Going Back to Go Forward: Sermon Luke 2:41-52

Have you ever lost anything? I lose stuff all the time. I lose shirts, hats, pocket knives, money, glasses, wallets, car keys; in fact my mom always says that I would lose me head if it wasn’t attached. Some things we lose and it’s an aggravation but it’s not the end of the world and then there are some things that we can’t move forward without first going back and finding what we’ve lost. The other day Angie and I were out shopping and I couldn’t find my wallet. That’s one thing that I am a little OCD about. I always have to know where my wallet is at all times. I mean it’s got my driver’s license, so I can’t drive legally without it. It’s got my debit card and cash, what little there is, so I can’t buy anything if I need it. It’s got my Social Security card and so someone could steal my identity and do God only knows what, not to mention my Vandy ID, AAA card, Insurance cards, and various other things. I couldn’t go forward, moving on with my day without finding my wallet which luckily I did. I had to go back before I went forward.

The sermon is based off of a sermon that was preached by Dr. Martin Luther King in Detroit, Michigan. It was preached at a time when there was civil unrest, when the gap between the haves and the have nots was widening, when there was growing unpopularity for a war being fought in a foreign land live on TV, but we wouldn’t know anything about a time like that, would we?

The story from Luke today is about something being lost, it was Jesus. Mary and Joseph had going to Jerusalem to the Temple to celebrate the Passover with Jesus. Most people traveled in large groups from place to place in those times because there was safety in numbers and somehow Mary and Joseph went three days before they realized that Jesus was missing. Can you imagine losing your child and not just a child but the future Savior? Mary and Joseph had lost something very precious and had to go back and recover it before they could go any further.

Have we lost something in America today? Have we lost something has the Church, the Body of Christ? Today is the one year anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. The aftermath of this storm in which thousands of Americans were wallowing in toxic, filthy water, waiting to be rescued. The aftermath in which there where thousands who died because they couldn’t afford to leave on trains, planes, or in cars and yet hundreds of school buses stood idlely by. The pictures on television left us all with broken hearts and with angry questions about how this could happen in the greatest country in the world. The aftermath of Katrina brought into stark daylight the realties that had been known only by those who had to live it. The reality the poor and downtrodden individuals whom God has always said should be taken care of have been left behind by not only the government but also by the Church. We have lost something and before we can move forward we must turn back and find some things.

The first thing that we have lost is focus. The Church and the country have become so distracted with so many things that our focus on what is important has been lost. We talked a little about that last week. We don’t have time to spend with God. We have too many responsibilities, we have too many irons in the fire to strengthen our relationship with God and because of this we have lost focus on what God’s will is concerning the poor. The Church has lost its focus and as a result we have lost our potency and have become more of a social club then God’s ambassadors.

The United Methodist Church has always been at the forefront of social justice. Many abolitionists were preachers and church leaders. Many of those involved in the fight for women’s suffrage were leaders in church both clergy and laity. Many in the Church stood in the fight for civil rights. Unfortunately, many church leaders today worry more about the bottom line than in doing work for the kingdom of God. Unfortunatly we have stood by while 30 million Americans and hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans are without any kind of health care. We have stood by while millions of people have to choose between food and medicine.

We must regain our focus on what God’s will is for the Church in 2006. We have to do some serious praying and we’ve got to ask God for forgiveness for what happened after Hurricane Katrina because we were asleep at the wheel. Even today a year after the storm hit the majority of residents are still without homes, the insurance companies are trying to get out of paying for the damage, and many families’ lives are still in shambles. We’ve got to regain our focus on seeking first the Reign of God and seeking first to glorify God in everything that we do. We have to regain our focus and work as hard as we can to make sure that we are serving our neighbors and doing for the least of these as we do would do unto Christ. We’ve got to back before we can go forward. We began that today with this special offering, but we can continue it within our community by continuing our support of the Help Center and by helping those that we see in trouble.

The second thing we have lost is love. The Black Eyed Peas had a song a few years ago asking the perpetual question “Where is the love?” Today’s world is filled with so much hate and so much division. We can see in almost every aspect of our lives. We have “red verses blue”, liberal verses conservative, progressive verses fundamentalist. It seems a constant battle. Also, those who disagree do so with venomous personal attacks and it seems that nothing gets done. It’s ok to disagree, I know that even in this room we won’t agree on everything theological or politically, but the only way to solve the problems of the world is to love each other enough to listen openly to each other’s views.

One frustrating thing which happened after is the blame game you’ve got Democrats blaming Republicans, states blaming the Federal government, this guy blaming that guy. The blame game solves nothing, instead it only serves to widen and deepen the divisions between people. We’ve got to stop it. The poor and helpless people all over the world can no longer afford for us to figure out who’s to blame instead of solving the problems at hand. We have to stop tearing one another down in order to build ourselves up.

How can we accomplish anything if we cannot stop fighting amongst ourselves? How can we bring people to Christ when those people see such division and anger in the Church? We’ve got to learn to work together despite our differences.

1 John famously describes God as love and so as ambassadors of God we have to embrace God’s love in all that we do. Don’t give money to that homeless person because you feel like you have to but instead do it because you want to embody God’s love. Don’t invite someone to church because I challenged you to do it, but because you love them enough to help them find a church family. Let us rediscover God’s love and work together to help all people live full lives as God intended.

The final thing that we have lost is hope. The days and weeks that followed Hurricane Katrina seemed utterly hopeless. We turned on the news and saw story after story of heartbreak and catastrophe and things seemed hopeless. However, hope is something that we must find again. Hope is the thing that helps us carry on in times of trouble. Hope is the thing that keeps those people in the Gulf Coast, in Darfur, in Iraq, anywhere there is trouble moving and fighting. Hope is the thing that lets us smile while the world around us is falling apart.

Paul describes hope as the evidence of things unseen and we remain in hope that this life is not the end but simply a transition point to something much better. We must regain our hope and stop reacting to situations with cynicism and instead react with optimism. Because one day the levees will break again, but instead of floods of toxic and destructive water the flood be God’s justice and righteousness flowing like a mighty stream.

Until that happens however, we have a lot of work to do. We’ve got to find what we’ve lost in the Church and in America. We must stand up for what is right, stand up for love, stand up for hope, and stand up for justice. We must regain what we’ve lost and we must push forward.