“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Holy Scripture tells us that at the beginning of time, God spoke creation into being. Into the dark and formless void, God spoke and said, “Let there be light.”
And there was light.
God spoke the world as we know it into being, and time as we experience it into being.
And God continued to speak.
God spoke words of love into the world–the ways we are to love God and to love one another –the words we know as the Ten Commandments, or as we call them in Godly Play, the Ten Best Ways.
God still had more to say.
John, in his gospel, tells us that God spoke God’s very self into being as a part of God’s created world —
“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”—that is, Jesus came and pitched his tent among us. The Word itself became a living breathing human being so that we could see with our own eyes God’s glory, full of grace and truth.
In today’s gospel, as Jesus is teaching in the temple, he talks about the end of this world.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Just as God spoke the world into being,
God will speak its end into being.
But God’s Word will never end,
because God’s Word is endlessly creative.
Because God’s Word is endless love.
So as the kingdom of God draws near, we are to be alert.
We are to be alert to the signs of God’s abounding love already set loose in the world, and we are to be alert to the ways in which we can love one another.
Jesus said in John’s gospel that people would know that we are his disciples if we have love for one another.
I love this church for many reasons.
I love this space.
We are so blessed to have this beautiful space in which to gather and worship God.
We are so blessed to have our organ, an organist, and a choir to help us fill this space with joyful sounds.
And I love having these words in front of us—the words that God has spoken, right in front of us on these tablets–
ten very practical ways to love God and to love our neighbors.
I love this cross in the center—a reminder that Jesus was willing to go to his death trusting and hoping that someday the world really would abound in love and that God’s kingdom would become a reality on earth.
I love the fact that the words that Jesus taught us to pray are right here with us, words on our wall—with our greatest longing and desire spelled out in words—“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”
I love the fact that what we believe as Christians about God and our life together is also before us in the words of the Nicene Creed.
But what I love the most about this church is that all of these words written on our walls have become written in our own hearts.
Because in this church, we truly abound in love for one another and for all and this love is evident to the world.
People call and need help, and I can say yes, St Peter’s can help you—because you all, the people in this congregation, show God’s love to this world through your gifts to the discretionary fund.
People come to get food here every month—and over this past year, not only are people receiving food, but love, and that love goes both ways—
I received this note in November from someone who not only comes to receive food from us, but also comes early to help us get all that produce ready for distribution.
“Thank you for all you do for the community, and for all the support this church gives. If you ever need anything from me, do not hesitate to give me a call.”
Abounding love for all.
And abounding love for one another.
Last week, our abounding love for one another was so tangible. And these are just the things I knew about!
Johnny and Helmut, on behalf of the men’s group, went shopping with the money that you all have so generously given so that we could provide a Thanksgiving meal to hungry families.
Nancy Long and Boyd called me to let me know that Nancy Wick was in the hospital.
So many of you have helped Bill and Nancy over the past few weeks.
I called Mike Newman and he dropped what he was doing to go help Howard and Millie.
Laura dropped what she was doing to go help Fred and Crystal, and then Crystal and Laura needed more help so they called TC, and TC and Tyler dropped what they were doing to go help Fred. TC asked for help from his colleagues with these words, “These are my church people…these are my people….”
Eunice defrosted the freezer in the Parish House, and said “This is something I can do for Cookie, because she does so many other things for this church—I can do this for her…it’s one less thing she’ll have to do.”
Dave gave Cookie some boxwood and Cookie made boxwood wreaths for us to use here at church.
Cherry and Woody got the beautiful evergreen cross for us to enjoy during Advent.
Clarence did church bookkeeping and Betty cooked food to take to someone.
In Bible study, we said that we are so blessed in this congregation to be able to be honest with one another, to disagree with one another, and to continue to love one another even in our differences.
Elizabeth wrote up the Vestry minutes and sent out the calendar.
Charles McGuire went off to a temporary job in DC and said he would miss being here, and Brad gave him a hug and told him to hurry back, saying “We aren’t complete without you here.”
Ben spent countless hours putting together information to send out about the upcoming altarpiece restoration. He put together the newsletter, and got this week’s bulletin into shape and prepared a lesson for adult education.
These are only a few things that went on last week in this parish. All of you know about many other things that happened that are evidence of our abounding love for one another.
When we abound in love for one another and for all, we are God’s living and breathing Word in this world—we ourselves become words that will never pass away—love that will never end.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
So let us be alert to the ways in which we can continue to love one another, and be God’s living words of love in the world, because in that love is our holiness, our strength, and the joy with which we can stand with one another before the Son of Man when he comes to reign.
Amen.