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Sermon
Synopses - 2009
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Sermon for Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Nehemiah 2:1-8
All of us, even the most cheerful, have “sadness of the heart” as the king perceived Nehemiah to have. As in the case of Nehemiah, this sadness of the heart is a spiritual issue that can be addressed only with a spiritual solution: the rebuilding of the temple, not the temple in Jerusalem (as in the case of Nehemiah), but the “temple” within.
What does it take to rebuild the temple within? Today’s lesson from Nehemiah shows us at least one important ingredient: strategic planning. Note how Nehemiah thought through his needs, how he would need a letter of passage through the Kingdom beyond the River, as well as permission for Asaph, the king’s forester, to cut down wood for the temple, the wall and Nehemiah’s house.
What do you need to do in order to bring about the rebuilding of the temple within? What do you need to set in place over the long-term to open yourself to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Such a plan might include: weekly Eucharist, daily prayer, joyful service, generous giving, constant learning, regular Sabbath time, journaling, confession, etc. Such a plan is also likely to include the letting go of things in our lives that stand in the way of such disciplines: inner “saboteurs” afraid of change, outer “saboteurs” afraid of our change, worries, fears, etc.
I invite you to develop a strategic plan for the renewal of your “temple.”
This work is too difficult to be done alone. Jesus can help. Pray to the Lord and request, as did Nehemiah, what you need.
Sermon for Sunday, September 27, 2009
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Mark 9:38-50
“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…”
Story of bicycling from Minnesota to Boston and packing too heavy. OK while I was in the Great Plains, but then I hit the hills of the Mississippi Valley and Wisconsin. Too much gear! It was a hindrance to me. I mailed the camp stove and other things home.
Today’s Gospel lesson is alarming. Did Jesus really mean for us to cut off our hands and feet? No. Many faithful Christians still possess hands and feet; I’ve never heard of anybody actually cutting them off. To be interpreted figuratively: tells nature of commitment Jesus is inviting us into – a commitment in which we are called to 1) know our goal, 2) make choices, 3) let go of what hinders us.
What is your goal? Ignatius of Antioch and journey to Rome. “Getting to God.” My goal is to “get to God.”
- Any number of paths: parenting, professor, spouse, singly, neighbor, etc.
- All involve Jesus Christ, the Way to the Father
Choices. On our way, we must choose what is worth its weight to us to carry along. Question: Does this draw me closer to God or take me further from God?
- Gifts of the Spirit can be indicator. Does it bring me love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc?
- What is hindering you from getting to God? Consider habits, addictions, grudges, stuff, busy-ness, worrying
- Need help with an addiction? Prudent, and not shameful, to seek help.
Let go.
- Model: Great saints all made choices, gave something up.
- Matthew, tax table
- Augustine, career as rhetorician
- Martin, career as soldier, and his cloak.
- Francis, his wealth
- Martin Luther King, his personal safety
- Helpful to have something to take its place. Exercise, hobby… scripture.
- Helpful to have support of community.
Did you know, God wants us?
- God’s goal has always been us.
- God has chosen us: Created us, sent prophets to call us, finally sent his son.
- Let Go: Jesus let go of his life so that we might be able to get to God.
I invite you to consider your goal.
-- What is your goal for your life? Is it the life and the kingdom of which Jesus speaks?
-- What is hindering you from reaching your goal? What choices do you need to get to your goal?
-- I invite you to let go of those things Difficult – perhaps impossible – without Christ.
By his death and resurrection, Christ has removed obstacles between God and us. With Christ our souls can “get to God.” I invite you to “cast aside the weight of sin that clings so closely and run with perseverance the race that is set before us,” so that we might “pass through the heavens” and be united with all the saints in the kingdom he has prepared for us.
Sermon for Monday, September 14, 2009
Holy Cross Day
Today is Holy Cross Day, the day on which we remember, not so much the event of the crucifixion nor merely the one who was crucified on it, but the cross itself. It seems a curious thing to celebrate, the cross itself, but we know that the cross is important, and we can’t get it out of our system: we stamp it on our Prayer Books, we process behind it every Sunday morning, some of us make the sign of it over ourselves at various points in the Eucharist. Though we sense that the cross is important, yet it is a mystery that continually challenges us: Why did Jesus have to die on a cross? How exactly is Jesus’ death on a cross saving for us? What does Paul mean when he “boasts” of the cross? As much as it was for the Jews and Gentiles about whom Paul wrote to the Corinthians in first century, the cross is a stumbling block, the cross seems to be foolishness.
Today’s scripture lessons are some of the lessons that serve as background for theology of the atonement, i.e., “How exactly is Jesus’ death on a cross saving for us?” In contrast to those theories, I am struck by writings / poetry / music praising and glorifying the cross itself.
Andrew of Crete (8th c.). “Posses the Cross… and you possess the most precious object on earth.”
Anslem of Canterbury (12th c), to the cross: “How shall I praise you, how shall I exalt you, with what love shall I pray to you, and with what joy shall I glory in you?”
Hymnodist William Sparrow-Simpson (19th c): “Cross of Jesus, cross of sorrow, where the blood of Christ was shed.”
What to make of this writing / poetry / music about the cross? We know intuitively that, if the cross is to make a difference in our life, we must make the cross real. Theories about the cross may be helpful to a point, but we want the cross to be tangible, to have substance, to have weight. And so we sing about it. We carry it. We personify it. We sign it over ourselves. And on Good Friday we even venerate it with bows and kisses. We know intuitively that the cross is something that is to be real, to have weight, so that we may take up and carry it, if we would be Jesus’ disciple.
How can we make it tangible and real? How can we make it bear weight? à By continuing to carry it, to sing about, to make its sign over ourselves, to stamp it on our Prayer Books, to process behind it, to kiss it, to bow before it. Bit by bit, over time, as we venerate the cross and give thanks to God for what Jesus did for us on it, we will come, as the old collect says, to “perceive within ourselves the fruit of thy redemption,” and then we might better in our persons “bear the marks of Christ,” as did Paul, and – as we will sing later this evening – “lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim, till all the world adores his sacred name.”
John of Portugal (15th century)
Faithful cross above all other
One and only noble tree
None in foliage, none in blossom
None in fruit thy peer may be.
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Amen.
Sermon for Sunday, September 13, 2009
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
James 3:1-12
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. – James 3:1
What a curious passage for the day on which we commission our Sunday School teachers!
We may think ourselves lucky that we are upstairs at the moment – not only do we not have to prepare a lesson for Sunday School, but, come the final judgment, we will not be judged according to such a strict standard as will teachers! But… we do not get off the hook so easily.
As we have likely heard, it takes a village to raise a child. We could have invented this statement! The church has known from our earliest generations that it takes a community to raise up disciples for Christ. In our catechumenate, the priest and catechists may teach new disciples to pray, may guide them through scripture and may help them discern gifts for service, but just as important are the prayers and witness of the whole community. You, your prayers and witness, are important to the raising up of these young people in the faith!
(Some of us may indeed be called to a more active role in teaching. I encourage you to consider and pray about if God is calling you to teach Sunday School or to serve as a catechist in Trinity’s catechumenate process. If teaching in general can be greatly rewarding and satisfying, how much more can teaching Christ we rewarding and satisfying!)
We might know how to pray for our young people – and also all those who will come to us seeking Christ, whether young or old – and I invite you to do so. But how can we best bear witness? Parker Palmer, the educator who has written extensively on education and pedagogical theory, says that there are four key ingredients to teaching:
What we teach is important.
How we teach is even more important.
Getting in touch with why we teach is more important still.
The most important ingredient to teaching is who teaches.
Parker maintains that we teach who we are. The inner life of the teacher is projected out into the classroom, and the students respond to it, for good or ill, depending on the self who is the teacher. We teach who we are, and who we are is what we teach. Are you anxious? You teach anxiety to those around you. Are you curious? You teach curiosity to those around you. Are you cynical? You teach cynicism to all around you. Are you joyful? You teach to your friends and family that life is joyful. Are you humble? You help all around you learn humility. We teach who we are, and who we are is what we teach.
The single most important thing a teacher can do, according to Palmer, is to develop his or her inner life. A rich and developed spiritual life on the part of the teacher, says Palmer, is what enables learning to be a rich and developing experience for the students.
How can we develop our inner life so that we teach Christ? Worship, prayer, scripture study and service. These things are best not done alone; community is key. Look around you. These are the people who can help you develop your spiritual life! As we make progress in the spiritual life, sooner or later we will come face to face with THE teacher, Jesus, who today taught his disciples what is at once perhaps the most challenging and most important thing we can learn: “Whoever wants to become my disciple must take up their cross and follow me.” Keep on praying, keep on worshipping, keep on “keeping on” in community and we may come to truly know that losing our life for Christ, and for the sake of the Gospel, is saving it. And be patient – it takes a lot of time to die and be reborn!
Story: We cannot possibly imagine the far-reaching effects of our teaching.
When I was a boy, I was greatly moved by the faith, patience, hope and love of a man in my church who cared for his wife, dying with cancer. He was a man who had, over many years, developed the Christ within, and he now taught who he was. He was attentive to his wife, he kept on coming to church, he was not afraid to lean on his friends and community, and he expressed his hope in the resurrection and that he would see her again. 30 years later, I have not forgotten this man’s witness to Jesus Christ. We cannot possibly imagine the far-reaching effects of our teaching!
Invitation: Who is the self that you are teaching? Are you manifesting Jesus Christ?
I invite you this week to consider the question, “Who is the self that I am teaching to those around me?” We Christians are called to teach Christ. To what extent are you manifesting Christ to those around you? And I invite you to make the nurture of your inner life a priority this year. Take the time to pray, to worship, to read the scriptures and to serve others. And because we cannot do this alone, I invite you to make it your priority to be an active part of this Christian community. With God’s grace and with each other’s help, we can become the salt of the earth, shining lights who manifest Christ to a world in darkness.
Sermon for Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Constance, Nun, and her Companions, 1878
John 12:24-28
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” – John 12:24
There is a difference between merely dying, on the one hand, and giving one’s life, on the other. The former is a passive occurrence; the second, a result of a decision and a commitment. All of us will someday die; the challenge before us as Christians is to give our life before it is taken from us.
There were many who died in the great yellow fever epidemic in Memphis in 1878. Constance, Nun and her Companions, the so-called “Martyrs of Memphis,” are among those who did not merely die, but who chose to give their life for Christ and for the Gospel. These men and women were knew in their heart the message of today’s gospel reading: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
The Martyrs of Memphis can teach us at least two valuable lessons about giving our life for Christ and for the gospel. First: Though many of the 38 Roman Catholic and Anglican sisters and clergy who ministered to the sick themselves perished from the fever, still many others lived. Their names are mostly forgotten to us, and their witness is not commemorated in our calendar of saints. Was their witness for Christ less heroic than those who died? Surely not! And these forgotten witnesses can be a great inspiration for us. For most of us our witness to the gospel will not mean literally dying, but we can still give our lives. How many of us have given and continue to give our lives to our children, to our spouse, to our parents and family, to friends, to neighbors and to our community? Though we may live quiet lives of witness to the Gospel unrecognized by the calendar of saints and unknown to others, yet we may still give our lives for the gospel. Our sacrifice and service no matter how quiet and unrecognized will, in the end, do more than we realize for the spread of God’s Kingdom.
Second: If we choose give of ourselves for the witness of Christ and the Gospel, we are not to be surprised if hardships and suffering come. If it is the nature of commitments generally that, sooner or later, we will experience hardship, how much more when we commit to Christ – a commitment opposed by the “prince of this world” – will we experience hardship and suffering? Today’s gospel reading assures us that, if we give of ourselves, if we “fall into the earth and die… we will bear much fruit.” Our offering of ourselves and our sacrifice for the sake of Jesus will not be barren, but will bear fruit. Further, Jesus assures his followers that he is with them: “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.”
This coming week I invite you to consider, “To what are you giving your life?” I have a hunch that none of us wants to merely die, to have our life taken from us. At the end of our days we want to have given our life. The witness of this feast day reminds us that we can bear great witness to Christ and the gospel, even if our giving is quiet and unheralded. Our efforts will not go unheeded in the Kingdom; as we fall into the earth, we will bear much fruit. And today’s gospel text reminds us that, as in any commitment, the giving of our life to Christ is likely to entail hardship and suffering. We can be assured that, in our suffering, Christ is with us. Like the Martyrs of Memphis did not abandon those in their care, so will Christ the good shepherd always go with us, not abandoning us in our time of hardship, but using even our hardships to lead us on to life abundant.
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