Sermon: St. David's, DC

St. David’s, Washington
Proper 28, Year C

You know… there’s a lot of pressure when it’s your first sermon as the seminarian. You want to show that you know a little something so you don’t come across as naïve. You also have to be careful against trying to pack a little bit of everything from the past year or so of seminary into one sermon. But you also don’t want neglect that you are indeed a student and very conscious of your continued active learning. Which is good news… because a conversation from my church history class this week led to some inspiration for today’s sermon.

I found myself this week defending, of all things, the use of icons in worship and prayer. An icon, images of Jesus or a saint, is a great tool of prayer IF that’s what helpful to you. I know plenty of people for whom icons are a great source of inspiration for their prayers. We were having this discussion about a work entitled On Divine Images, by John of Damascus, which was an argument in favor of the Eastern Church’s use of icons. One of my classmates kept referring to icons as idols. I stopped her and said, “You do mean ‘icons,’ right, not idols.” She shrugged her shoulders at me and said, “You know, it’s really all the same.”

“Oh, no no no!” I said. “There is a big difference between an ‘idol’ and an ‘icon.’” In short, here’s what I said:

See this bottle. If I were to hold up this bottle and say, “Oh bottle, you are my protector and my salvation. From you, oh bottle, comes all my source of strength, yadda, yadda, yadda…,” then this bottle would be my idol.

BUT!

When I look into the bottle, I see the water. What’s IN the bottle reminds me of all the ways God has used water to full-fill God’s purposes in this creation. I can see this water and be reminded of how God’s spirit moved over the deep, new waters at the creation of the Earth. I can see this water and be reminded of the waters of baptism. I can see this water and be reminded of the water that will co-mingle with the wine at the Eucharist. I’m not worshiping the water it self, but I’m seeing the water as a window to remind me of all the ways that God has used water to carry out the Divine plan.

I was thinking about this story and our Baptism this morning of Phoebe Merritt at the 11:15 service. And then I thought about our Gospel lesson this morning. After thinking, “Woah! Major trial by fire for the seminarian!” I focused in on two things: “I will give you words and wisdom” and “I will with God’s help.”

This is one of the more difficult passages of Luke’s Gospel. Luke, drawing on Mark’s Gospel, is recounting Jesus’ prediction of doom & gloom to a group of followers, many years after the Resurrection, who were already facing persecution from the religious and civil authorities. It’s not easy to hear Jesus talking about wars, insurrections, famines, and plagues. It’s much easier to hear him talk about how the meek shall inherit the earth or how he raised Lazarus from the dead. It’s not as easy to hear “Let the dead bury the dead,” and “whoever does not hate their father and mother cannot follow me.”

But, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining, and ever scriptural passage that sounds hopeless and miserable has more than a glimmer of hope. Jesus says to the nameless crowd around him, “I will give you words and wisdom.”

Every time we witness a Baptism or Confirmation, we affirm that we will continue in the apostles’ teaching, we will proclaim by word and example the Good New of God in Christ, and that we will strive for justice and peace among all people. And we make these affirmations by saying, “I will with God’s help.” We acknowledge our reliance on God to help carry out God’s work in the world, knowing that we cannot accomplish these task without God’s guiding hand.

But what do we make of this line “I will give you words and wisdom”?

In the spring of 1998, three massive tornados swept through downtown Nashville, TN. I was a senior in college and living just outside of Nashville at the time. I saw in the aerial views of the aftermath that one of the twisters had obliterated St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, one of the oldest and most beautiful churches in Nashville. The following Sunday in her sermon (which was broadcast live on two local TV stations), the rector of St. Anne’s said, “It is important to remember that God is not in the tornado or even in this rubble. God is in our response to the tornado and what we, as God’s people, do with this rubble.”

Jesus said to His followers: “I will give you words and wisdom.”

We have a God who loves us more than words can possibly describe or even imagine. Jesus never promised us a rose garden. There is plenty of scripture to back that up. But there is also plenty of scripture to back up the claims of a God who didn’t just put us on this Earth to let us flap in the wind.

When we remember that we do not have a God who has or will ever forsake us, we are free to live out the life God has called us to live. We can be empowered to be the light of Christ that the world so desperately needs to see. God is not the earthquake. God is not the tornado. God is not the rubble, and God is not the water. God is standing beside us in our troubles & trials, giving us words and wisdom, and giving us the help we need as we strive to do God’s work in the world. And God is in the waters of baptism that wash over all of us.

May we be continually sustained by the grace of Christ who seeks to fill our hearts and our lives.

AMEN

Sermon: St. John's, Beltsville

February 13, 2005

1^st Sunday of Lent, year A

Good morning. It is a pleasure to worship with you this morning and to celebrate the ministry you have with and for young people. I have the joy of visiting parishes all across our great diocese each year. I am sorry that it has taken me two and a half years to get to St. John’s, but unfortunately, I rarely make visits to parishes with healthy and vibrant youth ministries like yours. I am more often visiting those that really need my help. So, it is indeed a great pleasure and honor to be with you this morning. I am always comforted by the presence of young people from St. John’s at diocesan youth events. I have grown to trust the leadership abilities of folks like Lynn Abe and Natasha Ryals. If I gave out a volunteer youth leader award, Mary Abe would have gotten twice by now. Her dedication and willingness to help has made my job much easier. I know that you all know what a saint she is, but I wanted to tell you that other people believe that too.

Well, enough of the feel-good stuff. This is Lent, right? We have to talk about heavy things like Sin, Death, Penitence. It’s almost like we should talk about Lent in a Darth Vader voice. The deacon at my church growing up used to jokingly scold us as kids for laughing during Lent. “It’s Lent,” Jack would say. “You aren’t supposed to be happy!” And then he of course would break out into laughter.

But it really is Lent. Despite that we celebrated Christmas was only a few weeks ago, it is now time to turn our focus to those places in our lives where we miss the mark, where our relationship with Christ needs to be strengthened and renewed. We take this time seriously in the life of the Church because we take the resurrection of Christ seriously. The deeper we examine our own life and the more we work do to improve our relationship with God, the greater our joy will be on Easter when we celebrate Christ’s greatest triumph.

I sometimes think that the lessons on the first Sunday of Lent are really cruel, especially the Gospel. Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, the Gospel is about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. And every three years, we get to hear about Adam and Eve, the serpent and the forbidden fruit. I don’t have to tell you what happens next, right? We all know that part of the story. Stories about Sin and Temptation.

The story of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness is one that might seem hard for us to relate to, but when you get to its core, it is the story of each of us. The tempter, as today’s Gospel calls him, comes to Jesus and basically offers him three options: become a miracle worker, show himself as God, or liberate the Holy Land from the occupying Roman army.

Jesus, with more strength and fortitude than you or I will ever know, resists those things to become who he was meant to be: the Chosen One of God, sent to be the redemption of the world’s sins.

This, my friends, is the story of Jesus being tempted to become who he is NOT. Can relate to the story now?

Every day, we see advertisements and entertainment sending messages that who we are isn’t good enough. We have to eat this food, use this make-up, workout at this gym, drive this car, live in this neighborhood, drink this beverage, wear this line of clothing, switch to this wireless company—and your live will be complete. We will be happy and fulfilled people. We all know, or at least I hope we all know, that this is a great un-truth. Having all the “stuff” in the world will not fulfill us. I wish I had time rattle off the stories of how advertisers work to hook children as young as a year old into a cycle of brand-loyalty that they hope will last their entire life. Surprisingly, Nickelodeon Enterprises is probably the greatest offender in this category, followed closely by Sprite and the Coca-Cola family of beverages.

At some point in all of our lives, we have been tempted to be someone we are not. I would dare say that most of us have given in to that temptation at least once (probably more!) and have had to deal with those consequences. For the majority of young people, there is someone they know, maybe not necessarily in their circle of peers, though, who has the latest what-ever (clothes, car, watch, hair-style) that somehow makes them feel incomplete. It can be a major temptation, but one that most young people face on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

And you know what, I’m sure for a surprising number of adults, the same holds true with co-workers, friends or family members.

But as Christians, we are called to a better way.

Living your life for Christ, becoming who you were meant to become at your baptism, is where the fulfillment comes. It won’t come overnight, it might not even come by the end of Lent. But my hope and prayer for each of us today is that during this Lenten season, we will discover who we are in Christ and live the life that Christ intends us to live, and BE the people God has called each of us to be.

I want to leave you with this prayer. It is titled “A Modern Affirmation of Faith” and was written by the high school Sunday school class at my home parish in Knoxville, TN, in 1988:

In a world shadowed by fear and greed,

In a world where science would save our bodies and reduce our souls;

We nonetheless believe in all that resists the formula:

The bird’s celebration of morning light,

The summer landscape at dusk,

All the kept promises that are spring flowers,

The friends and family who love our best selves and our worst,

In baptism and all other affirmation of all life’s mysterious possibilities,

In all victories which defy mathematics,

In all rich lives given to enrich other lives,

In all selfless sacrifice.

We believe in God the Father Almighty and His Son, Himself, Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And we pray for the perpetual triumph of light, wonder and love by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

AMEN.

Sermon: Church of the Redeemer, Bethesda, MD

September 26, 2004

Proper 21, Year C

So, what did you think of the lessons today? They don’t particularly beat around the bush do they? There’s not a whole lot of wondering what they mean, no matter what generation of God’s people are hearing them. Quite clearly, these passages convey a hard message about stewardship. Yes, the other “S” word.

Now wait, relax! I’m not going to talk about money this morning. I’m a youth minister. I don’t talk about money. I just know I don’t have any. So let’s hang on to this message of stewardship, put it on a shelf. We’ll come back to it in just a minute.

First: I want to tell you why I’m a youth minister. You know, it’s a question I get asked rather frequently. And I have a simple answer. “Paula, Jack, & Jonathan.” That is why I’m a youth minister. Three people who at three very important periods in my adolescence mentored and guided me, who were willing to listen, brave enough to task tough questions, and loved my awkward-self with no strings attached. They gave of themselves to the young people of our parish asking very little in return.
When I was in high school, I had a lot of questions, especially about this Jesus character. I spent hours and hours with Jonathan asking him questions about how Jesus could be full human and fully divine. At 16, it just didn’t make sense. Finally, during one of our conversations, I said, “Jonathan, I just need to know that Jesus knew what it was like to be 16.”
“Yeah,” Jonathan said, “Jesus did know what it was like. And still does. He probably didn’t always get along with his parents, had friends who changed, had a girlfriend. All that stuff.”

Suddenly Jesus made sense, and I could allow my relationship with Him to grow. All because someone took the time to listen to my questions and help me sort out the answers.

There’s another reason I’m a youth minister. The communities that developed under Paula’s, Jack’s and Jonathan’s direction provided my peers and I the opportunities to laugh & cry, to celebrate & mourn, to doubt & to believe. The funny thing is, of the 15 or 20 different people I was in youth groups with, most of us are still a part of the church. Some of us actually work for the church, but almost all of us are still connected to Christ and to the church.

Paula, Jack & Jonathan took seriously the promise made at every Baptism. It’s right there on page 303 in the Book of Common Prayer: “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?” And we answer, “We will.” We don’t say, “He will,” or “she will” or “somebody will.” WE will. The answer is as clear as today’s Gospel message.
Speaking of today’s Gospel message, let’s take that whole stewardship thing off the shelf we put it on a few minutes ago. All of the lessons this morning are about what we do with what we’ve been given. Stewardship.

God has blessed Church of the Redeemer with some amazing young people. And God has blessed Redeemer with some bright and talented adults, too. You’ve been given a lot of gifts. What are you going to do with those gifts?

Young people need adults in their lives who aren’t their parents, fellow Christians who have had doubts, found faith, seen miracles. Adults who will be wild-crazy about them. Adults who will listen to their stories, listen to their hopes & fears, highs & lows. Adults who will listen without prejudice, without thinking that it’s the same as it was when they were 15 or 16. Because it’s not. A 15-year old today faces a far different world than I faced when I was 15 and an even different world that someone who was 15 thirty years ago. Young people need adults in their life who recognize their prophetic voice, who value the honesty and truth with which they speak.
Yes, adolescents can be scary. They speak a different language; they dress in a style that’s not like any other age demographic. Emotions are like a roller-coaster and most adults don’t understand their music. But that’s OK; you’re not really supposed to understand their music. That’s what makes it “their music.”

But young people are a gift. They are a resource that cannot be replaced. They have a well of wisdom and knowledge that is waiting to be tapped. Stewardship is about sharing the gifts God has given you. It’s also about how you grow from the gifts other people share with you. I’ve worked with thousands of young people over the past 10 years, and I’m certain that I’ve learned more from them than they could have collectively learned from me.

Stewardship is what we do with what we’ve been given and how we do that in a community of faith. As St. Paul said to St. Timothy, “They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future.”
AMEN