Follow the extended link for the sermon for Community Church. I'll post the sermon for Reconciler later this evening on their site.
Proper 28 (33), Year C 2007
November 18, 2007
Community Church of Wilmette
There was a stunned silence in the radio studio following the report. Then the announcer said, “It’s like the end of days…” She was kidding and not kidding all at the same time. She commented that this kind of story makes her wonder if the whole planet is in some kind of trouble. Deep trouble.
The next song they played that morning was by REM…It’s the End of the World as We Know It…and I feel fine.
There’s so much to say about readings such as these this morning. But what I want us to concentrate on is one word: “endurance.”
From Luke’s Gospel:
You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.Jesus is clear. The journey on which the disciples have embarked is anything but a cakewalk. It is quite the opposite. It would be dangerous. They would be challenged at every turn. Their own faith communities would not understand them. And the government would find them to be a threat. And as terrifying as all this was to consider, Jesus asks them not to be afraid or to change course. He asks them to endure. Endurance, steadfastness, and commitment are the pathway to peace.
This is what Jesus asks of all those who would follow in his footsteps. Christianity is not an escape. It is not a responsibility dodge. If we take our faith seriously, we realize that this is the case. The Peaceable Kingdom where the lion and the lamb lay down together demands our ongoing participation.
Glenn Hinson, one of my favorite Baptist scholars and spiritual writers, wrote a powerful article about Mother Theresa. Glenn reminds us that such endurance as Jesus asks of us is about putting a drop in the ocean. It is about the smallest actions, the daily decision to love the next person you meet as if they were Christ Jesus himself. And this will seldom be a grandiose act or a dramatic shift. It will be simple, direct, and small.
Mother Teresa was asked about her work and that’s how she described it. She said:
I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look only at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time.I know that I’ve been talking about Mother Theresa a lot. But somehow she has been on my radar lately. I think I need her example. There is this temptation for me in life to find that one sweeping notion or change that will fix everything. It’s the silver bullet theory.Just one, one, one.
You get closer to Christ by coming closer to each other. As Jesus said, “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it for me.”
So you begin…I begin.
I picked up one person – maybe if I didn’t pick up that one person I wouldn’t have picked up the others.
The whole work is a drop in the ocean. But if we don’t put the one drop in, the ocean would be one drop less.
Same thing for you. Same thing for your family. Same thing in the church where you go. Just begin…one, one, one.
If I can make one change, just one that will ease all my burdens and solve all my problems and yours, then that would be great. Let’s look for that. But it’s just not the case. Mother Teresa’s life, and Glenn Hinson’s writings about her serve to remind me what Jesus told his disciples. Life in God asks our endurance. And we have to pace ourselves. One drop in the sea. Just one. But in just that one drop, the entire sea is changed.
This morning we participate in The Walk of Faith. It is our annual stewardship Sunday. I want to thank the person who came up with this name. It expresses so much about God and our journey with God that we need to remember always. Faithfulness is a journey. Along that journey we will be challenged. It is not always easy. And it demands our complete commitment. We will have to help one another. We will need to hold hands with those walking with us. We will pray together. We will sing together. We will gather together in worship.
The strength we will find to walk together on this journey will be found in God. It will be found in prayer and worship, and in fellowship. We are to rediscover again and again that God desires us; that God is always reaching out to us in love. One, one, one…
Jesus says, “I am with you every step of the way.
There is nowhere you can go where I will not walk with you.
There is nothing that the world can throw at you that can separate us.
I love you that much.
You must have courage.
The way is not always easy. There are twists and turns that you cannot imagine.
But at the end you will know God fully.
You will be enshrouded in the Love of God.
It is the end of the world as you know it.”
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Posted by tripp at November 18, 2007 08:02 AM