SERMON ~ 11/23/2014 ~ “The Relationship”

11/23/2014 ~ Reign of Christ ~ Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost ~ 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ The Last Sunday Before the Season of Advent ~ The Last Sunday of the Church Year ~ (Proper 29) ~ Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Psalm 100; Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Psalm 95:1-7a; Ephesians 1:15-23; Matthew 25:31-46 ~ Operation Christmas Child Dedication.

The Relationship

“I pray that the glorious God of our Savior Jesus, the Christ, will give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation to bring you to a rich knowledge of the Creator.” — Ephesians 1:17.

As you heard earlier, Tuesday Bonnie and I will be on a flight to Dallas, Texas, to visit family.  Now, Dallas is not exactly known as a tourist destination but the one thing I told our niece, Heather, I wanted to do in the course of the week, the one place I wanted to visit, was The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

Needless to say, this is a site and a museum which commentates the event which happened 51 years ago yesterday, the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our 35th President.  The museum, as its name implies, is located on the sixth floor of the Dallas County Administration Building.

That edifice was formerly the Texas School Book Depository.  and the sixth floor is the place from which Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots which killed the President and injured the Governor of Texas, John Connally— no relation— we spell our names different ways.  (Slight pause.)

Well, have you ever heard about that six degrees of separation thing— the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by means of introduction one person to the next, from any other person in the world?  What this six degrees of separation theory says is a chain of ‘a friend of a friend of a friend’ statements can be made to connect any two people anywhere in the world in a maximum of six steps.

That being said, I was chatting with Rebecca Sands, the Executive Director of the Place this week and I mentioned I was going to Dallas and wanted to visit The Sixth Floor Museum.  “Oh,” she said, “my grandmother, who is now ninety-one years old, was Governor Connally’s nurse.”

“There’s a picture of her,” Rebecca continued, “in the Texas Encyclopedia pushing Governor Connally in a wheelchair to his car when he was released from the hospital.”  Connections are often closer than we think.  Connections can, obviously, even span across the abyss of time.  (Slight pause.)

If you were alive when JFK was assassinated, the event probably felt like a punch in the stomach.  if you were alive when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, the event probably also felt like a punch in the stomach.

And if you were alive when the Challenger exploded, the event probably, again, felt like a punch in the stomach.  And when 9-11 happened— just 13 years ago— it probably felt like a gigantic punch— a haymaker.

So too,  if you were alive when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor— and there are fewer and fewer of those of the greatest generation still with us— the event probably felt like a haymaker also.  In relation to that last one, in relation to degrees of separation over the abyss of time but on a very personal note, Bonnie’s uncle, Bob Curtis, died Friday after a brief illness at the age of 96.  He was 23 when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened.

Bonnie and I knew Bob well.  And when we heard he died, it was not just that it felt like a punch in the stomach.  On top of that feeling, it was very personal— visceral.

The personal is different— and visceral is the only word I can think of to describe it.  Indeed, to address events like this in just my family, when my Mom died in 1983, it was visceral.  When Bonnie’s Dad died in 1986, it was visceral.  When Bonnie’s Mom died in 1994, it was visceral.  And when my Dad died in 1998, it was visceral.

On the other side of that equation, a prime reason for us to visit Dallas, is we have a grand-nephew, Henry Light-Horse Lee— named for his Revolutionary War ancestor— Henry, who is already two years old who we have not yet seen face to face.  And next Summer we expect visit our new grand-niece, Zoe Elizabeth, born this past July in Los Angeles.

My point is twofold: first, we are all connected in some way.  At times we fail to notice that.  Further, while the personal is more intense, the events which happen that impact a large number of people— they do feel personal, these do feel personal— because we are all connected.

Second, the real way we mortals determine the passage of time has nothing to do with clocks or with the 24 hour cycle of the day, or with the seven day weekly cycle or the monthly cycle or with the passage of years.  The way we tell time is by and with and in and through events.

As I suggested, some events are public milestones.  Some events— the death or the birth of a loved one— are more personal, more private.  Either way, public event or private event, these happenings are milestones.  And either way, a public event or a private event, the impact of what happened— the impact of it— rests on relationships.  (Slight pause.)

We find these words in Ephesians: “I pray that the glorious God of our Savior Jesus, the Christ, will give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation to bring you to a rich knowledge of the Creator.”  (Slight pause.)

A growing number of scholars think it is highly unlikely the Apostle Paul wrote Ephesians.  But Ephesians does combine phrases from Colossians, which Paul did write, with its own emphasis on knowledge of the saving power of God illustrated by and with and in and through the Christ.  This is emphasized by the song of thanksgiving we hear.

This eulogy found in these few lines joins author and audience in the praise of their common benefactor, God.  This is a thanksgiving which tries to assure Christians concerning their relationship with God.  (Slight pause.)

Here is something which would never come up as a serious question in antiquity: what time is it, right now?  There were Sun dials back then, but they were not about an exact time in any sense.  They simply were about a passage of time.  There were no clocks.

There were calendars.  But their prime function was agriculture— tracking the ebb and the flow of seasons.

In antiquity people kept track of time by events— public and personal.  After all, the Second Verse of Luke 2, in an effort to place the Incarnation in a context, says this (quote:) “This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria”— and event.  (Slight pause.)

I want to suggest the writer of Ephesians presents us with two challenges in this passage.   The first is to understand that God strives to be in relationship with us.  The second is that this relationship to and with God can be seen not just now but forever, for all eternity, by and with and in and through Christ who is (quote:) “in heaven at the right hand of God, far above every ruler, every sovereign, every authority, every power, every dominion, and above every name that can be named— not only in this age but also in the age to come.”

The second challenge is an invitation to examine ourselves as to what events in our lives might trigger a memory of a relationship with God— what events in our lives might trigger a memory of a relationship with God.  (Slight pause.)  You see, this morning we will dedicate the Operation Christmas Child Boxes.  Why?  Because we are connected one with each other.

Each person, each child who receives a box from one of us is separated by only one degree— us, the child– me the child.  And because of this work, it affirms the thought that we, each of us, is separated from God by only one degree— us, God— me, God– one degree of separation for all of time, forever, for eternity.  Indeed, for all of time, forever and for eternity, God is with us.  God is at our side.  Amen.

11/23/2014
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York

ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said: “In my comments this morning I said this: ‘...for all of time, forever and for eternity, God is with us.  God is at our side.’  Question: if God is at our side, should we pick up the pace or slow down?  Here’s what I say: your relationship with God, your dialogue with God will determine the pace.”

BENEDICTION: Go forth in faith.  Go forth trusting that God will provide.  Go forth and reach out to everyone you meet in the name of Christ.  And may the peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of the Holy Spirit this day and forevermore.  Amen.