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Sermon
Synopses - 2009
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Sermon for Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Genesis 8:6-12, 20-22
Todd began by pointing out how, according to anthropologists, “ordeal” is necessary for transformation. In initiation rites of different societies, initiates always go through an ordeal in order to arrive at a new place. “No ordeal, no transformation,” said Todd. Todd pointed out several places of ordeal in scripture:
- Jonah – in the belly of the whale, leads to Jonah ready to be a prophet
- People of Israel – go through Red Sea and wilderness, leading to the Promised Land
- Noah – survives journey in ark, opens up window to see new world
Note how all of these ordeals involve water – a reminder to us of our original ordeal of Baptism. Todd said that for those of us who are presently undergoing a process for the renewal of our baptismal vows, today’s passage from Genesis can speak to us about the likely rewards for those willing to undergo ordeal.
Todd spoke about the dove – a symbol of our opportunity to return to the ark of baptism to find renewal – and the raven – a symbol of how, if we are to always keep near to the waters of baptism while in the wilderness, God will always provide the “bread” that we need (recall Elijah by the Wadi Cherith in I Kings 17). Todd focused, however, on Noah’s opening the window. Imagine, being in the ark with all those animals for so long – what a breath of fresh air! Imagine, being in the darkness of a tightly-sealed space for so long – what it must have been like to see daylight again! And Noah opened the window onto a completely new, restored world. Noah’s ordeal led to a renewed, transformed world.
We who are going through an “ordeal” in order to find renewal in our baptismal vows are like Noah opening the window. Todd said he hoped that the process would open a window in his soul, to let in fresh air and light, and he hoped that he would glimpse a transformed world on the other end of our process. “Is this too much to expect?” he asked. “I don’t think so. We are gathered around our scriptures, around our sacraments, and we are praying for each other. Anything could happen!” he said.
Sermon for Sunday, February 15, 2009
The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
Mark 1:40-45
“A leper came to him… and said to him, ‘If you will, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.”
Todd began by telling about Mrs. Schmidt, his 7th grade teacher in the Lutheran parochial school he attended in Wisconsin. Mrs. Schmidt was a tough-as-nails teacher whom the students feared, but who got results from her students. It was only when her students were done with her class that they realized that Mrs. Schmidt’s fearsome nature (think Nurse Diesel from Mel Brooks’ High Anxiety) was not the whole picture: She loved her students. Mrs. Schmidt had a gift for seeing ability in a student and was willing to give of herself in order to help the student realize his / her potential, even though the process may be difficult.
Todd noted that in the scriptures Jesus is said to have compassion on the crowds and on individuals who come for healing – see the stories of the feeding of the 5,000, the feeding of the 4,000, the healing of two blind men in Matthew (ch 20) – but never for his own disciples. “Though Jesus has compassion for those who take a day off to come and see him, but he is never said to have compassion for those who have left everything and followed him,” remarked Todd. In fact, Jesus is not only does not express compassion for his disciples, he is actually quite tough on them. Todd quoted several examples: “Get behind me Satan!” to Peter. “Have you still no faith?” to the disciples in the boat after the storm. “You faithless generation… How much longer must I put up with you?” after the disciples could not cast the demon out of the boy, etc.
Why is Jesus so tough on the disciples? “Jesus has more than compassion for those who are closest to him,” said Todd. “The scriptures tell us that Jesus loves those who are closest to him – ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you’– and Jesus is hard on them because he is training them to be agents of love in a fallen world – ‘These things I have commanded so that you may love one another.’” The ways in which Jesus loves his disciples may not look much like love in a conventional, Valentine’s Day sense. But as the book of Proverbs reminds us, “The Lord disciplines those whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” Jesus is tough as nails to disciples because he loves them and is disciplining them – “discipling” them.
Just as Mrs. Schmidt loved her students and disciplined them so that they would learn and grow and realize their potential, so did Jesus with his disciples. He may have had compassion for the crowds who follow him, but for those whom he has chosen, he can be tough as nails. “Jesus demands much of his disciples,” said Todd. “He is working to ‘disciple’ us to bring out the best he knows lies within so that we might be sent us out as agents of his love in a world starved for his love. Being a disciple is not easy, but come our ‘graduation’ at the end of our lives, those who have been disciples will not only know that they have been to school, they will have known love.”
Sermon for Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17
Todd began his homily by telling about a potter friend of his, how throwing pots requires work, patience and getting messy. It is hard work to center the clay on the wheel, it requires patience to be willing to work the clay, and potters’ studios tend to be messy places. Todd wondered what it must have been like for God to fashion the first person out of clay.
Todd said that this passage from Genesis 2 does not merely tell about the creation of the world, but it tells about the creation of disciples. He noted how the first creation account in Genesis 1, in which God speaks and the world is created at God’s word, corresponds to the initial callings of the disciples: Jesus speaks and the disciples follow. The second creation account portrays the second stage of forming disciples, a stage that requires much work and patience, and is often messy. Though the disciples followed Jesus immediately, they spent three years learning from Jesus before they were granted the gift of the Spirit. These three years were filled with much work, patience and messiness. Only when these three years were completed were the disciples entrusted with the Spirit and with Jesus’ mission. Todd noted how Jesus, in John’s account of the giving of the Spirit, breathed on his disciples, much like God breathed into the man he had formed in Genesis 2. In this gesture, their discipleship is completed. Both creation accounts of Genesis are needed to give the full picture of creation, and both accounts are necessary to give the full picture of how disciples are formed. Both an immediate response to call and the hard work of patient, often messy, formation is necessary in the process of making disciples.
As we at Trinity position ourselves to be a community that can help form disciples, we will do well to keep these two creation stories in mind, said Todd. There is an initial “call” whereby Jesus draws people to himself, and that call is followed by long, patient, sometimes messy work. And there is no work more rewarding than the work of passing along the faith to another.
Sermon for Sunday, February 8, 2009
Epiphany V
Mark 1:29-39
“And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her.”
Todd began by telling how, when he was in high school, he had his appendix taken out. He has no threshold for pain, he said, so when the nurse came with the IV needle, his observant father noticed his distress and offered to let him squeeze his hand. It was not just that squeezing gave him a distraction, but the reassurance that he was with somebody who loved him that enabled him to get through the pain.
Todd told how Mark is a “hands on” gospel for Jesus. More so than in the other synoptics, in Mark Jesus often takes people by the hand.
- Today’s Gospel, the story of Jesus healing Simon’s mother in law
- Chapter 9, the healing of the boy with an evil spirit
- Chapter 5, the healing of Jairus’ daughter
- Chapter 8, the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida.
“What is it with Mark and his attention to Jesus’ hands?” Todd asked. “What might Mark mean for us to learn?” Todd looked to a passage – a “well-known passage from the corpus of Christian hand literature,” he said – from Julian of Norwich (early 15th century) for a possible meaning: When Jesus takes a person’s hand, he is not taking but giving.
It was at this time that our Lord showed me spiritually how intimately he loves us. I saw that he is everything that we know to be good and helpful. In his love he clothes us, enfolds and embraces us; that tender love completely surrounds us, never to leave us. As I saw it God is everything that is good.
And he showed me more, a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like a ball. I looked at it thoughtfully and wondered, “What is this?” And the answer came, “It is all that is made.” I marveled that it continued to exist and did not suddenly disintegrate; it was so small. And again my mind supplied the answer, “It exists, both now and for ever, because God loves it.” In short, everything owes its existence to the love of God.” … Until I am essentially united with him I can never have full rest or real happiness; in other words, [I can have no rest] until I am so joined to him that there is absolutely nothing between my God and me. – Julian of Norwich
“All that is made, though vast, is yet little, about the size of a hazelnut,” said Todd. “Though it exists because of God’s great love yet it is fragile, seemingly about to disintegrate. And, according to Julian’s vision, it is in human hands.”
Todd said that those of us who are baptized, whom God has taken by the hand and raised up from the powers of sin and death, have at once a great gift and a great responsibility. Into our hands has been given the gift of forgiveness and the knowledge God’s love for us. And it is our responsibility to respond appropriately to this great gift.
What is an appropriate response to this gift of love? Like the boy from whom Jesus cast the demon, who “stood” in the presence of the Lord, we, too, are to “stand” in the presence of the Lord, gathering faithfully for worship. Like Simon’s mother in law who got up and “waited on them,” so are we to get up and serve those around us. And like Jairus’ daughter who got up and “began to walk,” so are we to “walk” between these two poles of worship and service, loving God and loving our neighbor.
Todd connected Julian’s hazelnut image to the Eucharist: Each time we gather for Eucharist, we are reminded that Jesus’ taking our hand to follow him is really a giving, and we have the opportunity to practice receiving. At every Eucharist something little and round, about the size of a hazelnut, is placed into our hands. In a way, it is “all that is made” and it exists because of God’s love. We are to take it and eat it so that, over time, there might be absolutely nothing between our God and us, that God’s pattern of receiving and giving might become the pattern of our own lives.
It is a great privilege to have been called by the Lord, said Todd, to have been raised up from the powers of sin and death by his hand. At the Eucharist, when we receive this gift into our hands, the most appropriate response is to go and give it away.
Sermon for Wednesday, February 4, 2008
Cornelius the Centurion
Luke 13:22-29
“Strive to enter at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able.”
Todd pointed out a seeming paradox: The feast of Cornelius the Centurion – the first gentile to become a Christian – is a feast that celebrates the inclusive nature of the Gospel. Yet in today’s gospel lesson Jesus talks about how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of heaven:
“Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are.” (KJV)
Which is it? Is the Kingdom for all, or is it extremely difficult to enter? “It is both,” said Todd. Anyone can become a Christian, and yet to be a Christian is extremely demanding.
The role of the Church, then, said Todd, is to help each other on this difficult journey of entering by the “strait gate.” How can we best do this? Todd pointed to a story in Matthew for an image, the story of Peter trying to walk on the water. In this story, Peter ventures forth from the safety of the boat to walk on the water toward Jesus. When Peter notices the wind, he becomes afraid and begins to sink. Jesus stretches out his hand and rescues Peter. Todd pointed out that Peter did not put out his hand; Jesus did all the catching.
Our role for each other is as the disciples in the boat: We are with each other in our journey, a journey that often goes through tempests; we provide a safe place from which we can venture over the deep toward the Lord; if we sink, we can point out to each other that Jesus is reaching out his hand to save; and once gathered in the boat we can worship, “Truly, you are the Son of God” (Matt 14:33).
Sermon on the Feast of the Presentation
Monday, February 2, 2009
The Rev. Veronica M. Tierney
Malachi 3:1–4; Psalm 84; Hebrews 2:14–18; Luke 2:22–40
“The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.”
+ In the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
This evening we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple. This evening marks the 40th day of Jesus’ earthly life. And it marks his first entry into the Jerusalem Temple, in the arms of his mother, Mary.
Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the Temple to fulfill the ritual requirements of the Law, to dedicate Mary’s firstborn son to God. Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the Temple to do what countless other parents did before and after. But unlike all those other parents, something extraordinary happens. A stranger walks in off the street, as stranger named Simeon. Simeon sees Jesus knows instantly that everything he had hoped for his whole life had finally appeared before him. Simeon lived his whole life trusting God’s promise that he would not die before he saw the Messiah. And seeing that tiny baby, only 40 days old, Simeon knew that God had fulfilled that promise. Seeing that tiny baby, Simeon knew that the Lord he had been seeking had finally come to his temple.
I wonder how many Simeons there are in our midst. How many people are there in our everyday lives who are holding on to the hope of seeing the Messiah, the promised redeemer, the savior of the world? How many people are hungry for that vision? What seems so potent in this part of the story is that Mary allows this man, this stranger, to take her 40 day old baby into his arms. Mary is always portrayed as the champion of faithfulness, so there must be something for us in this detail. Mary’s willingness to hand her son over to Simeon, a stranger, is a model for us. Mary is willing to share her son, to present him, not only in dedication to God, but in offering to the world. She shares her son, rather than clinging to him as her own. Mary presents Jesus to someone who had longed his whole life to see the face of the Messiah.
And what of us? Each one of us holds Jesus in our hearts. Each one of us encounters Simeon in our daily lives. Maybe Simeon lives across the street, maybe Simeon works in the next cubicle, maybe Simeon is a stranger who just happens to walk into church one Sunday morning. Whoever Simeon may be, he has a longing that only Jesus can satisfy.
Each one of us holds Jesus in our hearts. Will we cling to him as our very own? Or will we follow the example of Mary and share him, giving the Simeons around us the tremendous gift and blessing of holding the savior in their arms, of looking on his holy face, of knowing that God is ever faithful.
Sermon for Sunday, February 1, 2009
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Mark 1:21-28
“And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?... I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” – Mark 1:23-24
Todd began by telling about his son learning to play the piano: with a new song, there are often red cheeks, welling tears, brows furrowed in frustration, “Dad, this song is too hard for me.” Todd has to remind his son that the song he likes to play now – to play fast, to transpose to different keys, that he plays so often it drives his mother crazy – also began as “too hard.” This is how we learn, said Todd. We encounter challenges and then move through them.
This story sheds some light on a great mystery in Mark’s gospel, a mystery to which this morning’s gospel lesson alludes: In Mark, the demons know who Jesus is, but the disciples do not. Todd quoted several passages in Mark in which the disciples did not understand Jesus. What are we to make of this mystery? The disciples in Mark tell us of an essential step in the journey of faith, if we would continue to deepen in faith and draw closer to God: we must be willing to enter into the dark, to not understand God. This step is not only normal, it is essential, said Todd. How else could we grow, if we did not time and again come to a place in which we are challenged, in which we say “this is too hard for me?”
Here is where we differ from the demons. The demons do not have this opportunity to grow; they never move through periods of darkness alternating with light. They know who God is but are condemned to a static relationship with God, one incapable of growth. It is a life cast out, apart from God, and as such is truly in the dark. We are humans who, according to Gregory of Nyssa (4th century) were created for infinite growth in God. It is our burden, and it is our blessing, to go through times of “darkness,” when we are afraid, when we do not understand.
Todd read a beautiful passage from St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) that speaks to the necessity of going through times of “darkness,” if we are to grow:
It should be understood that when a person turns to the service of God with real determination, God normally nurtures their spirit and warms their heart, like a loving mother with her baby. A mother protects the child at her breast, feeding it with sweet milk and easily digestible food. She carries the child in her arms and hugs him. But as the child grows, so the mother sets him down on the ground to teach him to walk. She does this so that eventually the child can leave behind childish ways and mature, gradually taking on greater things, more real things.
It is the same with the soul. The loving mother of the grace of God brings each person to rebirth through a warmth and enthusiasm for serving God. And in return, God offers the soul sweet and satisfying food. This is part of the attraction of the spiritual life…
It is then that God darkens all this light, and closes the door and spring of sweet spiritual water they were used to imbibing as often as they wished. As long as they were weak and tender, no door was ever closed to them… But now God leaves them in such darkness that they do not know which way to turn. Previously, they used to know how to respond, but now their senses feel engulfed by night.
God leaves them in this dryness in order that not only should they fail to find satisfaction in their former ways of praying, but actually abandon them as distasteful. When God sees that they have grown a little, like a mother nursing the infant at her breast, he weans them so that they may grow stronger. He removes their swaddling bands, sets them down on the floor so that they can get to learn to walk by themselves. Inevitably, they find this new phase in their spiritual journey bewildering, since everything has been turned back-to-front. But God is giving the person the food of the spiritually mature. It is a food, however, that can only be received in dryness and darkness.
In the best of the Zen tradition, this is experience called “emptiness” and leads to enlightenment. In the best of the Christian tradition, this is the experience of the tomb, and it leads to resurrection. Todd pointed out how all the images of emptiness, darkness, fear and bewilderment converge in the resurrection story in Mark 16.
Being in the dark, not understanding God, being bewildered and even afraid, are all normal – indeed necessary – parts of our journey of faith. If we did not pass through times of darkness, we should be like the demons, incapable of growth in God. But we are human, created for infinite growth in God. And it is at once our blessing and burden to pass through periods of darkness, if we would make progress on the way. And when we are in the dark, feeling empty, afraid and bewildered, we may not be aware of how close we stand to resurrection.
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