A Sermon for V Epiphany All Saints Church, Southern
Shores, N.C. February 9, 2014 Thomas
E. Wilson, Rector
I was thinking about the kind of sermons that you
have heard me give over the last decade plus and I put them into four categories.
1. Teaching:
These are the sermons where I want to show that I learned something in seminary
and/or I am continuing in my education. I have an excitement of what I have
learned and I want to pass it on. Sometimes these turn into lectures and it is
aimed at rational part of the brain of the listener.
2. Evangelical:
This word needs to be rescued back to its original meaning in the Greek eu=
good and angel= message, Good News. These sermon are aimed that part of the
listeners’ soul that feels the need for hope and assurance of the presence of
God in a world that doesn’t always seem to make sense. This is a “comfort the
afflicted” type of sermon.
3. Prophetic:
This is aimed at the part of the work of the church which is “to afflict the comfortable”.
You can see this in today’s lesson from Isaiah where he speaks to people he
loves and reminds them that they are falling short of who they really are. The
theme is being a truth-teller, or the good friend who reminds you that you are
better than this.
4. Reflective: In these sermons, I try not to just talk to you but to go beyond and share with you how God is speaking to me in my spiritual journey,
wondering if you are getting the same message and how if I see it might be
helpful for you.
Many times the sermons have multiple layers, but today I'll use the fourth style to share t how the messages for today were hitting me
this week.
On Mondays mornings I go to the jail and visit a
parishioner. It takes about a half hour to get to Manteo, the county seat and a
half hour back. I figure that if we visit as long as an hour I can get back in
time to stop at the store and buy something to eat for lunch during the Monday noon
Bible Study where I can start the process of beginning the sermon as we look at
the lessons for the coming week. That plan worked for the first couple weeks
where I only had to wait for about 10 minutes while a guard went and got my
parishioner from the cell and brought him to room that lawyers and detectives
use for talking with prisoners. The jail's function is to hold prisoners, and
while visitors and family are allowed to visit at strictly designated times, the emphasis is not particularly on rehabilitation. One exception is that 12 step groups
are allowed to come in so that some inmates can continue working on sobriety one evening a
week. As a favor to the community, they make allowances in allowing pastoral
visits from an inmate’s pastor at other than the strict visiting times and I use that opening. Over the last several weeks the waiting times
have gotten progressively longer as they say that they profess their "busy- ness. I use that
time to read over the lessons and do some notes. This last week the wait was
over an hour.
As you know, I have a pretty good ego system that
thinks I am “important” and as I had seen ther people come and go, I was well into feeling sorry for myself and
resentful of the too long wait for a man of MY importance. That resentment devolved into paranoia, and I was on my way
to throwing a fit of temper as MY precious time was being stolen from me - ME
the center of MY universe. What stopped me were the messages I was getting from
reflecting on these passages for today. Isaiah was hearing God asking about the
purpose of a fast to humble oneself to help make the world a better place where
there will not be the “pointing of fingers and the speaking of evil”. I was
ready to point fingers and speak evil of my own importance and I had to remind
myself that I was there for my parishioner and not for me. I had to empty my
own pride out like Christ emptied himself out to enter into the mind of Christ.
If I am indeed the light of the world as Matthew
remembers Jesus saying in the Gospel lesson, then to whom am I being called to
be a light? “Yes”, to my parishioner; but am I also to be a light to the
jailers, or do I hide it under the bushel basket of my self-importance? If I am
indeed to be the salt, which gives savor to life; was I about to turn into a
red hot pepper to burn and punish? I turned to the letter from Paul to the
Corinthians and asked the “ . . . Spirit that is from God, so that we (I) may
understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. (2:12) Can I turn time into a gift from
God that I give back to God instead of something stolen from me? Indeed one
cannot steal what has already been given away. The Spirit helped me remember a
story related by Robert Bellah in Habits of the Heart about Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts
Bay Colony in the 1630’s:
when it was reported to
him during an especially long and hard winter that a poor man in his
neighborhood was stealing from his woodpile, Winthrop called the man into his presence
and told him that because of the severity of the winter and his need, he had
permission to supply himself from Winthrop's woodpile for the rest of the cold
season. Thus, he said to his friends, did he effectively cure the man
from stealing."
Jesus talked about fulfilling the law which he meant
that it is filled full with God's intent to be the loving way to live
together in this, the Kingdom of the Heavens. For Jesus the law was not about
punishing but about entering into a “righteous” relationship, not about being
good or following rules but about being loving, a reciprocal relationship, with
God and neighbor. For Jesus, entering into the Kingdom of the Heavens was not going
to a new place of geography after one dies but about entering into a new way of
being in the here and now which continues through all eternity.
When I was finally allowed to go back to see my
parishioner, I thanked the guards. Without the time to look into the shadow of
my soul instead of stuffing it down and ignoring it, I would not have been able
to live into the Good News of having “faith ... not rest on human wisdom but on
the power of God.”
My parishioner and I did Bible Study together and
this teaching, evangelical, prophetic reflection is the result.
At church this Sunday instead of doing the usual post-communion prayer we will do the prayer in the Book of Common Prayer for:
For Prisons and Correctional Institutions:
Lord Jesus, for our sake you were condemned as a criminal:
Visit our jails and prisons with your pity and judgment.
Remember all prisoners, and bring the guilty to repentance
and amendment of life according to your will, and give them
hope for their future. When any are held unjustly, bring them
release; forgive us, and teach us to improve our justice.
Remember those who work in these institutions; keep them
humane and compassionate; and save them from becoming
brutal or callous. And since what we do for those in prison,
O Lord, we do for you, constrain us to improve their lot. All
this we ask for your mercy's sake. Amen.
At church this Sunday instead of doing the usual post-communion prayer we will do the prayer in the Book of Common Prayer for:
For Prisons and Correctional Institutions:
Lord Jesus, for our sake you were condemned as a criminal:
Visit our jails and prisons with your pity and judgment.
Remember all prisoners, and bring the guilty to repentance
and amendment of life according to your will, and give them
hope for their future. When any are held unjustly, bring them
release; forgive us, and teach us to improve our justice.
Remember those who work in these institutions; keep them
humane and compassionate; and save them from becoming
brutal or callous. And since what we do for those in prison,
O Lord, we do for you, constrain us to improve their lot. All
this we ask for your mercy's sake. Amen.
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