The Sermon Text —John 13:31-35

As we were driving home Ruth said, "I find tennis to be an amazing game, in that even at the division three collegiate level tournament, there are no umpires at the games. The participants call the ball " in and out" on their opponent." As I thought about that I too realized that there are umpires and referees in most games, even at junior high and high school levels. Football, basketball, soccer…these games are all played with referees. But not tennis…it is a game in which good sportsmanship is valued. As one thinks about it, there are lots of choices and decisions made by one’s opponent which can influence the outcome of the game. And yet, that Thursday in Iowa City, we did not hear one outrage over a call as we observed matches on eight tennis courts. Obviously, the participants had been trained over a long period of time to make good choices…or at least try to make the correct call. I am glad my son has had an opportunity to play tennis as I think it will help him as he makes other choices in life.

We all make choices each day. Many choices are made for our own good. We choose not to run a red light as it could result in an accident. We choose not to shout fire in a crowded public space as it could result in panic and we could be arrested for initiating a false alarm. We decide to pay the clerk at the grocery store rather than run out the door with the groceries…we know that would be stealing. Other choices involve the trust of those we work for. We choose to be honest with money transactions. We choose to be honest with our use of our time. We choose not to gossip about a fellow employee. For some, choices can be difficult. Some people choose to cheat on their taxes. Others choose to be dishonest about the condition of the house or car they are about to sell. But whether it’s calling a tennis ball in or out of play, or whether its forgetting to declare that extra income on our taxes, we live in world of choices.

Two weeks ago I had the good fortune of being a guest at Downtown Rotary. I was invited on your behalf to accept a campership gift from Downtown Rotary for Bethel Horizons. And for that gift I am thankful. I was also pleased that the speaker for the day was Robert Enright, the director of the International Forgiveness Institute at the University of Wisconsin. He spoke about an important choice we can make in life, the choice of forgiving another person. He made it clear at the beginning of his talk that forgivness is a choice. It is not mandatory. It is not an obligation. It is truly a choice one can make in one’s life when someone has hurt you. You can decide to forgive. Or you can not.

Dr. Enright reminded us that accounts of person to person forgiveness cuts across many different philosophies and religions. As Christians, we know that forgiveness is central to the Christian life. He reminded us that Joseph set the greatest example of forgiveness as he forgave his brothers after they had sold him into slavery in Egypt. And it was that act of forgiveness which set the stage for the growth of the Jewish nation.

But the choice of forgiveness is still hard for many people. And yet, the Forgiveness Institute has found that forgiveness has significantly changed the lives of people who have forgiven or have learned about forgiveness. For example, studies at the University of Wisconsin have shown that incest survivors, drug rehabilitation patients, cardiac patients, and at risk middle and high school students in inner city Milwaukee and Belfast, Northern Ireland have all become emotionally healthier having experienced forgiveness.

Dr. Enright didn’t say forgiveness was easy. He shared with us that forgiveness involves a four stage process. What he did say is that forgiveness is a choice. And for a Christian it seems to me to be a choice that one should endorse.

A couple of week ago another Madison area resident was faced with a choice. Lodi resident Kerry Kurt found a suitcase on the beltline and decided to return it to the owner. If you read Melanie Conklin’s column in the Wisconsin State Journal last week you know that this simple act of kindness became a feature on a local television station and then ended up being a poll question on CNN’s Headline news. The question posed by the CNN poll: "Would you have returned the lost suitcase?" Just over 50 percent said they would return it. The cynical John Flint of a local radio station was quoted as saying that" the other half were honest". In effect, he was saying that if people answered honestly, no one would have returned it. But someone did. That person made a good choice.

Today, on this fifth Sunday of Easter, we are given a new commandment. "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another….as I have loved you, you should love one another." Jesus could well have been saying, "I am giving you a new choice…and that choice is to love one another." And what’s more, he is saying that I have given you a life to model. I am asking you to model a life after me…"as I have loved you." As Jesus walked this earth he was very deliberate about making choices which included people from all walks of life. He did not hob nob with the movers and shakers of Jerusalem. He did not try to get an audience with the political leaders from Rome in order to talk about a new choice for religious people. Rather, we find him encountering people in everyday situations, in everyday settings. We find him encountering people who had been cast by the wayside. Some of the sick of his day lived away from others, he sought them out. We find him talking with women who were labeled sinful. We find him in the midst of crowds…talking about the new choices God offers to them. He came into a world in which choices for the ordinary person were carefully defined…there were limited choices in the political, religious, and economic world of his day. His word to the people he encountered was that there were indeed other choices. And love for one’s neighbor was one of those choices. Forgiveness was one of those choices.

Over the past years I have read several of John Grisham’s novels. This past year he decided to write a non fiction book. The book, "The Innocent Man" is a moving story about murder and injustice in a small town in Oklahoma. It is the true story of Ron Williamson. Ron had dreams of playing baseball in the big leagues…especially for the New York Yankees. Instead, his dream broken by a bad arm and bad habits, his life was on a downward spiral fueled by drinking, drugs, and women. He began to show signs of mental illness. In the midst of this mix Ron was arrested and charged with capital murder. Ron was sentenced to death on the basis of junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts. As you can guess from the title, Ron was found innocent having served years in federal prison. The accounts in the book of prison life are chilling. But what I want to reflect on is the way the people in his church received him after he was declared innocent. His sister Annette, who had been church organist for forty years, knew just the place to welcome Ron back to the community…the church. It was the place where she and her brother had grown up. But the pastor said no. Annette reminded the pastor that the church had been praying for Ronnie for twelve years while he was in prison. Yes, he said, and we will continue to do so. But there are a lot of people who still think he’s guilty. It’s too controversial. The church could be tainted. The answer is no. The pastor was told that Ron would be there on Sunday morning. The pastor was asked if he would recognize him. The answer was no.

Annette never told her brother about this controversy. Rather, she returned with her family and Ron to church that Sunday. Ron was excited about returning to church. Author Grisham describes the scene: "Annette was behind the organ, as always, and when she began the first rather rowdy hymn, Ron jumped to his feet, clapping and singing and smiling, truly filled with the spirit."

During the announcements, the pastor made no mention of Ron’s return, but during the morning prayer he did manage to say that God loved everyone, even Ronnie. Annette boiled with anger. As the service progressed very few welcomed Ron back. As Grisham describes the scene, "the rest of the good Christian folks glared at the murderer in their midst." Annette left the church that Sunday, never to return.

Many people in that congregation made a choice. It was a choice not to welcome back the one who had been exonerated, the one who had been declared innocent. Could there have been a better choice? As I read about this homecoming I kept thinking about the lavish homecoming provided for the Prodigal Son. The prodigal son was not innocent. He had , in fact, squandered the fortune given to him. He was guilty of sinful living. And yet, his father, grasping the power of mercy and the love of God, welcomed the son home with open arms, a great feast, in the company of the community. What a contrast to Ron Williamson’s welcome back to his church.

I offer this story this morning not to judge that congregation but rather to ask our congregation, how do we welcome back those who have left us? Is there an easy entry back to the fellowship of Bethel of those who have gone through a divorce, those who have committed a crime, those whose name has been slandered, those who have drifted away for years and now seek to return?

The way we reach out to others does make a difference. Let me return again to Bjorn’s tennis experience at Luther College. Yes, we as parents are proud of his play on the tennis courts. But even more so we are proud of the tennis community. Let me explain. Four years ago Bjorn was one of a handful of freshman on the Luther tennis team. The team was top heavy with seniors. And to their credit, the seniors embraced the freshman. The seniors made Bjorn a part of their group, their community. He was included in their lives. He was made to feel a part of the team. And now, the tables are turned. He has had an injury throughout most of the season. He had a choice. He could have walked away from the team. He could have said , "I’ve had a wonderful experience, but it’s time to leave." Bjorn made a good choice. He chose to encourage and motivate those freshman much like he had been nurtured in his freshman year. Even though he hasn’t played as much, he has been a part of the team. He made a good choice….and we are proud of him for doing that.

And that’s what I hope happens in this congregation. I encourage the senior members of this congregation to welcome new members. I encourage those of us of Norwegian heritage to welcome those of Hispanic heritage. I encourage us to welcome the stranger. I encourage us to see the worth and value in each person in our community. And I encourage us to join together in common projects to reach out meaningfully into the community. Left to ourselves, it is difficult to impact a city. Joining forces as a Christian community we can reach out in love to thousands of people. And I celebrate that this time of year as your campership gifts enable our summer staff at Bethel Horizons to reach out and serve over 400 low income youngsters. Left to oneself, that task is impossible. With a community it is possible.

We know that faith grows and is nurtured in community.

We know that people enter into communities in many different ways. For me, it was baptism as a child and then growth in the faith as a child and as an adult. Others come to terms with faith after many years of searching. Recently I read about presidential candidate Barack Obama’s entry into the Christian faith. He tells his story in his book entitled , "The Audacity of Hope."  In a chapter entitled "faith" he tells how he sought out a community in which to act out his faith. Let me tell the story in his words, "But my experiences in Chicago also forced me to confront a dilemma that my mother never fully resolved in her own life: the fact that I had no community or shared tradition in which to ground my most deeply held beliefs. The Christians with whom I worked recognized themselves in me; they saw that I knew their Book and shared their values and sang their songs. But they sensed that a part of me remained removed, detached, an observer among them. I came to realize that without a vessel for my beliefs, without an unequivocal commitment to a particular community of faith, I would be consigned at some level to always remain apart, free in the way my mother was free, but also alone in the same ways she was ultimately alone."

He goes on to say: "It was because of these newfound understandings—that religious commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world that I knew and loved—that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized. It came about as a choice and not an epiphany; the questions I had did not magically disappear."

Just as Barack Obama, we too have the gift of a community to help us live out our faith and our belief in Jesus. It is an imperfect community which joins together weekly to seek forgiveness, to respond to God’s love with gifts of money and time, and to hear the Word and receive the sacraments. Today is one of those days in which we are strengthened by the gift of bread and wine. We publicly affirm God’s presence in our lives and our commitment to love our neighbor. It is a choice. God has made a choice….and that choice was to send Jesus into this world so that we might have a new life in His name. Life in Christ is a gift. It’s our gift. Let’s make good choices for His sake and in His name. Amen