A Reflection for V Epiphany All Saints Episcopal Church, Southern
Shores, NC February 5, 2017 Thomas
E Wilson, Rector
Isaiah
58: 1-12 Psalm
112:1-9 I Corinthians 2:1-12 Matthew 5: 13-20
Living
After Disappointing
The Isaiah passage for today is from that part of
the book some scholars call “Third” Isaiah written in the school of the Prophet
Isaiah who had lived in Jerusalem from
742 to 701 BC but this section seems to
reflect life around 530- to 510 BC and
even later after the Exiles have returned from Babylon in 539 BC and the
initial enthusiasm has calmed down when they realize that restoring the land
was a harder job than they had imagined and they are asking themselves; “What
is in it for me?” Some have sunk back to the old practices of exploiting others
and reducing God to a religious ritual instead of acting as if God is present
in every moment and interaction of their lives. For many of them God seems so
far away as they use their religion to find scapegoats and “point fingers” at
those “other” people as the problem.
The followers of Isaiah have three choices:
1) They
can go along with the finger pointers and say that God agrees with them and
point the Divine finger of blame on the scapegoats in the hopes that their own
religion business will get a boost of popularity as it defines itself as the
only way to find God while pandering to the lowest common denominator.
2) They
can condemn the returning exiles in God’s name and say that they are totally
unfit to continue and therefore consign them in their shame to the Divine
Wrathful Judgement for the fitting punishment while only a small group of
insiders in, or chosen by, the Isaiah school will get a Divine Reward.
3) They
can tell the truth of what they see but at the same time reminding them that
they are loved beyond all measure and can still turn to the Divine loving presence
which is never far from them and grow into being full members of the Divine
family viewing their failures “not as a measure of their worth but as a chance
for a new start.”
In case you didn’t
recognize it, that last part of the third choice is from the Book of Common
Prayer’s Prayer for Young People; one of the most beautiful and hopeful prayers
I know of asking God for “strength to keep faith in God and find joy in God’s
creation.”
Jesus in his
explanation of the Sermon of the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel for today proclaims
that each of us is the light of the world and at times we hide that light, but we
are to “shine that light before others, so that they may see our good works and
glorify God.”
The question in the bulletin for today that I asked
you to meditate on before the service was: “What is it like when you disappoint
someone who loves you?” I am not going to ask for a show of hands for
confession, so I will only speak for myself. I have had many incidents of failures
in my life as a son, as a brother, as a student, as an employee, as a citizen,
as a friend, as a husband, as a parent, as a church member, as a neighbor, as a
Priest, as a human being and as a child of God. There have been times when I
felt great guilt and separated myself emotionally or physically so that I would
not have to feel the shame of failure. Another seeming antidote to shame is to
double down and blame my behavior on someone else and justify myself as the
victim. So that the son places blame on the parent, the brother on the sibling,
the student on the teacher, the employee on the employer, the citizen on the government,
the friend on the ex-friend, the husband on the wife, the parent on the child,
the church member on the organization, the neighbor on the other neighbor, the
Priest on the Congregation or Bishop, the human being on my genes, and the
child of God on the whole idea of God. They have been my many failures,
disappointments to God; but God keeps turning us to say that there is nothing
that can ever separate us from the love of God. Knowing the love of God doesn’t
help me “fix” the failures but it is part of the redemption. In my theology God
is not the Big Mr. Fix-It in the sky to whom we send work orders to make it as
if our choices never happened; rather God is the name we, for convenience sake,
give to the creative energy that is in, under and through all; strengthening
and redeeming all. I am who I am based on my successes and failures and the constant
chances for new beginnings surrounded by love.
Church is not the club
house for the perfect saints; rather it is a hospital for loved recovering
failures who speak the loving truth to ourselves and others. Truth might point
out guilt but we are not in the business of giving shame. Truth is not to make
someone “feel” guilty; no one can make anyone feel anything; truth is there to
provide information to break the cycle of what doesn’t work. Shame is the
destroyer while truth given in love is the first step of finding God’s strength
for forgiveness of self or others, which is the repairer and the restorer. The
lesson from Third Isaiah reminds us we can be “called the repairer of the
breech, the restorer of streets to live in”, or as Jesus says, we can be
“lights to the world”. Today we pray for all of us who have once disappointed “for
strength to keep faith in God and find joy in God’s creation.”
Living
After Disappointing
Divine
eyes reflecting in lovers sighs saying,
“Wish
to speak and hear truth to or from you
but
we will give all ways what is loving true.
Much
expected from you, we continue praying
even
if you disappoint, remaining loved child
from
whom nothing, nothing can ere remove
a
deeper ancient bestowing of love’s groove
trying;
not attempt to have shame in you riled.”
From
an old imperfect generation to another’s
is
passed, imperfectly at times, of awareness
of
need forgiving love keeping us from a mess
of
world of cold, estranged sisters and brothers.
O
God, help us to reflect your trust and truth
continuing
joyfully as your own beloved youth.
No comments:
Post a Comment