God Calls Us to Love Others
The Rev. Mike Sorsen
Friday, September 14, 2007
By the Rev. Mike Sorsen
Emporia Presbyterian Church
It’s amazing how much this community changes with the return of college students and how much our lives seem to change when all of the schools are back in session.
It is a not-so-subtle reminder of how quickly our lives can be changed by things going on around us that are completely out of our control.
I often wonder how much people look around in the community and recognize how many things change from year to year. Over the previous 150 years, the landscape of this community has changed drastically and the face of the community continues to change.
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us to welcome the stranger, which can also be translated as foreigner. Jesus is clear about the importance of welcoming people and caring for them. Jesus clarifies His point by saying that welcoming them is the same as welcoming Jesus and refusing to welcome them is the same as rejecting Jesus.
Emporia has lived out this message throughout the years. Emporia has attracted people from many different ethnic groups and economic backgrounds. This rich history of immigration helped to form this community into what it is today, as well as building a springboard to prepare for tomorrow.
Building on that rich history, Emporia is welcoming an increasing diversity of immigrants from new areas of the world with varied religious history and customs that will continue to influence what our community will look like in the future.
People deal with these changes in their own unique ways. Even though we all react differently, we must strive to realize that change is difficult for people already in the community, but the experiences of the new arrivals are much more shocking.
The question is not whether we allow change to happen, because we can’t stop it. The question is how we will respond to change?
Will we embrace it to be part of the newness it brings by integrating parts of it into our life, and integrating part of us into the newcomer while finding peace, love and joy in relationships we couldn’t have imagined just a few years ago?
Or will we struggle to keep everything the same as it is today and find ourselves unhappily living a life that excludes a large portion of the people around us and leaving us living a life that finds us and the newcomer isolated and hurting?
These are not easy questions, but Emporians have dealt with these questions throughout history and chosen to embrace the newcomer and created a community that is stronger and better prepared for the future.
I think people often forget that accepting and loving people that we don’t understand or entirely agree with does not require us to alter our beliefs, but it requires us to remember what Genesis tells us about God creating all people in His image and that God said we were good. It is God that calls us to love our fellow human beings just as God call us to love Him.
Times of change bring great stress into our lives, but it is our actions through times of stress that show what we really believe and where our faith lies. It is in times such as these that Emporians can show what is truly great about Emporia and have a positive impact on people in and around our community through patience, seeking understanding and caring for each other.
Many things have influenced my life and my faith. Some of these understandings come from reading Scripture in the original Greek and Hebrew to better understand the wonderful gift that Scripture is. Another influence has come from the opportunities to share my faith with others and have them share their faith with me in an environment where we simply sought to understand each other.
As Paul wrote in Hebrews, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.” Paul challenges us to allow our lives to be guided by faith, but also understanding that we don’t know everything.
Faith building, just like building community, is something that happens over time as we journey through life together.
Peace and Love!
F “Sunday Sermon” is a forum for Emporia area ministers to share their sermons, thoughts and observations. This week’s sermon is from the Rev. Mike Sorsen, pastor of Emporia Presbyterian Church.