“Well Done is Better than Well Said” From Historic Trinity Lutheran Church—DetroitSunday, 21 June 2009

Posted on 24. Jun, 2009 by in Uncategorized




Beauty for the soul is as much a gift as is bread for the poor. My sermon on Sunday, encouraging Christians to love actively in responding to global hunger, was preached in one of the nation’s most astounding masterpieces of church architecture. God’s gifts lie astride any false divides of aestheticism and activism. What’s common is that love takes on tangible expression within the world—for the sake of the life of the world.

Here’s a summary of my remarks:

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue
but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

I believe the message for us here revolves around the writer’s observation that the highest truth is not found in documents or statements, because too often it’s the case that after all is said and done, more is said than is done.

Tomoji Tanabe died this past Friday in Japan. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, he was the world’s oldest man at 113 years. His secret was seafood in case you’re wondering. I don’t know if you plan or even desire to live that long, but try this with me: in your mind, calculate your age. Got it? Now, if you’re older than 42 years old, you don’t have to raise your hand, because in numerous places where LWR works, you’re already dead, you have lived longer than the average person.

We have no idea how fortunate we are, even here in southeastern Michigan, the U.S. epicenter of the global financial crisis. The Spirit moves us through the words of today’s reading from 1 John. We are called and compelled to do something, to move beyond talking about the problem to taking action.

God’s love is not an abstract, pie-in-the-sky, feel-good emotion. No, it’s much more dramatic than that, much more concrete. Picture the most grotesque human suffering imaginable. This love doesn’t run or retreat from it, but gets involved. “What wondrous love is this” that takes down-to-earth action for my sake, for your sake and for the sake of all who suffer.

This love in action can be documented: Love, born in a barn in backwater Bethlehem. Love, breathing for us our poisoned air and drinking for us our deep despair (cf. Martin Franzmann). Love, bleeding for us on a cross of sacrifice so that others might live. Love, buried, but bursting to life again so that we might dare to get involved in places of high mortality; the love of Jesus gives more than 113 years of life. It is a living statement of abundant, full, humane, just, overflowing, everlasting life.

John and the Rev. Dr. David Eberhard,
Pastor of the Cathedral Ministries of Historic Trinity

is a nonprofit organization that works with Lutherans and partners around the world to end poverty, injustice, and human suffering.

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  • Nikki Massie

    What a powerful message! My soul is stirred and compelled to take action! I did not know that people in many places in the world had such short life expectancies. For many in the US, 42 is when life begins! It was particularly stirring to me because this is an age I look forward to with fervor: it is the age my youngest child will turn 18. You've given me much to think about.