Previous Sermons
10/22/06
10/15/06
Divorce
10/08/06
09/17/06
09/10/06
09/03/06
08/27/06
08/20/06
08/06/06
07/16/06
07/09/06
07/02/06
05/28/06
05/21/06
05/14/06
05/07/06
04/30/06
04/16/06
04/14/06
04/09/06
04/02/06
03/19/06
03/05/06
03/01/06
02/26/06
01/15/06
1/1/06
12/25/05
12/24/05
pageant
12/18/05
12/11/05
12/04/05
11/27/05
|
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
July 9, 2006
Delivered by Reverend Sandra Stayner
Ezekiel 2:1-7
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-6
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” (2 Cor.12:2-10)
When you start to think about it, some of the people God chooses as leaders of his cause seem very unlikely characters to fulfill his plans! Abraham, the Father of our faith is an aging, somewhat pitiful character when we first meet him. At the age of 75 years old he is childless, and has spent all his life in a backwater place called Harran. He’s not righteous, he’s not godly and he certainly doesn’t appear to have the right constitution to become the father many nations. God’s approach to Abram is simple and direct, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you: I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse him that curses you; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you.” Now that’s quite a promise to come right out of the blue! God is promising to create a whole new nation through the seed of a barren man. No wonder Abraham’s interest is peaked! But there is a slight hitch - in return Abraham must leave his land and his father’s house – a big deal in those days – and take his aging, barren wife on a journey to a totally unknown destination. Right! God doesn’t tell them where they’re going, or how long it will take to get there which doesn’t seem to be a good way of beginning a journey through the desert. So why does Abraham go? You have to wonder if it isn’t some kind of desperation on Abraham’s part, the knowledge that he does not have the creativity within himself to father the child he needs, that finally gives him the courage to take the leap of faith for which he is so famous. The bible simply tells us that “Abram went forth as the Lord had commanded him.” I wonder how many of us would find the courage to leave the houses we love, our friends and our jobs to go to an unknown land simply because God asked us to. From the beginning of this story of the father of our faith we see a man with great need that comes from his inability to father children. But in the end it is this very weakness that allows Abram to become the vehicle through which God will create a new nation.
Then of course there’s the great man Moses who led the Israelites from a terrible life of slavery to a new land where they would be free to worship God. You may remember Moses’ first encounter with God as he is herding sheep for his father in law in the wilderness near the land of Midian. When Moses realizes that he has encountered the presence of God in the bush that burns but never burns up he is pretty stunned. As the encounter continues, and God makes it clear that he wants Moses to be the vehicle through which the Israelites living under great oppression as slaves in Egypt are released from their bondage to the great and powerful Pharoe, Moses is horrified! He basically says to Yahweh, “what the heck am I going to say to Pharoe that would cause him to release his slaves? I at least need to know your name!” Next Moses reminds God that he could never talk to Pharoe because he has a pretty serious speech impediment, to which God replies, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.” When Moses is still not convinced and begs God to send someone else instead God gets very frustrated, but finally agrees to send Aaron, Moses’ brother to act as a “mouth” for Moses. In this story we see, once again, a person chosen by God as a leader for his people with a weakness that would make it impossible to achieve the task to which he has been called, if it weren’t for the intervention of God. “Now go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.”
As we think about these and many other stories from scripture we begin to see how God doesn’t seem to be looking for self-sufficient people who have made it in this world, people who have all the answers for themselves, with no need of anyone to help them because they can do everything perfectly first time, but for people who are faithful, who will listen to God’s words, and appreciate the blessings he has to offer, ready to do whatever he asks and able to ask for forgiveness if they fail.
Paul says that he boasts in his weakness because it’s there that the power of Christ dwells. No-one is quite sure what that weakness was and explanations have ranged from psychological disorders to physical weakness such as bad eyesight or stomach problems. Whatever the weakness is that Paul refers to, God did not remove it from Paul’s life. Instead God allowed Paul to use it as an opportunity to reach out to God and know God’s strength in the places Paul was weak.
Henry Nowen, one of the greatest spiritual writers of modern times speaks of the Christian community as a fellowship of the weak, a place where we can share one another’s weakness so that healing occur. He says that in order to experience the joy that we are promised in Christ, we must learn to engage in a community of mutual love, where not only our joys but also our sorrows are shared with one another. He reminds his readers how many twelve step programs are a powerful witness to the truth that sharing our pain is the beginning of healing. “In the world about us” says Nowen, “a radical distinction is made between joy and sorrow. People tend to say ‘when you are glad you cannot be sad, and when you are sad you cannot be glad.’ In fact our contemporary society does everything it can to keep sadness and gladness separated. Sorrow and pain must be kept away at all cost because they are the opposites of the gladness and happiness we desire. Death, illness, human brokenness…all have to be hidden from our sight because they keep us from the happiness for which we strive. They are obstructions on our way to the goal of life. The vision offered by Jesus stands in sharp contrast to this worldly vision. Jesus shows both in his teachings and in his life, that true joy often is hidden in the midst of our sorrow and that the dance of life finds its beginnings in grief……Here a completely new way of living is revealed. It is the way in which pain, suffering (and weakness) can be embraced, not out of a desire to suffer but in the knowledge that something new will be born in the pain. God’s power will be revealed to us in extraordinary ways as we invite him into the places in our lives where we feel weak or vulnerable
This week I was answering the phone at the office, because Susan was on vacation. A call came in from one of our parishioners whom I have never met. She was calling because she has had to move and everything had been upside down. She wanted us to know why she had not sent in her pledge and tell us not to worry because she would send it as soon as she could. I was intrigued by this woman’s deep commitment to St. Peter’s and asked her where she lived. When I found out that she lived very close to the person that I would be visiting that very afternoon I asked if I could stop by to meet her. She said she would love to meet me. A few hours later I knocked on her door and we sat down for a visit. She told me how difficult it was for her to leave the friend with whom she had been living before the move. She felt very upside down as a result of the move, and freely shared her sadness. I was able to share some of the things that are happening at the church, and she loved thinking about it. She said many times how glad she was that she had called the church, and how wonderful it was to meet the rector. It was a gift to me to be there that day. I sensed that somehow God had managed to connect us at just the right time, in spite of the fact that before that day I wasn’t even aware of her existence. I’m not sure she was even aware of reaching out to God when she called the church to tell us why her pledge was late, but God knew, and God answered her prayer in a way I don’t think she had imagined he would.
God still chooses to use those of us who are not necessarily worthy or even acceptable by the world’s standards, but who are willing to open ourselves to God’s word and allow God’s power to be manifest in our lives. None of us are perfect, but all of us have the capacity to respond to God’s word in our lives so that God’s power and compassion is made known.
“My grace is sufficient for you because my power is made perfect in your weakness.”
|
