Hi everyone,
Welcome to worship for this 7th Sunday after the Epiphany, landing on February 23, 2025!
The bulletin for this service can be found here. You can use it to follow along with the service, as it has the order of worship, the words of the liturgy, and the full sermon manuscript. Otherwise, you could just use the words that will appear on your screen and the sermon is also on this page below the worship video.
For a fuller worship experience while participating online, you are invited to have a lit candle in your space, which can be extinguished near the end of the service at the same time as the altar candles after the sending hymn. You are also welcome to join in communion by having something small to eat and drink prepared for the appropriate time in the service. Further instruction will be given then.
May God’s unending love and grace be upon you this day and always!
God of all grace, by your Spirit you provide all we need for salvation, for wholeness, for abundant life. Draw us close to you in your kingdom, that we might discover and relearn the beauty of your promises and mercy, that moves us to live more as your people in the world, loved and forgiven through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t….”
Ah, so you all do know this wise piece of wisdom. I guess that isn’t a surprise seeing as how you’re all decent church going folk, I’m sure it’s probably come up in more than one sermon in the past. But it does seem like more and more people in general either don’t know it or at least they don’t heed to it, because I’ll tell ya, the words that come out of some people’s mouths… well, I guess that’s not really a nice thing to say so maybe I shouldn’t say it.
But that’s just it, isn’t it? If we were to really take the “if you don’t have anything nice to say” thing to heart, I wonder if any of us would have anything left to say at all.
I mean, it sure seems like these days there aren’t many reasons to be nice anymore, like there aren’t too many nice things to comment on. And most definitely, at least in these here parts, it’s like nice people have become far and few in between. And that’s just kind of sad.
So we might stay quiet, because we don’t have anything nice to say. Or maybe our “nice” thing we say is to point out the faults of the others in order to “help” them. Those that are hurting us, those that act out only in their self interests, those that, in our eyes, are breaking the world.
But that’s ok though, right? I mean it’s not like a non-nice thing that we’re saying. Rather, it’s probably pretty nice and even loving of us to graciously talk about how others are falling short, how they’re not seeing the bigger picture like we are, how they would fare well to listen to our advice on how to shape up and be better. I mean, if only they, if they don’t have anything nice to say, wouldn’t say anything at all. Then maybe, just maybe, the world would be a better place. So we want to offer that advice that so very much applies to them. We want to point out the small ways in which they can be better for the benefit of everyone around them. We want to tell them how they fall short, so then maybe they would get it and change.
I mean, we have scripture on our side, right? There are so many tidbits of wisdom that would do them good if they would follow it. Even in today’s gospel reading we get “don’t judge, don’t condemn, and forgive.” We hear “be generous, do good, and love your enemies.” And if that isn’t enough, we also have “do to others as you would have them do to you.”
Wise, right? It’s like the formula for a better society. I guess that makes sense too, seeing as how these words are from Jesus and all. If only the world would hear this. If only those covertly corrupt individuals, those wolves in sheep’s clothing, those nefariously selfish people be told this and put into their place. If only those we don’t like for their obviously wrong ways, could be more like us.
Then and only then, maybe our relationship would be better, maybe whatever situation we’re in wouldn’t be so difficult, maybe things around the world in general would just be better. If only they’d listen. If only they’d be more loving. If only they would treat us how they want us to treat them.
And that’s the other thing. All this good advice we hear in scripture and elsewhere usually applies better to them. We hear these wise words of wisdom and we automatically think that they should hear and heed to it. We, from our comfortable place of righteous advice, call them out.
Because… it’s always someone else’s fault, right? There’s always someone else to blame. We can size up any bad thing that has happened to us and trace them down to the exact moment which we can point our finger at them. They are always messing things up. They are always doing things wrong. They are probably the closest thing we have to an actual enemy.
I mean, we’re not in war with them or anything, it’s just that… maybe we could live without them. It’s not like we full on hate them, it’s just that if we never see, hear from, or even think about them again, it’d be too soon. Maybe we might even intentionally not talk to them because we know that we just don’t have anything nice to say.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had these kinds of people in your life. I don’t know if you have them in your life now. But the way things are going, I’m pretty sure that if you don’t, you probably will in the not-so-distant future.
But to that, Jesus asks us to love. Put aside these hard feelings we have, and love. Open our hearts to see them as God does, as sinners in need of grace, and love.
Ok, if you say so Jesus. I mean we haven’t killed them yet so isn’t that mercy? Maybe we can tolerate them, but they still have to shape up, they still have to get their act together, they still have to love first. Until then it’s not our fault that they’re the way they are, so wrong, so off the mark, so unlovable.
I remember back in my seminary days, one of my professors told us to look at the people we like the least, those that bother us the most, those that we’d just rather not. And then he asked us to think about what it is about them that we don’t like. Like what traits, what quirks, what personality defects that just irk us. And once we were all nicely riled up with irritation and anger, our prof dropped a bomb on us. Not a literal one of course, but it sure hit about as hard. He said that those things that we’re thinking about, those annoying traits, those ridiculous quirks, and those personality defects that drive us totally bananas that put those people on our “least liked” lists… those are the ones that we have in ourselves. We share those traits, maybe not to the same degree but it’s in us. We subconsciously or maybe even consciously see those parts of ourselves that we don’t like in others, and we blow them up exponentially, and transfer that dislike from us onto them.
Oof. That is a hard pill to swallow.
But the lesson he was giving to us was to befriend these people, as in doing so we would be befriending that part of ourselves. Accept these people as they are and we begin to accept ourselves as we are. Love them, shortcomings and all, and we will learn to love ourselves.
This is what Jesus was saying too, although I’m not sure who got it from who. Jesus’ words of forgiveness and grace aren’t just for the other to follow, but it’s for us to heed to as well. Jesus’ command to love our enemies aren’t just for them to love us, but for us to love them. Jesus’ advice to do to others what we would have them do to us isn’t just for them to shape up and act right, but for us.
So it’s true when they say that our forgiveness isn’t for their benefit, but for ours. In that when we forgive, we will be forgiven. When we are generous, we will receive. When we love, we will see just how we are loved.
While we might still want to point our fingers at the world for pointing its fingers at us, maybe we can see how God’s forgiveness and reconciliation is bigger than all that. While we might want to stay mad at those who stay mad at us, maybe we can find the healing and peace in God’s grace and mercy. While we might want to hate on those who actively hate on us, maybe our hearts can be opened to see and receive God’s love. And then by the strength and hope we are given through the Spirit, maybe we too can show this love. Love for our neighbours. Love for our enemies. Love for even ourselves.
Because it is in that love that we might see the value and worth graciously given to us all, welcoming us all to live in community as the body of Christ, proclaiming how God saves us from our guilt, our shame, the sin that separates us from God and each other. This is the good news of God’s gospel that we can declare, share, and always talk about and live.
So as we near the end of this season after the Epiphany, may we always be aware of God’s love in our lives and in the lives of others, that it might be reflected in all that we say and do, through Jesus our Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen.