you always say this?” “Because,” John replied, “ it is the Lord’s command, and if this only is done,
it is enough.” John’s
simple teaching might seem insufficient. Love is a word used so often and in so
many ways. We can see this love as mere tolerance- “you go your way and I’ll go
mine.” Or
as just being decent and polite. Or getting rid of negativity. Just tell me
every week that Jesus loves me. Skip all that talk about justice or oppression.
There
is no shame in tolerance, decency or positivity. But
alone these are not the love Jesus taught and lived. After all people don’t get
crucified for being nice. What
does it mean to love not in words only but in truth and action? Love, as the
Bible intends it, is not an idea. Love is an action word.
When
it’s more than words, it feels too impractical. Isn’t the world too complicated
for love once we travel beyond our most treasured relationships? “An eye for an
eye” is still our notion of fairness, security, and settling scores. Feed
thousands without vetting them first? Welcome a thief on the cross into
paradise? Yes! There is Jesus every time, overturning common conceptions of
worthiness and holiness.
The
other day a man I met in the parking lot wanted to help our feeding ministry.
He doesn’t know the people being helped or who has made bad decisions, or who
came to State College without thinking it through. He doesn’t have any proof
they need food. But he wanted to love those who come here in hope. Like the
woman who walked miles because she heard there “might” be food. How
impractical, until you are hungry. He did two things - he gave generously to
help this ministry and then he rolled up his sleeves to pack food boxes. This is love in truth and action.
Today I would like to introduce Deacon Sarah
Kretschmann an ordained Minister of Word and Service in the ELCA to share her
story of love in truth and action.
Good morning
and thank you…it is my joy and privilege to serve my call at Global Refuge,
formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Each day, I get to connect
with communities like yours with a heart for the work of welcome and build
together a more welcoming world.
Our second
scripture reading for today could not be a more fitting reminder for how we are
called to live out our faith in the world each day. In First John, we read, “We
know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down
our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the
world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little
children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”
What does it
look like for us to love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action?
The good news
for us, is that in our Lutheran history and a cloud of witnesses who have gone
before us, give us some pretty good ideas for loving in truth and action on
behalf of the displaced.
As a Lutheran,
I am proud my church has such a long and lasting history of hospitality for
people seeking safety and new beginnings. In the aftermath of the devastation
of World War II, at a time when one in six Lutherans was a refugee or displaced
person, broken-hearted and compassionate Lutheran disciples of Jesus began
advocating for the safety of eastern European immigrants arriving in the U.S.
Forged in faith and rooted in justice, Global Refuge was born as the Welfare
Department of the National Lutheran Council.
In the years
since, we have been a part of relief efforts for every immigration-related
crisis, welcoming more than 750,000 new neighbors from Cuba, Vietnam, Sudan,
Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and beyond.
Today, Global
Refuge is the largest faith-based non-profit dedicated to serving vulnerable
immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. And we are called, together, to build
a vision of “All immigrant and refugees being protected, embraced and empowered
in a world of just and welcoming communities.”
Faith
communities play a critical role in welcoming new neighbors alongside Global
Refuge – just as they have since our founding more than 85 years ago. People of
all faiths continue to speak out, take action, and embody ministries of welcome
in communities across the United States. And thanks be to God for that!
And I truly
believe it to be true that in sharing hospitality with a stranger turned friend
and neighbor, Lutherans across the United States have entertained a multitude
of angels (Hebrews 13:2).
Jesus
puts love centerstage, not only in word, but in how he embodies its truth and
action.
Standing
with the vulnerable, shepherding the poor, children, foreigners, and women all
of whom feel threatened emotionally and physically by the harshness of a world
where love is maybe an ideal, but often not a reality.
Love
looks like many things, many far more laborious than carrying an elderly man on
your shoulders. It asks us to consider those we fear, condemn, or dislike. We
all can think of someone. Love
is giving our very selves for another even when it asks much, even when we
wince, or struggle on behalf of those who face injustice. It’s the banquet of
the lost and found, the least and greatest - all at the same feast. Where there
will be enough for all who want to be there. Even if we think they don’t
deserve it or we’re sure it hurts to do so. Love like that.
This
love is not new for God. All the way back to when Abram set out for a place not
knowing where he was going, or Jacob moves his family to Egypt to escape
famine, reunites with Joseph and they’re given jobs.
Today, I would
like to share with you a story of a community who said their experience
welcoming newcomers was like receiving angels in their midst.
Augustine,
Aline, and their six children spent years in a refugee camp before being
resettled in Fargo, North Dakota. Fleeing danger in their home country of
Democratic Republic of Congo, they waited for over ten years at a camp in
Malawi facing economic hardship and difficult conditions to raise their
children in. Then one day, they got the joyous news that they would be
resettled in the United States.
In Fargo, they
found built-in community at St. John's Lutheran Church, a member of Global
Refuge's Circle of Welcome co-sponsorship program who has been welcoming
newcomers for over 20 years. Through the Circle of Welcome program, faith
communities across the country partner with their local resettlement agency to
provide support to a newly arrived refugee family. This can include home
set-up, transportation, meals, and local guidance – but most importantly, being
a welcoming friend.
When
Augustine, Aline and their children finally arrived, the St. John’s community
was ready joyfully welcoming them at the airport holding cheerful signs with
their names and “karibu,” the Swahili word for welcome. And they will continue
to provide support in the months and years to come.
Augustine
shared with gratitude in a recent interview, “I felt immense joy seeing that I
had found a community who welcomed me and even wrote my name on the banners
that the church people were holding. I don’t know how to express my gratitude
because St. John’s Church has helped my family in many ways. Since the day I
arrived, they were the ones who took my bags, and they never left me…I told
their pastor ‘You’ve shown me a different kind of love that I never thought of.’
He said to me that sometimes when you receive someone, you are receiving an
angel. So, in my heart, I said, he looked like an angel to me.”
As witnesses
to God’s love for all people, faith communities like St. John’s and like
(y)ours love with truth and action advocating for immigrants and refugees,
transforming communities through ministries of service and justice.
Thank you for
your support of the work of welcome and for all you do for members of your
community. Thank you for loving not in word or speech alone, but in truth and
action (1 John 3:18). May we continue to inspire one another each day to do the
same.
Love. One simple word, one gracious command,
one profound witness in a world that so desperately needs this truth.
Amen.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
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