Sunday, September 9, 2012

SERMON ~ 09/09/2012 ~ Doing Things Well

09/09/2012 ~ Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ (Proper 18) ~ Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Psalm 125; Isaiah 35:4-7a; Psalm 146; James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17; Mark 7:24-37 ~ Colorscape Weekend in Norwich.

Doing Things Well

“Those who saw these things were amazed, astounded beyond measure, and said, ‘Jesus has done everything well and even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’” — Mark 7:37.

Those of you who know something of my personal history, know I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition.  Or as I always like to say, with a name like Joseph Francis Connolly, Jr., that’s a little hard to hide.  But, equally, I confess to having had Jesuit training and so, as I also always like to say, scratch a Jesuit and you’ll find a Protestant.

Perhaps as a consequence of Jesuit influence, when I was in my mid-twenties, I migrated... something which, given my history should have been a surprised neither to me nor anyone else... I migrated and I found a church home in the Episcopal Church.  It was high church enough to satisfy my liturgical heritage but, at the same time, very different.

Still later, after I had married Bonnie and had moved to Maine, I saw the light and joined First Parish Church, United Church of Christ— a Congregational Church— in Brunswick, Maine.  Or as a pastor friend of mine observed, I had both moved across the spectrum of Christianity from Catholicism through the spectrum of Protestant Revolution and, thereby, fully appreciated the whole history and theology.

First Parish Church, the place I landed, was Bonnie’s church.  I distinctly remember she was very open about letting me try the Episcopal Church in Brunswick.  Of course, she had been in Brunswick a number of years at that point and as a consequence, she knew something I did not know.

She knew the Episcopal Church in Brunswick was so boring you could fall asleep in the pews during a service and no one would even notice.  She also knew that First Parish, because of their people, was a church where things were happening and a church that made things happen.  Or as another of my favorite aphorisms has it: no church has a lock on the Gospel; you find the Gospel where it is preached.  To paraphrase the late Tip O’Neill— all church is local.

Now, I’d like to tell one brief story, one I’ve probably told before, about my time with the Episcopal Church when I still lived in New York City.  (Slight pause.)  There is an office that members of the laity can hold in the Episcopal Church called Licensed Lay Reader and Chalice Bearer.  I was among the members of the laity in that church so designated.

The position is what it says it is.  Certain individuals are set apart to read Scripture at a service of worship and to assist with the distribution of Communion, at a minium a weekly occurrence with Episcopalians.  Not only did I preform that function, I also trained people for this work and drew up the schedule for who among us would cover what services.

Once, one of the other Lay Readers approached me and said, “You do all of this church stuff so well.  When are you going to go to Seminary?”  I responded: “When I get the call.  I haven’t heard the call yet.”  (Slight pause.)  Little did I know...

Coming back to that “You do this so well” thought... when you get right down to it, most of us don’t do just one thing well.  Most of us do many things well.

But I do believe a key question for nearly any aspect of life is not “what do I do well?”  A key question for nearly any aspect of life is this: “Am I called?”  Put differently, “Since God has granted me many talents, is what I am doing right for me and right for others, as I work out my covenant relationship with God and with other people?”  (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work commonly called Mark: “Those who saw these things were amazed, astounded beyond measure, and said, ‘Jesus has done everything well and even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’”  (Slight pause.)

Jesus does a lot well in this passage.  Jesus even does an exorcism at a distance— does an exorcism without needing to be in the presence of the one being exorcized— (tell that one to Peter Blatty, writer of The Exorcist).  No small feat, is it?

But the very thing noted by those who saw what seems to be miracles performed by Jesus— these healings— the things noted by these people tells us these people do not understand what’s going on, do not understand why Jesus is there and do not understand why miracles are happening.  And perhaps we don’t either.

Indeed, in popular culture today it seems we dwell on miracles.  But all the miracles we find in Scripture— all of them, no exceptions— all the miracles we find in Scripture are not about a miraculous event being described.  Put differently, not a one of these miracles is about the miracle, itself.  Each and every miracle is about the presence of the Spirit of God.

Equally, today we seem to dwell on what people do well rather than on what their calling might be.  Just to be clear, I would never say God calls us to do something we fail to do well.  I am saying, since we do a multitude of things well, the more important question after that is ‘to which of these things, these things we do so well, and to what actions does God call us?’  (Slight pause.)

Coming back to Jesus and what is happening in this story, to simply concentrate on the actions of Jesus, to concentrate on the miracles of Jesus, as do the people presented in the reading, is to turn what Jesus does into a trick, into a parlor game.  Indeed, to concentrate on the actions of Jesus, to concentrate on the miracles of Jesus, is to reduce the proclamation of Jesus into something akin to magic.

And what is it which Jesus proclaims and the people in this story do not seem to grasp?  The proclamation offered by the very presence of Jesus is that the reign of God has drawn near.  And that is the point of miracles.  They are an announcement that the reign of God has drawn near.  They are meant to focus our attention not on the miracles but on the idea and on the fact that the reign of God has dawned, that the presence of God is with us.

There is one part of the story which, to my mind, should make it evident that the realm of God has drawn near.  I say it should make it evident because we often miss the fact that there are passages of great irony in Scripture.  This is one of those ironic places.

You see, those who hear and speak clearly do not know about or recognize the realm is near.  But the one who could not speak plainly because of not being able to hear, this one now both hears and speaks.  And for this one, the presence of God’s dynamic reign is real.  Why?  It is embodied in Jesus.

That brings us back to something quite essential.  If the reign of God is present and real, are we aware of it?  If the reign of God is present and real, are we aware of it?  Do we realize this presence of God as a basic message and a basic premise of the New Testament writings?  And last, if the reign of God is real and present, are we using the gifts and talents God grants us, those things we do well, to further the reign of God?  (Slight pause.)

Well, I want to suggest that the first step in using the gifts and talents God grants us and using them well is to be aware of and acknowledge that the reign of God is present among us.  And that first step, that acknowledge, that awareness, is probably the hardest thing we will do as Christians.  Amen.

09/09/2012
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 prĂ©cis of what was said: “Earlier I said that ‘First Parish, because of their people, was a church where things were happening and a church that made things happen...’  Notice, the people make things happen.  I think if we acknowledge that the reign of God is present and real, we become empowered as a people, as a church to make things happen.”

BENEDICTION: Surely God will empower our ministry; surely God will supply for our needs when we are about God’s work; may this God, the God who formed the universe, bless us with the courage, the knowledge, the wisdom and the fortitude to serve the Gospel of Christ, empowered by the Spirit, this day and forever more.  Amen.

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