From the pen of Father Louis Miller
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Sermon – Christ Episcopal Church – December 14, 2008 The Very Rev. Louis O. Miller, Jr. “Faith/Hope” O God our Father, by your creation you have given us hope. By your Son you have shown your faith in us, and by your Holy Spirit you have given us joy in the comfort of your being. “God faithful and true, make us eager with expectation, as we look for the fulfillment of your promise in Jesus Christ our Savior.” (A New Zealand Prayer Book) God, as we still our spirits and quiet our souls, our hearts are open to you . . . in this state of your being within us, hear our prayers. [Pause] In the name of God for whom we wait and watch; in the name of the Son who was sent to redeem our souls, and to the Holy Spirit who for ever walks with us. Amen. “To make Christ known in our lives and in the lives of others” is witnessing. That is what we are called to do and that is what we proclaim in our mission statement . . . our vision for this Parish on this little corner of God’s vast universe. And we are not unique. Two thousand years ago a man came out of the wilderness, “sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light.” (John 1:6-7 ~ NRSV) Yes, as a witness. Two thousand years ago in time as we measure it, God decided to go public . . . the Word becoming flesh . . . and that was no private matter. God needed a witness. So he called John whom we know to be John the Baptist. The thing is . . . God was already in the world yet only one, maybe two other people knew it for sure. Mary, the mother of our Lord whom we honor throughout Advent, knew it not only in her heart, but by first-hand knowledge from God himself. For God had sent his heavenly messenger, Gabriel, to testify to that fact and to engage Mary’s service for this Godly visit. Mary was the vessel and the delivery had already been made. Joseph, her husband and the father of her other children also knew for Gabriel had also passed God’s message on to him. But by the time John the Baptist came out of the desert and onto the Judean landscape proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God, Joseph had already departed this world. The old priest in the Temple at Jerusalem, Simeon, knew. Eight days after God’s arrival he had picked up the child Jesus and saw God. “These yes of mine have seen the Savior,” he said, “Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised.” He went on to tell Mary and Joseph that “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel . . .” (Luke 2:29-33 ~ NRSV) A witness, that is what God needed and that is what John the Baptist was called to be . . . “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’” (John 1:23 ~ NRSV) We are preparing for Christmas, the celebration of God’s coming into the world through Mary in the person of Jesus, but we can’t get to the Christ until we, once again, hear from John. John bears witness to the great light that has dawned into a darkened world. (William H. Willimon, Pulpit Resources, Vol. 36, No. 4, p. 46) And that light is greater than the light of day we enjoy from our sun, it is “the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it.” (John 1:5 ~ NIV) It is the light of God in the life of Christ. Still, the Apostle John makes it perfectly clear in his proclamation, that the witness is subordinate to that which he is witness to. For all a witness really does is point to something that has happened and say, “There, that’s what I saw.” In the case of John the Baptist, “he himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.” (John 1:6-8 ~ NRSV) “See, see, the Lamb of God!” What John witnessed and what we are being called to witness, especially at this time of the year, is faith and hope. How appropriate it is that this is part of the theme for the Advent season – faith, hope, joy, and love – and that it comes in this year when the voices of doom and gloom surround us on all sides. And if we are not careful, these voices will filter into this Body of Christ, trying disparately to extinguish the hope and faith we have within this community of God. We have to be careful that we don’t allow the darkness in to conceal the hope and the faith lest one will cancel out the other. “Faith, by definition, is radical trust in what God is doing, even when the divine mode of operation is far from clear.” (David Bartlett and Barbara Taylor Brown, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 1, p. 71) And that was - and is - what our Lord admired most in the people who surrounded him and the people he ministered. Some call it blind faith. Well, that is close to the definition but is not really true. Blind faith is foolish faith. Faith in God is graceful faith, the kind of faith that allows us to turn our lives over to God and know that no matter what happens, the darkness can never extinguish the light of life God bequeaths to us as his children. This is the faith that says, “God, you and I can work this out.” The faith that says “God, I turn my life over to you and now let’s get to work.” Foolish or blind faith is that which says, “God will work it out, so I’ll just go to bed or do something else and forget it. When I come back, it will have already been done for me.” Faith is concern but not worry. And in this day during this time in our current history, we should have concern but we cannot let the worry consume us. We have to trust God but at the same time we must live our lives. Live our lives with God in them and Christ as part of them. Our Lord has said to us, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 ~ NLT) Christ knew that we would have the propensity to carry the heavy burden of sin and the excessive demands we allow life to pile upon us. Through his love and his healing and through our love for God and God’s love for us, our earthly burdens are but fleeting nuisances and our heavenly burdens are light and eternal with Christ. In other words, we can allow the doomsayers and naysayers to weight us down with the darkness of today’s pessimism or we can simply say, “Okay God, today it is you and me . . . let’s get to it.” That is the radical trust in what God is doing and that is the trust in the love of God. “Hope, on the other hand, can easily assume the dimensions of individual and corporate wants.” (Brown, Ibid.) If we are not careful, we can allow our secular and material wants cloud what are truly our essential needs and create for ourselves false hope with unfulfilled expectations. And when our material expectations test the faith we have in God and in Christ we allow the darkness to close in on us and steel away our relationship with God and Christ. Good things happen when we call upon the Holy Spirit and we exercise that faith in God that does pass all understanding and is founded on the strength of the Word of God and our personal knowledge of God and relationship with God. Many times since I been here and many times in my journey with God I have stepped out on faith and I have witnessed this community and individuals in this community step out on faith. Good things have happened. We have witnessed turnarounds from the negative to the positive . . . from the impossible to true reality. The James Crabb Episcopal Center is one example and the continuing results of our Stewardship campaign is another. We had sought 50 pledges as a goal this year yet the doomsday folks said it would never happen, especially with all that is going on around us. I am happy to report to you we did accomplish 50 pledges and there are still some who say they are going to make a pledge. Faith . . . not blind or foolish faith, but the faith that said, “Okay God, let’s you and me roll up our sleeves and get it done.” “We can hope for a white Christmas, a less contentious Church, a closer relationship with Jesus, a God who makes sense. There is nothing wrong with these hopes yet they carry considerable cargo, suggesting that we know not only what the community and what we need from God, but also how God might best come to us,” (Brown, Idid.) might best fit into what we want. But this is trying to fit God to us, not fit ourselves to God. However, the Messiah we are witnesses to and the one John the Baptist heralded bares the hope of God’s arrival, sweeping all clutter away, (Ibid.) Making us true heirs to his Kingdom. While the Synoptic Gospels portray John only as the Baptist, today, in the recording by John the evangelist, we see John as the witness . . . the earthly messenger of God heralding the coming of the Kingdom of God in Christ. This is our call today . . . to herald once more the coming of God in Christ . . . that the child we are celebrating and anticipating his coming was no other than the Messiah . . . the one that Simeon said is “destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel . . .” (Luke 2:29-33 ~ NRSV) Israel today is the world. Those who will fall are those, as our Lord so eloquently put it are with “little faith.” But those who will rise are those in Christ, those who follow Christ and try, in their lives, to be Christ-like. Yes . . . like John the Baptist, that voice crying out in the wilderness, we, too, are witnesses. And when we witness the hope and live the faith in Christ we cannot help but to “make Christ known.” And how do we go about this witnessing? The Apostle Paul said, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for that is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you . . . hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16 & 22 ~ NRSV) We witness this Advent and always by living our faith and allowing our hope to be in God with the guidance of the ever present Holy Spirit in our lives. It’s simply a rule of life: For the love of Christ and His Church . . . for the love of God. Amen. |
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Sermon – Christ Episcopal Church – November 9, 2008 The Very Rev. Louis O. Miller, Jr. “I’ve Seen the Light” “Rouse our spirits, Lord Jesus, that whenever you come to the door and knock you will find us awake, ready to admit and serve you.” (A New Zealand Prayer Book, p. 641) O God, open the doors of our hearts so we may see the light of life you have so gracious illuminated for us. And look into our hearts and receive our prayers, granting those things that are in accordance with your will. Lord, quiet our souls, soothe our spirits, and hear the calls of your children. [pause] “Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead us and bring us to your holy hill and to your dwelling.” (Psalm 43:3 ~ NRSV) In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. We are living in historic times. This past week this nation went to the polls and showed the world what it means to be “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” We are a people who make history, not sit back and let history pass us by. And as Christians, we are sojourners through the history we make, keeping ever vigilant and ever awake for the knock at the door that may be Christ. Joshua, in his farewell address to the people of Israel put it on the table: “. . . but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15 ~ NRSV) And this has not only become the battle cry for all of Israel from that time forward, it has become our battle cry as modern day Christians and children of God. As we are passing through this life, making history as we go, the mark we leave will be the mark of Christ as long as we follow that cry from Joshua . . . to serve the Lord. History is who we are. We are only here temporarily but while we are here, our service to God and our discipleship of Christ can and will leave our footprints in time as we pass this way. November 4, 2008, will go down as a footprint in history, a moment in the infinity of time that defined a people. As we continue this journey, that definition will be refined. What it will look like at the end of time is how we serve the Lord as part of the mark we are leaving for others to see. Tomorrow, November 10, is also a day of history . . . a day footprints have been imbedded in time. On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress created the United States Marine Corps . . . Sempi Fi. The remarkable thing about that event was the United States didn’t exist . . . it was only an idea . . . a vision given to a handful of men. In my simplicity, I like to think it was a vision from God - for never on the face of this earth throughout all history has there been another nation like this nation. Other things happened on November 10 along the pathway of history . . . in 1969 Sesame Street debuted and many said it would never catch on, that it was to complicated for the children to understand and to entertaining to pay attention to its lessons. When we look back, look how many countless of children that program touched and taught how to count, spell, and read. Today, if I call out the letter “C” the reply may come back “cookies.” Going further back to 1928, November 10 was the day Knute Rockne delivered the most famous locker room speech in the history of football, rallying his underdog Irishmen of Notre Dame to come back and defeat a highly superior Army Knights from West Point . . . he did it with the now famous cry, “Win one for the Gripper!” They won the game. There was an even more important footprint left in history one hundred years ago tomorrow. Three men, Samuel Hill, John Nicholson, and William Knights formed the Gideon’s and on November 10, 1908, they left the first Gideon Bible in a room at the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana. In doing so, they left the light of life for millions to find their way and they opened the door so Christ could come in to the lives of countless of souls, bringing some of the generations of God’s lost sheep back to him. What an appropriate place to leave the Word of God. In hotel and motel rooms so, as our Lord has cautioned us time and time again, that we might be awake and alert when he comes. The singer and song writer Neil Diamond sings a ballad that, in part, goes: “Some people got to sing . . . Some people got to sigh . . . Some people never see the light . . . Until the day they die.” (Neil Diamond, I’ve been this way before) He could be singing the theme song to the parable our Lord told us today, the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids. Five of the maids were prepared in their wait for the bridegroom. Knowing not when he was coming, they brought with them extra oil for their lamps. The other five were not alert, had not prepared, and were leaving it all up to the bridegroom to do it all for them, even be on time and have extra oil. They did not see the light until the day they died – until it was too late. The five prepared not only saw the light, they brought it with them in their hearts as well as their lamps and when their oil gave out, the had reserves to keep their lights shinning until the Light of Life came for them and opened his door to invite them in. “I have seen the light,” the ballad goes, “And I have seen the flame . . . And (in the case of our Lord) I have been this way before . . . And I am sure to be this way again.” (Ibid.) How do we see the light? The Gideons have the right idea and a mission they started 100 years ago continues day . . . to shine the light, to put oil in the lamp to keep the flame going. It’s called the Holy Bible . . . the books that are the Words and Works of God inspired by God across the sands of time so that we might be prepared . . . be awake . . . be alert. “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua, Ibid.) And to learn about the Lord we serve and the Christ we follow, where do we look and where do we go? We start by hearing and reading the Word of the one who created us and breathed life into us. We start at Genesis. When we read this wonderful collection of Godly inspired books called the Bible, we can follow God and his journey to recapture his family lost at the dawn of time in the Garden of Eden. We can follow how he called upon a single man to build him a nation to proclaim his Word and Works and from that single man came not one nation, but many and his descendants number the stars in the heaven. We can see the Father trying to rear up his children through times of triumph and glory and also times of desertion and despair – not on his part, but on the part of his children who estranged themselves from him from time to time throughout history right up to today. This book called the Bible clearly opens the spirit and soul of God so we can see ourselves and understand what the image of God is that is within us. This book that the Gideons so wisely plant throughout the world in the world’s inns gives us the light of life and, ironically lets us read the story of the inn that had no room . . . and because of that, the light of world shone in a stable so brightly that it still shines throughout the world this day. Yes, in our busy world and in our 21st Century, highly technical, overly sophisticated daily lives we sometimes “got to laugh . . .” sometimes we “got to cry . . .” and we sometimes “make it through by never wondering why.” (Diamond, Ibid.) But as the balladeer sings, “I’ve seen the light and I’ve seen the flame.” (Ibid.) This, this is what Christ is telling us in his parable today and this is what Joshua was proclaiming as he left the children of Israel to go on to build a nation. To be alert and awake, you have to serve God and you have to be prepared and if you do, you will see the light and the internal flames of your lamp of Christ will never, never, never go out. Yes, we are history people. We make history and in doing so, we are just passing through. But while we are here, what kind of footprints are we going to leave on God’s sands of time? Are we going to be like the five unprepared bridesmaids that knocked on the door only to have the Lord call back, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” (Matthew 25:13 ~ NRSV) Or are we going to be like the five who kept the flame in their hearts and souls burning, energizing their spirits so they could “see the light” and go with the bridegroom when he came to take them to God’s banquet table. I’ve seen the light and it is shinning all around us. I have been inspired because God left his Words for me to savor in my heart and to store in my mind and soul. I have been released because my Lord walked the earth and left his door open for me to follow. “Some people got to sing . . . Some people got to cry . . . Some people never see the light . . . Until the day they die.” (Diamond, Ibid.) And then it is too late, for the bridegroom will tell them, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” (Matthew, Ibid.) “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua, Ibid.) We are people of history living in historic times . . . we are living in the end times but do not know when the bridegroom is coming. Therefore, we must keep awake; we must be the children God has called us to be. For while we wait, Paul tells us that “we do not want to be uninformed, brothers and sisters . . .” we need to “encourage one another with these word” (1 Thessalonians 4:12 & 18 ~ NRSV) . . . the words that Christ is the light of the world who came into the world to save it . . . to save you and me . . . and to open the doors of God’s Kingdom to us when our walk through history is complete. For our Lord is the light, he is the flame, and he has been this way before and at a time and day and moment we know not, he will come this way again. Will we be ready? Amen. Sermon – Christ Episcopal Church – November 2, 2008
“All The Saints” “God, you have given us a lodging in this world but not an abiding city. Help us, as a pilgrim people, to endure hardness, knowing that at the end of our journey Christ has prepared a place for us . . . and while on our journey towards your eternal kingdom, “help us to see what is eternally good and true, and having seen, to go on searching until we come to the joys of heaven.” (A New Zealand Prayer Book, pp. 638 & 639) Father, in the stillness of our souls and the silence of your temple, hear from our hearts our prayers. [pause] Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers. Amen. {Uncle Sam about Election} “If you focus on living an ordinary life, the cumulative effect of many average days is actually quite extraordinary.” (Homiletics, November, 2008, p.9) In a few moments we will pay homage to some of the saints in our lives who have made a difference for us. And the common thread that will run through all as you hear their names is the fact that in their ordinariness they made extraordinary impacts on our lives and the lives of others. For just as Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in the letter read this morning, the people we honor in our hearts and memories we remember because of their “labor and toil.” (1 Thessalonians 2:9 ~ NRSV) They impacted our lives in positives ways that, during their life time, they were not even aware. On the other hand, the Pharisees and the scribes still walk the earth and we sometimes have a hard time seeing them. Jesus characterized these Pharisees and scribes as human creatures possessing the height of arrogance, flying high and completely out of touch with the ordinary. (Homiletics, ibid.) For like the ones of old, the modern day Pharisees and scribes would like for us to “do whatever they teach” but, as our Lord pointed out, “do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.” (Matthew 23:3 ~ NRSV) As human creatures we are apt to give advice on how others should live and behave. Yet, we too often fail to realize that it is not what we say that influences people, but by what we do. In modeling for others, it is better for us to be average than to be exceptional, at least in our own eyes. Because when we begin to feel exceptional among our peers, our families, and our friends, we lose sight of one of the great rules of life our Lord taught us and is teaching us today from Matthew. “The greatest among you will be your servant.” He went on to state that: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12 ~ NRSV) Last week I told you that we must be human in God . . . by that, be what God wants us to be and be Christian in a world that is antichristian. When we are what Jesus modeled for us and how Paul walked in Christ, we will find that being ordinary in our own eyes will cause us to walk through life with humility and in that humility accomplish some truly extraordinary things in the eyes of others. My dad was, by all earthly measure, a very simple and humble individual. He did not amass earthly riches and worked a full time, demanding job until he was 79 years old. Yet, unknown to him, he touched the lives of so many in a very positive and significant way. He came from a large, poor farming family in eastern North Carolina. He had only an eighth grade education when he left the farm and went to work as a salesman for a beauty and barber supply company. He would rise up to become their VP for sales but under one condition, that he stay in the field and travel his route of sales, coming in on the weekends to manage the sales team. He also managed to take in his younger brother, put him through high school, college, and graduate school. My uncle became a Professor at NC State teaching what was then a new field that would have a major impact on the state, the field of community recreation management. My father and mother managed, stretching every bit of energy and resources they had, to nurse my very sickly brother through some of the worst times a child could suffer and see him survive, go to college, and live (and still living) his life to the fullest. Making that choice to insure that their youngest child would survive to live a “normal” life, they could only give their oldest child the incentive to be a survivor and find ways to make his way in the world as well. And there have been many, many other saints in my life that have impacted me significantly, yet they have or had little knowledge of their positive influence and example. My mother-in-law is such a person. She is perhaps the most courageous individual I have ever personally known. I am constantly amazed at her tenacity for life. It is that tenacity that has helped me through some seemingly difficult and unforgiving times as well. You all know of someone in your lives that has made that kind of impression upon you . . . who has, in some small or large measure, made a significant difference in your lives. Parents, relatives, teachers, doctors, whoever, just ordinary people in their own eyes making extraordinary differences in the lives of others, and most never aware of that positive significance they have or had imparted. These are the folks we are honoring this All Saints Sunday. People whom we have known and love and who have known and loved us in ways we are not fully aware yet recognize there has been a difference made because of them. Jesus knew the Pharisees all too well. He knew them to be arrogant and flying high, placing themselves above others telling them how to live, but not showing them by example. We see that in this election year and in the campaigning going on by those who seek your nod to be your leaders. Some are running purely for themselves and for the self-aggrandizement that they must have to live in this life, while others are running strictly out of the call to serve, to truly be the servant among us. We are being summoned by God to make the distinction. But God isn’t asking us to do it alone. He will be there if we ask, if we pray, and if we give each of those seeking our votes very careful consideration knowing that not only are our lives are at stake, but also the life our nation and the nation we will pass on to our children and grandchildren. Oh yes, I know politics is suppose to stay out of Church but this year politics threatens God’s Church and God’s people. God is reminding us through his Son in his words heard this morning that He has already sent us a Messiah who is now sitting at his right hand. That we are not electing a new messiah but a person who is human, who will make human mistakes, but who will be extraordinary because he is ordinary . . . who will be the greatest among us because he is our servant. And you and me: what about us? Christ is giving us the same message. Be humble . . . be servants . . . be God’s Children. Don’t misunderstand the message: God through Christ is not asking us to be doormats for other people . . . he is not asking this nation to be the doormat for the world. He is not suggesting that we subject ourselves to abuse, only turn away from arrogance and turn to humility. This is a very timely lesson this morning instructing us on at least two very important moments in our immediate lives . . . the election this week and the pledge campaign that is now on going in this Parish. For the election God is instructing us to look to the servant and in prayerful consideration in making our pledge, God is asking us to look to the Servant in Christ and to the blessings and gifts he has given us in our lives . . . then choose our leaders and make our gifts to God accordingly. Remember: a Pharisee is one who does not practice what he or she teaches . . . a Pharisee lays his or her burdens on the shoulders of others . . . and a Pharisee does all his or her deeds to be seen by others so he or she will be exalted. The Church will be open on Tuesday for you to come and pray before and after you have voted. It will be open for you just to have a moment with God. If you do come in or in your prayers at home, ask God to “send out [his] light and [his] truth,” that they may lead and guide you and like those saints we honor today, will bring you to God’s holy hill and in the time to come, give you your dwelling place with God. (Psalm 43;3 ~ NRSV) This is All Saints day . . . the day we honor those who have been here before us . . . but also it is our day . . . our day as God’s children . . . as God’s saints who will find our way to him in the age to come. Amen.
Sermon – Christ Episcopal Church – October 12, 2008 The Very Rev. Louis O. Miller, Jr. “God is good, all the time!” “How good and a pleasant thing it is when God’s people live together in unity.” (Psalm 133:1) “Gentle God, grant that at home where we are known at our best and worst, we may learn to forgive and be forgiven . . . for your Son Jesus Christ shared at Nazareth the life of an earthly home; grant that we and all your children may live together in peace and joy, until we come to that eternal home which you have prepared for those that love you.” (A New Zealand Prayer Book, p. 633) Father, look into the hearts of your children and in the silent stillness of your holy temple, hear our prayers of joy, sadness, anxiety, peace, praise, and love. [pause] In the name of God the Father who loves us . . . God the Son who can to show us that love . . . and God the Holy Spirit who lovingly and caringly walks with us. Amen. {Mickey and Friends} This week a significant 100th anniversary will occur on Tuesday and most of us will give it little notice. But the good folks in Chicago are quite aware of it. On October 14th, 1908, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series by defeating the Detroit Tigers 2 to 0 in the fifth and final game. That was their second World Championship in a row. Those of you familiar with and follow major league baseball know it was also their last. For 100 years, now, the Chicago Cubs have been in a World Series drought. And look at the changes in the world, indeed, also in the world of baseball, that have taken place. This year, the Tampa Bay Rays are in the playoffs against the Boston Red Sox to see who will go to the World Series. The Tampa Bay Rays did not exist in 1908. Yes, radical changes have occurred since the Cubbies last won the World Series. When they last won, Henry Ford was producing his first Model T and Orville Wright was demonstrating his flying machine to the U.S. Army. World War I was still years away. In 1908, being “online” meant hanging your clothes out on the clothes line to dry. And since then, we not only have washers and dryers, but being “online” means communicating and acquiring information. There isn’t anything, hardly, that you cannot find “online” in this age of the computer. In 1908, the computer wasn’t even a thought. We have been through two World Wars . . . the Great Depression . . . the birth of the baby boomers, the X generation, and now the post X generation . . . we have seen the stalemate of the Korean Conflict (we don’t dare call it a war) . . . the rude awakening of Vietnam where we discovered you can’t have “bullets and butter” at the same time, a lesson truly being reemphasized to us today as we try to fight another war at the same time boost our quality of life . . . we have witnessed, for the first time since the War of 1812, a brutal and vicious attack against this country on our own shores . . . we have seen Gulf War One and Two . . . and now history seems to be repeating itself as we watch our economy and life-styles plummet, not knowing when they will hit bottom. A lot to think about and a lot to give us anxiety attacks and many sleepless nights unless . . . unless we realize we are not alone . . . that God is here with us and waiting for our call. Oh, for the simple days when the Cubbies won the World Series. The Cubs have suffered the longest dry spell between championships in modern sports history. No one else in baseball, or football, or basketball, or hockey has endured such a record. Yet . . . yet despite this long drought, Chicago remains faithful. They rejoice in their beloved Cubbies. Will we rejoice in our beloved Father in heaven? We sometimes feel God has left us in a drought of Cubby proportion. With all that we have been going through since 911 we have to wonder “Where is God?” Oh, at first, immediately following 911, there was an upsurge of interest in God and churches were, once again, packed, and it seemed that the faithful were on the rise. We are now facing a period in our history that has the potential to be even tougher than the Depression days of the thirties and the War years of the forties, sixties, nineties, and this current mess we are trying to find our way through. Will this be the moment we return to God? Moses was on the mountain with God when suddenly God said to him, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Notice how we, as parents, are like God in a way. When God was angry at the children of Israel he said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt . . .” (Exodus 32:7 ~ NRSV) YOUR people. When any of my children got in trouble the moment I got home Mary Anne would say . . . “Do you know what YOUR son did today or you had better go and talk to YOUR daughter.” Ever notice that . . . that when children get into trouble one parent will say to the other . . . “YOUR son or YOUR daughter.” As if one parent has suddenly sifted the responsibility of “bringing the children out of the land of Egypt” to the other parent . . . as if all it took to bring the children in the world was one parent. We are all children of God and we have been, over the last years, behaving like the Children of Israel. Did you know that on Wall Street in front of the Stock Exchange there is our own version of the golden calf? Oh yes! There is a huge statue of a bull signifying our love for wealth and our pursuit of the green god of money and greed, replacing the true God who created us. Now, like the children of Israel, we are being confronted with the total ineffectiveness of that golden calf . . . that green god of greed that so adorns the gateway of our desire for all the earthly niceties money can buy. God said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.” (Exodus 32:9 ~ NRSV) Their lack of faith and their lustful desire for the tangible god of gold and greed had turned them away from the very one true God who had saved them. After 911, we, as a nation, turned to God for strength and salvation. I sometimes wonder, in my moments of weakness, if we weren’t too late and that God is telling us, as he told Moses, “let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot against them.” (Exodus 32:10 ~ NRSV) But then, I know God. I have a personal relationship with God and with my Lord Jesus Christ and I know why God sent Christ into this world . . . not 2000 years ago . . . but this world today because Christ is as much alive and walking among us as he was in the time of Israel’s greatest need when being dominated by Rome. In moments like the one we have been witnessing over the last two weeks, there is a pivotal point in which the hand of God will intervene. Some of us have witnessed such a mystical moment in our lifetimes . . . remember D-Day? Or moments in your life when the impossible happened to save you from disaster or calamity? Moses said to God, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people?” (Exodus 32:11 ~ NRSV) You see, Moses, like those of us who, on occasions, have been the one parent . . . the recipient of YOUR son or YOUR daughter . . . Moses knew that God loved his children and reminded God how he had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would multiply their descendents like the stars of heaven. In essence, he reminded God that God does not break his promises. God made a promise to our ancestors when they came to this land. He brought them here for a reason, I believe . . . to build a nation of which the world had never seen before . . . a land of milk and honey where all the world could look to it and know that the hand of God had touched it. Our forefathers recognized that and built a nation on the premise: “In God we trust.” A pivotal moment in history. God acknowledged Moses’ plea and his anger subsided and “the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.” (Exodus 32:14 ~ NRSV) We are at a pivotal moment. Are we going to continue to uplift the bull on Wall Street and praise the almighty dollar or are we going to turn to God our Father and creator and exercise that patience endurance Christ spoke of in Revelation and that has been vividly demonstrated to us by the people of Chicago who still love their Cubbies and are still optimistic that next year they will win the World Series? Yes, we are at a pivotal moment in time. We can despair expecting the worse or we can rally our courage to continue to work in God’s vineyard. And to work in God’s vineyard is not only to harvest the produce of God, but it is to uplift ourselves to God’s care and love. God is inviting us to his banquet. And like the wedding feast our Lord spoke of in today’s parable as recorded by Matthew, our Lord is telling us that we are invited to the banquet. But there is a caveat . . . our Lord said, “. . . many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14 ~ NRSV) Yes, we are all being called to eat at God’s table and work in God’s vineyard . . . and as his children, we should count ourselves among the few. We are living in history . . . this moment in time will go down either as our worst moment or as our finest hour. If we include God and seek God and continue in our faith in Christ, here at Christ Episcopal Church and across this nation, we will discover that it is our finest hour. For when we include God and ask Christ to walk with us we will be blessed. And blessing life will be celebrating life and learning how to fix life with God’s blessing, Christ’s help, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance. For you see, World Championships, presidential elections and other worldly prizes such as the Wall Street Bull have no real significance to our Lord Jesus Christ who emptied himself, humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death so that we might be saved. So in this moment in history, open your hearts and your souls to God . . . seek Christ . . . and let the Holy Spirit be your guide. And above all, never, never, never forget: God is good, all the time! Amen. |
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