Stronger Together | July 7, 2024

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Grace to you and peace from the One in whom we live and move and have our being, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

I once had a church member who told me he would only ever sit on the left side of the church, because the right side was for the Republicans. Knowing his sense of humor, I’m about 97% sure it was a joke. But I never once saw him cross the aisle to sit on the right side.

As I said, we’re beginning a new sermon series today for July, and I want to talk about some of the political divisions in our country. I thought about starting by asking you all to get up and arrange yourselves by political party, but I would never do that in church.

Here’s my promise: I will likely mention some political topics, and I might even make some statements about things that are politically controversial. I believe Jesus has something to say about the ways we live together and the ways we treat our neighbors, and that’s what politics is.

But I will not advocate voting for any particular candidate for any office. Some churches do that; we won’t. I’m not going to ask who you vote for. I suspect we have people in this room who have cancelled each other’s ballots out, probably for many elections. In fact, I hope we have people here who vote differently.

You prioritize different issues, you come from different backgrounds, you make different judgements. Those different perspectives are important. The problems we face are big enough that there’s not usually one solution. Of course, there are some issues where Jesus’ teaching is pretty clear, but faithful Christians can disagree on plenty of issues.

And that’s the point of this sermon series. For the next few weeks, I want to look at some of the things we have in common even when we disagree, a few of the places in the Bible where we are called to come together, both as followers of Jesus and as human beings in this world.

In some ways, just the idea of having anything in common is a countercultural message. There was a large Pew survey a couple years ago in 2022 that found (and I’m quoting from an NPR article), “Since 2016, growing numbers of people in each party simply don’t like people in the other party. They increasingly see people with differing political views as closed-minded, dishonest, unintelligent and even immoral.”

I’ll highlight a couple of the survey results. 63% of Democrats see Republicans as immoral. And if you’re nodding your head, well, 72% of Republicans see Democrats as immoral. 51% of Republicans say Democrats are more unintelligent. 52% of Democrats say the same thing about Republicans. More than four in five Democrats say Republicans are more closed-minded, and about 7 in 10 Republicans say Democrats are.

A different 2020 survey “found that almost 4 in 10 people in both political parties would be upset if their child married someone of the opposite political party.”

You get the idea, right? More and more, we think: Those people are bad. They’re obviously wrong about that, so they must be idiots. Glad I’m not one of those morons.

Martin Luther, in his explanation of the 8th commandment, the one that says “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” writes, “We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.”

How would doing that change our nation—or even our city? How would it change community Facebook groups if we committed to coming to our neighbors’ defense, speaking well of them, and interpreting everything they do in the best possible light? Think of all the political consultants and advertisers who’d be out of a job if candidates gave their opponents the benefit of the doubt!

Our Scripture readings for today focus on the idea of community, living together in unity. As we just said in one of the two Psalms we read, “How good and how pleasant it is, when kindred live together in unity!” We heard Jesus praying for his followers “that they may become completely one” because being unified strengthens our witness to the world.

And he’s not just praying that for the group of disciples there in the room with him; he explicitly says in verse 20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.”

We are called to be together—we’re called to Christian unity—as an example for the world. The question, of course, is what does it mean to be united? That’s a tough question, perhaps especially for us Lutherans, because our whole church movement is rooted in division, in the church splitting.

And we believe there are things worth splitting over. Lutherans originally split over salvation by grace versus good works. The Lutheran movement remains divided over issues like whether the communion table is open to all or just those who believe the right way.

I refuse to be a part of any church that refuses allow women to serve as pastors, because the kind of reproductive organs you have has nothing to do with whether God can use you to proclaim the gospel.

Some of the biggest church splits in American history have been over slavery. Lutherans in 1930’s Germany split over allegiance to the Gospel versus allegiance to the Nazi party.

The point I’m trying to make is not about some kind of moral or theological relativism. There are things worth dividing over.

But as we discern whether issues are significant enough to divide us, we must be committed to giving others the benefit of the doubt. Interpret everything they do in the best possible light. Defend them when loud voices try to dehumanize them.

Jesus does not call us to agree on everything; Jesus calls us to be united in community.

I love how Hebrews puts it in verses 24 and 25. “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

As a community, we are supposed to encourage each other, and not just encourage, but provoke. Isn’t that a great word? Not just provoke like poke at each other because as a community we know how to push each others’ buttons, but to provoke one another to love and good deeds.

Part of that is meeting together. We can’t neglect that. Showing up is important. Even if you’re online, you’re participating in what we’re doing together as a church. Supporting each other and the work we share.

I hope coming to church is meaningful for you today. I hope you’re spiritually fed every time you come to worship and you go home inspired by the sermon, with the music stuck in your head.

But I wonder what would change on Sunday mornings if we didn’t show up to church hoping to get something out of it, but in order to encourage each other? A devotion I read this week suggested before you go to church each week, you should pray God will use you to encourage someone else.

Who can you provoke this morning to love and good deeds?

When we are united in community, we can support one another. Ecclesiastes 4 describes it with simple illustrations. When people are together, and one of them falls, the others can lift them up. But woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. That’s not a Life Alert ad, that’s Scripture.

“Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone?” Literally true, but the point is more than just the literal. When life gets challenging, when following on the path Jesus calls us to gets hard, we are here to warm each other’s spirits.

“A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Strings are stronger when you bind them together into a rope.

“Stronger together” has been a kind of catchphrase here since before I started. I don’t know if it came from the pandemic, or maybe from when we were alternating buildings for worship. I know it’s been on the Living Hope sign since I started, and it’s what we’ve been calling our printed newsletter.

It certainly applies to our two churches working together, but it’s more than that. All Christian communities are stronger together. We can do more together.

I made fun of sermon visuals a few weeks ago, but I have one today that I was given shortly after I joined this community.

I have here two wheels. One of them is hollow; just the outside, and it’s easy to bend. It can’t carry much weight. The other one has all these spokes. Individually, the spokes aren’t very strong; they don’t do much. But together, this wheel is much harder to bend. We are stronger together.

One more aspect of community I want to mention, which is vulnerability. Being church together, being united as one the way Jesus calls us to be means being vulnerable with each other.

It means letting people in, not putting on a Sunday face to pretend you’ve got it all figured out, but being authentic. Communities are as strong as they are vulnerable and open to each other. We’ll talk about this more in a couple weeks, but Paul in Romans 12 says to “Rejoice with those who rejoice; [and to] weep with those who weep.”

In just a moment, we’re going to sing our hymn of the day, which is Will You Let Me Be Your Servant? Sometimes in a community, you are needed as the one serving. Your gifts are needed. But sometimes, it’s harder to let others in to serve you.

Listen to the words as we sing, especially the last verse. “Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you? Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant, too.” That’s community.

Let’s sing. Oh, and by the way, stronger together applies to singing too.

Even if you’re not a great singer, even if a song isn’t your style of music, can we trust the Holy Spirit will work through your singing? Some of you’ve heard me say I’m committed to singing with gusto, even if not necessarily pitch. Please joint me and drown me out!

If it’s not a song that’s particularly meaningful for you some Sunday, maybe it’s not for you! Maybe your job is to sing for your neighbor who needs to hear it.

Let’s sing.