A Sermon preached on June 28th, Pentecost
V, at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
2 Samuel 1:1,
17-27, 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, Mark 5:21-43
I don’t normally
take requests for sermons – though it could be a new fundraising idea if I
charged per word or line! But this Wednesday, when we looked at today’s
readings during our regular Bible study, I received a very strong
recommendation from the other participants to preach on the extract from
Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians, particularly on the verse: “it
is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to
desire to do something – now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be
matched by completing it according to your means,” (8:10-11) and on how this
speaks to our current situation – especially to our Capital Campaign.
St. Paul is always
a good source to go to for sermons on action, on what it means to be a
Christian in terms of our behavior and our actions. I know we tend to think of
Paul being more concerned about faith - that it is by faith alone and through
God's grace that we are justified or declared righteous in God’s eyes, most
famously expressed in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. While this is true it, is
also a Reformation simplification – nuances are the first things to go in times
of conflict, everything has to be black or white. But in fact for Paul faith
was always something we have to live into, something we have to grow into,
something that has to change us and through us the world – or it is not faith
at all. In his letter to the Corinthians while he praises them – somewhat
faintly - for excelling in “faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness,”
(8:7) what he now wants is that they “excel also in this generous undertaking,”
that is in making a significant contribution towards his collection for the
Church in Jerusalem. Or to put it in more simple terms: Put your money where
your mouth is.
Why should they?
Well for one thing it would be a sign of what he has been missing: action! It
would be a visible and physical expression of the extent of their faith, or as
Paul puts it, a test of the genuineness of their love (no pressure there). But Paul
gives two other reasons, both of which are equally valid for us all.
Firstly he brings
everything back to Jesus Christ and what he calls Jesus’ generous act – or
better acts. On the one hand Paul is referring to the act of the Incarnation: the
means by which the Son of God who though he was rich – i.e. divine – gave up
this status to become human – “poor” in Paul’s words - to be able share our
lives and loves and frustrations in all their fullness. The other generous act
was the giving up of this life and the giving of himself on the Cross and
through it the gift of forgiveness. So, Paul says, when you think of all that God
in Christ Jesus has given you – this life, new life, eternal life, forgiveness
of you sons – surely you can give a little of your riches and your abundance. To
follow Christ means both to believe in him and to imitate him – through which
we will become more like him.
The second reason
is because we do not follow Christ in isolation. The choice is an individual
one – but when we choose to follow Christ we choose to join a community, a
family of fellow believers, what we call the Body of Christ. This morning
Camryn-Enya is joining this Body through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism which
is, to quote the Prayer Book, full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into
Christ's Body the Church. The collection for the Church in Jerusalem that Paul
is trying to get the Corinthians to support is a concrete expression of the solidarity
and interconnectedness that belonging to the One Body entails. And, he reminds them,
it is mutual, not just “relief for others and pressure on you.” (8:13) Dear
Corinthians, he says, you help today out of your abundance, and then when you
are in need they will help you tomorrow “in order that there may be a fair
balance.” (8:14)
Coming back to the
verse I was asked to focus on, what does it mean to finish what you desired to
do last year, “so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according
to your means?” (8:11) Last year you were eager and passionate to stay in this
building, you were convinced that it was the best solution for this community, that
it was the best resource for our growth as Christians and for our service in
this wider community, and you were certain that it was not beyond our means, and
that we - not alone of course – would be able to finance all the work that needed
to be done to make this a Strong Tower and a restored and improved base for our
mission and ministry for at least another 150 years. That was the case we made
to our bishop, and that case was convincing. But now that desire or eagerness,
to use Paul’s words, needs to be matched by completing it according to our
means – by donating and pledging to the Capital Campaign – much more than has
happened so far.
But of course this
verse – this passage – is also at the core of what it means to be a baptized Christian. When Camryn-Enya joins the Church – with a
capital C – in just a moment she is joining an interdependent community of
baptized people in which, in former Archbishop Rowan Williams’ description, we
all “receive life from others’ prayer and love, and give the prayer and love
that others need. We are caught up in a great economy of giving and exchange.”[1]
And both the Baptismal
vows that her parents and godparents will say on her behalf, as well as the
Baptismal Covenant that we will all join in saying start with an expression of
faith, and end with a promise to act. After the promise to turn to Jesus Christ,
to accept him as our Savior, to put our whole trust
in his grace and love come the promises to proclaim by word and example –
that is action - the Good News of God in Christ, to seek and serve Christ in
all persons, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect
the dignity of every human being. We promise do this not alone, not from our
own strength or ability, but with God’s help, through the gift of God’s Spirit
and through the individual gifts of the Spirit that we have all received.
If I may reference
the other event we will celebrate today, Jill and Ashley’s 50th Wedding
Anniversary: they too made promises or vows, they too called on God’s help and
asked for God’s blessing on their community, and if they hadn’t been willing
and able to turn desire into action – into acts of love, generosity, mutual
respect, and probably a lot of forgiveness, we wouldn’t be celebrating 50 years
of their marriage.
I pray therefore
that with God’s help we will excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in eagerness,
in our love for one another and for the other, and in all our generous
undertakings in God’s name.
Amen
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