NEHEMIAH 9:16-20

PSALM 78: 14-20, 23-25

ROMANS 8:35-39

MATTHEW 14:13-21

Sermon -- July 31, 2005

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38 (NRSV)

The passage read for the epistle this morning is one of the passages designated in the Book of Common Prayer for use during the “Office for the Burial of the Dead,” and it is one of the most popular of the passages suggested for that purpose. At the time that we are burying a family member, a loved one or a friend, it gives great hope and comfort.

But I am more and more convinced that the time when we bury someone is not the only time when we should make this passage a part of their journey. If the only time we really take this passage seriously is at the end, then we have missed one of the great messages and gifts of our faith. It belongs at the beginning of the journey even more than at the end. It should be read at baptisms. For our faith, it proclaims the matrix from which we live our lives.

I use the term matrix in the way that The Random House College Dictionary Revised Edition defines it in its first given definition: “that which gives origin or form to a thing.”

So the matrix of our lives is critical for it gives shape to them. The matrix of our lives is not just a theological difference. It is not just a difference that matters in church. It is a difference that changes our whole life – spiritual, ethical, moral, emotional, social and even physical. All of our life is changed by changing the matrix from which we live it. Many observant and sensitive people have known this for millennia. Now science is confirming it over and over again.

Most of us receive a rather negative or conditional matrix at the beginning from which to live our lives. We receive the matrix that says that we are unloved or unimportant or that love will be ours if we are successful, cool, athletic, intelligent, beautiful, tall, wealthy, thin, powerful, etc. Each person and group that we encounter in our lives seems to have its own conditions or requirements that we must meet. And worse, the conditions that make up the matrix from which we live our lives seem to change regularly.

When it comes to God, the messages that we often receive are not much better. We are told that God will love us if we are good, do not sin, go to church, never screw up, are always nice, help others, etc. The list of conditions that we are told, either directly or indirectly, we must meet to have God’s love seems to be as long and manipulative as the list we must meet to get the love of others.

Our lives then are spent in trying to figure out what others are demanding and how to meet those demands. Our lives become a cat and mouse game of seek and hide. Seek what the demands are and hide who we are.

The difference between Paul’s proclamation “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” and those that we normally receive are huge. Paul’s proclamation is a far different matrix. It is a far different foundation for life than that which most of us receive and from which we live our lives. It is a radical proclamation. It is an unconditional proclamation. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We could spend days talking together about the difference and sharing our own personal experiences because as we reflect on our lives, we all know the profound difference that the matrices have had in shaping them and making us who we are.

What a difference it makes if we live our lives knowing that we are loved and that nothing in all of creation can separate us from that love. If that kind of love creates the origin and form of our spirits, our emotions, our relationships, our goals and purposes, our understanding, our deepest longings and even our physical selves, the person that develops will be drastically different than if they develop from a matrix of anxiety, anger, fear, selfishness, purposelessness or one of the many possibilities that the world gives to us.

Let me raise up just a few ways from among the many that I know are important for many, if not for all.

1. There will be a peace, openness and acceptance in life of the person who is nourished in the matrix of God’s inseparable love. As one healer put it, there will be a soft belly – meaning a lack of hardness, defensiveness, tension and stress. This is a place that allows us to accept life, to find a peace and joy in the place where we are. It allows us to accept ourselves and others with a grace that is impossible if we are controlled by fear and stress and closed off to life. In this openness, life and God’s many gifts to us come alive; we see, know and respond to all around us and in us in more vivid and lively ways. Whenever I am thinking on these things, that wonderful hymn “I am the Lord of the dance” comes to my mind. Life is a dance of creation, gifts and possibilities – for us and others because of God’s love.

2. There will be an acceptance and prizing of who we are. One of the great sins of my life has been focusing on who I am not, what talents I do not have, what type of personality I am not (introvert vs. extrovert) rather than accepting, celebrating and using what that I was given. It took about sixty years to get over this. Now I do not want you to get the impression that my life has been wasted and that I have not used any of my talents; that would be a lie of the same sort. But think of all of that I might have been able to do and what joy I would have had in doing it, if I rejoiced in who I was and what talents I had. There are times I am sure that I also would have been more pleasant to be around. My guess is that I am not the only person in this room who has tended to focus on who they weren’t, etc. rather than rejoicing in the fact that they were God’s own unique gift to creation.

3. Formed from God’s inseparable love, our relationship to God and God’s creation will be different. The mystics tend to put it this way – immersed in and formed from God’s love we become the beloved and the lover. No longer will the focus be on me – protecting and justifying me. All that God has created will be seen as precious because it is precious to God. We will not need to put down, hurt or destroy others in order to make ourselves seem good, for in God’s love, we know that we are precious. Please note that Paul speaks about neither “rulers” nor “powers” being able to separate us from the love of God. He is not talking about spooks in the air. He is talking about real human beings and human institutions that do not work from the love of God and seek to use, manipulate and destroy others. Do we seek to use others or to heal others? Do we ally ourselves politically and economically with those who use others or heal others? I find the world’s (individuals, groups and governments) love of violence, torture, humiliation, domination and the use of fear to all come under the category of the use of others, of living from the matrix of the world. In these regards, we need to look deeply and honestly at ourselves, our society and our world. There is a deep vulnerableness to the position of living from the matrix of love and seeking healing. The rulers and powers of this world tend to not like those who do so seriously. Check out what they did to Jesus, Peter and Paul. Then check out what has and is going on in our own world and society.

With far-too-broad strokes, I have sketched what Paul’s words mean to life rather than to death. Am I naïve enough to tell you that if we all lived from a matrix of love that we would be wonderful, loving, sinless people; that we would have no problems and know no pain; that all would go well for us? Never! We are still human, still broken, and we still live in a broken world. We will still do wrong, have questions, know pain and be part of the creation and the human race. We will see and know pain – perhaps unimaginable pain in our own lives and the lives of others. What I am talking about is not a panacea. It is a way of being formed from and living from a very deep place of trust, peace, openness, gentleness, courage and love because we know that “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Therefore, we can be healed and live our lives in that love and trusting that love. Nothing, not even crucifixion, can take us from that place of love.

(The Rev.) William O. Breedlove

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church