Sermon Synopses - 2009

Sermons at Trinity are usually ex tempore, that is done without notes...Please enjoy our "Sermon Synopses" or short summaries of sermons preached at Trinity

Link to Sermons Synopses for additional summaries available from this year.

Sermon for April 19
The Second Sunday of Easter
John 20:19-31

“A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.”
 – John 20:26

Sarah’s and Charles’ stories of faith: 

Sarah – Grew up in faithfully-attending household, but stopped going to church when she went to college.  Made a deal with God during Lent of her senior year:  I will go to every Lenten and Holy Week service and keep a Lenten discipline (reading scripture every day), and if at the end of 40 days, I see no proof of your existence, God, I’m done with religion.  During Holy Week, she had sense of presence of God, just as if he were sitting in the chair across the room.  Has been a committed practitioner of the Christian faith ever since.

Charles – Ran with a rough crowd as a young man, drank and did drugs.  Was too hung-over to play with his 5 year-old son one Saturday morning and had a vision of Christ coming to him:  “Charles, your wife needs you.  Charles, your son needs you.  Charles, I need you.”  Went to church the next day, then AA on Monday, and his life was completely changed.  He is one of the pillars of his church, is on the stewardship committee (“Give 10% to God – you’ll get it all back!”), is his church’s greatest evangelist (invites dozens per year to come) and is one of the founders of his parish’s Christian motorcycle group.

Though some of us have had experiences like Charles and Sarah, many of us struggle with a faith that has had no visions or certain experiences of God; our faith is filled with doubts.  What can we do?

Look to Thomas.  Yes, he, too, made a deal with God – “Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands…” – and he, too, had a vision of the risen Christ, but before he had those experiences, he did something that we can all do:  he showed up.

Thomas gathered together with others who were hoping to see the risen Lord. It was within this expectant community that Thomas found faith.  If we find faith, we find it most readily in community with others who are likewise seeking faith.  Why does this work?  The faith of others is always more certain than our own faith.  I know this doesn’t make sense, but it is true.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about this dynamic in Life Together:  “The Christ in our own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of another; our own hearts are uncertain, others’ are sure.” 

Is this why our proclamation of Easter always involves at least two people?  One to say, “Alleluia.  Christ is risen!”  and the other to respond, “The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!” 

Note how Paul, on his missionary journeys, in order to sow the seeds of faith and nurture that faith, always went to a place where those seeking God were gathered. 

Cyprus:  “When they arrived… they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogue of the Jews.” (Acts 13:5)
Antioch:  “On the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.” (Acts 13:15) 
Iconium:  “Paul and Barnabas went into the synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number became believers.”  (Acts 14:1)
See also Paul in Thessalonica, Philippi and Beroea (Acts 16 – 17).

Paul went to synagogues to proclaim the word because he knew that, where people are gathered in search of God, faith can be developed.

Of course, we will still have doubts, no matter where we are on our journey.  Consider Peter trying to walk on water who, upon noticing the wind and waves, began to sink:  “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  (Matt 14:22ff)  Remember also the disciples on the mountain in Galilee just after Jesus’ resurrection:  “When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.” (Matt 28:17).  Doubts are part of the life of faith.  They are indeed necessary, if we are to stretch and grow in our faith.

Two Invitations:  1)  Keep gathering.  Like Thomas gathering with the disciples, it is in a community gathered in expectation of seeing the risen Lord that we can find faith.  Here is where faith is nurtured; it is here that faith can grow.  2)  Tell God about your doubts.  Have problems with the virgin birth?  With Jesus fully human and fully divine?  With Jesus’ resurrection?  Tell God!   (And if you doubt that God hears your prayer, tell God that, too!)

I have a hunch that, as we are faithful to gathering with fellow seekers and as we are faithful in prayer, we will hear, see, look at and touch the “word of life” (I John 1:1-4).  Our joy will be complete, and we will have life in his name (John 20:31).

Sermon for April 5, 2009
Palm Sunday

“[Peter] broke down and wept.” – Mark 14:72

The perfect loaf determined not merely by smell, nor by texture, nor even by taste.  Perfect loaf determined by sound. The sound of the burst of a myriad of crumbs when the loaf is broken and the crumbs rain down on the table beneath.

Today’s Passion Gospel, Mark’s account, has “Peter broke down and wept.”  Other gospels have “He went out and wept bitterly.”  Mark’s “broke down” and wept literally means in the Greek, he “fell to pieces” and wept.

I am drawn to Mark’s account of the Passion because these words used to describe Peter also often describe my experience of Holy Week:  Holy Week breaks me to pieces.  There is something about hearing this Passion that, rather than getting easier over the years, gets harder.  And there is something about participating in the special liturgies of this week – the Passion gospel this morning and then again on Good Friday, the footwashing on Maundy Thursday, the veneration of the cross on Good Friday, the readings in the darkness at the Great Vigil of Easter – that at best I find unsettling, and at its fullest breaks me in pieces.

You may find yourself “in pieces” just now after the Passion gospel.  And if you participate in the liturgies of this week, you may find yourself “in pieces.”  What to do, when we find ourselves in pieces?  Our tendency when we find ourselves hovering on the edge of this broken state is to seek wholeness.  Two most common ways are 1) either hold ourselves together – an act of sheer willpower, “I will hold myself together,” – or, if we couldn’t quite hold it together, 2) to try to put ourselves back together after the breaking by gathering up the pieces and assembling them as best we can in the way they were before.  But this won’t work… 

This week, if you find yourself broken after these liturgies, and if you seek wholeness, here’s how you might do it:  Look to the bread that we will shortly be breaking here in this liturgy.  Notice the actions that Jesus does to this bread:  “On the night before he died, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples.”  Take, bless, break and give.  These actions refer not only to what Jesus did to the bread, but also what Jesus does to us as disciples:  We are taken, called.  We are blessed in Baptism.  Throughout our lives we are broken – necessary for transformation.

If we would find wholeness, we have the possibility of doing so through the last verb, “give.”  What does it look like to give?  Look to example of Jesus this week:  Friday – Jesus gave himself for us on the cross.  Thursday – Jesus “loved his disciples to the end” and washed their feet.

Sermon for Wednesday, April 1, 2009
John 8:31-42

“Very truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”

– John 8:34

This is a difficult text!

And it is not an anomaly:

Other references in Johannine literature
“You will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.” – John 8:24

“Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness…  No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” – I John 3:4-6

“Everyone who sins is a child of the devil” – I John 3:8

Not just John:

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” – Matt 5:48

“Whoever has died is free from sin…  You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” – From Romans 6

What is our hope, since we cannot be perfect?

I am reminded of what Louise Packard told us about tithing when she preached in November.  Giving 10 percent of our income is a high bar, she said, just like so many of Jesus’ teachings.  And the purpose of the church is to support each other as we strive to attain that high bar… and to support each other when we fall short.

I am also reminded of our baptismal vows:  To persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, to repent and return to the Lord.

Jesus has set a high bar when it comes to living lives of holiness:  What are the church’s tools for supporting each other in striving to attain this high bar?  Also consider a second question:  What are the church’s tools for ministering to us, when we fall short? 

First – Church’s tools for supporting each other in striving to attain Jesus’ high bar for holiness:
Disciplines, and  Each other.  Those in catechumenal group can speak to the power of knowing that a fellow Christian is holding us accountable to living a Christian life.

Second – Church’s tools for ministering to us, when we fall short.  When, not if!  Confession, both general and individual.

Closing quote:  Johannine community has robust sense of high calling, but also a robust emphasis on forgiveness:
 
“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” – John 20:23

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – I John 1:8-9

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