Sermon – Loose Connections and Staying Grounded
Genesis 2:15-18; Romans 12
Farmville Presbyterian Church
10/5/25
Last week, it was confessions of a wayward preacher. In the confessing spirit, I will continue this week with another confession. I was invited to a friend’s house in my college years. She needed some assistance or was giving me a ride – I don’t really recall. I was there, and she complained of a light fixture in her bathroom where the bulb had broken off and the base was still in the socket. She was “height disadvantaged” and asked if I could help get it out. I found a pair of pliers and went to work. A few moments later I was thrown across the room with the feeling of getting hit in my chest with a sledgehammer. That’s when I learned about the usefulness of breakers. I have no idea how close I was to my death there, but let’s just say I have kept a healthy respect for electricity ever since.
It sounds like I am headed that way with the sermon title, but I am actually thinking specifically about personal connections and how THEY keep us grounded. This is fundamentally our power source in Christ, however.
Let’s think about something that should be of great value and might not be terribly obvious:
How many American-style mass shooters do you think had strong, healthy networks of friends and family? Scientifically, I do not know the answer, but every fiber of my being says close to, if not, ZERO. The kinds of words that I remember often after shootings, like the recent ones in Minnesota or Michigan, are loner, isolated, lone-wolf, withdrawn, troubled, struggled with relationships, and alienated. Angry, violent, vengeful narcissists do not tend to attract big networks of healthy connections. Many also suffer from mental health disorders.
There are plenty of reasons why people are hurting, and it is certainly not necessarily anyone’s fault that they are difficult to be in a relationship with, but people who know they are loved and valued and have a place in a family network are not the ones who go on a shooting spree. People who are grounded in love, who know they are grounded in love, do not tend to try to hurt everyone else.
When we (as a society) allow others to drift off on their own, to become so isolated that their thinking changes, then their view of life also becomes warped. Their idea of themselves and others is diminished. They become less and less the people they were brought into this world to be. No one is meant to be cast out on their own.
Of course, I am not speaking as an expert here. I don’t have numbers and research to back me up, but this seems very plain and very obvious when I stop to think about it. This truth is also presented in Scripture.
Genesis makes the case that we need to be in relationships, in families. God said specifically that it is not good for us to be alone. Seriously, God was so concerned about man being alone that God reordered creation itself to fix that. All animals were offered as potential company, but man needed more than a dog. Then, God made woman out of man in the creation story. A whole other side of humanity was breathed into life after careful surgery. And all was happy ever after, right? No one is naïve enough to believe that it is easy or simple to be grounded in good and healthy relationships, but it is so vital for us to make it a number one goal. Sure, we have to have food and shelter, but we also have to have family, connections, relationships, and a grounding in love. The ancient humans who survived were the ones who banded together to face life’s struggles together. I feel sorry for that lone hunter against anything I have seen in a Jurassic Park movie. Seriously, we would never have made it without each other, but for some reason, we are far too comfortable trying to go it without others, even against others, today.
The Apostle Paul was right in the middle of one of the most conflicted churches in his day. Rome was the heart of the Roman Empire, the very power that killed Jesus and crushed the Jewish people. Yet, there were Jews in Rome, even Jews who followed Jesus, and there were followers of Jesus who were NOT Jewish, followers who were simply Roman. How on God’s green earth could Paul try to bring them together, let alone keep them together? This is an age-old problem in the church. We have always had a hard time staying grounded in Christ together, but here is where the unity was born – at the beginning. Paul had to lay out a vision of what it looks like for us to try to be connected.
Paul is pleading with them to be better and to think better. Don’t be like the world. Be transformed and be living worship of God. It is a beautiful idea. But what does that look like, Paul? Humility. Check the ego. Meekness. Pride is a killer. The moment we make ourselves or our needs more important than anyone else’s, we excuse injury toward them. Don’t be surprised that Jesus emphasized love of your neighbor as you love yourself. You cannot love yourself more than anyone else and claim to love Jesus’ way. That is tough, tough, tough, but we should always try with everything we have.
To help, we all have gifts to share with others and to build up our oneness. There are all kinds of ways we can show others that they are special to God and to God’s family. Even just being able to sit with someone, present in their trouble, is one of the gifts. That is compassion. We absolutely ALL have something, some way, to bless others in our connections. If you absolutely have no idea, please, let’s talk.
Then, Paul goes into how to treat others, how to be authentically loving in Christ. There are some challenging parts here:
1) Be serious about our desire to do what is right. What is right is always what is loving.
2) Be the most loving person in your group. Really try to be the MOST loving.
3) Put your heart into it. Give it everything you have.
4) It is going to be hard, and there will be ups and downs. Be present through it all. When all is good, celebrate. When it is tough, stick together. Whenever there is need, pray. Give and help others.
5) In fact, when others come after you, bless them. Don’t sue them or attack them or seek revenge. It is not in the Christian’s toolbox to seek anyone’s harm. I so wish people, especially the powerful, would listen to this one. Instead of revenge, love the ones who come after you. Give them grace.
6) Again, be present with others. It is brilliant how Paul’s best answer is to be connected with others in whatever situation they might be – good times and bad. Find harmony. Be humble and look for humility. Do what is best for others, no matter what they have done to you. Find harmony in connections.
However we are able to help others, do it for others, for anyone: friend or foe or stranger or family or unwanted or outcast. Leave judgment to God. No one is better.
This is one of the best chapters in the entire Bible for a reason. Paul is walking into a minefield between Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians and those who probably did not know where they fit. It is so clear that he needed for them to be connected to Jesus and one another. He painted this picture for them to see. This chapter is the canvas, and it is a beautiful lesson for them and for us.
No one should be alone. No one should be cut off or cast out. No one should be turned away. No one should be without a connection in love. That is why our world hurts so badly today. We will never be God’s people until we are God’s people together. To God be the glory. Amen.