Believing is Seeing - All Saints' Sunday

Brad Sullivan
All Saints’ Sunday, Year B
Thursday, November 4, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

“It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.  This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9)  Isaiah gives us beautiful images of God’s victory over death, when God will swallow up death for ever and wipe away every tear.  On All Saints’ Day and All Saints’ Sunday, we’re celebrating God’s victory over death, celebrating the promises that God has given us. 

We’re celebrating the lives of the saints, both those who are models for the church and those who are models only for us, our loved ones who have died and yet are alive in the Lord.  We’re celebrating God’s victory over death in them…and we’re waiting.

On Thursday, All Saints’ Day, I addressed these same readings with this idea of waiting for God.  We’re waiting for God’s ultimate victory over death.  God’s already won that victory in Jesus’ resurrection, but we’re still waiting for its final inauguration.  We’re still waiting for the day of joy and gladness which Isaiah describes. 

Martha and Mary were waiting for Jesus to come heal their brother Lazarus, and Jesus, it turns out, was waiting for Lazarus to die in order not to heal him, but to raise him from the dead, to show us that God really is more powerful than death.  It seems that Jesus was also often waiting for Mary and Martha to trust in him. 

When Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days,” Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”  Trust in me, Jesus was saying.  Trust in me, Jesus is still saying.  Trust in me, and if you can’t, I’ll wait for you until you can.  Much of scripture refers to us waiting on God, but there is also much that speaks of God’s patience, God waiting on us, God’s patience and steadfast love for us.

Then we also have the idea of us waiting to see our loved ones again.  When our loved ones die, we believe they are alive with God in Christ, and we believe we will be reunited with them as we are fully united with God.  Might, then, they also be waiting for us.  Might the saints of our lives be waiting for us with as much anticipation and excitement as we are waiting for them?  Might they, with us and God together all be waiting for God’s final victory over death? 

I love that thought, that we’re all together, bound with God in Christ.  Our loved ones are alive with God in Christ, and we are made one with God in Christ.  While we’re waiting for the day which Isaiah describes, we’re also already one with our loved ones, one with the saints because we are one with Jesus.  That was his prayer to his disciples, that they would be one, just as the Father and he are one. 

We have these wonderful promises from Jesus, and yet, how do we know these promises are true?  Doubt is something with which many of us wrestle. Like Martha and Mary, we find disappointment in our lives and sometimes we may wonder if God’s final victory over death really is true.  How do we know?  Well, in any scientifically provable way, we don’t know.  We don’t.  We believe, and we let that belief to be real enough to change our lives. 

Our belief colors the world in which we live.  In one world, there is no resurrection, no life after death, no ultimate victory of God.  In another world, there is resurrection, there is life after death, and there is God’s ultimate victory.  I don’t know in a scientifically provable way which world is true, but I do know in which world I’d rather live.  I know the hope, and peace, and courage which believing gives me.  I don’t know, but I believe.  Some of us have family and friends who no longer believe.  Perhaps the death of a loved one is what led that person not to believe.  Maybe talking about our belief not as knowledge but as belief which gives hope, peace, and courage is a way we can explain our faith to those who don’t share it.

Believing that we truly are one with the saints and one with God can be difficult, at times, because we generally cannot feel or hear or see the saints or God, but what did Jesus tell Martha?  “See the glory of God that you may believe?”  No.  Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”  Believing is seeing. 

Believing in the resurrection of Jesus, believing in the raising of Lazarus, believing in God’s victory over death gives us hope and joy, peace and courage even as we wait.  As Paul writes in Romans 5:

…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

We’ve been given a beautiful promise of a glorious future in which death is no more, in which God will destroy the shroud that is cast over all peoples, and he will swallow up death forever and wipe away the tears from all faces.  Then it will be said, this is our God for whom we have waited, let us rejoice.  In the mean time, we all wait together.  The communion of saints wait together with us, united together with God in Christ as God waits for us and we for God. 

So, with this idea of all of us waiting together, I’m going to end with the words of a song called, “I Will Wait by a band called Mumford and Sons, off their new album, “Babel”. 

And I came home

Like a stone
And I fell heavy into your arms
These days of darkness
Which we've known
Will blow away with this new sun

And I'll kneel down

Wait for now
And I'll kneel down
Know my ground

And I will wait, I will wait for you

And I will wait, I will wait for you
Amen.

Two Wolves - All Saints' Day

Brad Sullivan
All Saints’ Day, Year B
Thursday, November 1, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

God will wipe away every tear.  God will destroy the shroud that is cast over all peoples…he will swallow up death forever.

We’re still waiting.  We will wait.  We’re with Mary and Martha…Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

Raising Lazarus, Jesus’ resurrection.  Shows us that our waiting will not be in vain.  The one who had power over death, Jesus, is the same one who was raised from the dead.  “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5)

How do we know?  We don’t.  We believe, and we allow that belief to be real enough to change our lives. 

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside of people.  He said, “The battle is between two wolves inside us all.  One is evil.  It is anger, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, self-pity, guilt, inferiority, lies, superiority, and ego.  The other is good.  It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, truth, compassion, and faith.”  The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”  The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

“The Two Wolves,” (based on an old Cherokee folktale)

Sometimes we may feel crazy for believing in the resurrection, for believing in Jesus, for believing that one day God will wipe away every tear.  Look at the death and destruction all around us.  Look at hurricane Sandy.  How can we believe that God will destroy the shroud that is cast over all of us, that God will swallow up death for ever?  Sometimes I wonder, how can we believe this.  How can I believe this?  Doesn’t it make more sense not to? 

We could believe in waiting on God.  Doing so gives us hope.  We could, stop believing.  We could believe that waiting on God is simply waiting on a train which doesn’t come.  We could find such belief to be ridiculous. 

Two beliefs.  Two worlds.  One in which death has the ultimate victory over life, one in which life has the ultimate victory over death.  Which world becomes alive in us and changes our life?  The one in which we choose to believe.  Amen.

But Little Monkeys Sometimes Forget

Brad Sullivan
Proper 24, Year B
Sunday, October 21, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Job 38:1-7 [34-41]
Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45

The priests in ancient Israel were both the greatest and the least among the Israelites.  They were great because they worked in the service of God’s temple, assisting all Israelites in their religious practices and sacrifices.  The priests were the least of all because they were given no land of their own.  They had no cattle or crops.  Their livelihood was entirely dependent upon the people with whom they lived.  They weren’t mighty rulers above all of the people.  They were servants of the people.

I can’t help but think this was in Jesus’ mind when he told his disciples that the greatest among them must be servants.  James and John wanted glory, to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand, and not only does Jesus tell them “no”, but when the other disciples began grumbling about their request, Jesus tells them they are acting like Gentiles, rather than like Jews. 

Y’all are seeking greatness and glory over and above each other, but that’s not who we are, Jesus was telling them.  Yeah, that’s how the Gentiles do things.  The rest of the world, they scramble and fight to be better than each other, to gain mastery over each other.  They see each other as adversaries and are constantly at odds with each other, but that’s not who we are, Jesus told his disciples.

We’re governed by God’s law, God’s way, God’s will, to be servants of each other.  We’re called to be advocates for each other, not adversaries.  Greatness for us comes not from mastery over each other, but from serving each other, caring for each other, being brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers to each other. 

The disciples were forgetting who they were as God’s people.  Rome was ruling over Israel, and there was plenty of Roman influence in Israel.  With so much Roman influence, it was easy for first century Jews to forget who they were as God’s people.  They were called to be a light to influence the Gentiles of Rome, not to become more like Rome.  Jesus’ disciples were becoming like Rome, wanting to rule over each other, and so Jesus was reminding them to be who they were and to be a light to enlighten Rome.

Here we are now, two thousand years later, and we’re still called to be the light of Christ to the world which is so in need of the Gospel and the Gospel way of life, and here we are, two thousand years later, still at times being influenced by the world, rather than being a light in enlighten the world.  Right now, I’m thinking specifically of how we at times view money and finances.  This time of year, our annual stewardship campaign is just getting underway, and many often think of this in terms of an annual fund-raising campaign, as though we were a non-profit business organization trying to raise funds from our base of donors. 

That is how non-profit businesses work, but that’s not who we are.  We are not a business trying to raise funds.  We are the household of God trying to manage well the affairs of the household. 

We are the household of God, called, not to greatness, not to mastery over the world or each other.  We are called to be servants, the household of God called to be servants of God’s peace.  As members of God’s household, we all then contribute to the household as we are able.  We pool our financial resources together, each contributing as we are able, and pledge what we think we’ll be able to contribute to our household in the coming year.  That way, to manage our affairs well, we can draw up a budget and pay for our ministers, the employees of the household, the building, outreach efforts, pastoral care efforts, etc. 

I can’t help but realize as I’m saying all of this that it does seem a little self serving for the priest to be asking us all to contribute to the finances of the household which pay my salary and for the house in which my family lives.  Does that not seem like the Gentile leaders Jesus was talking about, lording over people, asking for money?  I don’t believe it is. 

St. Mark’s has decided that we want a full time priest who doesn’t have to have another job, but can do full time ministry here at St. Mark’s.  So, we’ve decided to pool our resources to allow that to happen.  We’ve decided we want a church building and parish hall in which to gather for worship, fellowship, and formation.  So we pool more of our resources to make and keep our home here at St. Mark’s.

We also give of our time and talent:  choir, ministry to youth, inreach, pastoral care, outreach, altar guild, children’s ministries, ministries of prayer, teaching, serving on the vestry, etc.  In all of these ways, we give of ourselves to build up the household of God here at St. Mark’s

We give to manage our household well and to be the light of Christ to those in the household and to carry the light of Christ to those beyond the household, but why do we have this household of God?  We have this household of God and contribute of ourselves to the household of God because we believe the Gospel is the greatest story there is.  We believe in the Gospel and the power of the Gospel to heal and to transform lives.  We believe in Jesus, in God become human for our sake.  We believe the words of Psalm 62:1, “For God alone my soul in silence waits; from him comes my salvation.” 

We believe that since Eden, and our distancing ourselves from God, that we desire with all our hearts to be fully reunited with God.  We believe that salvation is being reunited with God, and we believe that salvation comes from God, who united himself fully to humanity in Jesus, that we might be fully united to him through Jesus.  We believe in the light of Christ, brought into the world to dispel the darkness, and that darkness cannot overcome the light of Christ. 

We believe in the peace God gives us through the light he brings us, and we believe in bringing that light to others.  We believe in being servants of God’s peace. That is at least what I believe.  That is at least why I am a part of the household of God. 

I believe in Jesus.  I believe in the healing and reconciliation he brings.  I believe in his call to his disciples to be servants rather than masters.  I believe, as St. Francis prayed, in being servants of God’s peace, to share the light of Christ here within the household of God at St. Mark’s and then brining the light of Christ with us as we go into the world every minute of every day.  Lord, help us to bring your light with us wherever we go.  Lord, make us servants of your peace.  Amen.

My God and My All

Brad Sullivan
Proper 23, Year B
Sunday, October 14, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Psalm 22:1-15
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31

St. Francis of Assisi embodied the teaching of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading.  Francis was the son of a wealthy merchant, and Francis himself was very rich with many possessions, like the man in today’s reading.  Gradually, however, Francis began to identify more with the poor and needy and decided to give up his possessions to serve the poor, doing exactly what Jesus instructed the rich man in today’s Gospel reading.  I don’t know that Francis had today’s gospel passage in mind; the stories simply say that Francis identified with the plights of the poor and decided to help. 

Francis found joy in living out the kingdom of God life, serving those less fortunate than he, and devoting his life to that service and prayer.  One of Francis’ constant prayers was “My God and my all.”  He would spend hours in prayer with arms outstretched, praying over and over, “my God and my all.”  Loving God, loving people, and living God’s life of love, living in God’s kingdom were everything for St. Francis.  “My God and my all.”

In our Gospel story, we have the story of the rich man who wants to live the life of love in God’s kingdom as well.  He wants to inherit eternal life, but he’s stuck.  He’s trapped.  This is a good guy who loves God and follows God’s commandments.  Jesus, we are told, looked on this man and loved.  “[One thing you lack],” Jesus told him, “go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

The man couldn’t do it.  He trusted in and loved God so far, but then the love of his stuff became too great for him to trust any further, and he was stymied in his desire to live the life of love in God’s kingdom.  We might read this story and think there was great judgment and condemnation for this man.  “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God,” Jesus said! (Mark 10:23)  This could be read as a statement condemning those with wealth, but such a reading would be a mistake.

In our Hebrews reading, we are told that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, a priest who is able to sympathize with our weakness, having been tested in every way as we are (yet without sin).  We may, therefore, Hebrews tells us, approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

In Jesus, we do not have a great high priest who condemns us for our weakness, but one who sympathizes with our weakness.  Jesus was sympathized with the rich man in our Gospel lesson.  When Jesus said, “how hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God,” he wasn’t declaring some rule that God had set up, that the rich are unworthy of his kingdom.  What would we say to someone who has done well in his or her job?  As of your last raise, you’ve reached the net worth threshold, and you’re no longer fit for God’s kingdom. 

Of course not, Jesus didn’t say, because that man is rich, he cannot enter God’s kingdom.  Rather, Jesus looked on him and loved him, and when the man ended his desire to live the life of God’s kingdom, choosing his possessions over God’s kingdom, Jesus sympathized with him, saying, “how hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23)  I don’t believe Jesus was declaring the rich man to be a terrible person.  I believe Jesus felt sympathy for him because the rich man wanted to be near to God, wanted to follow Jesus and to live God’s life of love, but there was something holding him back.  He wanted to live God’s life of love, to live in God’s kingdom, unless it cost him his possessions.

  Jesus sympathized with the man, knowing the pull our possessions have on us.  Our stuff can sometimes end up owning us, our things sometimes seeming overly important to us.  Deep down, however, we understand Jesus’ teaching.  How often have you heard, when people have lost all of their things in a hurricane or flood, they’ll say, “that was just stuff; the important thing is, my family is safe.”  Deep down, we understand that our possessions are just things, but they do still have pull on us.

Our things give us security, give us some sense of permanence and order.  Our things help give us some control over our lives and help us be more independent.  That’s just natural, but I think Jesus would teach us to seek permanence and order in God and people, and I think Jesus would teach us to be a little less independent and a little more dependent.

For weeks now, however, Jesus has told us the Kingdom of God belongs to children, that we should become like children, now, kids still like things, but children are also dependent.  Kids are knee deep in neediness.  Sometimes, they’re lucky enough even to know that. 

As we grow older we generally become more self sufficient, less needy, and if we’re very unfortunate, we may even come to believe that we are entirely self sufficient.  The more stuff we have, the more self sufficient way may feel.  Of course we’re actually dependent on that stuff.  That may have been one of the problems with the rich man in today’s Gospel reading. 

Again, I don’t think there is anything wrong or bad about being rich.  Jesus didn’t say being rich is a bad thing.  There were those, after all, who followed Jesus and his disciples, supporting them financially, implying that they were rather wealthy, with the means to support this itinerant preacher from Nazareth.

Jesus didn’t say being rich was bad, he said it was a difficult thing.  One of the challenges of being rich is that the more money a person has, the more that person is able to take care of him or herself, and the less that person may need to rely on others.  That person can rely on his or her wealth and things rather than on people.  The more wealthy and things a person has, the more security and control may be wrapped up in those things, and the less one might seek that security and dependence through God and people.

Become like children, Jesus taught.  Like I said, kids like things too, but when kids are hurt or scared, they often want mommy or daddy even more than a blanket or favorite toy.  The man in today’s reading wanted God’s kingdom, was desperate for God’s kingdom, he just didn’t think he could have it without his stuff.  Jesus invited him to give up his stuff, to give up his security and independence, so that he might find security and dependence in God and other people.  When he couldn’t do it, Jesus sympathized with him, seeing how hard it was for him. 

Jesus knows and sympathizes with the challenges we all face in giving up our perceptions of control and acknowledging our dependence on God and others.  Reverting to this childlike state may be an incremental process as we gradually seek God alone and seek to live more fully the life of love in his kingdom. 

As we do so, as we seek to live more fully in God’s kingdom, we may try praying the prayer St. Francis prayed.  “My God and my all.”  It may feel strange at first, but over time, we may discover the truth of those words.  “My God and my all.”  Over time, we may develop even more fully hearts like that of St. Francis, hearts which beat constantly with love, “My God and my all.”  Amen.

Before Fruit Was Tasty

Brad Sullivan

Proper 22, Year B
Sunday, October 7, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Job 1:1; 2:1-10
Psalm 26
Hebrews1:1-4; 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16

“Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being…” (Hebrews 1:3)  That statement from our Hebrews reading tells me is that in any action of Jesus, we see an action of God, and we come to know more fully who God is.  In our Gospel reading today, Jesus says, “’Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’  And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.” (Mark 10:14-16)  This tells me that as God’s children, we are as important to God as the children in the story were to Jesus.

             We’re important in God’s eyes because we are God’s children.  If you look at the enormity of the cosmos, we’re on a tiny planet in a small galaxy in an enormous universe.  We’re cosmically very insignificant.  Sometimes even looking at life, we may seem unimportant, compared to other seemingly more important people, and yet, we are God’s children and matter enough to God for him to become one of us, to live, die, and be resurrected for our sake.  The enormity of how much we matter to God cannot be over stated.  Intellectually, many of us might agree with that statement, that we matter to God, and yet many of us might also feel like we don’t matter as much to God. 

            “I’d pray about this, but it’s such a little thing, I don’t want to bother God with it.”  “It’s not important enough for God.”  “I’m not important enough for God.”  Does that sound familiar at all?  Those may not even be conscious thoughts but feelings that folks have at times.  I wonder if part of the reason for that is because of how people treat each other, beginning with how people are sometimes treated as children.

            In our Gospel lesson today, the disciples were thinking Jesus was too busy with important things to be bothered by unimportant children.  Jesus was again saying, “no, children are just as important as adults…if not more so.”  I read this, and I’m solidly on Jesus’ side.  The disciples look kind of bad because they are so uncaring toward the children.  Then I think of how often I, and maybe we, and people in general, tend to act more like the disciples than Jesus.

I’ve noticed this over the years in the church when there are many people around, and a child will want to tell me or another priest about his or her latest toy, or something like that, and an adult wants to talk about a sick family member or some important church business.  I’ve noticed that we often don’t think twice about ending a conversation with a child or even interrupting a conversation with a child, to have a more important conversation with an adult.  As adults, we know that conversations about sick people are more important than conversations about toys, but to the child, that toy may be about the most important thing there is, at least at the time.  While wanting to teach children the importance of people over toys (in this example), we may be unintentionally teaching kids that they are not as important as others. 

We do this to adults too.  It’s not that we think children are unimportant or that particular adults are unimportant, but as adults, we know that we have important things to do and to talk about, and sometimes we can’t be bothered by less important things that children have to do or to talk about.  Their things can wait.  Our important things need to be done right now, and yet, Jesus says the kingdom of God belongs to children and people who are like children.  So, what is it about children, what is it about being childlike that allows us to live in and experience God’s kingdom?

            Well, you could say that children have not yet eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  In the second creation story in Genesis, Adam and Eve were in Eden, walking and living with God.  They were naked and unashamed, totally open with each other and with God.  Then, they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and immediately were ashamed of being naked and hid from each other and from God. 

            Really young children are often not embarrassed about being naked, physically or emotionally.  I’ve heard stories from friends of mine whose three year old kids would run right out the front door of the house, naked as they day they were born…other stories of kids who will say whatever in the world happens to be on their mind, whether it’s overly appropriate or not.  I’m not advocating this behavior in adults…or in children for that matter, but there is an innocence and an openness with children which can at times be a little off-putting for adults, but it is an innocence and openness to the other which is also kind of beautiful. 

            Children haven’t yet eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  There is an enormous amount which they don’t know, and all that kids don’t know gives them a delight in the wonder of creation.  There are so many new experiences.  The world is still beautiful and fascinating to kids.  Even the things which we know are dangerous or could be harmful, to kids, those things are fascinating and fun. 

            Children’s lack of knowledge makes them utterly dependent.  Kids needs loving adults to help guide them as they explore the world.  Young children need help with all kinds of daily tasks:  eating, getting dressed, sometimes getting from point “a” to point “b”, and this makes them dependent upon loving adults.

Kids forgive, easily.  They haven’t eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  They don’t yet know that punishment and restitution should be given before forgiveness is deserved.  Where, as adults, we know about justice.  We know about balancing the scales.  Our knowledge is perhaps right, the scales maybe should be balanced, and yet a child’s way of forgiving even without balancing the scales sure seems easier.  It sounds a bit like God’s forgiveness.  Young children’s emotional memory seems to be a bit shorter than adults’.  As adults, we can hold a grudge and be upset for a long time, even against people whom we love.  Kids tend to get over stuff with people whom they love pretty quickly, and so they can forgive rather easily.

 Jesus tells us to be like children in order to enter and live in the kingdom of God.  That’s a tough thing to do for adults and even for youth and older children, when we’ve got jobs, households to run, responsibilities, homework to do, sports and clubs and music demanding our time and attention.  With all of the responsibilities and demands placed upon, it is difficult to receive the kingdom of God like a child.  Doing so may even seem irresponsible, and yet the God of the universe told us that receiving his kingdom like a child is the best way to live. 

The best way to know and love God and to know and love each other is to receive life, God’s kingdom, like a little child.  Receive God’s kingdom, receive life with childlike innocence, with wonder, with trust and love, with dependence on God and others, with short memories of wrongs, with forgiveness, and playfulness.  God knows what it is like to become like a child.  God became one of his children so that his children might be invited into a loving relationship with him, to know and love him more.

In a similar way, we invite children into loving relationships by becoming like them and receiving the kingdom of God like a little child.  Doing so can help reverse some of the effects of our eating from tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Doing so may help remind us also of God’s love for us and our tremendous importance in God’s eyes, which then may help us to treat each other as beloved and important. 

See the world through the eyes and mind of a child, Jesus tells us.  Recapture some of the wonder and beauty of God’s creation.  Live with trust and love, with dependence on God and others.  Keep no record of wrongs.  Live with forgiveness, and playfulness.  Amen.

Who Do You Want to Be?

Brad Sullivan
Proper 21, Year B
Sunday, September 23, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22
Psalm 124
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50

            I’m going to preach today from the Gospel and from a song by Guy Forsyth called “Leave Me Alone”, from his album Calico Girl.  After singing the song, I will discuss it and tie it to our Gospel lesson.  I won’t post the words of the song, however, as it is not my song to post.  To read the lyrics and listen to the song, go to www.guyforsyth.com.

Ok, so they guy in the song says he wants to be left alone, but he really doesn’t.  That last line says, “don’t let them see which one is me or they will leave me alone.”  He’s afraid that if people really know who he is, then they won’t want to be around him.  So, he’s got this kind of curmudgeon, I just want to be left alone attitude, but he’s craving being around people, he just doesn’t quite know how. 

He says, “they all danced so well tonight, spinning cartwheels ‘round the moon.”  He admired and loved the fun and joy people were having together, and he longed to be a part of it.  He just couldn’t bring himself to do it.  “I didn’t even have the strength to move my legs, I didn’t even catch the tune.”  So, he finally decides he’s had enough, he’s gonna be someone different and have the strength to go out and be with people, so he says, “if you want to be who you want to be, you have to give up who you are.”

That’s where this ties in with our Gospel message today.  I think that’s about what Jesus was saying.  “If you want to be who you want to be, you have to give up who you are.”

Jesus was speaking to his disciples, Jews who were followers of God who presumably wanted to be faithful followers of God, living in and enacting God’s kingdom.  That’s what Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  That wasn’t a someday in the future prayer.  That was a daily prayer, “let me enact your kingdom and do your will here in my life on earth as I will one day in heaven.” 

So Jesus was saying, if you really want to follow God’s will and enact God’s kingdom, then you will likely have to change some of your actions or habits.  “If you want to be who you want to be, you have to give up who you are.”

If your hands are habitually causing harm, alright, you could cut them off.  Please, no dismemberments, no one cut off your hands as a result of today’s Gospel lesson.  If your hands are habitually causing harm, then you need to change the habits of your hands.  Find out what need you’re trying to till with this harmful habit, and seek to fill that need in a way that doesn’t cause harm…or maybe just don’t fill that need, but offer it to God, and seek God’s help in all of this.  “If you want to be who you want to be, you have to give up who you are.”

Alright, now, let me give a brief word about hell.  The word we translate as hell is actually Gehenna, an ancient garbage dump outside of Jerusalem.  This was a cursed place, where one of the ancient Jewish kings had practiced human sacrifice…he was not well liked or remembered.  So, this valley, Gehenna, became the symbol of the place of God’s wrath and judgment, and the place eventually where Israel burnt its garbage, so the fire literally kept on going.

So, Jesus is saying, if you’re habitually causing harm to yourself or others, then you’ve made yourself fit for the burning garbage heap, the symbolic place of God’s anger and judgment.  So, Jesus is saying if you really want to be my disciples, if you really want to live faithfully to God, then you just might have to change your ways.  There is always forgiveness with God, but “if you want to be who you want to be, you have to give up who you are.”

This was true for me earlier this week as I was late taking Noah to school and I was embarrassed about it, figuring they’d think of me as irresponsible.  I tend to stress about being late, partly out of respect for others, and partly out of not wanting to look bad, so we were late, it was my fault, and Noah was dawdling, not moving as quickly as I would have liked, so I was irritable and kind of a jerk to him, trying to get him to hurry up.  I later apologized to him and told him I was being a jerk…this is not the way to treat people.

I realized that whatever was in me that cared so much about being on time had to go.  I prayed for God to remove it from me; I’m still praying for that, but since I’ve been seeking to give that up, the week’s been better.  So, that’s my example of the truth of Jesus’ lesson, but it’s only one example.

What’s yours?  As we go through our weeks, my suggestion is that we sit with this lesson of Jesus and find out what might need to be cut out of us, metaphorical cutting, again.  What is keeping me from living fully into God’s kingdom?  What might I need to change about myself or what actions or motivations might I need to remove in order to live more fully into God’s kingdom?  We’re disciples of Jesus.  That’s what we want, to live fully into God’s kingdom in which we love God and love others.  We may have to change in order to do that.  “If you want to be who you want to be, you have to give up who you are.”  Amen.

The Mother-in-Law Test

Brad Sullivan
Proper 20, Year B
Sunday, September 23, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Proverbs 31:10-31
Psalm 1
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37

I don’t know about you, but the disciples’ argument over who is the greatest among them is not entirely foreign to me.  There are many times when I’ve desired greatness or dreamed of being famous and winning awards for a variety of things.  I know I’ve even argued about who was better than whom, at least with my identical twin brother.  Growing up, it seemed like most things were a competition between the two of us; we were always trying to one up each other.  Now that we’re grown…not much has changed, but I get the disciples’ desire for greatness and their argument over who is the greatest. 

I’m guessing most of us get their desire to some extent or another.  Any of us who have ever played sports or been in any competition at all understand a desire to be better than others at something, and yet when I read about the disciples’ desire for greatness, there always seems something kind of ugly about it, which then tells me that there’s probably something a little bit ugly about my desires for greatness.

“But the wisdom from above,” James writes, “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.  And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.” (James 3:17-18)  I could hear those words over and over again, and just sip on them all morning long like a hot cup of coffee.  What a wonderful way to live with the wisdom from above which James describes.

That stands in rather stark contrast to desires for greatness the way Jesus’ disciples were behaving in our Gospel this morning, arguing over who was the greatest among them.  I don’t think this means that we shouldn’t strive to be great at whatever we do.  Rather, Jesus is referring to our desires to be admired for our greatness and vaulted above everyone else.  So, Jesus tells his disciples to be servants rather than to try to be better and have a higher social standing than everyone else.  Be like a child, Jesus says, or in this context, be like someone with no social standing whatsoever.  Children, at least toddlers, are not always the most peaceable, gentle, and willing to yield…I love the terrible twos, but children don’t, at least in my experience, tend to care all that much about class and social standing. 

            Unless they’re taught to, children don’t much care about the social standing of those with whom they play. If you’re nice and fun, they’ll pretty well want to play with you.  So, be a servant, and be like a child, Jesus says.  Serve others and don’t care too much about rungs on the social ladder.

            Then we have James.  Jesus was comparatively easy on the disciples regarding their ambitions for greatness.  Be like a child, Jesus said.  James, on the other hand, wrote, “But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth.  Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.” (James 3:14-15)

            Now, it would be pretty easy as a preacher to take these readings and give a “do more, be better, try harder” sermon.  If you just try harder, you can be like a servant child or like the kind of disciple James tells us to be.  To a certain extent, yes, we could.  There isn’t a particularly lot of good news, however, in “do more, try harder, be better.”  It’s nice to know that we can, but that’s not really the Gospel message. 

            “Do more, try harder, be better” seems like it might be the Gospel message by looking at our Proverbs reading for today, or at least for all the women.  I guess the guys are off the hook.  “A capable wife, blah, blah, blah.”  Let’s put this reading into a little bit of context. 

            This was written as a mother to her son.  So, reading this as the wife’s mother-in-law saying what she wants her daughter-in-law to be like, it puts some of the hyperbolae of perfection into context.  But still, rather than read this simply as a treatise on how to be or how to find a good wife, we might benefit more if we read this passage as describing how the church should be as the bride of Christ.

            So the church, as the bride of Christ manages the affairs of the household well.  The church takes care of those in need, makes wise decisions regarding resources and finances, works hard, clothes and feeds not only the poor, but also herself and her household, i.e. the church takes care of its own.  As the bride of Christ, the church is wise, kind, strong, brave, and most importantly, faithful to God.

            Ok, so again, as the bride of Christ, we, the church, could do better.  Even of our own power, we could do better, but of our own power, we’re not going to be that perfect.  I don’t think the church ever has or ever will live up to the perfection illustrated in Proverbs.  The good news of the Gospel is that we’re not the bride of Christ all on our own.  The church, as the bride of Christ, is united to Christ, the two having been made one. 

            In the Proverbs reading, it seems as though this perfect wife acts with the husband nowhere around.  They aren’t partners, rather, she does all the work and he takes all the credit.  As the church, we don’t act on our own.  We don’t strive on our own.  Jesus helps us in our efforts.  When we try to live as Jesus taught us to live, and when we seek his help in doing so, Jesus guides us and strengthens us.  We’re never alone as we seek to live well.  As Paul said to the Athenians, God made humankind “so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from each one of us.  For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’ (Acts 17:27-28)

            All that we do is done in God.  Our good deeds and our not so good deeds are all done within God’s very self.  As God’s beloved, God has united himself to us such that all of our lives are lived within him.  Little wonder, then, that we might wish to be better or try harder.

The purpose of our marriage to Christ, however, isn’t simply so that we’ll be better people.  In regular old marriage, we don’t generally marry thinking that doing so will make us better people.  We marry out of love.  With Christ too, we are joined to Christ simply out of love and then seek to do good out of love as well.  We’re not trying to be good enough for Jesus, for Jesus has already declared us good enough to be his bride.  We’re trying to love Jesus as much as we can in response to his love for us.

            How then does this tie back to the disciples’ desire and our desire for greatness.  For St. Mark’s, as part of the whole church, we would want to be an excellent bride of Christ, not to be better or get more recognition than the other churches in Bay City, as if we were in competition with them, rather, we would want to be an excellent bride of Christ out of our love of Jesus. 

            A desire for greatness or a desire to one up any of the other churches feels just as ugly for St. Mark’s as for Jesus’ disciples in our Gospel reading today.  Instead of quarreling over greatness like the disciples did today, we would be lowly and be ok with that, seeking to do good simply out of our love for Jesus.  We would seek not greatness or admiration, as we often think of it, but rather , we would seek the wisdom from above.  “[For] the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.  And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.” (James 3:17-18)  Amen.