Sermon: Ascension, Gaithersburg

April 18, 2004, Second Sunday in Easter

In the name of the God who created us, redeems us, and sustains us. Amen.

Let me tell you a story.

When I was a senior in college, I was the adult in charge of a major youth event in the Diocese of East Tennessee. There was a youth who was also in charge. Her role was to be the leader of the other 20 young people on staff, to guide them in the shaping of this very important retreat. My job was to sign the paperwork, provide guidance and logistics, and make sure we had enough food for the weekend. Rachel, the highly talented, highly capable, incredibly trustworthy 17-year old young lady in charge of the weekend, was supposed to be bringing plastic cups and markers to decorate them with (this all part of the program of the weekend). She had said that she would be doing that. She told me in several phone conversations the months prior to the event that she would be bringing the cups and the markers.
But the week of the event, I couldn’t get a hold of her to go over the final check list. She was in the upper eastern part of Tennessee and I was in the middle part of the state. She didn’t have e-mail and this was way before every teenager got a cell phone for their 11th birthday. So, it was Thursday before the event started on Friday, I still hadn’t talked to Rachel that week, and the cups and markers were a major MUST for the weekend. So, as I was driving from Murfreesboro to Chattanooga (where the retreat was going to be) I passed 7 Wal-Marts. Now when you consider that it’s about a 2-hour drive, that is one Wal-Mart every 25 minutes. The first four Wal-Marts were easy enough to pass. But at the fifth Wal-Mart, I started thinking about those cups, wondering if Rachel had gotten them yet, wondering if we would have time to go get them if she forgot them, wondering where the nearest Wal-Mart was to where our retreat would be.
Just before I got to the 6th Wal-Mart, I convinced myself that, “no, Rachel is smart, she said she was going to get the cups and markers. She’ll do it. And if she doesn’t, this will be a good lesson on what it means to follow through and how to make do with what you’ve got.” So, I passed the 6th Wal-Mart, near South Pittsburg, TN, without even slowing down.
But there was something about seeing the lights of that 7th Wal-Mart on the outskirts of Chattanooga that made me slow down, get off of I-24, and purchase 150 plastic tumblers and about $120-worth of paint pens. I felt much better.
So Rachel and I, along with most of the other staff, arrived at the church where the retreat would be at about the same time. We were all getting out of our cars, lots of hugs and hey’s, and excitement about the weekend. And I said, I brought all the cups. Rachel looked at me, and in one word, I knew I was in trouble. “Why?” she asked. Somone in the crowd whispered, “Paul’s in trouble…”
I stammered, “Well, I tried to call you this week and…”
“I told you I was going to get them didn’t I? We’ve been planning this retreat for 6 months, and the whole time, I said I was going to get the cups and the markers, didn’t I?”
“Um, yeah, but I didn’t hear back from you so…”
“So, you thought that I would forget? You doubted me.”
“Um, yeah, I’m real sorry.”

Rachel gave me a hug and said, “It’s OK.” Then she squeezed the life out of me and said, “Don’t do it again.”

When I popped my eye-balls back in, I reassured her that I really did have complete faith in ability and leadership and I hoped that she would have faith in mine.
It was a scene very reminiscent of Thomas’s and Jesus’ encounter in today’s Gospel lesson. I like to sometimes imagine stories from the Bible, especially with Jesus and the often-clueless disciples, as a sit-com. This story I could see on Seinfeld or Friends.

Jesus suddenly shows up in the house when the doors were locked. He has to say “Peace be with you” or he would have scared the cloaks and tunics off of everyone. Then he says to Thomas, “Hey, Tommy-boy, come here. See this nail mark? See this nail mark? Look at my feet. See this big gash in my side where the Roman soldier stabbed me? See them? Go ahead, touch ‘em. They’re real.” Thomas touches them and says, “Wow. It’s really you!”

If Jesus were anyone else, he probably would’ve bopped Thomas upside the head and said, “Of course it’s me, you dip-stick. I kept TELLING you this would happen. Were you out fishing on those days?” But Jesus is Jesus, and in his way says, “It took this moment for you to believe that I rose from the dead? There are going to be a lot of people, and I mean A LOT of people who won’t get to do what you just did, and yet they are going to believe in me.”

This Gospel passage is one that should make all of us squirm on our seats. It is the story of each of us, and not our best story either. How many times in our own lives have we doubted God’s awesome power, or worse, just taken it for granted? We all have those days, or those months, or those years, where we don’t think that God is real, that God doesn’t care, or that God just-plain can’t. Jesus’ lesson to Thomas is we don’t have to see to believe that God IS acting. Even when we can’t see God’s power, even we choose not to know how God is acting in our life or the lives of those around us, we are called to believe that God is active and working. We are a community of faith, not a community of doubt.

It’s easy to lose sight of God’s works and wonder in our world. I don’t need to re-count to you the trials and tribulations that our country and our world face. It’s easy to not see God at work in the world about is. But in each community of our country and every country, God is at work. Through ordinary sinners like you and me, God is making a difference in the lives of God’s people.

Unlike Thomas who had to see to believe, I wonder how it is possible to NOT see God’s hand at work in the world about us.

Sermon: St. Mary Magadlene, Wheaton, MD

March 21, 2004 Fourth Sunday in Lent Amazing God, take our minds and think through them; take our hearts and love through them; take our mouths and speak through them. Amen. Good morning! I want to tell you what a pleasure it is to be with you this morning, and how honored I am to be able to worship with you and to take some time to celebrate the ministry you have for and with the young people of St. Mary Magdalene. ... Today’s Gospel lesson from Luke has a lot to teach us about God’s grace. At first glance, it sounds like another great parable from Jesus, a story that could even stand on its own. And to those who heard it straight from Jesus’ mouth, it probably did stand on its own. But for us, 2,000 years later, in a different world and in a different culture, it is worth taking a deeper look. There are a lot of places to find grace in this story and several points where there is clearly some missing grace. Many preachers have taken this story from the angle and vantage point of each character: The father, the prodigal brother, the “good” brother, the slaves, and even (my father’s favorite angle) the view of the fatted calf. It was not a good day to be a fatted calf in this story. There is one important thing to know about this story before we look too deeply at the grace points. Jesus’ hearers knew and understood that to be the one who was feeding pigs, especially for a Jew, was to have fallen about as far as you could fall. Worse than Martha Stewart scrubbing floors in a jail house, this fella had fallen pretty hard. So where do we find grace in this story? Where is their some grace that is missing? And who is really the lost son? The son who left and squandered his dad’s money, we’ll call him, Jeff, comes to his senses and is willing to come back to his father and be treated as a slave, someone with no rights and no way of earning those rights. But as “Jeff” is making his way home, no doubt practicing his groveling speech to his father, (Raise your hand if you’ve ever had to make a groveling speech and practiced what you were going to say right up to the point where you had to say it.) daddy sees him off on the horizon and is so overcome with joy that he puts a ring on Jeff’s finger, a robe around his body, and prepares a huge party. Now, raise your hand if you think that Jeff deserved all that. Of course he didn’t “deserve” it, but that’s what he got from his father: Unconditional welcome and reception. He probably wouldn’t be getting any more money when daddy went on to the great by-and-by, but he again had a place to call home. After Jeff had been given more than enough, he spent it on “dissolute living.” One translation of the Bible calls it “wild living” and another calls it “loose living.” And yet, his father welcomed him back with open arms. How many times in our lives have we been loose or wild with what we have been given? Maybe we haven’t spent it on parties or jewelry or other extravagances, but we all have been guilty of it at one point or another. Maybe it’s what we haven’t done with what we’ve been given. God has given us all a share in the kingdom of Heaven. For us to do nothing with that, like other stories Jesus tells, is what breaks God’s heart. But our God is a God of Grace and Mercy, who is willing to forgive, to love and to give us untold number of chances. Just as Jeff’s father took him back in and threw a party for him, I am a firm believer that God takes us back and throws a party (with or without the fatted calf) each time we return and re-commit ourselves to doing God’s will. Let us not, dear friends, forget Jeff’s brother, Ben. Ben is in the field, hears the sound of a party, sees nothing on his Palm Pilot and goes to ask one of the servants what is going on. When he finds out, Ben is a little mad. I’m not real sure what he is madder about: that Jeff came home or that daddy is throwing Jeff party. Ben has every right to be ticked off that his brother gets a party for all his loose living and money squandering when Ben has been faithful and hard working and yet, daddy has yet to give him even a small goat for a small party. So who is really the lost brother? But Ben needs to see the big picture. What was lost, daddy says to Ben, has now been found; what was dead is now alive. We don’t know if this made much difference to Ben since that is where the story ends, but it leaves us with a good point: Christ came for the lost, not those who were already found. We don’t deserve the spiritual and material gifts that God has lavished upon us, but we get them anyway. We don’t deserve God’s grace when we screw up, which we do, and then return to God. But God showers us with that grace anyway. As Mother Teresa said, “People are illogical, self-centered, and unreasonable. Love them anyway.” Some part of me believes she was pleading to God on our behalf when she said that. I always close my sermons with a challenge. So here is my challenge for you in this fourth week of Lent: As you go about our lives this week, find at least five places where you see God’s grace in an unexpected way. Keeping our eyes and hearts open to the power of that grace will keep us mindful of God’s presence in our lives.

Sermon: St. Peter's, Poolesville

November 9, 2003 Proper 27

Amazing God, take our minds and think through them; take our hearts and love through them; take our mouths and speak through them. Amen.

Good morning. I want to tell you how honored I am to be with you here at St. Peter’s on this fine November morning.

There are certain things in this life that I make no apologies for: My faith as a Christian, my love of a big slab of red meat, and the fact that I am a die-hard fan of the University of Tennessee Volunteers. I started going to Tennessee football games when I was about 5 years old and have missed only one season in the past 22 years. The team has a sign that hangs in the locker-room. It is shaped like the state, and in bright orange letters says, “I will give my all for Tennessee today.” They have one that hangs in their home locker-room in Knoxville, and they have one they take on the road for the away games. Every player, coach, trainer and water boy touches that sign every time they get ready to take the field. When they slap the sign, it is a reminder of who they are representing when they leave the locker-room.

Today’s Gospel is Jesus calling us to say pretty much the same thing for Him. Jesus may not sound like a coach before the Big Game, but when he calls his disciples over to point out what the widow had given compared to those who had given more, He is saying, “That is what I expect from my followers.”

So, piece of cake, right. We give our all for Jesus, do the best we can and everything will be fine. Right? Oh, wait, there’s the whole rest of the world that we have to live in, don’t we. The rest of the world that might not be as interested in giving their all for God, or the rest of the world that has so many more things drawing our attention and energy away from serving Christ.
It isn’t that easy, is it?

Jesus’ lesson to his disciples is pretty challenging in light of all that tries to draw our attention. There is play practice or soccer or lacrosse or cross country practice to get to, tests to take, tests to grade, colleges to visit, video games to conquer, places to go, people to see.

So how do we give our all to Christ? Do we pack it all up and go off to be monks and nuns? No, not unless that’s what God is calling you to do.

We start by recognizing that all that we have is a gift from God. Our ability to go to college or play sports or be involved in theater, our friends, our family—All of those are gifts from God. None of it just “happened.” When God was handing out gifts, they didn’t just fall wherever. They fell to you because that’s where God wanted them to fall.

It is important that we do something each day to remind us of those gifts and where they come from. Whether it’s a note on your mirror or locker or car, or a word or a phrase some place where you’ll see it everyday, maybe it’s the screensaver on your computer, maybe it’s sewn into your socks. Something to tell us each day: every thing we have is a gift from God.

You see, God didn’t give us these gifts just for the heck of it. We have them to help make the world a better place, to help share the Gospel light of Jesus Christ to a world that desperately needs to see and hear it.

We give our all for Him when we take those gifts and use them to the best that we can be. It doesn’t mean that we will be the fastest or the smartest. But it means that we will have used everything that God has given us.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela said at his inauguration: "Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, which frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God; your playing small does not serve the world."

Jesus never promised us a rose garden; he never said that following Him would be easy. But if we are to give our all for Him, we must not be afraid of acknowledging to those around us where our gifts and talents come from.

Then we’ll be ministering to the world through Christ whether we are on the playing field or the stage or the mall.

As you go through this week, I want to challenge you to look at what you do. How are you using your gifts to give your all for Christ?