Everything You Need to Know

Everything You Need to Know
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
August 26, 2007
Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Romans 8:31-39

Deut. 6:4   Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Rom. 8:31   What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written,
            "For your sake we are being killed all day long;
                        we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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.

I. BEGINNING

I don't remember a single thing from my college orientation. I remember going. I remember spending two days in mid-summer on campus. I remember having a very annoying conversation with a fellow student who refused to accept the fact that "New York" encompassed a much bigger area than Manhattan Island. And that's all I remember from my college orientation.

It's sad, I suppose, and makes me have great sympathy for the folks who put together AU's new student orientations. Because, if you're anything like me, it'll go in one ear and right out the other, and everything that you'll actually learn about college, you'll learn from experience.

So, it is with that reality in mind, and a good deal of humility, that I'm preaching you a sermon to you entitled "Everything You Need to Know". Against the odds, we'll give it a shot and just review some of the basics.

II. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT...

....College

You should know that it is permissible to change your major. Some of the most interesting people I know thought they were going to do one thing as freshmen and graduated with a degree in something else.

You should know that the definition of " morning person " will change to mean someone who's up before noon.

Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks are about to become much more contentious as you return home to tell your parents how they were wrong about everything they ever told you.

...AU and DC

You should know that if you wait to catch the shuttle on northside, it will be a lot more crowded than if you catch it on south side.

You should know that there is a widely held belief that the water in the dorms kills fish (the fish in my office is doing fine--so apparently the water in the chapel is alright).

You should know that parking tickets on campus are very expensive.

You should know that there are more places to shop than Safeway and Whole Foods and that there is a RiteAid within a 5 minute walk from campus right down New Mexico Avenue.

You should know that the city is bigger than the Red Line, and that some of the most interesting places--U Street, Adams Morgan--are off the usual beaten path.

You should know that a SmarTrip Card makes a lot more sense than getting a new fare card every ride and that buses can take you to a lot of great places pretty easily.

You should know that the D.C. Café in Dupont Circle has the best late night falafel and hamburgers.

...Yourself

You should know that you don't know as much as you think you know now. I've said it before, no one knows more than a college freshman (just ask one) and no one knows less than a college senior (just ask one). Expect to discover that the more you learn, you'll realize, the less you know.

You should know that you'll change opinions about things. If you make it through college thinking exactly the same way you did when you came in, then you haven't done it right.

III. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FAITH

And there is a lot you should know about your faith. I suppose this is really where my responsibility lies. I mean, I'm happy to tell you all kinds of things about the campus but my bishop didn't send me here for that. That job I can leave up to the Ambassadors--at least now that they're getting AU's Methodist affiliation right on the tours.

N ow you might think that this would be a relatively easy task. I mean, I have a Masters of Divinity from a good seminary, by all accounts, it should be a piece of cake for me to teach you about your faith. But the problem isn't really in helping you learn what you need to about the faith, it's the competition with so many other things that people would like you to learn about our faith. For example

A. Gospel of Prosperity

I would rather you didn't learn the whole "Christianity as get rich quick scheme" --the idea that the "abundant living" the Gospel promises has something to do with SUVs, iPods, and money in your 401(k)'s. I would rather you didn't learn the insidious idea that faith is rewarded with material success and that the only problem the poor have is that they're not faithful enough, and that the fact that a particular television ministry is rolling in money is part of God's blessing.

B. Religion and Civil Religion

I'd rather you didn't confuse the religion of Jesus with the civil religion of any country. There are a lot of people who blur that line. I am as much a patriot as the next person-- I have an ancestor who was a Founding Father about whom I'll brag all the time, and on the Fourth of July I hang a large flag from my balcony, the old-school kind with the circle of 13 stars--but good things though they may be, I think it important to keep the flag and the cross separate: they are symbols of two different things altogether.

C. The Church as the "In Crowd"

I would also prefer that you didn't learn the whole "We're saved and everyone else is going to hell" version of Christianity. The idea that salvation is about doing or believing the right things and that this can be most clearly demonstrated by identifying very quickly who is not saved. I am not a big fan of lists of people who are hell-bound. I'd rather the faith you learned in college were strong enough to survive on its own merit without having to defend itself by keeping score.

D. Christianity as Hedge against Damnation

Christian faith is not "fire insurance". This summer I had occasion to travel across the south and saw some very interesting things. The most interesting were the signs that were out in front of a lot of churches. They'd say things like: "WARNING! God is Coming Soon!" (I had always thought that was supposed to be good news) or other things that seemed to suggest that unless you were part of that church, your encounter with God would be, shall we say... problematic.

IV. THE LOVE OF GOD AND PAUL'S LETTER

No, if there was one thing I would want you to learn it would be about the love of God. As Paul writes in the letter to the Romans we read earlier:

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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.

This is the most important thing you should know: God loves you and nothing can separate you from that Love. God loves you as you are for who you are. It doesn't matter how you feel about yourself --God loves you. It doesn't matter whether your'e accepted by others --God loves you. It doesn't matter whether you conform to anyone else's idea of what language you should speak, or what color skin you should have, or what sexual orientation you should be, or what political ideology you should espouse, or what your belief should be on the single- or double-procession of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity. (That's a really big issue on this campus). None of that matters. God loves you.

That is the most important thing you need to know. On that fact hangs everything else. Our entire lives as a community of faith are lived as the response to the unmerited grace and love of God.

We are not here this night worshipping God because we believe that if we pray hard enough, God will go easy on us. We do not gather here hoping that we will placate God enough or demonstrate to God that we're worthy enough so that God will let us off the hook.

We gather here because God already loves us. God has shown us already that we are loved and already saved us. We have seen this already through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus-- the astounding and wondrous love of God for us before we were even born. I know you get a lot of information at orientation--but this is a really good thing to know.

V. THE LOVE OF COMMUNITY

Every year this community leads an Alternative Spring Break trip down to Cherokee, North Carolina to the Cherokee Nation there. We stay at the Cherokee United Methodist Church and are guests of that community. The pastor there until very recently, Rev. Steve Phillippi, was a very warm and accepting person and helped to fashion a community that was very inclusive--Black, white, Indian, Hispanic. Every once in a while, while visiting with our group, he'd close by saying, "There's one thing that I want you to know: Jesus loves you and so do I."

And that's the next thing you really need to know: the community you are now a part of is a community of love. Jesus loves you and so do we.

No matter what color you are, what age you are, what nationality, what sex, what gender identity, what orientation, what political persuasion, what theological perspective, what major, what baseball team you root for—(Amen, Justin?--Justin is a die-hard Yankees fan and I am a die-hard Red Sox fan, so there must be some love in this building) --you will be loved and accepted and welcomed into this community of faith.

The author of Deuteronomy writes for us the beautiful words of the Hebrew prayer the Shema : "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is your God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength..." Timeless, moving words. But, as it has been shown time and time again since that day, it is not possible to love God and not to love one another. As the old Shaker hymn says, "If ye love not each other in daily communion, how can ye love God whom ye have not seen?" We in this community seek to celebrate the love of God and to share that love of God with everyone. Everyone.

VI. END

In the end, the list of things you need to know is relatively small. Because I have another little secret about college for you: you're going to forget most of the things you'll learn for class. That's okay. What you're really doing in college is not getting credentialed for the dream job you've always wanted, you're not even here to learn things. You're here to learn how to learn.

And the same goes for your time in this community. You're not here to get all the answers to your questions of faith. You're here to learn how to explore the mysteries of faith. That's why we are pretty resistant on giving you pat answers to difficult questions. We'll help you to explore the possibilities and wrestle with the mystery. Your faith will be a lot stronger if you learn how to do that than if you just look for simple and easy answers.

But if you're looking for a community where you can celebrate the love of God, where you can build loving relationships and real connections with one another, where you can deepen your understanding of God through study and reflection, where you can live out the love of God through acts of justice and mercy, and where you can share the love of God with others-- then you have found a home here.

And that's everything you need to know.

Back to Sermons page

Back to AU UMC Home

No part of this text may be reproduced or otherwise disseminated without the express written consent of the author.


Home \| About Us \| Worship \| Study \| Community \| Service \| Justice \| UMSA \| Support our Ministry \| Sign up
Sermon Page \| Preaching Resources
*Everything You Need to Know* Rev. Mark Schaefer Kay Spiritual Life Center August 26, 2007 Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Romans 8:31-39 Deut. 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Rom. 8:31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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. I. BEGINNING I don't remember a single thing from my college orientation. I remember going. I remember spending two days in mid-summer on campus. I remember having a very annoying conversation with a fellow student who refused to accept the fact that "New York" encompassed a much bigger area than Manhattan Island. And that's all I remember from my college orientation. It's sad, I suppose, and makes me have great sympathy for the folks who put together AU's new student orientations. Because, if you're anything like me, it'll go in one ear and right out the other, and everything that you'll actually learn about college, you'll learn from experience. So, it is with that reality in mind, and a good deal of humility, that I'm preaching you a sermon to you entitled "Everything You Need to Know". Against the odds, we'll give it a shot and just review some of the basics. II. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT... ....College You should know that it is permissible to change your major. Some of the most interesting people I know thought they were going to do one thing as freshmen and graduated with a degree in something else. You should know that the definition of " morning person " will change to mean someone who's up before noon. Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks are about to become much more contentious as you return home to tell your parents how they were wrong about everything they ever told you. ...AU and DC You should know that if you wait to catch the shuttle on northside, it will be a lot more crowded than if you catch it on south side. You should know that there is a widely held belief that the water in the dorms kills fish (the fish in my office is doing fine--so apparently the water in the chapel is alright). You should know that parking tickets on campus are very expensive. You should know that there are more places to shop than Safeway and Whole Foods and that there is a RiteAid within a 5 minute walk from campus right down New Mexico Avenue. You should know that the city is bigger than the Red Line, and that some of the most interesting places--U Street, Adams Morgan--are off the usual beaten path. You should know that a SmarTrip Card makes a lot more sense than getting a new fare card every ride and that buses can take you to a lot of great places pretty easily. You should know that the D.C. Café in Dupont Circle has the best late night falafel and hamburgers. ...Yourself You should know that you don't know as much as you think you know now. I've said it before, no one knows more than a college freshman (just ask one) and no one knows less than a college senior (just ask one). Expect to discover that the more you learn, you'll realize, the less you know. You should know that you'll change opinions about things. If you make it through college thinking exactly the same way you did when you came in, then you haven't done it right. III. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FAITH And there is a lot you should know about your faith. I suppose this is really where my responsibility lies. I mean, I'm happy to tell you all kinds of things about the campus but my bishop didn't send me here for that. That job I can leave up to the Ambassadors--at least now that they're getting AU's Methodist affiliation right on the tours. N ow you might think that this would be a relatively easy task. I mean, I have a Masters of Divinity from a good seminary, by all accounts, it should be a piece of cake for me to teach you about your faith. But the problem isn't really in helping you learn what you need to about the faith, it's the competition with so many other things that people would like you to learn about our faith. For example A. Gospel of Prosperity I would rather you didn't learn the whole "Christianity as get rich quick scheme" --the idea that the "abundant living" the Gospel promises has something to do with SUVs, iPods, and money in your 401(k)'s. I would rather you didn't learn the insidious idea that faith is rewarded with material success and that the only problem the poor have is that they're not faithful enough, and that the fact that a particular television ministry is rolling in money is part of God's blessing. B. Religion and Civil Religion I'd rather you didn't confuse the religion of Jesus with the civil religion of any country. There are a lot of people who blur that line. I am as much a patriot as the next person-- I have an ancestor who was a Founding Father about whom I'll brag all the time, and on the Fourth of July I hang a large flag from my balcony, the old-school kind with the circle of 13 stars--but good things though they may be, I think it important to keep the flag and the cross separate: they are symbols of two different things altogether. C. The Church as the "In Crowd" I would also prefer that you didn't learn the whole "We're saved and everyone else is going to hell" version of Christianity. The idea that salvation is about doing or believing the right things and that this can be most clearly demonstrated by identifying very quickly who is not saved. I am not a big fan of lists of people who are hell-bound. I'd rather the faith you learned in college were strong enough to survive on its own merit without having to defend itself by keeping score. D. Christianity as Hedge against Damnation Christian faith is not "fire insurance". This summer I had occasion to travel across the south and saw some very interesting things. The most interesting were the signs that were out in front of a lot of churches. They'd say things like: "WARNING! God is Coming Soon!" (I had always thought that was supposed to be good news) or other things that seemed to suggest that unless you were part of that church, your encounter with God would be, shall we say... problematic. IV. THE LOVE OF GOD AND PAUL'S LETTER No, if there was one thing I would want you to learn it would be about the love of God. As Paul writes in the letter to the Romans we read earlier: 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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. This is the most important thing you should know: God loves you and nothing can separate you from that Love. God loves you as you are for who you are. It doesn't matter how you feel about yourself --God loves you. It doesn't matter whether your'e accepted by others --God loves you. It doesn't matter whether you conform to anyone else's idea of what language you should speak, or what color skin you should have, or what sexual orientation you should be, or what political ideology you should espouse, or what your belief should be on the single- or double-procession of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity. (That's a really big issue on this campus). None of that matters. God loves you. That is the most important thing you need to know. On that fact hangs everything else. Our entire lives as a community of faith are lived as the response to the unmerited grace and love of God. We are not here this night worshipping God because we believe that if we pray hard enough, God will go easy on us. We do not gather here hoping that we will placate God enough or demonstrate to God that we're worthy enough so that God will let us off the hook. We gather here because God already loves us. God has shown us already that we are loved and already saved us. We have seen this already through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus-- the astounding and wondrous love of God for us before we were even born. I know you get a lot of information at orientation--but this is a really good thing to know. V. THE LOVE OF COMMUNITY Every year this community leads an Alternative Spring Break trip down to Cherokee, North Carolina to the Cherokee Nation there. We stay at the Cherokee United Methodist Church and are guests of that community. The pastor there until very recently, Rev. Steve Phillippi, was a very warm and accepting person and helped to fashion a community that was very inclusive--Black, white, Indian, Hispanic. Every once in a while, while visiting with our group, he'd close by saying, "There's one thing that I want you to know: Jesus loves you and so do I." And that's the next thing you really need to know: the community you are now a part of is a community of love. Jesus loves you and so do we. No matter what color you are, what age you are, what nationality, what sex, what gender identity, what orientation, what political persuasion, what theological perspective, what major, what baseball team you root for—(Amen, Justin?--Justin is a die-hard Yankees fan and I am a die-hard Red Sox fan, so there must be some love in this building) --you will be loved and accepted and welcomed into this community of faith. The author of Deuteronomy writes for us the beautiful words of the Hebrew prayer the Shema : "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is your God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength..." Timeless, moving words. But, as it has been shown time and time again since that day, it is not possible to love God and not to love one another. As the old Shaker hymn says, "If ye love not each other in daily communion, how can ye love God whom ye have not seen?" We in this community seek to celebrate the love of God and to share that love of God with everyone. Everyone. VI. END In the end, the list of things you need to know is relatively small. Because I have another little secret about college for you: you're going to forget most of the things you'll learn for class. That's okay. What you're really doing in college is not getting credentialed for the dream job you've always wanted, you're not even here to learn things. You're here to learn how to learn. And the same goes for your time in this community. You're not here to get all the answers to your questions of faith. You're here to learn how to explore the mysteries of faith. That's why we are pretty resistant on giving you pat answers to difficult questions. We'll help you to explore the possibilities and wrestle with the mystery. Your faith will be a lot stronger if you learn how to do that than if you just look for simple and easy answers. But if you're looking for a community where you can celebrate the love of God, where you can build loving relationships and real connections with one another, where you can deepen your understanding of God through study and reflection, where you can live out the love of God through acts of justice and mercy, and where you can share the love of God with others-- then you have found a home here. And that's everything you need to know. Back to Sermons page Back to AU UMC Home Copyright © 2007. Mark A. Schaefer. No part of this text may be reproduced or otherwise disseminated without the express written consent of the author.

	The AU United Methodist-Protestant Community is an open and ecumenical fellowship for all students, faculty, and staff regardless of age, race, gender, ability, sexual orientation, denomination, or religious background.
	Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors. The People of The United Methodist Church