by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
—Romans 13:8-14
We are going to be chatting about God this morning as we often do. Before we begin in earnest I thought I would share a cute story with you.
We find ourselves in an Episcopal Elementary school. The kids are lined up for lunch and at the end of one table was a sign pinned to an apple. “Please only take one apple. God is watching.”
As they moved along the line they came upon a pile of chocolate chip cookies. Sure enough there was another sign, but this one was obviously written by a child. “Take all you want. God is watching the apples.”
Do you ever wonder when you look around in the world where God is and ask yourself why God isn’t fixing all the things that are so obviously wrong? I certainly do. I have to constantly remind myself about free will. I wonder if God ever regrets giving us that gift.
On the other hand I do think that God gets involved in our messes in some way that we don’t recognize until we look in the rear view mirror. “Oh, ok, I get it”, we end up saying to ourselves. Looking backwards seems to be the most obvious way to observe God in action. So let’s look backwards for a few minutes as I think I can present an excellent example.
About 2025 years ago a little fellow was born by the name of Jesus in Nazareth. He grew up into quite a fellow. When he was about thirty years old or so he started talking about the Kingdom of God. He also preached to folks in the Holy Land about the nature of God and had some things to say about how we might interact with each other and with God. He turned out to be an expert in the Hebrew Scriptures and spent time interpreting them for his listeners.
But, sadly he upset a lot of people who were in charge of things and they decided he had to go. He was just too much trouble and if the people ever really started listening to what he had to say their positions of power might be threatened. So he wound up on the cross. Case closed. Problem solved. A loud mouth had been dealt with.
But it turned out the problem wasn’t solved at all. He just wouldn’t stay dead and the word began to spread that he was alive again. His followers began to spread the word to anyone that would listen. The story spread like wildfire. Three hundred years later Christianity was born and became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
In the meantime for those first few hundred years during this new religion’s gestation time life for the believers could be really hard. Life was already difficult but those in power even tried to make it even harder for the people of the way. Believers were rounded up and thrown in jail or worse. Many were killed in the most horrible ways. There was much suffering. Things were an incredible mess for a really long time.
But the Christian church had been born. It was only in looking back that people could see the hand of God in action. Who would have thought that Christ would be born in a backwater town in a backwater province under the heavy thumb of the Roman Emperor? Who would have understood in the midst of all the suffering that things were changing? Who could have seen at the time that they were in the middle of the birth pangs of a new understanding about God and God’s people?
It turns out that God’s way of birth is messy and painful and frightening in the extreme. Just look at Peter’s reaction that we heard about in last week’s gospel when Jesus told them they were all headed to Jerusalem and that it was necessary that he suffer and die. “No!”, Peter screamed. “This just can’t happen to you!” It scared him to death. Only in looking backwards after the story unfolded did he understand. He had been in the middle of God’s painful and messy birth process. Something new and fantastic was coming. There just was no way he could see it while it was developing.
I don’t know how good a metaphor actual birth is for what we are discussing but let’s try it out. During the time a couple waits for the actual birth of the child the woman’s body goes through some really radical changes. Then when the day arrives the birth itself is painful and messy. But the child that is born makes it all worthwhile. This is what we are talking about. God’s way of birthing is painful and it is messy, even as it applies to society.
There are some standards that God has insisted are in our best interest ever since the beginning of time. It seems that every once in a while something needs to happen to remind us of those standards and to improve how we are living in relationship with God and with each other. Everybody is aware of these standards and even agrees most of the time that life would be most wonderful and comfortable if they were followed. So let’s casually review a few of them.
Don’t take another person’s stuff. Tell the truth. Don’t kill anybody. Try not to wish you had somebody else’s things. Instead, try to earn your own. Get some rest regularly. Listen to and take care of other people, especially your parents. Do your best to have a loving relationship with the creator that already loves you. Give your best effort to have a loving relationship with the world and the other creatures God has created. Love and take care of your fellow human beings. Read about God’s prophets and especially God’s son if you are looking for examples of how to conduct yourself. Simple huh?
Phyllis Tickle was an Episcopalian, writer, lecturer, and editor. She passed away in 2015. She wrote a number of books, the most famous being The Great Emergence – How Christianity is Changing and Why. Her basic premise was that about every 500 years there was, in my terminology, a new birth in Christianity. It started with Gregory the Great, then The Great Schism, and was followed by the Reformation. She believed we are in the next birth process of the church.
Personally I agree with her but I think there’s more than just a process for the church here. If we study history we realize that society moves through these birth processes at the same time. And it’s messy. And it’s painful.
Photo by brotiN biswaS from Pexels
Let’s talk some recent history. Beginning in the sixties we had the awakening of the civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam, the awakening of women’s issues, the hippy movement, and the loss of some great leaders through assassination. Then as time went along there have been various armed conflicts, the rise of the personal computer, the internet, and the immense impact of social media. Today we are living through a pandemic, the reawakening of the civil rights movement, and the extreme polarization of government and society. Some of us are hanging on by our fingernails to what was and the rest of us are hoping for a very different future. And in the middle of all this messiness there exists great fear, much anger, extreme disappointment, incredible stress, gut wrenching sorrow, and tremendous loss.
Folks I personally have no doubt that we are in the middle of God’s birthing process. We may even be nearing the end, in labor if you will, waiting on the arrival of what is to be.
And I think what will arrive are things that are as old as time, things we are already familiar with that will be reemphasized. We will more likely leave other people’s things alone. Telling the truth will become much more the way of the world than it currently is. People will stop being so ready to hurt and kill each other. We will rediscover the healing wonders in rest, prayer, and recreation. We will take better care of each other, and take care of our parents who have tried to teach us so much. God will reemerge as the center of our lives and relationship with God will become more important to talk and teach about. We will start taking better care of the gifts God has given us. We might even love our neighbors as ourselves.
If we draw back from the mayhem around us so that we are able to see the forest and not so much the trees we discover God’s birthing process at work. It’s messy and it’s painful but the world that is going to emerge will be worth it. Hang on. We are almost there. In the meantime remember as were reminded in today’s gospel. When two or three of us are gathered together Jesus is among us. Let’s hang on to each other and to him.