Sermon preached on Friday, March 22, 2013 in the Interim Chapel of Virginia Theological
Seminary, Alexandria, VA
Jeremiah 20:7-13;
John 10:31-42
When I started looking
at the readings for today to prepare my sermon, the first thing that came to my
mind was the Gilbert & Sullivan opera ‘Pirates of Penzance.’ That gives you
an interesting insight into how my mind works! It’s the refrain of the Policeman’s
Song that I was thinking of, with the words:
When
constabulary duty’s to be done, to be done
A policeman’s
lot is not a happy one, (happy one)
Except that I wanted to substitute the word Prophet for Policeman: For when the prophetic duty’s to be done, a prophet’s lot really is not a happy one!
It really isn’t.
Speaking God’s word and God’s truth can be a very dangerous game. In the Gospel
reading we heard how Jesus escapes from what is – according to my count – the fifth
attempt to kill or capture him in John’s account of events. Isn’t it a little ironic,
considering the pre- and post-Reformation work/faith debates, that while Jesus
reminds the crowd of the many good works he has shown them, they want to stone him
for his lack of faith, for blasphemy? The prophetic truth that was so dangerous
to tell in Jesus’ case was the truth about himself, about his mission, and about
the relationship he shared with his Father.
Then when we hear how Jesus
“went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing
earlier” we are reminded how deadly dangerous prophecy was for John the Baptist!
Speaking up to the powerful and privileged cost him his life.
The prophet Jeremiah was
not very happy either, but then some would say he never was. According to one
commentator, “he lamented and complained mightily!”[1] And
with good reason, for sometimes he really felt as if God had taken advantage of
him: “O Lord you have enticed me, you have overpowered me.” (Jeremiah 20:7) He
felt driven to prophesy, to warn, and to admonish, although the task he had
been given was both thankless and seemingly fruitless: Israel would not repent.
But then God had told him what it would be like: “You shall speak all these
words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but
they will not answer you.” (Jeremiah 7:27) Had he been tricked? After all God had
appointed him not only “to destroy and to overthrow,” but also “to build and to
plant.” (Jeremiah 1:10), yet so far all he had been able to say or shout was
‘violence and destruction!’ Not only did the people not listen to him, they got
very angry at him, they mocked him, denounced him, and even waited for an
opportunity to take their revenge on him.
Yet despite threats and
persecution Jeremiah kept to his calling. Two things sustained him in his cause.
The first thing is what he calls in today’s reading “something like a burning
fire shut up in my bones” – an irresistible prophetic inspiration, the presence
of God’s Spirit within him. The second thing that kept Jeremiah going was the vision
of a just and righteous community for all that would follow the short-term
disaster he had to warn Israel about. He was sure in his hope of restoration,
of a better future for Israel, and of a new covenant.
At today’s service we
are also commemorating James De Koven, Priest. He helped introduce the
principles and practices of the Oxford Movement, or Anglo-Catholicism as later
became known, into the American Episcopal Church. We probably forget just how
much he and others changed how our church worships. Although we do have some
additional, and more exceptional elements of ritual at today’s service, quite
literally the ‘smells and bells’ of incense and a Sanctus bell, most of the other
practices De Koven and others fought for are in fact now mainstream: our
vestments, altar hangings, altar candles, the sign of the cross etc.
James De Koven also suffered
for his convictions. Holy Women, Holy Men
tells us that “because of his advocacy of the ‘ritualist’ cause, consents
were not given to his consecration as Bishop of Wisconsin in 1874, and of
Illinois in1875,”[2]
although he had been duly elected by the people of those dioceses. In 1874 De
Koven described his convictions and the vision that sustained him as follows: “You
may take away from us … every external ceremony …. But to adore Christ’s Person
in his Sacrament – that is the inalienable privilege of every Christian and
Catholic heart. How we do it, … the ceremonies with which we do it, are
utterly, utterly, indifferent. The thing itself is what we plead for.”[3]
As current and future lay
or ordained leaders in the Church we are all called on to be both prophets and
witnesses. I pray that we will be as steadfast and courageous in speaking and
witnessing to God’s truth, as Jeremiah and James De Koven were: especially when
we meet resistance or our task sometimes seems thankless or fruitless. I pray
that we too will be sustained by God’s Spirit within us and God’s vision before
us to seek, speak, and preach the truth. The truth that God loves all human beings,
that God values all of creation, and that all of us are made in God’s image. The
truth that our calling as human beings is to love God more than all material
possessions and worldly success and to love all others as ourselves. These are
simple truths, but still not the truths everyone wants to hear.
Let me finish with a
prayer partially and loosely based on the Collect for James De Koven:
Almighty and everlasting
God, inspire us, like your servants Jeremiah and James De Koven to do what is
right and to preach what is true. Grant that we may impart to your faithful
people, as prophets and witnesses, the knowledge of your grace. This we ask in
the name of the one whom you sanctified and sent into the world, your Son, our
Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen
