American Church in Paris - Sermons
ACP HOME - Sermon Archives - Past ACP Sermons
|
Ambassadors by Rev. Tina Blair 17 June 2007 Texts: Psalm 138; 2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2 © 2007 Tina Blair |
Last week I had the good fortune of being invited to UNESCO to see the amazing show called “My Dream.” During this performance, we saw beautiful dancing done by hearing-impaired young people who could not hear the music. There was a dance of two lovers, who when parted by death, were transformed into magnificent, rainbow-colored butterflies lovingly circling and twirling together. We were also carried away by extraordinary music, through voice, piano and Chinese folk instruments played and sung by young blind musicians. A young man with no arms managed to carry a yoke of water buckets and with his feet, through feather-light dance movements, raised a garden of dancing green shoots of corn, who wove in delightful dance-patterns around the stage expressing the joy of the green life in God’s creation – by dancers who, again, could not hear the music.
These professional-level young people, all facing enormous physical challenges, spoke of their hope and their joy. They said, through print, sign language and voice, “We are trying to hear sounds and rhythms in silence, to see light in darkness, to pursue perfection with disabilities.” They are dreamers living their dream – to be fully who they are called to be, to pursue the basic human-based but God-given values of Truth, Honesty and Virtue. They moved many of us to tears, and brought into our lives hope, compassion, and beauty. You will get to see them at the Beijing Olympics next year. UNESCO has designated this troupe as its Ambassadors of Peace.
When the wife of the American ambassador spoke to the Women of the American Church a few years back, she reminded the Americans that they were each one an ambassador for the United States. When visiting or living outside their country, they become representatives of that country. People judge the whole country on the basis of the one or 2 persons they might know from that country. This is true for all of you here. Most of you are not French – you are ambassadors for the country from which you come, just as I am for the United States. People will judge your country based on their knowledge of you and on your behavior. Likewise, when you who are French citizens leave France, you are ambassadors for France.
But today we have gathered, not as ambassadors from our many nations of the world, but as ambassadors for Christ, ambassadors of reconciliation with God. What does this mean for each one of us?
It’s important, first of all, to remember how we came to be ambassadors, not of our earthly country, but of the kingdom of heaven. Remember your baptism! Your baptism produced a certificate of new birth. Your baptism proves that your parent is God whose first-born Son is Jesus Christ, and that we are the younger children, sisters and brothers of Christ. Your baptism makes you members of this one family of Christ, heirs to God’s kingdom. Do you remember this and give thanks daily for your adoption into the family of Christ Jesus? In addition, through your baptism, you are made citizens of “a better country, a heavenly one…a city God has prepared for you,” as the writer of Hebrew puts it (11:16). It’s the country of justice and truth and love that we all yearn for, God’s country – and you have been given your passport and made official ambassadors of this country, this kingdom of the Holy and Almighty and Ever-loving God. You see, your day of salvation is here, here and now, just as our scriptures tell us! You are freed to live in this new world, according to the laws of God’s country. You are empowered by God’s Spirit – you are made new creations indeed! Remember your baptism and rejoice!
And it’s in that spirit of rejoicing that we are sent out as ambassadors, ambassadors for Christ, ambassadors of reconciliation. Psalm 138 states with assurance, “God will fulfill his purpose for me.” What is God’s purpose for you? What are you to do as an ambassador for Christ?
First, ambassadors represent their country. Think of how excellently the members of “My Dream,” the performers I saw at UNESCO last week, represent persons with disabilities. They show them able to accomplish astonishing and beautiful things. They represent a community of people who refuse to say no, who encourage individual dreams and the use of individual talents, and who are willing to surround persons with help to accomplish what they feel called to do.
What do you and I represent as ambassadors of Christ? Do we represent a holy people, a kingdom of persons filled with God’s grace and forgiveness? If a secular group, such as “My Dream,” can bring so much joy and hope, how much more can the citizens of God’s kingdom?
For that is what we represent, isn’t it, as Christ’s ambassadors? We are a people who are reconciled with God -- accepted, loved, renewed -- people who know the drastic measures God has taken to show us God’s love. We are people who don’t need to doubt that we have value, that we are important – for we are considered precious and unique by God, so valuable that God was willing to live with us and die for us. We are, each one of us,a special child of God. What assurance and gratitude this knowledge should give us! We represent a kingdom of joy!
Furthermore, we are a freed people, liberated from the tyranny of our mistakes and errors to be all that God wants us to be – which is to be the best us, the best self we can be, using our gifts with joy for the good of the world. We are like the “My Dream” children, struggling with disabilities, for us the disabilities brought by our mortality and our sin. Yet, just as the “My Dream” performers are able to work through and with their disabilities to produce beauty and hope, so too in Christ we can overcome our human limitations and do good and beautiful things. We are a people with a purpose, and God will fulfill it in us. What assurance and gratitude this knowledge gives us! We represent a kingdom of forgiveness and grace!
A second task of the ambassador to make sure that the host country is educated to the history and cultural arts of the ambassador’s home country. I have had wonderful moments when I experienced some of the culture of ambassadors here in this congregation: I am thinking, for example, of the party celebrating Nigeria that Ambassador and Mrs. Preware gave at UNESCO, a time filled with food, music and interesting people. And here at the church we have learned something about the culture of the Philippines over the years through the visit of the Singing Ambassadors and other groups, sponsored in part by the embassy of that country, as they brought to us beautiful songs, dances and dress of different areas of those islands.
We too are to educate the world to the history and culture of Christendom. This is a checkered history, for the kingdom of Christ has come in part only, not fully. And our history has many dark moments, dark moments that include the Crusades, persecution of the Jews, the Inquisition, and giving into and supporting Nazi ideology. For these acts we need to pray for forgiveness. But we also have much of which we can be rightly proud, not for our sakes, but for Christ’s name. It is Christians who have promoted hospices and hospitals so that all could be cared for as Christ commanded. It is Christians who began schools for rich and poor, boys and girls, so that everyone could read the Bible. It is Christians who have often advocated for just laws and equal treatment, who have demonstrated against torture and wrongful imprisonment, who helped bring an end to slavery in the West, and who have reminded the rich to share with the poor. That’s a history to be proud of, O ambassadors for Christ!
And there are the arts! How can we live in Paris and not celebrate Christian art? The world is rich in Christian art: from architecture, frescos, mosaics, icons and stained glass in ancient churches, to modern paintings and sculptures of scenes from the Bible. Christianity has produced literature, poetry, visual arts, dance and music of the most profound beauty. Through these arts, many have come to know God, and many others have kept their faith in times of doubt. This is where I get my renewal in times of doubt: from the beauty of the music of composers from Giovanni Palestrina to Ludwig von Beethoven to Fred Gramann. This beauty of the arts carries a spark of the beauty of the Divine One. This is culture to share and celebrate, O ambassadors for Christ!
Ambassadors do more than represent their country: they advocate on behalf of their country and their government. Yesterday’s paper, for example, announced that the United States is considering again tightening travel restrictions into the country for people visiting from Western Europe. Ambassadors from many of these nations have lodged protests, pointing out how this could hurt business people who travel to the United States frequently and at the last minute.
As ambassadors for Christ, this is our third task: we too must advocate for our government, for Christ and for his ways. We know that just as we are valued and loved by God, so is every single person on this planet exceedingly precious to God. This knowledge pushes us to value all other human beings and to treat them with mercy and justice. The kingdom of God will not tolerate oppression of the poor and the powerless, lack of care for the naked and hungry, the corruption of justice for those who are refugees or prisoners. Jesus put the definitive stamp on this truth, repeated so often by the prophets who had come before him, with his parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25. “At the time of judgment the king will say,” related Jesus, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me… I tell you, just as you did [this] to one of the least of these, you did it to me.” (verses 34-40).
We are ambassadors of the country filled with those “blessed of the Father” who have fed the hungry and clothed the naked. Isn’t this what the great Christians are most known for? Whether it be St. Catherine of Siena treating plague victims in 14th century Italy, or Mother Teresa caring for the dying in 20th century India – the world recognizes Christ and Christians because of this work. Whether it be the care of widows in first century Jerusalem by the community led by the apostle Peter, or the housing of the homeless in 21st century Paris led by Abbe Pierre, this work by Christians truly represents God’s kingdom. This ambassadorial work of reconciliation between humans is a goad to the conscience of the world, a reminder of how the world should act. And so, like so many known and unknown saints before us, former ambassadors for Christ, we hammer on the doors of the powers of the world, demanding justice for the prisoner and refugee, mercy for the poor and disabled, compassion and support for the lonely and ill, for the depressed and dying. We are ambassadors who advocate for God’s values and God’s laws, as we know them through Christ Jesus. We are ambassadors of hope!
So go out into the world as ambassadors for Christ, sharing the good news of the reconciliation between God and the world and between people and peoples -- reconciliation that we have in Jesus Christ, God’s Incarnated Word. You are ambassadors of joy, of love and of hope representing Christ’s kingdom of joy, love and hope. You are ambassadors for Christ who teach the rich history and beautiful culture of this kingdom often called Christendom. You are ambassadors for Christ who advocate for God’s justice, compassion and mercy. Like the “My Dream” artists, you and I too are people with disabilities – deafened with our shortcomings and blinded by our sins – yet God’s light will shine through us anyway. We will speak Christ’s language of grace and peace, of hope and joy, and Christ’s song will soar into the deaf world, Christ’s light will illumine the darkness. And God’s purpose for us will be fulfilled! Amen.