Sermon Archive
Readings for 19 August 07
Proper 15
Year C
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Am I a God near by, says the LORD, and not a God far off? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD. I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, "I have dreamed, I have dreamed!" How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back-- those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the LORD. Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
Hebrews 12:1-7(8-10)11-14
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children--
"My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts."
Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? [If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness.] Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Luke 12:49-56
Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:
father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, `It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"
Sermon
The Rev. Susan B. P. Norris
Editor's note: The following is an outline to the sermon preached on 19 August as provided by the preacher)
Swords, Division, and the Company of Heaven In nomine . . .
1. Scott Norris on the great Tympanum of Conques (Midi-Pyrenees in Southern France) found on Susy+ and Scott’s recent vacation.
Describe it.
Two men in the middle (one person and one demon) totting up the “balance”
of each person’s life to see where they “belong”
Don’t like this theology – that of throwing one half of the world to the devil’s oven/beasts and taking the other half to live with God.
(See the story of the sheep and the goats)
2. How do we avoid being the sort of person that a sculptor of cathedrals would like to toss over to the “beasts and devils side?
3. First point is to decide for whom we want to live,
For whom we are willing to die, and
Whose side we wish to join
Decision - for or against God is Not a place for grey areas
(That is the division of which Christ is speaking in today’s lessons)
Witness to the fire/light of God’s presence within us and in the happenings around us.
4. Instead it is about the need for making a real (and irrevocable) decision.
It’s about the need to cast our lives (our fortunes) (our lot) in with God,
OR
With money and power. (Mammon) With good or evil. With truth – or untruth.
[?? Do we prefer money, power and/or untruth, not for themselves, but because
in the relationships most of us have with them, they can fairly easily understood and manipulated?] -- Unlike God’s will for the created order
5. Need to avoid mixing up notion of being faithful to God, of being “for” God
with the notions of purity or historicity of doctrine and ritual
(We’ve always said it that way – or done it that way!)
6. Believing in Jesus is not meant to divide us off from the world, but to unite us to all of creation. Perfectionism, hubris, superiority, in-group ness, etc., are dividers of creation and killers/destroyers of faith in God.
They make deciding to cast our lot with or trust our lives to the hope, and promise, and the story of faith very difficult indeed.
7. Judgment - Listening to. Loving, and living with people – IS a place for Grey areas
We are called to see deeply into people and events, and not to take solace (refuge) in the superficial/obvious interpretations or understandings thereof.
For example:
(There is a great hurricane – God is MAD at us)
(Someone can’t see – “who sinned, this man or his parents?”)
A Samaritan” will never rescue a person who has been robbed and beaten. Good people do that
And Samaritans are not good people.
8. Despite our pride in having a grasp of the “obvious, ”grabbing at our first and easiest understanding of any situation may not always work well.
Yet, takes a lot of effort to stay with a problem that can’t be solved now, or fixed by X date.
We know the ordinary meanings of the “stuff” around us, but not the larger meaning behind the obvious,
We do not read the trajectory of history well, nor see how God might work to bring goodness out of great evil or pain.
Often the only reasonable thing to do is to move with the problem and see how things unfold. –
We need to “do patience well.” (Tom Ehrich)
We must work to “interpret the present time,” not simply recite old tradition as immutable law and demand that everyone stick to the “correct” understanding from a long time ago, when that understanding may- or may not – be believable as God’s will in the present time.
9. If people believe in the connections they see between us, our interpretation of the present time, and their own needs and experiences, then they may well join us, in our service and witness, and perhaps even come to a fuller and deeper trust in God, and in Jesus who showed us God (in the same way, I might point out, as I am suggesting we should show Jesus to others.
10 This is what we are called to do as a parish – as a community of faith. Not to sit on the judgment seat high up on the 1300-year-old tympanum, declaring who is in and who is out. Instead we are to walk among the people who surround the judgment scene, interpreting to them the “signs” of our times as faithfully as we can, living with our knowledge that our interpretation will probably fall fairly short of the mark, and testifying with all our might
11. To our trust in the God who loved us enough to live among us,
and to die to at the hands of sinners,
So that we might live in the love of God’s forgiveness,
And come at last to the glory of God’s eternal realm
In nomine . . .
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