Do the right thing -- on the life and witness of Barbara G. Sayer

      On behalf of Barbara’s family and on behalf of all Adventers, I want to thank all of you for joining us this morning as we celebrate both Barbara’s life among us and her confidence in God’s redemptive work in her own life.  I see a lot of unfamiliar faces, so I understand there will be some worry about this service.  If you do not attend a liturgical church, have no fear, we will do our best to make sure you understand what is happening and on what page.

     I was reminded last week of my first conversation with Barbara some 9 ½ years ago by Carol Lynn McCarty, who was then serving as the head of our Altar Guild at Church of the Advent.  Barbara was over by the linen bowl, I think, and gathering the dirty linens to take home and wash and iron.  Of all the “behind the scenes” jobs in a church, the care of the linens is only noticeable when it is not done well.  When it is done well, most people do not even consider the work involved.  Thanks to Barbara’s work in that, few of us really considered her work.

     As I was heading to through the Sacristy to the Vesting room to remove the chasuble and my robes, Barbara introduced herself to me.  This was during the first couple weeks of my tenure.  But Barbara introduced herself, told me it was her job to wash, iron, and care for the linens.  She went on to say that she did not know me.  Barbara stated that it was her wish that the priest who would bury her would know her.  She did not want a stranger talking and preaching about her and ministering to her family.  So she hoped that we would get to know each other in the weeks and months ahead.

     I, of course, told Barbara that I understood what she was saying.  I told her I did not like officiating at funerals for people I did not know.  I also told her that I hoped she would not take my next statement the wrong way, but I fervently hoped that I would not be the one who buried her.  I loved being a pastor, much of the time, but I hate burying people I know.  She got what I meant and laughed, and we spent a few Wednesdays over the next couple years talking about funerals and care of the linens.  She particularly liked how my Altar Guild at a small church in Ohio had taught me not to be messy, not to use the embroidery on the Purificator to wipe the wine off the chalice, and to get out of their way when a priest needed a tongue lashing over their sloppiness.  As the one who had to clean up after such things, she really appreciated their work with me.  Better still from her perspective, when we had a visiting priest spill the entire contents of the chalice, before it was blessed mind you, all over the big altar covering, I was not about to get in her way as she told him he needed to be more careful or he might end up cleaning up his own messes.

     Of course, we talked about things other than church.  Barbara shared her love of painting, and really art in general.  She had a monthly meeting on Wednesdays with one group that caused her to miss our midweek service.  But she often showed us what she had made.  Many of us ooohed and awed over the china she painted.

     She liked looking at my stitching, and shared some of her work.

     And she loved gardening!  I spent a couple years in college working for a landscaper over the summer months, so I knew enough to be dangerous.  But I also knew enough to avoid some real dangers.  Her favorite chuckle was when people would express I must be putting holy water on the plans around the church, and especially in Penelope’s Garden—named after her great granddaughter who died during the pandemic.  Barbara knew my secret was bonemeal.  I loved the blooms around Advent, and I knew I could not over-fertilize or burn anything out with bonemeal.  So she would laugh when Stuart or somebody would talking about the holy water because she knew what was really happening, but especially because everyone around here loved the results!

     As you might imagine, there were a number of other conversations that would not be appropriate to share during her funeral, but those conversations also helped shape our readings and songs for today.  One of Barbara’s great frustrations was when others just would not do what was right.  Barbara was gifted with a great sense of right and wrong and expected all of us to just do what was right.  So now you know why the quote is at the bottom of the front page, why something akin to it was in her obituary, and why I will be focusing a bit on the Golden Rule today.  Believe me, I was tempted to dive into First Corinthians today, in honor of her love of gardening and of her friends who garden and in honor of the fact that her perishable body has now been sown to give birth to the splendor of her heavenly body, but that would have been a long sermon.  Though Barbara would have loved a discussion about the passage, she also liked to be to the point!  So, if you are of a mind, turn to the Gospel reading.

     Jesus’ teaching on the Golden Rule comes from Luke, so we know that Luke has heard the Apostles and disciples talking about Jesus’ teachings and actions rather than watching them and hearing them for himself.  The Church tradition is that Luke spent years interviewing those who knew Jesus best, including Mary His mother, before he wrote the Gospel that bears his name.  Jesus begins His discussion of doing what is right by pointing out good behavior is not to be limited to our family and friends.  We live in a world that is just divided as the world in which Jesus was incarnated.  Pharisees fought with Sadducees and Herodians; Jews and Samaritans were not known for their ability to get along; and nobody was thrilled with the presence of Rome in ancient Judea!  Think Democrats vs. Republicans in much of our political discourse, the efforts to do away with federal authority in some states, or, since most of us cannot help but pay attention to SEC football, GA vs. FL or TN vs. AL. 

     Jesus’ first instruction to those who claim Him as Lord is about the Golden Rule is that it must be applied to one’s enemies, those who mistreat us, and those from whom we cannot expect reciprocation.  Our calling, we would say, is to mirror the life of Jesus and to incarnate with a little “i” the heart of God.  God’s work throughout the Scriptures is to woo the world, to draw the world into His saving embrace.  Jesus’ Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension are the ultimate expression of God’s desire to draw all to Him.  All of us like working among family and friends and those who can repay us, right?  In that, we are no different than sinners and enemies.  But Jesus calls us to a different perspective, a different way of living.  We called to live as if we are joyful recipients of God’s grace.  And because we are His adopted sons and daughters, He commands us to live our lives reflective of the grace He has shown each one of us! 

     Jesus, of course, dives deeply into the heart of God, even if we skip it in a first glance.  But it was an understanding I heard Barbara teach again and again.  We are called by Jesus to place the person over possessions.  Look again at verses 29-32.  Jesus tells us not to fight back, not to cling to our possessions, and to give those things we have to those who ask.  Part of our calling, as I have had to instruct Adventers for some five or six years now, is that we serve the Creator of all that is, seen and unseen.  So often, we, like the world around us, gets caught up in attitudes of scarcity.  There’s not enough money; there’s not enough space; there’s not enough time.  Adventers have learned a valuable lesson in our work to feed the food insecure in our midst here in Middle Tennessee.  God provides way more than we can ask or imagine.  It makes sense, right.  If He created everything out of nothing, what can He not do?  Nothing.  Better still, if He wants Himself glorified and His sons and daughters glorified because of His redemptive work, what better way than providing what is needed?  If you asked Barbara during the growth of that work, she would laugh aloud not just at the quantity of what God was giving us, but at the sheer absurdity of some of those gifts.  Barbara knew and loved all Adventers and how many work hard to be obedient to the call of Christ in their lives, but she got tickled when God gave us cows or lobsters or fresh produce or crazy amounts of ice cream.  God has used us to do amazing work in His Name, and no Adventer thinks it is our own planning, our own giving, or even something of which we remotely considered giving away.  Yet God has been faithful to that work and used it to reach those whom we serve.  Sadly, the Golden Rule is so ignored in the modern western Church, those whom we serve are surprised or shocked when we simply give them a choice, never mind when we give them a choice among steak cuts or seafood or flavors of ice cream.  Too often have we heard “If other Christians were like y’all, I could see myself worshipping your God.”

     Placing people above possessions is so important to Jesus, that He promises His disciples and us in verse 35 that those of us who live like this that our reward will be great, because we are kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  Like our Father in heaven, we are called to show forth compassion in our lives.  We are reminded, by our engagement with others, that everyone has a story, an experience, that has led them to where they are in life.  Sometimes it has been bad choices in their lives; sometimes it has been bad instruction, or trauma, or circumstances.  Because we do not know, but we serve the One who does, we mirror the compassion He showed each one of us hopeful that they will see Him in us!

     Jesus continues in His teaching with the really hard part for many modern Christians, right?  He instructs us, He uses imperative language to use the language of linguists among us, to be merciful, just as our Father is merciful.  Such a command is hard, right?  If I don’t fight back, if I don’t cling to my possessions, if I don’t get even with those mock me or stab me in the back, I will always be taken advantage of, I will always be humiliated, right?  But that is the command of Jesus.  If we model His life and His heart, we will be forgiven.  If we condemn, if we try to get even, we will receive likewise when we stand before Him.  The good news, of course, is that Jesus modeled this behavior even during His Passion and death on the Cross, so He knows what He commands of us.  He did not strike back against those who mocked Him.  He did not call down the angels to defend Him or His honor.  Even as He took His last breaths while the crowd mocked Him If He is the Messiah, let Him come down; He saved others, but He cannot save Himself; and Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.  Jesus trusted in the Father’s power and will to redeem His suffering, even at the end of His life on earth.  But for His faithfulness even to death on that Cross, He was raised from the dead, reminding us of God’s power and will to redeem all our sufferings.  And for that we acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior and should endeavor, with God’s help, to model His compassion, His forgiveness, and His mercy in our lives and in our words.

     Lastly, Jesus reminds us as He finishes His teaching on the Golden Rule that we are not the judges.  Just as nobody else but God can see into our hearts, know everything that led us to where we found ourselves while an enmity with God, we do not know what will happen to the one whom we serve in His Name.  We might only be the seed planter in their life, the waterer, the pruner, the tiller of soil or some other role, but we know that God loved them so much that had they been the only one in need of His forgiveness and grace, He would have willed Himself to hang and die there, to suffer all that humiliation, just for them!  His purpose in coming the first time was not to condemn, but to save!  And only He knows what is going on in the hearts of others; only He has earned the right to judge. 

     It’s tough.  I get it.  There is suffering aplenty in most of our lives.  And we like to compare our own responses, or how we think we might respond, to similar suffering.  If I was hungry, I would not be choosy.  If I had suffered that trauma, I would plow on through.  I would NEVER fall in love with an abuser or a cheater.  I would never allow myself to be poor.  Right?  The truth, of course, is that none of know how we would react until we were to find ourselves in that particular circumstance, and this is where the Golden Rule should become so important to those who claim Jesus as Lord.  All of Jesus’ teaching on the Golden Rule is the reminder that we, His brothers and sisters, are called to be blessings to others in the world.  In many ways, the Golden Rule reminds us of God’s purposes way back in Genesis 12, when He chose Abram and sent him out from Chaldea.  God told Abram that His seed would be a blessing to the world, a nation of priests.  Jesus, of course, is the ultimate promise of that blessing that God swore with Abraham.  Better still, Jesus is the means by which we are all drawn into the loving embrace of our Father in Heaven.  And because He was a blessing to us, we know we are called to be a blessing to others, not just to certain others, but to all.  Such was the call on Abram; such is the same call on each one of us!

     Such also was the life lived by Barbara.  Oh, I know, she sinned.  She had harsh words for some; she lacked necessary patience at times; I am sure she let doctors know they were not the sharpest tool in the shed while she was a nurse; I am certain she made mistakes as a mother, a wife, a grandmother, and even a great grandmother.  But she trusted in Jesus’ instructions.  Only illness or art could keep her away from worshipping God in this space while I was here.  She always asked God to forgive her sins and to empower her to glorify Him in her life.  At some point in that walk with God, long before that new priest met her in the sacristy, she had adopted that motto, “Do the right thing” as the Barbara version of the Gospel.  Your attendance here this morning is testimony to the power of the Gospel in her life.

     I will leave it to all of you, who knew her as a family member, a friend, a colleague, or as an Adventer to decide whether her priest knew her well enough to use her life as an example of God’s redeeming presence in the world and especially in her own life at her funeral.  But as for me, I hope and pray that when you read about the Golden Rule or hear the words “Do the right thing” you will be reminded of the life of Barbara, that you will remember her voice and see her face, but even more importantly, give thanks to God for yet another redeemed saint in your own life, and strive, with His help, to be one in the lives of others in your own life.

 

In His Promise,

Brian†

His Power Is Made Perfect in Our Weaknesses . . .

     It is good to be back with you, though I confess some, I hope, righteous anger.  It absolutely drives me nuts when bishops do not prioritize feeding their flocks.  I have served on the Board of Directors in a couple dioceses and have expressed that sentiment.  Bluntly.  That’s part of why I am here among you today.  Nathan has heard my rants, so he volunteered me to Michelle three years ago.  The rest is, as they say, history!

     If you are new or have missed the last two years, my name is Brian McVey.  Many of you know my dad, George, whom Nathan somehow pushed to the Assembly of God church during his discussions about Anglican and Eucharistic theology while he was among you.  It’s ok to laugh.  Nathan knows I’m mostly teasing.  Mostly.  Given your audible chuckling and elbows, I am certain all of you know my oldest son, Nathan.  Karen and I truly appreciate your cross-bearing work of allowing Nathan to worship among you.  We especially appreciate that you allowed him the freedom to worship rather than doing the whole “Hey, it’s a PK!  We can put him to work!”  I know Michelle did put him to work over time, but it was with a gentle hand, and I recognize how important that was to Nathan.  It was, after all, the first time he got to choose where he worshipped.

     Usually, around this time of year, we go to the southern Maine coast for our family vacation.  Berkely Springs ends up being a good stopping point on our travels from Nashville, where I serve as the rector of the historic Church of the Advent.  The downside, of course, is that I have been on vacation mode for a couple weeks, and most of my normal sermon prep materials are in Nashville.  Worse, now that Nathan has moved to DC, I do not get the stories about what is happening at St. Mark’s.  So I apologize in advance if the sermon seems a little impersonal.  I can preach on the text any given week, but I understand the need to connect the text to our lives, both individually and communally, for preaching to be the most powerful.  Of course, if it connects, it is a great illustration of our focus today, and that means God was truly among us inspiring me in my ignorance and connecting His word to your lives in spite of me.

     I was drawn this week to the passage from Second Corinthians.  I’m not sure where I would have preached from, were I back in Nashville, I think I would have leaned into Mark, but 2 Corinthians kept occupying my thoughts and prayers with respect to this community.  On the one hand, I know there is an emotional draw for me.  About 21 years ago, when I and my classmates gathered at seminary in late August, we were required by our Dean President to select a class verse, a passage of Scripture that would describe, inform, and motivate our collective and individual ministries as we prepared to and then headed out into the fields for ministry.  To take you back in time, the great Episcopal divorce was in its infancy.  Gene Robinson had been elected and was likely to be consecrated as bishop.  Yet we had the largest class in Episcopal seminaries in nearly 20 years.  Virginia had been the last class, we were told, with so many incoming students.  If I had told you this then, you would have likely thought it strange.  We were fighting like cats and dogs in the wider Episcopal Church.  And we were not glorifying God in our disputes at all.  Yet God had called a big class to Trinity when things were seeming rather bleak.

     Peter Moore, our Dean President at the time, told us we had to select a class verse.  After some discussion, we settled initially on “Jesus wept” as our first choice.  Now, y’all are rightly chuckling again.  The Episcopal church was not glorifying God in this fight at the time at all.  So, we figured God was weeping at the state of our church.  But then we also knew He was going to have to use us to continue the church, if He intended for it to survive the fight and the divorce.  And boy, if you knew us, you knew God was shaking His head and weeping over these seminarians with which He was going to have to work.  Michelle is laughing.  She knows seminary faculties weep over the incoming students at every seminary fall!  Lol

     Peter, for his part, would not let that be our class verse.  He admonished us for not taking our responsibility seriously.  So he made us do it again.  Many of us were mad.  We had picked a verse, and we had considered it theologically.  And now we were wasting time meeting again.  But after our grumbling, we settled on part of verse 9 from today’s reading.  “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”  Peter was not happy, but we were done.  But it, like the first, was a verse that was well chosen, well-considered, and shaped the work of many of our classmates as we have served Christ as ordained presbyters in His Church for nearly two decades now.  That’s the emotional tug from this passage for me.  Let’s see if it is what God wanted you to consider today.

     If you don’t know much about Corinth, I’ll give you a quick lesson, likely more than you ever wanted to know.  Corinth was located on an isthmus, with the Aegean Sea on the west and the Saronic Sea on the east.  It was re-planted by Julius Caesar around 44BC.  Julius had armies fighting his battles and establishing him as the Emperor of Rome.  I’m sure we all know enough history to remember Marc Antony’s efforts at this time.  The danger of paid armies in the ANE was when there was no battle to fight.  Fighting men are often good at fighting.  That’s what they know.  When the battles stop, what do they do to earn money?  Think of friends and family members who served in the military among us.  Some never figure out what they want to do with the rest of their lives when their terms of service end even in modernity, right?

     Well, in the ANE, as in many places, a gathered army could tempt those with enough money to try and seize a throne.  The Game of Thrones has been around a lot longer than Martin’s books and HBO’s series.  If one is rich and wants a throne and knows an army is assembled, all one has to do is offer more money than the current employer.  Julius had an army far from Rome.  He did not want to recall it, because those opposed to his rule might poach it and threaten him with it.  So he made the soldiers all citizens and had them re-settle Corinth.  It was tactically brilliant.  At its height of 6 million people, give or take, maybe ¼ million people were citizens.  Julius offered his army citizenship, and all the rights and responsibilities that went with it, if they would settle in Corinth and protect the Empire from the barbarians out there.  Giving them citizenship ensured their loyalty; and there was, for a time, a well-trained fighting force who could protect the northeast boundary of the empire.

     Of course, now that they were citizens, the former soldiers had to make new lives for themselves.  Because the isthmus is only three miles or so across, the city developed a huge business moving cargo from ships on one side to ships on the other.  Unloading and loading cargo and transferring them by wagons saved about three weeks of time, plus the inherent dangers, of shipping around the Greek peninsula.  We understand shipping costs much better thanks to our supply chain issues, right?  Time is money, literally, in logistics.  So we can all begin to understand the possibilities and generated wealth.

     Eventually, the business grew and became more efficient.  Some decided too much time was wasted, and money lost, unloading and loading ships.  They chose to make ship harnesses and systems which could lift ships out to be hauled across the three miles and dropped in the other sea.  Now, money was not spent on as many men loading and unloading.  Cha-ching!

     Of course, as with any port or trading post, other businesses cropped up.  Brothels are big in port cities, right?  Restaurants.  Bars.  If the ships are not sailing, the sailors needed to be entertained, for a cost, you understand?  The transport businesses had support businesses.  Wheelwrights, carpenters, wagon-makers, blacksmiths, and the like were all needed to keep trade flowing.  Oh, and let’s not forget, the government needed to track the taxes.  I mean, they all owed the emperor their opportunity and new standing, and they needed to make sure he was paid what he was owed for his largesse.  You laugh, but I told you Julius’ decision was tactically brilliant.  He created a city that LIKED to pay taxes, that felt it OWED him taxes in thanksgiving for the opportunity he gave them.

     Relatively quickly, Corinth became incredibly wealthy and incredibly dissolute.  “Corinthianize” became a verb that, well, was not necessarily a compliment.  Think of “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”  Sometimes we think of that positively; sometimes we think of that rightfully pejoratively.  Corinth, because of its recent history, was wealthy and determined to prove the emperor proud of his decisions on their behalf.  You and I would rightly describe Corinth as trying to out-Rome Rome in everything.  That’s the city where Paul planted this church from which we have two of his letters.

     Unsurprisingly, the church in Corinth had issues, right?  To be fair, they had subscriptions.  In fact, on occasion, Paul will chew them out and remind them that not even the Romans do some of the things the Christians are allowing in their church, but he will chew them out even more for just doing things like the Romans do.  For example, as a sign of their wealth, they will gather for meals and eat until they throw up, and then eat more.  Eating until throwing up was a sign of opulent wealth.  Paul will fuss at them for letting some go hungry in an effort to show off their wealth.  Good.  I see nods.

     Like Israel before them and us today, the culture creeps into the people of God.  Without correction, we begin to think that God approves of what we are doing, until someone reminds us that, you know, some of the things were are doing actually violate the His instructions to us.  Think of our self-professing  “Christian” leaders who use immigration, poverty, slavery, or anything else to divide us and motivate voters rather than treating those impacted by the issue of the day as if they are loved by God.  Unlike our politicians, God is not interested in votes or approval.  He wants us to choose Him, but He will accomplish His purposes whether we choose Him or no.  So Paul’s admonitions and instructions are every bit as applicable to the church in the United States today as it was in Corinth in His day.

     Human beings value and prioritize traits and behaviors which, to be frank, are simply ungodly.  We prove to ourselves time and time again that we choose darkness rather than God.  Instead of using the power and strength and wealth and everything else that He has given us to glorify Him in our lives, how many of us choose to self-aggrandize ourselves?  In Corinth’s case, it was further motivated by civic pride and loyalty to the emperor.  Like American Christians who think God wants them to govern according to their desires and their wants and their needs, the church in Corinth conflated their civic loyalties with faithfulness to God.  The results were predictable.

     In this part of the letter, Paul is confronting the effects of “super apostles,” as one commentator labelled them.  Others came along after Paul left and claimed more authority than Paul.  Think of one of your favorite megachurch pastors who create cults rather than churches, or think of your favorite clergy who barely labor for God draining the resources and faith of those who hunger and thirst for God, but try to pretend they are about holy work.  Those who came after Paul declared their importance was derived from their gifts.  They claimed to have had mystical experiences which proved their importance, though, coincidentally, those experiences could not be evaluated by others.

     Paul, of course, understands that the value of his work, and our work, comes from God.  What makes our work important is the fact that God gives us the work and the gifts to accomplish the work in His Name.  When we are gathered in a community like this, as small and insignificant as a congregation might seem to the world outside us, we know we have work to do.  We know God wants us to glorify Him in this community.  And we know we have, or will have, whatever it is that we need to glorify Him properly in our communal and individual lives.

     Paul begins with what you and I might call a humble brag referencing a man.  It becomes clear in the pericope that the man Paul is describing is himself.  We do not know when this vision was granted to Paul, but we do know he has had mystical experiences of the Risen Jesus whom Paul persecuted.  I won’t bore you with the vision, but the meaning would have been significant.  The third heaven was as close as one could get to God as a living, sinning human being without being destroyed.  Think of the Court of Gentiles for foreigners visiting the Temple or standing outside the Temple when the veil of the Holy of Holies was pulled back for all to see for a couple moments on the Day of Atonement.  Paul’s claim is that he has been granted the most mystical experience possible, and if anyone has reason to brag and claim authority, it is him.

     But Paul continues on.  He reminds the Corinthians and us that he has work to do on behalf of God.  To keep him from being too arrogant, too puffed up by the experience, he was given a thorn in his side.  We do not know what the thorn is, but it plagued him enough that he asked God to take it away three times.  On the third ask, God tells Paul that His power is made perfect in weakness.  Unlike those who claim to be closer to God because of their experiences, Paul is instructed, and reminded daily by the thorn, that God works in weakness.

     You and I sitting here today may wonder at this lesson.  Why would God choose to work in weakness?  Why would God think that Paul needs a thorn to remember it is God’s work, not Paul’s, that is at work in the world?  Part of our challenge is that when we are powerful, when we think we are the “in” people or the chosen of God, we tend toward hubris.  We begin to think that it is our brilliance, our hard work, our intelligence, our practice, our whatever that causes us to be successful.  The reminder of the entirety of Scripture is that such hubris leads us from God.  The rich trust money rather than God.  The “in” people forget that God calls all of us to reach out to the margins.  God’s purpose, the whole reason He chose Abraham and his descendants, and then us who are grafted in through the Seed of Abraham’s faith, Jesus, are done so with a purpose of drawing all others in the world into a right relationship with the Father.

     Paul was the perfect evangelist for the church plant in Corinth.  He was well-educated; he was a Roman citizen; he was well travelled.  And, yes, he had had a mystical experience on the road to Damascus which taught him that, for all his religious fervor and zeal for God, he had gotten it wrong.  The One who had been hung on a tree was accursed by God for Paul and all of us.  And because Jesus was faithful even to death, He was raised on the third day, reminding us of the redemptive power of God and His will to use that power on our behalf.  But that power will not ultimately be exercised on our behalf until we die or He returns to re-create the world.  For now, our experience is one of cross bearing.  For now, we live among others, weak like ourselves, demonstrating to them by word and action, the love of God.  Paul’s thorn keeps him mindful of the boasting upon which he should be focused.  Paul’s thorn reminds him that the beatings, the imprisonments, the persecutions, the insults, the hardships were where God had been most active in Paul’s work.  To use the language of a pandemic, God’s thorn in Paul was a vaccination against false pride and hubris.  God’s thorn kept Paul focused on his need of God’s grace.

     How that works in our life is similar to the way it did in Corinth at this time.  We all know churches that place their faith in something other than God, right?  They place their faith in the attendance or the giving or the volunteering or the programs.  We understand why.  But we also understand why such churches are easily turned aside.  We understand how easy it is for leaders to begin to believe the whisper of the enemy that it is their genius, their hard work, that makes the church successful.  That stumble makes them more susceptible to temptations.  But for every church we see fall, how many labor like your own, seemingly invisible to or unnoticed by the world.  You have shared with me your feeding ministry.  Have you conquered hunger in the world through it?  No.  Have you conquered food insecurity in Morgan county?  No.  What have you really done?  The world would say not much, but I hope you have heard the thankfulness from those whom you have served in God’s Name.  You have served the stranger or the one whom you know hungering in your midst, very much unlike the Corinthians whom Paul chastised, in Christ’s Name, trusting that He will give the meaning to such faithful, intentional service.  If you have reminded just one of those whom you served of His love for them, you have done what He asked.  You, like Him, have gone in search of the lost sheep, just as He instructed all of us, and done your best to restore them.  Who knows how many have watched you labor?  Who knows how much dignity you have restored in conversations over a meal?

     Places like St. Mark’s will be where our wider church will need to turn as it faces its reality.  Our wider church just gathered in Louisville for General Convention to pass a bunch of resolutions.  Some were telling the United States what we thought about our policies; others were our comments on the conflict in the Middle East; and too few, in my opinion, were dealing with the current realities of our beloved church.  Just prior to that gathering, it was released that we are down to about 377,000 people gathering in worship each Sunday across our church.  That small number should really cause us to focus on our priorities.  If we keep doing things and shrinking, are the things we doing truly of God?  These are hard conversations and require prayerful discernment, right?  You know this given your parish experience.  But the wider church punted for three more years.  Change, and hopefully renewal, may come, but it seems like it will only come when we begin to realize that the UN does not care what we think about anything, that our government does not care about any resolution that we pass, that NYC will not miss our presence over anything, that we do not seem to be offering anyone anything they value or even should value.  Until we get back to glorifying God in our lives, I expect our corporate experience will not be a good one.  We, the church of so many of the founders of our nation, are unknown or a byword among Christians in our country today.

     Individually, of course, we all are facing thorns.  Some of you have health struggles.  Some of you may be struggling financially.  Most of us have relational issues in need of repair.  We know all too well what happens when we human beings, and others like us, trust too much in ourselves, right?  And lingering out there always is the reality of death.  We can eat right, exercise right, do everything the smart people tell us, but we each live in a shadow of death.  We each understand there is an impotence that we all share.  But that impotence, in that weakness, we realize the truth of what was revealed to Paul and shared by him with us.  God has promised and demonstrated to each of us that His redemptive power and Will are unlimited.  We know, because of our baptism into Jesus’ death, that we are promised a resurrection and glory that passes all imagination.  We know that even when our weakness leads to our eventually deaths, God’s power will glorify us with His Son our Lord!  And so, reminded of His instruction; reminded of our Lord’s shameful death, glorious Resurrection, and magnificent Ascension; fortified by His Body and His Blood, we are sent back out there to do the work He has given us to do, both individually and corporately.  And because we know our human frailties, because we know our weaknesses all too well, we know that we must seek Him and the work He would have us to do, confident that in that work for which we are ill-equipped and ill-trained and not nearly strong enough, He will be present with us, reminding that His work in us is made perfect in our weakness, and that His Will for us and for others will be accomplished, whether the world notices or not.  But always, there is that reminder and promise that One Day, when He returns, those who have chosen to follow Him will be vindicated.  That when He returns the world will have no choice to acknowledge that those who trusted their weakness, their foolishness, in His strength and His wisdom will be the ones who chose truly wisely, will be the ones for whom the eternal world has been prepared since the creation of this world!

 

In His Peace and His promise,

Brian+