June 30, 2019

Romans 13:8-10, 14:1-8

Rev. Kristen J. Kleiman

Have you ever heard of or read Jan Karon’s Mitford series. The books center around a 60 year old Episcopal priest, named Father Tim and the small town of Mitford, North Carolina.

When I first read At Home in Mitford and its sequels, I loved the simplicity of life in Mitford, North Carolina; and I loved the kindness and faithfulness of Father Tim. So when I saw this book at the library, I felt led to check it out. (Bathed in Prayer: Father Tim’s Prayers, Sermons, and Reflections from the Mitford Series) After all, you cannot have too much prayer.

In reading it, though, I knew God was inspiring me to share this story with you as we delve deeper into God’s Word for us from the letter to the Romans.

The main character, Father Tim, traditionally worked from the study in his parsonage; however one weekday, he stops by his congregation’s building, the Chapel of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, also known as Lord’s Chapel, and “makes a startling discover” (Bathed in Prayer, Karon, pg 14)

As [Father Tim] paused to let his eyes adjust to the dimness of the Lord’s Chapel nave, he heard a strange sound. Then, toward the front, on the gospel side, he saw a man kneeling in a pew. Suddenly, the man uttered such a desperate cry that the rector’s heart fairly thundered.

Give me wisdom, [Father Tim] prayed for the second time that morning. Then he stood waiting. He didn’t know for what.

‘If you’re up there, prove it! Show me! If you’re God, you can prove it!’ In the visitor’s voice was a combination of anger, and odd hope…..

With what appeared to be utter exhaustion, the stranger put his head into his hands as the question reverberated in the nave.

Father Tim slipped into the pew across the aisle and knelt on the cushion. ‘You may be asking the wrong question.’

Startled, the man raised his head.

‘I believe the question you may want to ask is “Are you down here?”’

‘What kind of a joke is that?’ [the stranger asked]

‘It isn’t a joke.’ [Father Tim replied]

The man was neatly dressed, the rector observed, and his suit and tie appeared to be expensive. A businessman, obviously. Successful, quite likely. Not from Mitford, certainly.

‘God wouldn’t be God if He were only up there. In fact, another name for him is Immanuel, which means “God with us”’….. ‘He’s with us right now, in this room.’

The man looked at him. ‘I’d like to believe that, but I can’t. I can’t feel Him at all. The things I’ve done….’

‘Have you asked Him to forgive the things you’ve done?’ [Father Tim asked]

‘I assure you that God would not want to do that.’

‘Believe it or not, I can promise that He would. In fact, He promised that He will. Would you like to ask Him into your life?’ [Father Tim responded]

The stranger stared into the darkened sanctuary. ‘I can’t do it, I’ve tried.’

‘It isn’t a test you have to pass. [Father Tim shared] It doesn’t require discipline and intelligence…not even strength and perseverance. It only requires faith.’

‘I don’t think I’ve got that.’ There was a long silence. ‘But I’d be willing to try…one more time.’

‘Will you pray a simple prayer with me? On faith?’ [Father Tim invited]

‘What do I have to lose?’

‘Nothing to lose, everything to gain.’ [Father Tim responded. He then] rose from the kneeler and took a short step across the aisle, where he laid his hands on the man’s head.

‘If you could repeat this,’ [Father Tim] said. ‘Thank you, God, for loving me, and for sending your Son to die for my sins. I sincerely repent of my sins, and receive Christ as my personal savior. Now, as your child, I turn my entire life over to you. Amen.’

The man repeated the prayer, and they were silent.

‘Is that all?’ he asked the rector.

‘That’s all.’

(Bathed in Prayer, Karon, pg 14-16)

While we might sometimes be tempted, like the businessman in this story, to make faith complicated, following Jesus, being in relationship with God, is actually quite simple. “I turn my entire life over to You, God. I do not live to myself. I live to You. I am Yours.” Or as Paul writes, “so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).

I am well aware that this is not normally the language we use in the United Church of Christ. Many of us have been Christians since birth. No one has ever asked us to thank God for loving us, repent of our sins, ask for forgiveness, and turn our entire lives over to God. That’s the stuff of altar calls, not the talk of life-long believers.

And yet, as a life-long believer, I need to be reminded of the need to turn my whole life over to God. Sometimes I forget that I am the Lord’s. Sometimes, I’m overly busy – overly busy with church stuff and not necessarily faith stuff. Sometimes, I listen too much to the world and think I need to work harder on my relationship with God, and so these words from Father Tim are of great comfort to me. Being in relationship with God “‘isn’t a test you have to pass. It doesn’t require discipline and intelligence…not even strength and perseverance. It only requires faith.’” (Bathed in Prayer, Karon, pg 16)

And faith is not as complicated as we might think or might try to make it. It’s not about having the right words. It’s not about looking a certain way. It’s not even about right belief, otherwise known as orthodoxy.

Faith is about being in relationship with God, about turning our entire lives over to God: our work lives, our play lives, our family lives, our friend lives, our sex lives, our TV & entertainment lives, even our money & stuff lives. Faith is simply saying, “I am Yours, Lord.”

And once we do that, once we turn our lives, our whole lives over to God’s keeping, we are transformed. Maybe it’s not a thunderbolt. Maybe we aren’t ‘slain by the Spirit’ falling to the ground. Maybe it’s a more gradual transition. We are changed though. We are made new when we turn our whole lives over to God.

And once we do that, we cannot help but live in love because as Paul writes in Romans – God’s law, God’s way is “summed up in this word”. From the Hebrew scriptures to the gospels to the letters, over and over, God’s word to God’s people is to love our neighbors as ourselves; to love one another as Christ loves us; to live in the excellent way of love; to love one another that God might live in us, and God’s love might be perfected in us. (Leviticus 19:18, John 15:12, 1 Corinthians 12:31, 1 John 4:12)

And while we might be tempted to make love complicated, too, it is not. When we turn our entire lives over to God, when we listen to God and not to our own egos, fears, or worldly wants, God’s Spirit guides us in what is loving. It really is that simple.

So I invite you to repeat after me. “I turn/ my entire life/ over to you, God. I am yours. Help me/ to live today/ in love.”

I invite you to begin your day tomorrow with these words and the day after and the day after that. The life of faith is that simple.