May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
Oh, how much do we love that psalm, right? “In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be ashamed. In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free; incline your ear to me and save me. Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe; you are my crag and my stronghold. Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor. For you are my hope, O God.” I mean, it is one of my favs from Compline.
And why wouldn’t it be, right?
Our daily lives are exhausting! I think most of us want to know that there is a place we can come to where we can rest from our labors, where we can be comforted, where we can be safe. And, it is here where I hope all of you feel this way. This should be a place of nourishment, of comfort, and of renewal in the knowledge that we are deeply and unconditionally loved. And that is a good and joyous thing, always and everywhere for which we give thanks to God, and to all those who came before us that made this church, this sacred space we all our parish home, possible to still be here.
But here is where we are also given an opportunity to listen to our sacred texts – the story of our faith – and today all of the rest of them are aligning directly with what the past several days at our Diocesan Convention have been about. We are part of the Diocese of Newark, and our chief pastor is our bishop, the Rt. Rev. Carlye J. Hughes. The theme for this, her first convention with us was Gifted – Called – Sent. It was part of the work we did there, and it was the focus of our bishop’s message to us throughout. And if we pay close attention to our texts today, we will see that it is the theme there too. And this theme is something the church needs to take on as our spiritual practice.
Take for instance the past several weeks in our lectionary readings from the first letter of St. Paul to the church in Corinth. He tells us that we all have gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit, but each will be different than another, and that we all need each other – no part of the body of Christ is better or more important than another. And today he is saying that all of those spiritual gifts are rooted in the same thing – love. It is a beautiful passage, often read at weddings (for good reason), but it was not about romantic love. It was about love for one another in community – a community of faith – this community, and the larger one all over God’s creation. He writes “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” Amen to that!
So, we are gifted by the Holy Spirit and grounded in love. Now what?
Well, we are called. And that brings up the Jeremiah passage. This one is often heard at ordinations, and again, with good reason. God is calling Jeremiah, and he’s like “What? Me. No way God – I am only a kid. I can’t go and be your prophet. What on earth can you expect of a kid like me? God tells Jeremiah – don’t give me that kid stuff…because, while you may be young, you are my child, and I will tell you what to say – if you will just open your heart and trust me. Now get on with it.
Okay, that is a paraphrasing of the text – obviously, but it is the point of it. And I can tell you that there isn’t a single person in collar who didn’t totally side with Jeremiah at one point on our discernment journey, a journey that for all Christians is a life time thing. You never stop discerning where God is calling you with your gifts. And, you need to listen and trust God that you are enough. Let me say that again – you are enough…because you are never in it alone – God is with you – and you are God’s beloved child.
So, you are gifted by the Spirit, and called by God…and you know what happens then? You are sent.
In fact, you are sent every time you gather here – in the dismissal, right? When you hear “let us go forth to proclaim the good news of God in Christ,” or words to that effect, what do you think that meant? Time to go to brunch at the local diner? Heck no! It means, you are gifted, you are called…you have been renewed in the Eucharist and in one another, and now you need to get your butt outta here and do something with all of that!
See, that is where the Psalm tells only one side of the story. Yes, this is where you get rest…but, as you all know by now…it is not the destination, but where you are given strength for the journey – the next part of your journey in Christ to be the gifted, called, and sent child of God that you are!
Now here is where we get all Jeremiah on God, you know. Hey God, I am soooo busy. Check back with me when the kids are grown, or when I have a less busy job, or when I am not managing my elderly parents, or when I am feeling better, or…
And God says, my child…do you not know that I see you and love you just as you are now? And do you not also know that every person can be the one I send…has gifts they can use right now…and are called to not waste them?
We get so caught up in something needing to be over the top that we forget that sometimes the most prophetic witness to God’s love happens in the smallest of ways and in the humblest of places. Even with all of that though, this living out your call, using your gifts – you know, being sent into the world to proclaim by word and deed the gospel – this doesn’t always go the way we hoped Some folks expect us to be what they want us to be, not what God calls us to be. That is what happened to Jesus in the gospel.
It’s his home town. Did they say that’s so awesome – Jesus, our home boy – we are so proud of him! I mean, just look at Joseph the carpenter’s eldest. Who’d have ever imagined what a fine Rabbi he’d turn out to be. Mozel Tov!
Yeah…no. They tried to run him off the nearest cliff! So much for being crowned the homecoming king.
We recently lost a wonderful poet in Mary Oliver. One of my favorite poems by her was called The Journey, and it goes like this: “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles.
“Mend my life!” each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible.
It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do– determined to save the only life you could save.”
I would argue that while the voice one finally hears may sound like our own, as she describes…it is without a doubt the voice of God, calling us to the life She hopes for us, and we need to listen and respond, even when it seems impossible.
Look, did Jesus escape the crowds who wanted to kill him to run back home to his mommy and step-dad to curl up in a ball, grab a pint of ice cream, and have a good cry about how nobody understands? No…though I suspect he wouldn’t mind the ice cream. Look, nobody will ever say living the life we are gifted, called, and sent to live will be easy all the time. That was Mary Oliver’s point, in a way. There will be folks telling us that we aren’t good enough to be that person (maybe the person telling us that is ourselves), or that we don’t have the time, or enough knowledge or money, or whatever. But God tells us, if we will just listen, that we don’t have to be anything more than who we already are. We have all that we need. We just have to open our ears to listen to Her, open our hearts to be filled with Her love, and then follow Her out into the world. You don’t have to be a great speaker or writer, or have lots of money, eloquence, or education, and it especially does not take a collar.
It just takes you saying – okay God. I am listening. I will go. What now?
And it takes one thing more… letting go of the past.
In the church, we too often get caught up in trying to be the church of yesterday. It is a numbers game…and a losing game too. And, as our bishop pointed out, the church of the past isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either. While there are some lovely memories of large congregations and budgets overflowing, there were also more segregated congregations, intolerance of difference, and bigotry of LGBT people and women. This congregation – this beautiful diverse quilt of humanity – would NOT have happened in days gone by. Do we want to really return to that? Really? Absolutely not.
Folks, in no less a way than the church in Corinth – we have been given gifts – individually, and collectively as a parish – wonderful gifts of the spirit, and like Jeremiah, we are called to live that out in the world. And, Lord knows, we need to do something with that, because while we have had some mighty cold weather of late, most of us were able to take refuge in safe and warm homes. But there are so many in the world who have been left out in the cold – physically and through the way in which they have been oppressed, neglected, and abused – and they cry to be delivered, to experience what the Psalmist hopes for. We cannot sit idly by hoping somebody will do something. We are that somebody. We are the body of Christ today.
And when we live as he did, we will rankle a few feathers, just as he did. And just as he did, we will need to shake it off, and come back together with our faith community to be restored and renewed, in much the same way as the Psalmist describes.
Every single one of you is gifted.
Every single one of you is called.
Every single one of you is sent.
Let us go forth to proclaim the good news!
Amen.
For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here:
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
February 3, 2019
Fourth Sunday After The Epiphany – Year C
1st Reading – Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
2nd Reading – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Gospel – Luke 4:21-30
