Trust Him (sermon preached on November 13, 2011)

Sermon Preached at St. David’s, Washington DC on November 13, 2011 on Matthew 25:14-30
 

Sometimes when I have preached before I have had a look at the readings for the day and thought: well I don’t want to preach on that passage – far too difficult! This Sunday is different, when I looked at the texts my first thoughts were, I can’t preach on any of them…

“The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord …. So the Lord sold them into the hand of King Jabin” (Judges) or “sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape” (Thessalonians) and finally “As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew). Cheery stuff and what ‘nice’ images of God we are given. 

But the Church chooses the readings and I have to preach from the Lectionary. The text I have chosen from the three is the “Parable of the Talents” from Matthew. In some ways this seems the most difficult reading. One reason, as mentioned, is what appears to be a picture of a pretty vindictive God at the very end of the passage. The other reason is a long tradition of interpreting this in a particular way; one which I don’t think is the only or best way.

Over the centuries the word ‘talents’ has come to mean abilities or gifts and the message in this interpretation is that God has given us all different gifts and abilities (so being wealthier or fitter or more creative is fine, it is God-given). It is up to us to make the most out of these gifts, if we don’t then it is really our fault, we had a talent and we just did not use it properly. Oh and if this reading pops up during the Stewardship campaign then the preacher might add an admonition that we are all called to give back some of what we so bountifully received … or else!

But the Greek word Talenta really just meant a very large sum of money, the equivalent of about 6000 x daily wage of a laborer I am told. So if this story took place today, and we assume that a laborer at least gets the federal minimum wage of 8.25/hour, one talent would be about 400,000 $. So it’s quite a lot of money, and a sign that what the slaves have been entrusted with is very precious and very valuable. All three are being given considerable responsibility. All three are trusted by their master. This is a theme that runs through this part of Matthew’s Gospel in which he has been focusing on expectations and readiness in that long waiting period before the Messiah comes, or in our case returns. We read of many negative examples: the wicked tenants in the vineyard who do not want to give the owner what is his due; the guests who ignore an invitation to a wedding banquet; the foolish bridesmaids who are not ready when the wedding starts; the wicked slave who, when asked to look after his fellow slaves, instead mistreats them until he is surprised by his master’s return. Then in today’s story we heard about three slaves: two know just what to do with the fortune they have been given, one of them disappoints and just hides it away. These are all stories about people who have not lived up to expectations, who have betrayed the trust put in them, and who were not ready when asked to give account of themselves.

Now when Jesus tells stories like these, it is not for entertainment, but for instruction – so what are our instructions? What is the fortune we have been entrusted with? And what are we supposed to do with it?
It is the knowledge and experience of God’s love that we have been given through Jesus Christ. It is the good news to the poor, the proclamation of release to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, as Jesus preached in the synagogue at the beginning of his ministry[1]. It is the Good News of forgiveness and release from sin. Now that really is the most valuable thing God could entrust us with; that is why God sent God’s own son to bring it to us, despite the consequences. But being entrusted with this Good News comes with very clear expectations. Keeping this knowledge and this message to ourselves is not an option, making it something for private devotion or something hidden in our hearts is not what it is for, nor are we supposed to keep it inside the church building. As Jesus said elsewhere, you don’t hide a light under a bushel[2]. We are all called to spread the Good News, to ensure more and more people hear it, to put the Word to work, to be vehicles of this divine love by living it out in the world. 

That is what this church is doing when it supports outreach ministries like those for the aged and homeless here in DC, the street children in Africa and the poor in Honduras. Though we can always do more, both as individuals and as a church. For only through word and deed will it be the good news Jesus promised to all, especially to the poor, meek, and hungry. Sure there are risks involved in doing so but that’s part of the mutual trust – God trusts us with this task and we trust God that we are up to it. And we are up to it. We do not get asked to do more than we can do, only what is according to our ability! For that’s the big difference between the three slaves in today’s story. Each was given a different amount of money, a different task we might say. God knows we are not the same, God created us that way, but God also knows that we can all do something. Unfortunately the third slave didn’t trust his master, and he didn’t really trust himself either, he hid what he had been given, he didn’t really understand what he had been given and what it was for. God is not harsh, as the 3^rd slave calls his master, but God is certainly demanding, which is another and perhaps better way of translating the Greek word (okleros) that Matthew uses. And my clever commentaries also tell me that the word (oknere) we heard translated as idle or lazy, as in “you wicked and lazy slave”, can also mean “hesitating to engage in something worthwhile”. And that is really what the 3^rd slave is being criticized for: for not acting and for not trusting his master.

That is what stands out for me in this parable: TRUST. God trusts us (again and again), God trusts us to not only hear the Word, but to pass it on and to live it out. God calls us to trust, to have faith, in God’s care and love and knowledge. If we trust God we are free to act, free to take risks, free to make mistakes, free to act without fear. For God will not ask us to do more than God knows we can do. Our creator and sustainer knows very well what we are capable of. It is just that we sometimes feel that it is so much more than we think we can do. What if we fall short? What if we fail? Will we be punished, which slave from the story will we then be? Well the great thing is, there is a third way between the first two slaves and the third one. There is a third choice between getting it right and just not trying at all. That 3^rd choice is always trying to do what God wants us to do, knowing that if we get it wrong, we can go back to God. God does judge us, as the master judged the slave in the story, but what God judges is not failure, it is failing to even try. By not trusting in God, by not believing in the message of love the 3^rd slave really punished himself. He did not believe that there was any joy to be had from this master. That is why he found himself in the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The story does not record him repenting and asking his master for forgiveness. We know on the other hand that we can always ask for and always obtain forgiveness for things ‘done and left undone’, as we did earlier in the Confession.

Then we can go out into the world and try all over again to do what God calls us to do. I think that is Good News indeed!
Amen

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[1] Luke 4:17-20

[2] Matthew 5:15

Living together (sermon preached on Sept. 25, 2011(

Sermon preached at Grand Oaks Retirement Home, Washington DC on September 25, 2011 on Philippians 2:1-13

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians we heard a list of qualities for living together. Are they an accurate description of life in your community here at Grand Oaks? Are you all always of the same mind, do you regard all others as better than yourselves and do you never look to your own interests? Unless this is a community of saints, and we know from the stories of the saints that some of them could be a bit unpleasant at times, I suspect not. 

Because living in community is not and never has been easy. And if the Christian community in Philippi that Paul was writing to had lived up to Paul’s expectations I don’t think he would have written this letter in the 1st place. Living in community is difficult, as I know from experience. As a very recent seminarian I have been called to live in a small community again as I go back to school after 30 years. The seminary also has high expectations of how we are supposed to live together. We are called to study, pray and eat together, we are called to respect each other despite our very different backgrounds and opinions. We are called to serve others and to put ourselves second, and others first. It “ain’t always easy”! And my age and seniority suddenly don’t mean as much as they used to, there are a number of professors who are quite clearly younger than I am – but they have more experience than in their field than I do. So this is experience is a good exercise in humility for me.

Paul knew of course that living a Christian life wasn’t easy. He knew that concern for self is our driving force and that what he was asking the Philippians, and Corinthians, and Ephesians and all the other “-ians” ran against normal, destructive human behavior. That’s one reason why he had to write so many letters to the communities he founded to remind them how they should live. He also knew and tells us that it is not something we can do on our own.

We need encouragement in Christ, we need Christ’s example, his supreme example. For what greater humbling can there be than God becoming human, what greater denial of self! In today’s Gospel Jesus is asked where he gets his authority from. Who gave him permission to do what he did? Who allowed him to speak and act that way, the political and religious leaders of the day asked him. They did not and could not understand that his authority was not one of from power, but from a demonstration of humility and complete obedience. It was because he humbled himself and was obedient that “God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”, and not the other way round.

As Christians we are called to model the ideal community to the world; that is one way in which we preach the Gospel. We are called to show people how we should live together in this world, as a sign of how we will live together when God’s kingdom finally comes. It’s not easy and we can’t do it on our own. We need to trust, as Paul puts it, that “God is at work in us enabling us to will and to work for God’s pleasure”. 

Living as a community is not easy. But I reckon you have plenty of practice here, you know that it makes sense to look out for each other’s and not only for your own interests. You know how important sharing and selflessness are. With God’s help you here can be a real model in the world for how we are all called to live together.  Amen

Perfect Freedom (sermon preached on July 31, 2011)

Sermon preached at Church of the Ascension, Munich on July 31, 2011 on Genesis 32:22-31 and Romans 9:1-5

"Farewell" sermon preached at my home parish before leaving for seminary

One of the presents my wife gave me on my 50th birthday exactly a year ago today was a selection of 50 songs for my ipod each chosen by the guests at the birthday party. Some were clearly personal favourites of the guests, some were songs people knew that I liked, some appropriate to the occasion such as ”holding back the years” or “this is the day”. I’m not quite sure what the song “highway to hell” was supposed to tell me though! Anyway one song was “wanna talk about me” by Toby Keith that I had not heard before: The refrain goes:

But every once in awhile

I wanna talk about me

Wanna talk about I

Wanna talk about number one

What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see

I mention this as when Steve asked me to preach today on my “last Sunday” he did say you will have to talk about yourself even if it is something that you are not overly fond of doing. But why? Am I supposed to be some sort of example, and if so a positive or negative one?

As most of you know we, Heidi and I , will soon be little less visible and present here for a couple of years. About 5 years ago I gave in to and accepted the call from God to go into ordained ministry. It wasn’t as easy as it now sounds and seems. It meant giving up quite a lot, it meant taking a risk – a step into the unknown and uncertain and I – we struggled with the decision. Even when we had decided some things still needed to happen first, there was a formal church discernment process – mostly to help me be sure of my calling, but also some struggles with church “bureaucracy”. We wanted the children to finish their secondary school education and I started a part-time course in theology to make sure I was still capable of academic learning. But now, 5 years on and after nearly 29 years in Germany, after close to 29 years with one company I stopped work at the beginning of June and in just 3 days time Heidi and I will be on a plane to Washington where I will study full-time for 2 years at VTS as preparation and training for ordination. It’s a big step but it’s one we are looking forward to, now. We don’t know what will happen after but God does and that’s what I trust in.

 

Why am I telling you this? Not because I think you should all feel called to ordained ministry, that’s not what the “priesthood of all believers” means and anyway, it would get pretty crowded up here at the altar. Ordained ministry is not the only or even a better calling. But everyone has a calling from God. We struggle at times to hear and understand it. Sometimes we even struggle with or against it when we have heard and understood it – O not me Lord, not this, Lord.

That brings me to today’s OT reading[1], to part of the saga of Jacob in Genesis. One commentator calls this passage “worthy of a Rembrandt but as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa”! It is rich in images. We read of a mysterious struggle of Jacob with God, a wrestling match that lasts all night long. Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, is also an interesting person to set up as an example: a liar, a cheat, a scoundrel, a coward!

Let’s look at his story. Stole his elder brother, Esau’s, birthright, deceived his father, ran away from Esau to save his life, then tricked his father-in-law, ran away from him home to Israel. That’s where we find him now. He knows his brother is on his way to meet him with what seems like a small army of 400 men. Jacob has prayed for safety, but, covering all bases as usual, he has also sent his brother presents to appease him and split up his own company – he is prepared for the worst. Jacob is afraid, that’s why he has sent his wives and children on ahead to safety. He is struggling with himself and then as we heard physically with God.

Should he be true to form – trickster – or true to God’s calling after all? God called Abraham’s and his descendants to be a special, holy nation, God’s visible people on earth. That’s not going to happen if Jacob runs away yet again. And he doesn’t, "you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed" he is told.  The struggle with God has changed him, not just physically with a limp. He has grown in that long fight with himself and with God. The new name he is given, Israel, is a symbol of that change. After the fight Jacob takes responsibility, meets Esau – now with God’s blessing as an assurance – and makes up to his brother and accepts his call from God. This is the call St. Paul refers to in the reading from Romans[2]. His people, Abraham’s and Jacob’s physical descendants, are those to whom the promises and the patriarchs belong and from whom our promise, the Messiah, Jesus, comes.

The passage reminds us that God often has very poor material to work with, not saints and angels but real human beings like Jacob, like me, like you. We don’t always get it, we take too long, we are stubborn, we fight our calling, we forget, we fall back into bad old habits.

Sometimes the whole biblical narrative seems to be about struggle, about both individuals and the whole people of Israel getting it, losing it, turning back. That’s good news because it shows us that God didn’t give up on that very normal and stubborn people he chose for his purposes just as he won’t give up on us either. God gives us freedom to choose even when he tells us, if we’d only listen, what the best choice for us is. “to serve you is perfect freedom” is the somewhat paradoxical expression for this from a collect in the BCP. Or as a modern worship song[3] puts it: “All of my ambitions, hopes and plans, I surrender these into your hands. For it’s only in your will that I am free”.

So do please listen out for your calling from God, for your perfect freedom. By all means question it and wrestle with it, if It’s real it won’t go away and you will grow in the process just as I have grown in mine.

Let me end with part of prayer on vocation in daily work from our BCP:

Deliver us in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of him who came among us as the one who serves, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

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[1] Genesis 32:22-31

[2] Romans 9:1-5

[3]  Jesus, all for Jesus, Robin Mark