Monday, July 27, 2009

Freedom from our Bad Decisions

July 26th, 2009
Proper 12, Year B
2 Samuel 11:1-15
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21

This is a brief typed version of the sermon I gave...I did not write out a full text.
Last week, I had the privilige of being on a mission trip with 17 of our youth. We stayed at the Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Houston and served at several organizations around Houston, largely serving Houston's homeless population. The trip was a wonderful experience for me and the youth, and each day, at least one of the youth said the place we worked was their favorite one and he or she wanted to come back.

The trip was not without conflicts, as one might expect. Several of our youth had conflicts with one another, but they all saught reconciliation (sometimes with a bit of coaxing). They admitted their faults to each other, appologized, and were reconciled to each other.

We all make poor decisions in our lives which hurt others; that is part of being human. Even in our baptismal covenant, we state that we will fall into sin and then when we do, we will repent, and return to the Lord. The first part of repentance is admitting fault, saying we did something wrong.

I've been careful not to say repentance involved admitting a mistake. In an incitful article, Leonard Pitts Jr. points out the falacy of calling our poor dicisions, "mistakes". (see article - http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/1127813.html)

True admission of guilt involves owning up to the poor decisions we make. Saying, "I made a mistake", on the other hand, amounts to a denial of culpability. "The serpent made me do it," Eve said. "Eve made me do it," Adam said. "I'm sorry you thought I was insulting you," one might say. All such appologies deny our fault.

This is the problem we find with David in the reading this morning. He made an excedingly poor decision by knowingly having an affair with Bathsheba and then he denied culpability, trying to cover up his poor decision by inviting Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, home so he could be with her and think the child was his. He built up lie upon lie, finally choosing to have Uriah killed than admit his fault.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Enduring in our Faith

Brad Sullivan
Proper 7, Year B
Sunday, June 21st, 2009 (Father’s Day)
Emmanuel, Houston
1 Samuel 17:32-49
Psalm 9:16-20
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Mark 4:35-41


What about the Christian faith keeps you having faith in Christ? What about the Christian faith keeps you going? What soothes you when you are stressed? What calms you when you are angry? What comforts you when you are saddened or lifts you up when you are downtrodden? What brings you peace when you are frantic? What humbles you when you are proud? What brings love to your heart when you are feeling irritated or selfish? In short, what about the Christian faith helps you to endure in your faith?

Endurance seems to be something of a theme in our lessons today. Paul mentions endurance explicitly in his letter, writing about the endurance he and Timothy have in their faith through many hardships. Paul is also alluding, however, to the endurance he prays the Corinthians will have.

In various ways since Paul began the church in Corinth, the Corinthians seem to have fallen away from the faith they had been given. By reading Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we see that some argued over who had the true Christianity, dividing over which apostle or teacher they followed. Some became arrogant. Some became lax in their morality. Some seemed to believe proper religious practice to be more important the faith signified by that religious practice.

From 2 Corinthians, we see that further divisions came in the church by some following supposed apostles who were flashier than Paul, who seemed possibly to preach a lax version of Christianity, flashy, fun, without much substance. Whatever these false apostles preached, it was enough to lead some of the Corinthians to fall away from the faith they had received from Paul.

Perhaps Christianity seemed too difficult and so some Corinthians fell away. Perhaps after the excitement of conversion had died down, Christianity seemed rather dry, dull, and lifeless to some of the Corinthians and so they fell away. Perhaps the fighting within the Corinthian church itself over who was right led some people to fall away. For whatever reason, we find in Corinth, a church divided, a church lax in its faith, it’s morals, it’s works of charity, and we hear these words of Paul encouraging them to endure, to keep or regain their faith.

There is a similar theme of endurance in the story of David and Goliath. As soon as David offers to fight Goliath, he is told that he is unable. The Israelites had been totally cowed by the size of Goliath. No one else had even offered to go fight him. They were afraid not only of losing their lives, but of giving all of Israel into the hands of the Philistines. Goliath was the Philistines’ champion, waiting on a champion from Israel, the deal being that whoever won the fight would win the entire war for their country.

So David was fighting for his life and for all of Israel, no pressure. Then, once he volunteers, the king, his brothers, Goliath himself all tell him he can’t win. Goliath was too big for David to stand a chance. It was like putting me up against Hulk Hogan, but David didn’t care about Goliath’s size. David cared about the fact that God would be fighting for him. David seemed to remember the times in the past when God fought for Israel. Israel had defeated many enemies not because of their military might, but because of their dependence on God.

From a human point of view, the Israelites drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea by Moses waiving around a stick. The city of Jericho was taken because Joshua had a box and some trumpets. When Gideon defeated the Amalekites and Midianites, he had 32,000 men with him, but God decided that was too many, so he left Gideon with only 300 men, and they won the battle with some torches and trumpets. Of course in all of these cases, God was the one fighting for the people of Israel. God was teaching the Israelites to trust in him rather than in their own might.

Fortunately for Israel, David seemed to remember this lesson when he fought Goliath. Unlike Saul and the other soldiers, David trusted in God. He endured in his faith against a seemingly unbeatable enemy.

Now look at today’s Gospel. Jesus was again teaching his disciples to endure in their faith. Now I love this story; it’s very funny to me. Just imagine being in the boat with this huge windstorm and then looking back and seeing Jesus asleep, his mouth hanging open, snoring in the back of the boat. Of course the disciples were upset, “Dude, wake up, Jesus; what are you thinking?”, and of course Jesus wasn’t bothered by the storm. He knew he could handle it. So, he got to teach the disciples again to keep their faith. “Why are you afraid?” he asked them, “Have you still no faith?” He was teaching them to endure in their faith even though they were afraid.

So in the three lessons we heard this morning, we have several calls to endure in our faith and several reason why we might not endure in our faith. Perhaps like the disciples, we are at times afraid. Perhaps like the Israelites, we sometimes forget who God is. Perhaps like the Corinthians, we spend too much time fighting over who is right. Perhaps our faith sometimes loses its luster. Perhaps we’re at times led astray by false apostles. In many different ways, we may find ourselves throughout our lives without much faith in God. The key is to endure. Keep striving after God.

When God seems remote, remember those times when he felt near. When afraid, remember that God is with you, even in death. When God seems boring, and this might be the most insidious, remember, “all that glitters is not gold.” Faith in God may not be flashy. It often isn’t. Faith in God won’t necessarily fulfill our desires for wealth or pleasure, and faith in God my certainly seem boring and slow compared to the fast pace and flashy things of our society. Many activities are more “fun” than prayer. There are many things or activities that are more instantly gratifying than prayer. There are many things or activities that are more instantly gratifying than service to others. There are many things or activities that are more instantly gratifying than following the commandments of God as a healthy and helpful way of life.

Faith in God, however, will help us endure when many other things fail us. A life of service to others will fulfill our lives vastly more than a life lived only for oneself. A life lived following God’s commandments will prove a more healthy and helpful way of life than many other ways of life which seem more instantly gratifying. Enduring in our faith in God is neither easy nor, but enduring in our faith in God will carry us well through this life.

So, looking again at each of our lives and how the texts we heard today speak to our lives, I have several questions to ask. Who is your Goliath; who or what makes you forget who God is? What’s your windstorm; what has you so afraid that you lose your trust in God? Who is your false apostle; who or what pulls you away from your faith in God and God’s way of life for you?

Now, holding those in your mind, think also to your answers to the questions with which I began today. What about the Christian faith keeps you having faith in Christ? What about the Christian faith keeps you going? What soothes you when you are stressed? What calms you when you are angry? What comforts you when you are in need? What brings you peace when you are frantic? What humbles you when you are proud? What brings love to your heart when you are feeling irritated or selfish? We may not have answers to all of those questions yet, but that’s one reason we keep striving, to find more peace, to find, more love, so that we can endure. Amen.