Sermons
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Sermons preached each Sunday and at special services are archived on this page. Sermons are listed below by date preached, from most recent to least recent. You can search the full text of the sermon archives with the search feature, or filter sermons by preacher, liturgical season, or a specific date.
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Required to Love
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Preacher: The Rev. Meredith Woods Potter
Texts: 1 John 5: 1-6; John 15: 9-17
The preaching professor at the seminary astonished his students one day by declaring that most preachers have only one essential sermon that they preach again and again and again. That message is supported by different biblical passages, couched in various stories and anecdotes, but the message remains nevertheless essentially unchanged. Those of us who were experienced preachers responded to his assertion with disbelief. But one of the professors, who had been a long-time rector of several parishes before joining the seminary faculty, decided to test our colleague’s claim. That evening at the dinner table he asked his wife and young daughters, who had all heard him preach for years, if they thought he always preached the same sermon. His youngest daughter, who was nine years old, immediately began to nod her head. With a twinkle in her eye, she responded, “sure, Dad, you always preach the same sermon; you always say‘blah-blah-blah-blah-love.”
“Blah-blah-blah-blah-love.” That same description might describe today’s readings. In fact, not only the message, but the words and phrases are so similar that most scholars attribute them to the same author, whom they conveniently call John. The author, however, never gives his name but refers to himself simply as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” His writings seem to indicate that he was surely an eye-witness, probably one of the Twelve, one of those closest to Jesus and to Peter. The clues throughout the Gospel suggest that he may have been John, son of Zebedee, brother of James – one of the so-called “sons of thunder.” By tradition John lived out his last years at Ephesus, a center of early Christianity in what is now modern Turkey. It is thought that both the Gospel and the letters that bear his name were written toward the close of the first century, which would mean that when they were written, their author was probably the only disciple still alive.
John was writing to a very diverse community of followers in Ephesus. There were Jewish disciples and new Gentile believers worshiping together. They differed from each other in race, language, and culture. They disagreed about how to worship and what laws to keep. Some understood and adhered rigorously to the requirements of the Torah. Others had never even read Hebrew Scripture and understood little about Jewish customs or the laws of Moses. Some had even incorporated non-Christian philosophies of their pagan neighbors into their faith. And so John wrote to remind this diverse group of early Christians of the faith they had in common. He urged them to accept each other’s differences and to love each other. He reminded them of Jesus’ teachings to love each other because God had first loved each of them.
And so today’s readings are all about love: God’s love for us and our response to that love by loving others. What a great set of readings for this Mother’s Day. I am one of those lucky persons for whom it is hard to separate love from thoughts of mother. I first experienced love and learned the true meaning of love from my mother. And, of course, being a mother - being a parent - provides lots of opportunities for many of us to practice loving another. A few days before becoming a mother myself, I had a real meltdown. I wasn’t ready for that responsibility; I didn’t have any experience; I hadn’t studied “motherdom” in college; I hadn’t attended workshops on parenting skills. Furthermore, we hadn’t saved enough money for our child’s college education. (I can only guess how my anxiety would have multiplied had I known that in just a few days I would give birth to twins!) My neighbor, who was a mother of four, sat me down at her kitchen table, poured me a cup of tea and calmed my fears. And then she gave me some advice I have never forgotten. She told me, “don’t worry; just dish out lots of love, and everything else will work out.” In essence John was telling the Christian community to start dishing out lots of love. He said “be the source of love for others.”
But John’s words were more than neighborly advice. If you were listening carefully to our readings, you will have noted another word that occurs with almost the same frequency as the word “love.” Did you catch that second word? [Congregation responds.] It is the word “commandment.” The Hebrew word for “commandment” is “mitzvah.” And its meaning goes beyond “obeying a law.” Mitzvah implies doing something for someone. This past week one of the neighboring Jewish congregations had a “Mitzvah Day” in which congregation members spent the day doing “good deeds” in the community. And so a commandment – a Mitzvah - is something one is required to do. Hence love is not just a many splendored thing to which we respond when our heart goes pitter-pat. We are commanded by the One who loves us unconditionally to offer that same love to others. As Christians we are required not only to love those who are easy to love but also those who are not so easy to love; to love those who are our best friends and those whom we would never choose to be our friends at all; to love those who are like us and those who are unimaginably different. To “abide in God’s love” means to be awash in that love; to “splash” God’s love not only those whom we are inspired to love, but also those whom we would much rather overlook; to “splash” God’s love on those who have been rude to us; those who don’t even try to understand us; those who have hurt us; those who have quarreled with us; and perhaps especially those whom we have taken for granted and forgotten to love.
As I reflect on all the sermons I’ve preached over the years, that seminary professor was probably right. I probably do preach only one sermon. The stories I tell change. I invoke a variety of different scripture passages; but my basic message is that Christ’s teachings require our response. It’s not enough for us to know the stories of Jesus’ life; it’s not sufficient for us to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” Holy Scripture; we can’t even be content to believe Jesus’ miracles or rest with faith in his promises. We are commanded to respond!! Christ’s teachings are meant to jar us out of our comfort zone - to move us to change our lives. Christ is constantly inviting us to take action. And so today we are required to respond to Christ’s love for us by loving others; by bringing Christ’s love to others; by being Christ’s love in the world.
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 05/13/2012 |
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Sermon by the Rev. Leigh VanderMeer on the Second Sunday of Easter
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There’s a passage in the gospel of Mark in which a man brings his son to Jesus for healing.
The boy is unable to speak, has seizures, foams at the mouth and throws himself about . . . sometimes dangerously so . . . as if he’s caught fire, for example
The father asks Jesus if he could please help them.
Jesus says to the man, "All things can be done for the one who believes."
Immediately the father of the child cried out "I believe; help my unbelief!"
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I think this is what Thomas was doing…..He was asking for help. Thomas believed all right. . . . Sticking by Jesus throughout his three year ministry gives evidence to that. Thomas believed . . . he just needed help with his unbelief.
At that moment in the room with his fellow disciples, Thomas was being asked to swallow a particularly incredible claim . . . the claim being that Jesus, the teacher whom he loved and followed as a faithful disciple….the man whom everyone knew had suffered a horrible death on the cross and was buried in the tomb. . . .Thomas was now being asked to believe that Jesus had presented himself in person to the disciples. Thomas’ response makes perfect sense to me.
If I showed up for work one day and my colleagues told me that the person who’s funeral I’d attended the week before had appeared at the staff meeting that morning, My response would be . . . ”Yeah right!”
In fact, I’m not sure I’d even bother asking for proof considering it was such a ridiculous claim in the first place. What I’d really be thinking was that my colleagues had finally gone off the deep end.
So when Jesus appeared a week later following his death and burial, Thomas essentially asked for the same thing that the man with the epileptic son had asked, “Lord, I believe . . . Help my unbelief!”
And Jesus did.
Jesus met Thomas exactly where he was at…. just as Jesus had responded to the distressed father.
Therefore, in defense of Thomas - I think he’s gotten a bad rap. All the guy did was ask for some concrete evidence. Not that he didn’t trust his fellow disciples… he simply needed a little extra confirmation.
And look what happened because of it.
Pegged forever as a man of doubt. To the point that he even got his own idiom…Doubting Thomas . . . a person with a lack of faith. Someone who refuses to believe until given proof.
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The reality is that there are times in our lives when we too might need a little extra proof. For many of us, even though our faith is constantly there…it doesn’t necessarily run at the same constant pace. It waxes and wanes and we find ourselves needing different things at different times in order to nurture and sustain our faith.
Sometimes our faith can feel so strong that we live and breathe scripture passages like, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” These are those times when it’s easy to believe that with God all things are indeed possible. Yet at other times in our lives we struggle wondering where the heck is God and why isn’t God here doing anything to help my unbelief!!
These are times when we want proof that Jesus is active in our lives.
These are times when we NEED proof.
Experiencing doubt, asking questions or wanting more evidence doesn’t mean we don’t believe or that our faith is somehow lacking. A common misconception is that doubt is the opposite of faith. It is not!
Indifference is the opposite of faith.
Frederick Buechner, a Presbyterian minister, theologian, and author, sees doubt as the “ants in the pants of faith.” He suggests that doubt keeps faith awake and moving. . . . Active and alive.
It’s important to note that Jesus didn’t rebuke Thomas over his request for more evidence. Thomas was being true to who he was. He was a man who didn’t blindly accept what others told him. He questioned. He was human.
And Jesus was being true to who he was by graciously offering himself to Thomas in response. Jesus gave Thomas what he needed to grow in faith just as Jesus had done so many other times with other people throughout his ministry. Jesus helped people with their unbelief all the time.
Through the miracles he performed, Jesus revealed himself. He offered himself to others where they were at so they too could either come to believe for the first time or be furthered strengthened.
Think of the woman at the well, or the crippled man who didn’t have anyone to lift him into the healing pool. Think of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. All miraculous acts that helped people with their unbelief….to help people grow in their faith.
Besides, it’s not like Thomas was the only one doubting. Today’s gospel begins by noting that the disciples had locked themselves in the room for fear of the Jewish authorities. This tells me that they must not have fully believed all that Jesus told them. Nor did they believe Mary Magdalene when she first reported back from the empty tomb that she’d seen Jesus, risen from the dead.
They didn’t fully come around to believing it for themselves until Jesus actually showed up in their midst in that locked room. Then they believed – when they saw it with their own eyes.
There are other passages in John’s gospel that actually support the idea that maybe Thomas was more of a model disciple than the doubter that he’s been portrayed as. In the 11th chapter for example, when Lazarus dies everyone else is afraid to make the journey to visit his family because they’d just had a run in with the Jewish leaders. The disciples were worried about Jesus placing himself (and them) in danger, but Thomas was prepared to go with Jesus and die with him too if necessary.
In the 14th chapter, at the last supper when Jesus is telling the disciples about the many dwelling-places in his Father’s house . . . how he has prepared a place for the disciples . . . and then tells them that they know the way to the place where Jesus is going. . . .
Thomas is the one who asks Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Thomas questions what Jesus means. Thomas may not get it, but he engages and tries to understand. He is like the person in the classroom or small study group who is brave enough to ask the question that we know is on everyone else’s minds but we’re afraid of asking for fear of looking silly.
Maybe the model of discipleship that we can learn from Thomas is his courage. His courage in not being afraid to ask questions and think things through for himself. His courage to say, “Jesus, I don’t get it. Can you help me out? Can you help me to understand.”
And Jesus responds.
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Jesus continues to work this way with us in our lives . . . meeting us where we are at. Responding to our questions. Giving us what we need at the moment to help us grow in faith. Presenting himself before us… graciously offering his wounds for us to touch . . . no questions asked… if indeed that’s what we need at the moment.
This gracious offering, this revealing of God’s self to us is what we know and experience as grace. The power of the risen Christ with us always . . . strengthening us, reassuring us, comforting us.
Helping us with our unbelief. AMEN!
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 04/15/2012 |
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Confirmation Sermon by the Rt. Rev. Christopher Epting on Easter Saturday
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On this Easter Saturday, we have what is sometimes called the “Longer Ending” of Mark for our Gospel reading this morning. Most scholars believe that Mark originally ended his Gospel (which was the first one ever written) one verse earlier than our text today.
In keeping with the fast-paced, urgent account of Jesus’ life which Mark gives us, we think he originally ended his gospel on a note of suspense – with Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome coming to Jesus’ tomb to anoint his body, being confronted by a young man in a white robe who tells them that Jesus had been raised, that he was going before them to Galilee, and that they should go and tell the disciples (and Peter) that they should meet him there. The women ran away and, at first, told no one anything about this incident because, Mark says, “they were afraid.” (16:8)
But, of course, the other Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life – Matthew, Luke and John – know that was NOT the end of the story, so a later editor of Mark’s Gospel summarizes what those other writers (particularly Luke) have to say about the days and weeks following that first Easter Sunday.
Specifically: that Jesus had a special encounter with Mary Magdalene after that event at the empty tomb; that he was experienced by two disciples on the road to Emmaus when he opened the Scriptures to them and was eventually known to them in the context of a common meal (known to those disciples “in the breaking of the bread.”); and that there were other so-called “resurrection appearances” often around a common meal where they ate and drank together.
Finally, this editor of Mark finishes with what Matthew and Luke both include as a kind of “Great Commission” to the disciples, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” (Mark 16:15) “And they went out and proclaimed (that) good news everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.” (Mark 16:20)
And it’s those last words of Mark’s “longer ending” that I want to concentrate on today.
First of all, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”
Christianity is a “missionary religion!” You are not “born” a Christian…you “become” a Christian. Now, you can be born into a Christian family or even into a society which considers itself Christian. But Christianity is not an inherited thing like the color of your eyes or the texture of your hair. At some point, one has to “decide” to follow Jesus (as the old Gospel hymn would have it).
That’s a very dramatic thing for some people; others simply grow into a commitment to Christ over the years, gradually. The important thing is not HOW conversion happens to you, but THAT it happens! The folks here today who are being confirmed are doing just that – they are CONFIRMING that the faith into which they were baptized is the faith they want to practice and to follow from this time forth! As a verse from one of our hymns puts it: “Here, at your table, confirm our intention/ ever to cherish the gifts you provide/ Teach us to serve without pride or pretention/ led by your Spirit/ defender and guide.”
So, we are “sent forth” to proclaim the good news just as those early apostles were in the Gospel of Mark. But what is this “good news?” What is it that we are sent out to share? Basically, in its simplest and purest form – that God loves us! That’s what the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is all about. It’s a demonstration of the fact that the Creator of this Universe, the awesome Force behind it all is . . . “kindly disposed” towards us!
God is not some impersonal Power or, worse yet, some tyrannical, whimsical Puppet Master in the sky. This creator, redeemer, and sanctifier of the world, this Living and True God . . . loves us! And not only us but, as Mark’s Gospel reminds us, loves the whole Creation. “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to all CREATION!” The Force which created this Universe and all that is in it, including us, is none other than the force of Love!
You and I are supposed to tell people about that! Lots of folks just don’t believe it! They either don’t believe in God at all, or they think that God is an angry, punishing God, or perhaps even worse than that, they think that God just doesn’t care very much one way or the other. A kind of “watchmaker God” who created the world all right, but then stands far off and watches it tick its way to oblivion.
We know better than that. We know better than that because we have seen the Human Face of God in Jesus Christ and therefore we know what kind of God we have. A God of compassion, a God of mercy and loving-kindness, a God who desires nothing more or less than to have us as partners in the building up of a world of justice and peace where all people can be what God intended them to be. That was the message of the prophets, that was the message of the apostles and the early Church. It is the message you and I are to share with our families, friends and neighbors today.
“And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.” (Mark 16:20). That’s the last bit of good news I have to share with you this morning. We’re not in this alone. Christ has promised to be with us to “the ends of the earth.” And he will “work with us” (as the text says) to help us be faithful and to convince the world of his love!
The message will be confirmed, according to these verses, “by the signs that accompany it.” Those signs are the way you live your life! No one will believe in a God of love if that God is preached by an angry person. No one will believe in a God of forgiveness if that God is preached by an unforgiving spirit. No one will believe in a God of justice and peace if that God is preached by people who are bigoted and prejudiced and full of hatred and violence.
St. Francis once famously said, “Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, use words.” That means that the way you live your life will determine what kind of witness you will be for Jesus Christ.
In a few moments I will pray for each of these confirmation candidates using these words:
“Strength, O Lord, this your servant, with your Holy Spirit; empower them for your service, and sustain them all the days of their lives.”
That’s my prayer for all of us, dear friends. That we will each be strengthened by the Holy Spirit . . . empowered to serve our Creator God . . . and be sustained in that calling all the days of our lives.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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| Sermon Date |
Sat 04/14/2012 |
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Now THAT'S something to hand on!
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+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
22 years ago St. Gregory’s staff included our first woman priest and a Roman Catholic priest. As unlikely as that may sound, it’s true. You don’t have to take my word for it― you can ask parishioners who were here 22 years ago. Just out of curiosity, are there any parishioners here this morning who remember Mother Cathleen Chittenden-Bascom― who was our Curate― and Father Don Craig― who was our Organist? {{Congregational Response}}
22 years is the same amount of time between the year 33, when Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, and the year 55 when Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians:
“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas [which is Peter’s name in Aramaic], then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.”
Just as I can find you parishioners who remember Cathy and Don from 22 years ago, Paul could find people who had seen the risen Jesus 22 years earlier.
But notice Paul’s words: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received. . . .” That’s how the good news has continued ever since― Christians handing on their experiences of the risen Lord.
In 1982 Richard Holloway, a Scottish priest living in Boston, and who later became the Presiding Bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church, wrote a series of meditations which I have used for many years on Good Friday. In one of his meditations he writes this:
“. . . I used to write [my sermons] all out in longhand in big notebooks. I still have them all, great big notebooks full of handwritten sermons. . . .
“As well as having those volumes of my own sermons, I also have a complete set of another man’s notebooks. . . . One says on it: ‘Aberdeen 1928. . . .’ In this book there are about forty sermons written out. . . . I find something moving and supportive and very wistful in these notebooks, as I think of that priest in his study in Aberdeen, all those years ago. . . . I get from these books a sense of the presence of Christ, the contemporary reality of Christ. [Christ] was real to this man as . . . [Christ] is real to me, as I wrestle with his elusive but overwhelming reality.
“. . . There is a chain of succession, an actualizing of the presence of Christ, which comes through this strange and mysterious activity of preaching. . . .
“That is one reason why I look at this man’s notebooks. I see him humbly, haltingly trying to put down on paper what can never really be put into words: the reality of the universal Christ, in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, in Aberdeen sixty years ago, and in Boston today. Preachers, for all their dumbness and confusion, nevertheless know that Christ is the real and living one.”
When I first read this, I felt a thrill of recognition, because I have a collection of sermons and notes that Father Hanner, my parish priest when I was growing up, handed on to me, just as those other man’s notebooks and sermons had been handed on to Richard Holloway.
Just a few days ago, on Maundy Thursday, Julia Miller, a former parishioner, handed on her remarkable experience of the risen Lord by posting it on Facebook. Here it is:
“I grew up in an Episcopal church that had a Maundy Thursday prayer vigil. From Maundy Thursday evening through Good Friday morning, people stayed and prayed through the night. . . . For as far back as I can remember, . . . after the Maundy Thursday service, my mother has always stayed and prayed, ‘kept watch’ with Jesus.
“On Maundy Thursday in 2005 . . . I was working the closing shift of my restaurant. I turned off the lights, set the security alarms, and [a young woman named Kim and I] walked out together into the parking lot. From around the corner of the back of the building, two men dressed in black from head to toe, including ski masks covering their faces, came running toward us. We started screaming as they grabbed us and pointed their guns at us and told us to shut up. They wanted us to let them into the building, turn off the alarm, and give them all the money out of the safe.
“As I was filling up one of the guy’s open backpack with money while he pointed his gun at my face, . . . I said out loud, ‘I’m pregnant. Please don't hurt us or my baby.’ The guy . . . lowered his gun and actually asked me how far along I was! I told him, and he said they wouldn’t hurt us, that they just wanted the money. Then he told me to lie down and started tying up my arms and legs.
“I folded my hands together and began to silently pray. I remembered that it was Maundy Thursday, and I KNEW and FELT that my mother was at her church right at that very moment praying for me and the baby. I was filled with a strength and peace like I’ve never known before. . . . But I was [also] filled with grief for [my husband] Terry, thinking about how sad he’d be to go the rest of his life without us and knowing our baby. I prayed hard for God to be with Terry for the rest of his life and bless him. I gave thanks for my mother who was constantly praying for me. And I prayed for God to forgive and bless the two robbers. . . .
“That Easter Sunday in 2005, in celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and knowing that I had the new life of my baby within me, I knew that I had also been given the gift of a new life.”
“The gift of a new life.” That’s what all of us are receiving today― the gift of new life from the resurrection of Jesus Christ from then dead.
Now that’s something to hand on!
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
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Postscript 1.
As I was getting ready for the 8 o’clock service, Mary and Fred Herlocker surprised me. They knew me from my growing-up days at the Church of the Holy Comforter where Father Hanner was the Rector. I had had no idea they were coming, nor did they have any idea that I would be talking about Father Hanner in my sermon! Mary was a nurse, and in those days I had a predilection for fainting in church. Mary was always there to revive me! (My dad always said, “Bill’s having another one of his visions!”)
Postscript 2.
Julia Miller writes: “I had always gone with my parents to St. Mary’s Korean / One in Christ Episcopal Church. I graduated college in 2000 and moved into the city for a little bit, but it didn’t work out. I moved back home in 2001 and decided I wanted to find an English-speaking church, and I knew Mrs. Potter [who had been the priest at St. Mary’s Korean / One in Christ] was at St. Gregory’s. I was at St. Gregory’s from February 2001 until November 2003. My time there was short but very meaningful.
[Mother Meredith Potter baptized Julia and officiated when Julia married Terry.]
Here is Julia’s complete Facebook text:
My Easter Story: the Gift of New Life (or, Why I Am ALWAYS Saying How Blessed I Am!)
Every year on Maundy Thursday, I become very reflective about what happened to me in 2005. While 2 months pregnant with Angela, I was robbed at gunpoint & left tied up on the floor of my work office.
Here is an article that I wrote last year about the experience:
I’ve always loved the Easter season. It is the very core of being a Christian, that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again, so that we may have new life in Him.
I grew up in an Episcopal church that had a Maundy Thursday prayer vigil. From Maundy Thursday evening through Good Friday morning, people stayed and prayed through the night. This commemorates the disciples beings asked by Jesus to stay and keep watch with him while he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was crucified (Mark 14: 32-42). For as far back as I can remember, every Easter weekend after the Maundy Thursday service, my mother has always stayed and prayed, “kept watch” with Jesus.
On Maundy Thursday in 2005, I was robbed at gunpoint and left tied up on the floor of my office. I was two months pregnant with our precious first-born child Angela, and I could feel the protective arms of God wrap around us and fill us with His love and peace throught the ordeal.
Terry & I were living and working in Minneapolis. We were blessed and delighted with the path God was putting us on. We had been married a year and a half, and we were managers for Chili’s restaurants. He had just been promoted to a General Manager position, and the company had just moved us from Milwaukee to Minneapolis. Shortly after moving, as we were settling into our new home, church, and restaurants, I became pregnant. Everything was happening just as we hoped for, and we felt completely blessed.
On Maundy Thursday, I was working the closing shift of my restaurant. After the last of the guests left, I locked all the doors and finished up my paperwork while the last of the employees finished cleaning. Whoever was last to finish always waited for me so I was not alone in the building, whether it was a cook or dishwasher or server or bartender. This evening, it was my bartender, a young woman named Kim. I turned off the lights, set the security alarms, and we walked out together into the parking lot.
From around the corner of the back of the building, two men dressed in black from head to toe, including ski masks covering their faces, came running tward us. We started screaming as they grabbed us and pointed their guns at us and told us to shut up. They wanted us to let them into the building, turn off the alarm, and give them all the money out of the safe.
As I was filling up one of the guy’s open backpack with money while he pointed his gun at my face, the other guy was tying Kim up on the floor. I said out loud, “I’m pregnant. Please don’t hurt us or my baby.” The guy with me lowered his gun and actually asked me how far along I was! I told him, and he said they wouldn’t hurt us, that they just wanted the money. Then he told me to lie down and started tying up my arms and legs.
I folded my hands together and began to silently pray. I remembered that it was Maundy Thursday, and I KNEW and FELT that my mother was at her church right at that very moment praying for me and the baby. I was filled with a strength and peace like I’ve never known before. I said to God that if it was His will that the baby and I die that night, then His will be done. I selfishly prayed that it not be painful and that the baby wouldn’t suffer, but I was at peace with whatever was going to happen to us.
But I was filled with grief for Terry, thinking about how sad he’d be to go the rest of his life without us and knowing our baby. I prayed hard for God to be with Terry for the rest of his life and bless him. I gave thanks for my mother who was constantly praying for me. And I prayed for God to forgive and bless the two robbers.
I was amazed later when reading my Bible that in the Garden of Gethsamane, Jesus prayed, “Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Matthew 26:39, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42)
I do NOT dare to compare myself with Jesus and even think that what I went through is anything like what He went through! I believe myself to be completely unworthy and undeserving of His love and grace and forgiveness. I am always wondering, who am I that He blesses me so? But that Easter Sunday in 2005, in celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and knowing that I had the new life of my baby within me, I knew that I had also been given the gift of a new life.
“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 04/08/2012 |
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Palm Sunday Sermon by the Rev. Leigh VanderMeer
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One thing preachers often hear from parishioners is that they don’t want us talking politics in our sermons.
And I agree that it’s not appropriate to use the pulpit to promote anything but the Word of God or anyone but Jesus.
Yet the truth is, what occurred on what we identify as Palm Sunday – was a decidedly political event. . . an intentional, planned demonstration in opposition to the ruling party.
Jesus processed into the city on the back of a colt being joyously welcomed by the crowds waving palm branches as any king would be welcomed upon entering a city where he rules.
On that same day on other side of the city - as noted in the book, The Last Week [1] - Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor also arrived leading a procession of imperial soldiers and horses.
Pilate’s procession proclaiming the power of the Roman empire.
Jesus’ procession proclaiming the arrival of a new authority. A king that will bring peace to the nations.
Jesus was a direct challenge not only to the Roman leaders – the religious leaders also. As he later demonstrated in the temple where he asserted not only his authority, but also his mastery over the temple, scripture and proper ritual practice. All direct challenges to the religious authorities.
It’s also important to note in the reading that when Jesus is instructing the disciples to go get him a colt to ride in on - this is the only time that Jesus uses the authoritative title of “the Lord” in referring to himself.
An act indicating the new phase of ministry he is beginning – that of embracing his identity as the son of God and beginning the painful journey to the cross – a journey necessary to bring about salvation for all - through his death and resurrection.
Up to this point in Mark’s gospel, Jesus has instructed the disciples to keep his identity secret… secret until the time is right.
That time as arrived.
Jesus knows what’s coming . . . . as do we through the gift of scripture and the passage of time. Holy week begins a time of pain, loss and somber reflection on what it means for us to contemplate not only the suffering that Jesus endured for our sake, but to also contemplate what the loss of our savior would for us.
We know too that Holy Week ends in joyous triumph with the resurrection, yet I invite you to immerse yourself in the Passion of our Lord as you prepare for Easter.
Read, pray, meditate on what this means for you. this most precious gift you’ve received – the gift of salvation – forgiveness of sin - all made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus.
I find the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services are a particularly good way to get my head wrapped around this reality.
Beginning in celebration on Thursday evening with the Lord’s Supper, yet then moments after experiencing the loss of Jesus as he’s arrested and taken away, symbolized by the stripping of the altar.
On through to Good Friday where we stay with Jesus as he hangs on the cross waiting to die.
When meditating on the events of this week, try and visualize yourself actually being there.
Imagine what it would have been like for the disciples, sharing in the bread and wine with their beloved leader, witnessing his arrest in the garden, being fearful and hiding away from being associated with him, and then seeing this trusted leader whom you love more than life itself, whipped, tortured and then nailed on a cross to die.
A painful exercise to be sure, yet one way to more deeply step into the Holy Week experience.
We walk this journey in faith with Jesus – to the cross, to death, to burial and resurrection, . . . We walk this journey in faith to forgiveness of our sins and eternal salvation for all. Amen.
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[1] Borg, Marcus J. & John Dominic Crossan , The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem, (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2006), 2.
Leigh also recommends an online article by John Dominic Crossan, which you may access by clicking here.
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Sun 04/01/2012 |
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Christ Crucified
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+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Please turn to our reading from Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth.
“The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written [in Isaiah 29:14], ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”
Throughout the ancient world there was a vast “wisdom literature” which contrasted the wise and the foolish. And most of this wisdom had nothing to do with religion. It was practical, common sense advice. And there are many examples in the Old Testament.
For example, from the Book of Proverbs (10:5, 14, 23):
“A wise child makes a glad father, but a foolish child is a mother’s grief.”
“The wise lay up knowledge, but the babbling of a fool brings ruin near.”
“Doing wrong is like sport to a fool, but wise conduct is pleasure to a person of understanding.”
Or this from Ecclesiastes (2:24, 25):
“There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil.”
Nothing religious in this, although the writer feels compelled to add: “This also, I saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”
Jesus ben Sirach, who wrote the book of Ecclesiasticus, begins with a religious take on wisdom:
“All wisdom is from the Lord. . . . It is he who created her . . . he lavished her upon those who love him. . . . To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; she is created with the faithful in the womb” (1:1, 9-10);
but he can give practical, common sense advice, too:
“Those who are patient stay calm until the right moment, and then cheerfulness comes back to them. They hold back their words until the right moment; then the lips of many tell of their good sense” (1:23, 24).
But then St. Paul turns this wisdom literature on its head: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.”
This is one of my favorite lines in Scripture, and I suspect Paul had a smile on his face when he wrote it! “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. . . !”
And that’s because the only way to know God is to know Christ crucified.
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. . . .”
To Jews, “Christ crucified” was a stumbling block― the Greek word is skandalon, from which we get the word “scandal”― for two reasons.
First, the idea of a crucified Messiah rather than a conquering Messiah was unthinkable.
And here’s the second reason, from the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy (21:22-23):
“When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree, . . . you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse.”
According to the Law of Moses, Christ crucified was Christ cursed.
To Gentiles, “Christ crucified” was foolishness― we get the word “moron” from the Greek word translated “foolishness”― also for two reasons.
First, because to the Gentiles, the gods are powerful, strong, and above all, immortal― by definition, gods do not die; and second, gods are impassive― that is to say, gods don’t suffer, gods don’t experience pain, and gods don’t care weak and mortal human beings.
And yet, even though the very idea of “Christ crucified” might be scandalous for Jews and moronic for Gentiles, Paul writes, “but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
If Paul is right, that “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God,” then how can we experience that power?
Here’s how the German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer answered that question in his book The Cost of Discipleship, first published in Germany in 1937 (pp. 99-100):
“The call to discipleship, the baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, means both life and death. [and] The wounds and scars [we] receive in the fray are living tokens of this participation in the cross of [our] Lord. . . .
“The passion of Christ strengthens [us] to overcome the sins of others by forgiving them.
“. . . As Christ bears our burdens, so we ought to bear the burdens of our [brothers and sisters].” [And the] burden which I must bear is . . . his [or her] sin. And the only way to bear that sin is by forgiving it in the power of the cross of Christ . . . .”
But the power of God is not only unleashed when we forgive another person, it is also unleashed when we know ourselves to be forgiven. . . .
In his book titled The Killing: Meditations on the Death of Christ (Wilton, CT: Morehouse Barlow, 1985, pp. 40-41), the late Presiding Bishop of Scotland, Richard Holloway wrote,
“Our Lord forgives us. . . . He is bruised and butchered by our sins, and he forgives us. This really is the heart of the Christian Gospel, and it is intolerable because most of us do not want to be forgiven. We want somehow to make up for our wrongdoing, or we want to be punished for it; we want to earn forgiveness. We want to feel a smouldering, gnawing kind of guilt, but [our Lord] will not permit it. He suffers what we do, that we may amend freely. How can we carry on one moment longer in [sin] when we see what it does to him and how he bears it? . . .
“There can only be two responses to that intolerable word of forgiveness. The first is to accept forgiveness. Identify in you what hammers in the nails. . . . Know the worst against yourself, and receive the forgiveness that is freely offered. . . .
[And the second response is to] Make amendment, so that henceforth you will not be one who drives the nails into our Lord, but one who, with him, heals the pain and shares the burden.”
If you want to know the power of God in your life, then first know yourself to be massively forgiven, and then massively forgive someone who has sinned against you.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your name. Amen.
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Sun 03/11/2012 |
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How to do the Impossible
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Preacher: The Rev. Meredith Woods Potter, Vicar Emeritus
Title: How to do the Impossible!
The apostle Paul, author of this morning’s first reading, was a devout and learned Jew. He had studied Torah most of his life, and he was not only familiar with the story of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah, but also how crucial that story was to the Jewish understanding of their covenant and relationship with God. The implication of that covenant for the first century Christian Community is the focus of today’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome.
Abraham had lived and served God faithfully for ninety- nine years. He had responded to God’s command for him to leave family and all that was familiar to be led by God to a new land. And he had continued to follow God throughout his life in the new land. But he had also suffered one of the most painful of human disappointments. He and his beloved wife Sarah had remained childless throughout their long years together. But then in his decrepit old age, when they had given up all hope of having a child, God had made an almost unbelievable promise to Abraham. God had told him he would become fruitful and multiply - his descendants so numerous that he would become the ancestor of a multitude of nations. This was not only a covenant between God and Abraham, it was to become the fundamental covenant between God and the people of Israel. All faithful Jews saw in that covenant their origins as a people of God.
During Paul’s early life as Saul the Pharisee , he had never questioned the story of Abraham and Sarah or its relevance to his own life. Like all faithful Jews Paul had interpreted the covenant with Abraham to extend to Abraham’s offspring – namely, the people of Israel. And so it was also a covenant between God and Paul. But when Paul became a follower of Jesus Christ, he was forced to consider whether that covenant was still relevant to him now as a Christian. But then he began to wonder if that covenant might now have a new and broader application. Had God meant for the covenant to extend to “many nations” beyond the tribes of Israel? Did God intend for the promise made to Abraham and Sarah to apply to a new generation of followers – followers who were being received into the community of the faithful without first having accepted the laws of Moses or participated in the ritual practice of circumcision that symbolizes the covenant with Abraham?
Paul had become convinced soon after his own conversion that the message of Jesus Christ was not meant just for Jews but was to be extended to the Gentile world. And so he wanted the Jewish believers of his day to understand how their beliefs in Jesus once rooted in their understanding of Judaism, could now be reinterpreted to include the new non-Jewish Christian community. He reminded his readers of Jesus’ own words that he had come “not to abolish the law but to complete it.” Paul felt that it was important for Jew and Gentile alike not to forsake the history of God’s covenant with the people of Israel. In particular Paul wanted this growing Christian community in Rome to understand that God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah was applicable to Jew and Gentile alike.
And indeed Paul’s reinterpretation of this ancient Torah passage, although addressed to first-century believers, has relevance for the 21st Century Christian community today. For Paul speaks of a faith that is not restricted to understandings and traditions of the past; he speaks of a faith in God’s promises that goes beyond reason or hope for the future; he speaks of a faith that calls us to the same unwavering confidence exhibited so long ago by Abraham. Paul’s words challenge us to be so rooted in God and God’s word that like Abraham we can trust God to help us accomplish the impossible.
Today we live in a world where millions of people are without faith or trust or hope. And it seems impossible for us to do anything to change their circumstance. There is violence and unemployment and hunger and homelessness right here in our own communities. The prospects for you or me being able to change our communities, much less the world, seem impossible. Like Abraham we have absolutely no grounds for thinking or even hoping that we can do the impossible. And yet Abraham refused to be intimidated by what were seemingly insurmountable circumstances; he was willing to trust that nothing was too preposterous for God. Can we do the same? Do we have the unwavering faith in God to undertake some impossible task to make our world a better place? Can we step out with sufficient faith to make a difference in our own community even if it means undertaking what seems impossible? But there are people today who have stepped out in faith – who have trusted God enough to embark upon a seemingly impossible venture to try to change the world. I think of the family of seven in a western suburb of Chicago who became concerned about the increasing homeless in their own community, and they decided to do something about that situation, and so they took into their home – 1000 ft., three bedroom, one bath, bungalow - a homeless family of five. I think of the junior high students in Long Island, who discovered while doing a school service project that there were many people in their community without health care, and so they decided to make and sell beaded bracelets to raise money to help pay medical bills. The efforts of those 13 year old girls has launched what is now a $5 million foundation that provides health care for their community. I think the small mid-west manufacturing company that was in danger of closing, but instead of outsourcing their product to a country where labor would be cheaper they chose instead to hire people in their own community. And in just yesterday morning’s newspaper, I read about a Hyde Park book club that began to change the lives and hopes of young girls in Englewood.
God preceded the covenant with Abraham by inviting him to “walk with me and be blameless.” The original Hebrew wording suggests that God was inviting Abraham to become righteous by being God’s agent and companion. Today God is inviting you and me to do the same. And what better time to begin this walk with God in complete faith and trust than right now in this season of Lent. How about it? Are you willing to step out with the faith of Abraham to partner with God to make a change in your community? Are you ready to “walk with God” and undertake something utterly impossible?
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Sun 03/04/2012 |
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Wilderness
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+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On the First Sunday after the Epiphany we had the story of Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan, and this morning on the First Sunday of Lent we revisit Jesus’ baptism. But now we learn that after the Spirit descends on Jesus with the gentleness of a dove, that same Spirit immediately drives Jesus out into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan.
But why does the Spirit drive him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan?
Here’s what James R. Edwards writes in his commentary on The Gospel according to Mark:
“. . . the temptation . . . is . . . necessary . . . lest Jesus be imagined as a divine clone . . . who had no choice or desire of his own. The temptation establishes the free, sovereign agency of Jesus, who, like all human agents, must choose to make God’s will his own. The significance of that choice can be realized only in the context of an alternative and opposite choice posed by God’s adversary. Hence, Jesus must be ‘tempted by Satan’” (p. 40).
The Church begins Lent with Jesus’ baptism and his struggle in the wilderness to remind us that we too must choose to make God’s will our own.
As you may remember, Matthew and Luke also have stories about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, but Mark’s Gospel is the only one that refers to “the wild beasts.”
James Edwards sees the wild beasts as “a very specific point of contact with Mark’s Roman readers. Tacitus [a first century Roman senator and historian] spoke of [the Emperor] Nero’s savagery toward Christians in the sixties of the first century in these words: ‘[the Christians] were covered with the hides of wild beasts and torn to pieces by dogs’ (Ann. 15:44).
“Given the ravaging of Christians by ferocious animals during Nero’s reign, . . . Mark [mentions] ‘with the wild beasts’ in order to remind his Roman readers that Christ, too, was thrown to wild beasts, and as the angels ministered to him, so, too, will they minister to Roman readers facing martyrdom’” (p. 41).
Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch who lived at the same time as Tacitus, was one of many Christians condemned to fight with wild beasts in Rome. Near the end of his journey from Antioch to Rome, he wrote a letter to the Church about his impending martyrdom:
“I am God’s wheat, and I am being ground by the teeth of wild beasts to make a pure loaf for Christ. . . . But if I suffer, I shall be emancipated by Jesus Christ; and united to him, I shall rise to freedom. . . . Come fire, cross, battling with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs, crushing of my whole body, cruel tortures of the devil― only let me get to Jesus Christ!” (Romans 4-5)
If Mark can describe the wilderness for first-century Romans in terms of “wild beasts,” how might we describe the wilderness for twenty-first century Americans?
I’ve just begun reading Bob Johansen’s book on leadership titled Get There Early: Sensing the Future to Compete in the Present. He describes two aspects of the twenty-first century wilderness.
The first aspect is the contrast between problems and dilemmas:
“Most of today’s leaders . . . were trained to problem-solve. They see problems everywhere, but they have trouble recognizing dilemmas. . . . Dilemmas are problems that cannot be solved, problems that won’t go away. . . . Most of today’s leaders were never taught how to win when faced with dilemmas” (p. xvii).
The second aspect of today’s twenty-first century wilderness is defined by the acronym “VUCA”―
the V stands for Volatility,
the U stands for Uncertainty,
the C stands for Complexity, and
the A stands for Ambiguity.
The acronym originated in the 1990s “from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania― the U.S. Army’s graduate school for generals-to-be. . .” (pp. 1-2).
Both aspects can be seen in the recent debate about contraception coverage. The “problem-solving” approach sees this debate in terms of religious freedom versus health care, but it has all the hallmarks of a dilemma: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
The same can be said about energy policy. The “problem-solving” approach sees this in terms of “drill, drill, drill” versus solar panels and wind turbines, but again, energy policy has all the hallmarks of a dilemma: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
So then, how do we respond to the dilemmas which confront us personally? Here is Johansen’s response:
“In order to thrive . . . people must . . . turn around the uncomfortable VUCA acronym by . . . having Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility” (p. 2).
While appreciating Johansen’s analysis, it seems to me that Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity describe Jesus’ world as well as ours:
We can see Volatility in the crowds that shout “Hosanna!” to Jesus on Palm Sunday and “Crucify him!” on Good Friday.
We can see Uncertainty as Jesus wrestles with God’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane.
We can see Complexity when Jesus is asked whether it’s lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not.
And we can see Ambiguity when the Pharisees and scribes bring to Jesus a woman taken in adultery.
But we can also see how Jesus turns it all around when he replaces Volatility with Vision and says “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
We can see how Jesus turns it all around when he replaces Uncertainty with Understanding, and prays to God “your will be done” (Matthew 26:36-46).
We can see how Jesus turns it all around when he replaces Complexity with Clarity and says, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:15-22).
And we can see how Jesus turns it all around when he replaces Ambiguity with Agility and says to the Pharisees and Scribes, “Let the one without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:2-11).
As we enter our own particular wildernesses this Lent, may Jesus grant us his Vision, his Understanding, his Clarity, and his Agility, so that we may have the grace both to choose God’s will and to do God’s will.
Amen.
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Sun 02/26/2012 |
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Pride and Prejudice
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+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Just this past week I finished reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. If you haven’t read the book or seen one of the film adaptations, it’s the story of a family with five daughters, chief among them Jane and Elizabeth, a gentleman named Mr. Darcy, and, sad to say, an unbearable Anglican priest! The two things almost all of the characters have in common are Pride and Prejudice― although it takes different forms. Elizabeth has the sort of Pride and Prejudice we usually think of― pride in her character and prejudice against people. On the other hand, Jane has the inverse pride that belittles her own deserving, and prejudice in favor of people no matter how undeserving!
Near the beginning of the book, Elizabeth and her sister Mary and their friend Miss Lucas are discussing Mr. Darcy:
“‘His pride,’ said Miss Lucas, ‘does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, every thing in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.’
“‘That is very true,’ replied Elizabeth, ‘and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.’
“‘Pride,’ observed Mary . . . ‘is a very common failing I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed, that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonimously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.’’’
On that score, our reading from 2nd Kings could be titled Pride and Prejudice!
Naaman certainly has, as Miss Lucas would say, an excuse for pride: he is the “commander of the army of the king of Aram,” “a great man and in high favor with his master,” and even the Lord of Israel is on his side! But when Elisha won’t come out to see him, or call on the name of the Lord, and wave his hand over the leprosy, but simply tells him to wash in the insignificant Jordan River, Naaman’s pride and vanity are terribly wounded and he goes off in a rage!
Elisha’s pride and vanity is also on display. He tells the king of Israel, “Let [Naaman] come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel”― namely, himself! And Elisha refuses to greet Naaman personally, sending a messenger instead.
What a contrast with this morning’s Gospel! There is neither Pride nor Prejudice in the leper who comes to Jesus, begging him, kneeling before him, and not at all presuming that Jesus will choose to heal him. Nor is there any Pride or Prejudice in Jesus, who, moved with compassion, touches the untouchable and heals him.
Here’s what the third century Christian theologian Origen wrote of this passage:
“And why did he touch him, since the Law forbade the touching of a leper? He touched him to show that ‘all things are clean to the clean’ [Titus 1:15]. . . . So he touches him in his untouchability, that he might instruct us in humility; that he might teach us that we should despise no one, or abhor them, or regard them as pitiable, because [of] some wound of their body or some blemish. . .” (emphasis added).
In other words, Jesus touches the leper to teach us that Pride and Prejudice have no place in the Christian heart.
And that brings us to Baptism, and these two questions especially in the Baptismal Covenant: “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” and “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 305)
And now Origen has a question for us: “Let us consider, beloved, if there be anyone here that has the taint of leprosy in his soul, or the contamination of guilt in his heart? If he has, instantly adoring God, let him say, ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.’”
Baptism is all about making us clean, as the Celebrant says when blessing the water: “Now sanctify this water, we pray you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, that those who here are cleansed from sin and born again may continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior.”
I will never again here the story of Naaman’s baptism without the conviction that he was cleansed from both leprosy and sin in the river Jordan; and without remembering Pride and Prejudice.
Later in the book, Elizabeth finally learns the truth about Mr. Darcy:
“She grew absolutely ashamed of herself. ― Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd.
“‘How despicably have I acted!’ she cried. ― ‘I, who have prided myself on my discernment! ― I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have . . . gratified my vanity, in useless or blameable distrust. ― How humiliating is this discovery! ― Yet, how just a humiliation! ― Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly.’”
Yet for us as Christians, “love, not vanity, must be our folly.” As the twentieth century Christian mystic Evelyn Underhill wrote:
“Love is always to be recognized and adored, for it is the signature of God lying upon creation; often smudged and faded, almost blotted out, yet legible to the eyes that have been cleansed by prayer. It is the peculiar wisdom of the saints that they can read the letters of the Name wherever found and in whatever script; as Francis read them on the face of the Crucified, in the marred features of the leper, and written in the air by the moving wings of the free birds.”
Thanks be to God.
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Sun 02/12/2012 |
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Crowd Appeal vs. Fulfilling Our Mission
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Preacher: The Rev. Meredith Woods Potter
Title: Crowd Appeal vs. Fulfilling Our Mission
Today there are about 2.1 billion Christians in the world. When we realize that the “followers of the way” began with only 12 twelve disciples, 2.1 billion Christians seems like a lot of church growth. But that is quite literally a “glass one-third full” view of Christianity, because that same number, based on the world’s population, would indicate that two-thirds of the people in our world are not Christians. Jesus’ teachings, his healing ministry and miracles, his promises of forgiveness and eternal life have not been life-changing for the majority of the world. Why not? Are we Christians inadvertently perhaps keeping a big secret? Ironically, even Jesus began his ministry trying to keep secret his identity as the Messiah. Whenever he was recognized by someone, he would invariably tell them, “Don’t tell anybody. Keep it quiet.” Why do you suppose Jesus wanted to keep who he was a big secret?
In today’s Gospel Jesus has just begun his public ministry. Already he has become popular and crowds are following him. Yet this morning we read of three specific incidents where Jesus avoids public recognition. As our reading begins Jesus has left the synagogue in Capernaum and ignores the crowds who have begun to follow him, as he goes directly to the home of Simon and his brother Andrew. There he finds Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever; he quietly takes her hand and the fever leaves her immediately. Surely this healing is a miracle – but it doesn’t get proclaimed publicly as such. Jesus doesn’t use the event to dazzle the crowds which has followed him; neither Simon nor Andrew throw open the shutters and cry out, “Hey, a miracle just happened in here.” Even the woman herself seems somewhat nonchalant, as she arises from her bed and resumes her role of providing hospitality. Why the big secret?
That same evening a second incident occurs. A huge crowd gathers bringing to Jesus all who are sick or possessed with demons. Mark records “the whole city was there at the door.” Think about that description for a moment. Try to imagine what it would look like if everyone who lives in Deerfield showed up at the front door of Marian House – Deerfield and Wilmot roads would be jammed with people; Mitchell Park, the parking lot, the field north of Marian House would soon fill up; people would begin to trample across the lawn of the rectory; and people who were carrying the sick would push and shove trying to get as close to the door as possible. And then Jesus came out of the house; perhaps he sits on the front stoop, and, one by one, he heals those who are sick and casts out demons from those who are crazy. But he doesn’t let the demons speak. Why not? Our Gospel tells us: “they knew him.” Jesus won’t let the demons identify him as “the Messiah.” The whole city was there. What better time and place to make his mission and ministry known? Why the big secret?
In the final scene of this morning’s Gospel, Jesus continues to avoid recognition. While the others in the household are still asleep he manages to avoid the crowds and sneaks off to a deserted place by himself. Simon searches for him (the actual Greek translation is that Simon “chases him down.”) He interrupts Jesus who is praying and says, “Am I glad I found you. Where have you been? The whole countryside is talking about you. You’re the biggest thing to hit Galilee. This is your big chance.” But Jesus is not ready for recognition or accolades. He replies, “it’s time for us to move on, and if anyone asks who I am, don’t tell them.” Why doesn’t he want to be recognized and acclaimed? Why the big secret?
Why the big secret? Why does Jesus continue to avoid public recognition? (Well, maybe he’s an introvert. ) Three times in this morning’s Gospel he has walked away from an opportunity to dazzle the crowds. We read: “His fame spread everywhere.” Yet he doesn’t take advantage of this new-found popularity. We’re told: “The whole city came out to see him.” But he avoided the public gathering and went inside to be with Simon and his mother-in-law. Simon tells him: “Everybody in Galilee is searching for you.” But Jesus decides to move on to another village. There is obviously something about the crowds that Jesus wanted to avoid. What is it about crowds?
In our society the size of the crowd is the de facto measure of success – a movie is rated by the crowds who attend the opening performances; we rate TV shows by the number of viewers; and a book becomes a best-seller - not on the basis of whether the book is any good – not whether anyone actually reads the book - but on the basis of how many buy the book. And of significance to Christian communities, we tend to judge the success of a church by how many people attend a particular church.
Last Sunday at the annual meeting our rector pointed to the fact that our membership is flat – about the same number of members today as when he arrived 24 years ago. Has St. Gregory’s failed as a Christian community because our numbers are not bigger? Should our primary goal for the coming year be to attract more members – to gather larger crowds at every service (and as a side benefit, increase our income)?
Before we answer that question, let’s consider what crowds connoted to Jesus. Crowds in the Bible are not signs of success; crowds in the Bible are signs of the fickleness of the world. It was the crowds which wanted to use Jesus, not follow him. It was the crowds who one day sang “Hosanna” and the next day shouted, “crucify him!” Jesus turned his back on pursuing the crowds in his ministry for the same reasons that he had already turned his back on the temptations in the wilderness. For Jesus understood that satisfying the crowds had little to do with fulfilling his mission.
Jesus was very clear about his mission. The Gospel makes it clear that Jesus knew what “he had come out to do.” And so today’s Gospel is an invitation to us to think about how we are to fulfill our mission during the coming year at St. Gregory’s - how we will measure our success as a community of faith. This morning’s Gospel suggests that our primary mission is to do God’s work in the world – to be Christ in the world. The very good news that we learned at last week’s annual meeting is that our parish tithe for mission and outreach has been restored for the coming year. That means that for every hundred dollars you contribute to St. Gregory’s, $10 dollars will go to help others; for every thousand dollars the vestry spends, one hundred dollars will go for mission and outreach. We not only have the opportunity – we have the funds – to partner with Jesus in feeding the hungry (in far more ways than through our participation in Community Meals and support of our local food pantries); we can ensure a quality education for the world’s children by purchasing uniforms for children to attend school as far away as Kenya and tutoring children as nearby as Waukegan. We can provide nets to help stem the tide of malaria in South African, and we can work to ensure that people in our own county have adequate health care – especially our senior citizens. And if we concentrate on our mission – what Christ is calling us to do – and fulfilling that mission, I’m convinced that we will grow this Church. And in so doing, we will also help bring the whole world to Christ.
| File size |
33 K |
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 02/05/2012 |
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