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Sermon
Synopses - December 2007
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.
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Sermon for December 30,
2007
First Sunday After Christmas Day
John 1:1-18
Todd began by noting how
Christmas does not end on December 25, but that Christmas
is a 12-day season. If
we are to appropriate the meaning of Christmas in our lives,
to plumb the depths of the mystery of Incarnation, we are
to look at the season as a whole.
Todd noted how the different
scriptures of the Christmas season each add a different
part to the complete picture of Christmas. Matthew
gives us Herod and the wise men, Joseph’s dreams
and the flight into Egypt. Luke
gives us the Annunciation, the journey to Bethlehem, the
angels and shepherds, and the familiar scene of Mary and
Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger. Titus (from
whom we read every Christmas) adds a dash of morality to
Christmas, urging us in light of the incarnation to live “renounce
impiety and worldly passions,” and to live “self-controlled,
upright and godly” lives. Readings from I Samuel
(in the Daily Office lectionary during the Christmas season)
draw a parallel between the unlikely pregnancy of Hannah
and the miraculous birth of Mary, placing Jesus in the
priestly tradition of Israel. The feast days of St.
Stephen (Dec 26) and the Holy Innocents (Dec 28) remind
us that bearing God in the world is demanding and costly.
What
John adds to the Christmas story is that Jesus not only
became incarnate in a specific place (Bethlehem) and at
a specific time (during the reigns of King Herod and Emperor
Augustus), but that Christ became incarnate in a particular
community: “the Word (Christ)
became flesh and lived among us, ‘us’ being
the early Johannine community who had “received [Christ],
who believed in his name.”
We are the descendants of that community, said Todd. We
are the community in which God continues to seek to become
incarnate in this world. How do we incarnate God
in the world? Todd said that we would find a clue
in verse 14: “…and we have seen his glory,
glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and
truth.” In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ “glory” is
Jesus’ Passion, his suffering death and resurrection. If
we would incarnate God in the world, letting other see
his “glory,” we are to continue to gather week
by week to celebrate Eucharist, to make present in the
here and now Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.
“It
seems like a weighty thing to do, to be the community that
gathers around Jesus’ suffering, death
and resurrection,” said Todd. “And it
is!” John helps us with our weighty task, however. “Look
how many times the word ‘love’ appears in John’s
Passion narrative,” said Todd. “The
word ‘love’ appears only five or six times
in the first half of John’s Gospel, but appears about
20 times in chapters 13 -17. For John, Jesus’ Passion
was an act of love.” John calls us to be a
community of love, loving even to the point of being willing
to sacrifice of ourselves for each other: “This
is my commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you. No one has greater love than this, to
lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (15:12). Insofar
as we love one another, we are incarnating Christ in the
world. “No one has seen God; if we love one
another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in
us” (I John 4:12).
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Sermon
for December 26, 2007
Feast of St. Stephen
Todd
began his sermon with a quote from a sermon by Guerric
of Igny (a 12th century abbot) that spoke about how,
though we know that our
death will come, we do not know when our
death will come. St. Stephen, when he woke
up on the morning of his martyrdom, did not know that that
morning would be his last. Likewise, we never know
when our end will come.
The monastic tradition out
of which Guerric comes emphasizes being prepared for death. (The
belt or cincture that monastics wear as part of their habit
is often seen to symbolize having girded up one’s
loins to be ready to go and meet the Lord when he comes.) Though
we may not look forward to our death – even Guerric
said that he might ask for a reprieve! – what can
we do so that we, when we wake up on our last morning like
Stephen, will be ready to meet the Lord?
Todd said that
our most basic level of readiness is to continue steadfast
in our regular attendance at worship, in the reading of
scripture and in our private prayer. In
the monastic tradition, those who persevered in prayer
and worship were seen to be always ready. Another,
additional level of readiness comes to us, not from the
monastic tradition, but from Ignatius of Loyola in the
16th century. Ignatius’ contribution to readiness
was to ask if we were following the vocation to which God
has called us. If we are confident that we are following
the vocation to which God has called us, we are much less
likely to shrink from death and more likely to run out
and meet the Lord when he calls.
Todd gave two methods
for helping us to discern whether or not we are following
the vocation to which God has called us (both methods are
from Ignatius): 1) Imagine
yourself as a neutral, disinterested third party looking
at your life and making recommendations as to how you should
live out the rest of your life. What would this person
recommend that you do in order to give praise and glory
to God and to work for the salvation of your soul? Go
out and do these things. 2) Imagine yourself
at the end of your life, looking back at your life. What
are the things that would have best given praise to God
and brought health to your soul? Go out and do these
things.
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Sermon
for December 25, 2007
Christmas Day
Titus 2:11-14
Today’s lesson from
Titus has a very un-Christmas vocabulary, Todd said. “Where
are the shepherds and the angels, the sheep and the wisemen,
Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger?” What
does being trained to renounce “impiety and worldly
passions,” living
self-controlled, godly and upright lives, and being a people
zealous for good deeds have to do with Christmas?
Todd
spoke about how the “Currier and Ives” image
of Christmas – a small village under a blanket of
fresh snow, with a star shining overhead and three wisemen
riding in from the distance – is a relatively recent
image, dating from the mid 19th century (e.g., see the
texts to the carols “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “It
came upon a midnight clear.”) Earlier traditions
of Christmas were not so idyllic and cozy. Consider,
for example, the following excerpt from a Christmas sermon
by St. Leo the Great:
“Let us, then, put
off the old nature with its deeds, and having obtained
a share in the sonship of Christ, let us renounce the deeds
of the flesh. Be
conscious, O Christian, of your dignity! You have
been made partaker of the divine nature; do not fall again
by a corrupt manner of life into the beggarly elements
above which you are lifted. Remember whose Body it
is of which you are a member, and who is its Head. Remember
that it is he who has delivered you from the power of darkness
and has transferred you into God’s light and God’s
kingdom. By the sacrament of baptism you have become a
temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not cast away this
great Guest by evil living and become again a servant of
the devil. For your freedom was bought by Christ’s
own blood.”
Christmas, for Leo, is a
time to remember how God deemed humanity worthy of sending
his Son to become one of us. “Be
conscious, O Christian, of your dignity!” Because
God has become incarnate in human flesh, so are we to live
lives worthy of our God-blessed flesh. To quote from
Titus, we are to live “self-controlled, upright and
godly” lives.
We do not often think of
the Incarnation as a call to live holy lives – so
often Christmas is merely about angels and shepherds and
infants lying in a manger – but
we would do well to reclaim this older tradition of Christmas. The
world is depending on us, the followers of Christ, to live
holy lives, that we may be worthy bearers of tidings of
comfort and joy.
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Sermon
for December 24, 2007
Christmas Eve
Luke 2:1-20
“The shepherds returned, glorifying
and praising God for the things they had heard and seen,
as it had been told them.” -- Luke 2:20
Tonight’s text is
about the shepherds. Yes,
every Christmas pageant has young people competing to be
Joseph and Mary and in which the shepherds are “also-rans,” roles
given to those who can’t remember many lines or who
won’t take the time to come to rehearsal. But,
notice how only 2 or 3 of tonight’s 20 verses are
about Mary; and Joseph only does one verb in the whole
passage – “Joseph also went from Nazareth
in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David…” But,
12 of 20 verses are about the shepherds. If we are
to stay true to the text as it is presented to us in tonight’s
Gospel, we are to recognize that tonight’s text is
about the shepherds.
Tonight’s text is
about the shepherds, and the shepherds are all about transformation. The
shepherds begin the evening “living in the fields,
watching over their flocks by night,” and the shepherds
end the evening in the same fields watching over the same
flocks, but with a twist: “And the shepherds
returned, praising and glorifying God for the things they
had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” The
shepherds before were just living in the fields, watching
over their flocks by night; the shepherds after were only
just living in the fields, watching over their flocks,
but as they were doing so they were “praising and
glorifying God for the things they had heard and seen.”
What
happened to the shepherds? What caused this
transformation in them? They responded to a revelation,
they gathered together, they made a conscious decision
to go on a journey to see the Christ, they went on that
journey, and then they went and told about their encounter. In
a nutshell, they were an early “church” who
did what the Church is called to do.
Todd noted how
all of us desire transformation; all of us have an element
of restlessness and unease within us that we would like
to be transformed. If we would
find transformation, we, like the shepherds, must make
a journey to the Christ. This is what the Church
has to offer: a tried and true path to see the Christ,
a tried and true path that will satisfy our hearts’ desires
more fully than any other.
Luke 2 is all about the
shepherds, and the shepherds are all about transformation. If
you desire transformation, come and hasten with us to Bethlehem;
come, make the journey to Christ with us.
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Sermon
for December 23, 2007
Matthew 1:18-25
Todd began by telling of
a sermon by Bernard of Clairvaux in
which Bernard speaks of three comings of Christ: 1) the
infant Christ who came at the first Christmas, 2) the Christ
who at the end of time will come in power and great glory
to judge the world, and 3) the Christ who seeks to come
within each of us today.
Todd spoke about Bernard’s
third type of coming, the one in which Christ comes to
us in our lives presently. Looking
at today’s Gospel text, a text about Joseph, Todd
noted that the text calls us to be aware of the Christ
that comes, not only to us, but also to those near to us;
as Joseph was aware of the Christ being born in Mary, we,
too, are called to be aware of the Christ being born in
those nearest to us.
A sign of Christ’s
being born in those near to us? Look
to the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22: love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control.
What do we do when we see
signs of “birth” in
those next to us? Look to the example of Joseph. 1) Joseph
was a dreamer. Notice all the dreams Joseph dreams
in Matthew 1! Todd encouraged us to be dreamers,
too, to “dream wild dreams” about how the Christ
might be being born in those near to us. Might some
be giving birth to gifts for teaching or catechizing? Might
some have a love for scripture being born in them, and
might they be trained to be lectors? Might some have
a calling to take communion to the sick and shut-in? Might
some have a calling to sing in the choir being born in
them, to serve on altar guild, to discern the needs of
the world around us, to organize the community for service? “Dream
big,” said Todd. “God has high hopes
for us. Why should we not have high hopes for ourselves,
too?” 2) Joseph embodied stability. Be
a steady presence in each others’ lives, said Todd. Stick
around to help the Christ come to life, to raise him to
maturity and to send him off into the world.
How might the
Christ be seeking to be born in those closest to you?
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Sermon
for the Second Sunday of Advent
December 9, 2007
Matthew 3:11-12
“One who is more powerful than
I is coming after me… His winnowing fork is
in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and
will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff
he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Todd was
taken with the way in which John the Baptist speaks of
Jesus. John might have spoken of Jesus
in terms of redemption – as John does in the Gospel
of John: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world.” John could have
spoken of Jesus in terms of a physician, one who “took
our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Or
John might have spoken of Jesus in terms of a great teacher – especially
appropriate to Matthew’s Gospel, with the Sermon
on the Mount. But John does not speak of Jesus as
redeeming, as a physician or as a teacher; he speaks of
Jesus in terms of winnowing: “His winnowing
fork is in his hand…”
Jesus as winnower? To
be sure, Jesus will be a winnower at the end of the age
when the Son of Man will sit on his throne judging the
nations, separating the sheep from the goats (Matt 25),
but here we are at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel,
even before Jesus has called his disciples. Todd
said that the same Jesus who winnows at the end of the
age has always practiced winnowing, and here at the beginning
of the Gospel we see Jesus the winnower winnowing to find
a few good men and women to be his disciples. Jesus
turns many away from being his disciples, e.g., to one
candidate who said he would follow Jesus wherever he went,
Jesus replied “Foxes
have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To
another, who says he would follow after he first buried
his father, Jesus says, “Follow me, and let the dead
bury their own dead.” To others Jesus says
that “Whoever loves father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not
take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Jesus
the winnower turned away a lot of would-be followers.
Jesus
is looking for a few good men and women. Jesus
is looking for a few. Though Jesus had compassion
on the multitudes – he taught them, healed them,
even fed them – he sought out only a few disciples. His
disciples were to be the salt of the earth, the lights
of the world, and the leaven in the dough – not many
are needed to effect great change. Jesus is looking
for a few good men and women. Not good in
the sense of morally good – those who are well have
no need of a physician, but those who are sick; and Jesus
came to call, not the righteous, but sinners. Neither
good in the sense of accomplished, well-educated or wealthy – Todd
gave examples of disciples who were none of the above. The
disciples had to be good, said Todd, because their role
was extremely demanding. Jesus was looking for people
who, when struck on the cheek, turned the other cheek;
who, when someone took their coat, would offer their shirt
as well; who would forgive, not seven times, but seventy-seven
times; who would love their enemies and pray for those
who persecuted them; who were meek, peacemakers and merciful,
etc. Jesus’ disciples had to be people who
had some heft and weight to them, who, when winnowed, would
not be blown about by every wind, but would sink back to
the ground, who had the potential like seeds to take root,
to change and grow, and to blossom and flourish.
Todd said
that Jesus the winnower continues to look for a few good
men and women today. “Is Jesus calling
you to be his disciple? Jesus does not care if you
are ‘good,’ if you are accomplished, well-educated
or wealthy. Jesus is looking for those you have some
heft to them, who have the potential to fall to the earth
like a seed,” who are comfortable with dirt and humility,
who can sprout and take root, who are willing to change
and grow, who have the potential to blossom and flourish
where planted. “Jesus is looking for a few
good men and women,” said Todd. “Is Jesus
calling you?”
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Sermon
for Advent I
December 2, 2007
Matthew 24:37-44
Today Todd talked about
Jesus’ second
coming. “The
first Sunday of Advent is all about Jesus’ second
coming.” It is easy to convince ourselves that
Jesus is not coming again – he’s had 2,000
years and has not come yet; why should we think that he’s
going to come now?
Perhaps the reason we can
so easily convince ourselves that Jesus is not coming again
is because the thought of Jesus’ second coming is
so anxiety-producing: At
Jesus’ second coming we face issues of inclusion – “one
shall be taken and one shall be left.” At
Jesus’ second coming we will face issues of being
judged: “When he shall come again in his glorious
majesty to judge both the living and the dead” (from
the Collect for today). And there is an element of
surprise to Jesus’ second coming – “You
do not know on what day your Lord is coming” – and
we don’t like surprises.
What does Jesus do about
this anxiety? Jesus doesn’t
say, “Don’t worry. You’re one of
the sheep, not the goats; you’ll get in.” Nor
does he say, “You’ve always been an ‘A’ student;
you have nothing to worry about.” Neither does
he say, “Well, I’ve always liked you, so I’ll
give you a tip as to when I’m coming so that you
can be prepared.”
What Jesus does do after
telling his disciples about inclusion / exclusion, judgment,
and surprise is to give his disciples something to do. Jesus
is a great pastor who knows that in times of anxiety, the
best remedy is to give people something to do. In
the chapters that follow today’s
reading, Jesus says “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Here
every Sunday we continue to do what Jesus commanded his
disciples to do. Christians have followed Jesus’ command
to “take, eat” and “drink this” in
good times and in bad, in calm and amid adversity, whether
we be thousands or but two or three gathered together,
in open mud churches in Africa and in beautiful cathedrals
in Europe. Whenever we gather, we “Do this
in remembrance of me.” The more faithful we
are in doing this, the more ready we will be for Jesus’ second
coming – the Eucharist is the way in which we rise
from sleep stay awake, and keep alert. If we are
faithful in celebrating Eucharist, there will indeed be
faith on earth when he comes again.
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