ermons
for 2010-2011
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Christmas II, Year A, January 2, 2011
Happy New Year! Today is January 2nd and I expect that many of us experience this as a time of year when we say goodbye to the old and usher in the new. For many, this is a time of year when so-called “New Year’s Resolutions” are made. I’ll confess that I’ve never been very big on New Year’s resolutions. But that’s probably because I’ve never been very good at keeping the ones that I have made. So don’t worry, I’m not going to preach to you today on making New Year’s resolutions much less on keeping them.
For me, early January has always been about a sort of return to normal – whatever normal is at the Elliott house. For most of our married life, the time around Christmas and New Year’s has always meant that Susan and I would do some sort of traveling to spend time with family. During the early years of our marriage – before we had children – we traded off spending Christmas day with one side of the family or the other. If we spent Christmas day with Susan’s family, we would find a couple of days before New Year’s to be with my family. The next year those visits would be reversed.
Even after we had children, the so-called “holiday season” has always meant travel for us. While we never had to go terribly far, this time of year has always included for us going somewhere other than our home to visit and spend time with our families. And while this year has been somewhat different – we stayed home the whole time – we were nonetheless blessed to have all of Susan’s family come to visit with us and with my family here in Valdosta.
Well, all of the house guests have now returned to their homes. Our two younger sons return to school tomorrow and our oldest son goes back to the University of Georgia later in the week. Our boys will all go back to their school work and studies and sports and all of those things that go along with being a student. Susan will return to looking after school children and teachers and generally taking care of the lower school at Valwood. And I will continue to do the work that God has given me to do here at Christ Church and in my law practice. In a nutshell, everything will be back to normal – whatever that is – soon enough.
And I believe it’s probably a lot like that for many of you. You come to this first week of a new year and your focus is on getting things “back to normal” – whatever normal may be for you. For most of us, this “holiday season” is anything but normal. And notwithstanding the fact that we all await the celebration of Christmas with great anticipation, we can’t help but long for a return to our familiar and comfortable routines. I think we all look forward to getting things back to the way things were before the whole celebration started.
In a way, it’s like having a birthday party. Everyone looks forward to the presents and the ice cream and the cake. But as soon as it’s over, we all want to clean up the mess, put away the gifts and get things back to the way things are supposed to be.
But not so for the Holy Family. Not so for Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus. I can’t help but being struck by the stark contrast we see between our common experience and the gospel lesson this second Sunday after Christmas. For the Holy Family, there is no “holiday season”. For them, there are no house guests or family visits. There are no “New Year’s resolutions” and there is no going back to school or to work or to everyday life as they had known it. For the Holy Family, there is no return normal.
To be certain, Joseph and Mary and the Christ child had their share of travels. But their travels weren’t about visiting with family and friends. Their travels weren’t about reunion and hospitality. The travels we hear about in Matthew’s story this morning are about much more than any of that – these travels are about their very survival.
Can you imagine – having a dream – and being spoken to by an angel? And the angel tells you to get up and to take the child and the child’s mother and go to Egypt. And by the way, the angel will get back to you about what to do after you get there.
But Joseph complies. As far as we know, Joseph doesn’t question what he’s being asked to do. He accepts the responsibility that he has been given for his wife and her child. And he goes to Egypt.
And he stays there until the threat has passed by virtue of the death of King Herod. This despicable Herod – who is responsible for the slaughter of the Innocents of Bethlehem – has died and is no longer able to harm the young Messiah.
And Joseph waits in Egypt – until he is visited yet again by an angel. And the angel tells him once again to get up and take the child and his mother – but this time he is to go to Israel. And again, Joseph complies. He takes his family and leaves the land of Egypt and returns to Israel. Again, Joseph does what he is asked to do.
And finally, our intrepid Joseph receives a third divine communication and he responds by taking the Christ child and Mary to Galilee. Joseph heeds God’s call to him and he takes Jesus and Mary to what would become their home in Nazareth.
But here we are at Christ Church in Valdosta, Georgia. Here we are on January 2, 2011. Here we are on the cusp of the end of the annual “holiday season”. Here we are on the verge of going back to school or to work or to our respective routines, whatever those may be. We aren’t in danger – at least the sort of danger that our Holy Family was in. So what are we supposed to do?
I think what we can learn from Joseph and his wife and her child is that there isn’t any “normal” any more. There isn’t any “routine” anymore. Because God has come into the world – everything has changed. Everything is different – and nothing will ever be the same again. I think what Joseph has to teach us is to listen. Joseph teaches us to listen to God. Joseph teaches us that sometimes we have to wait until God gets back to us before we know what we are supposed to do next. Joseph teaches us that even when it’s hard – and even when it scares us – and even when we are afraid – we must listen to God – for our very lives depend upon it.
And even though I’m not big on “New Year’s resolutions”, perhaps Joseph is showing us how to open our hearts and our minds to God’s call to us this New Year. Perhaps Joseph is telling us that it’s not “normal” that matters – it’s not “normal” that counts.
And so, my prayer for each of us this New Year is that when we go back to whatever is normal for us – that we listen – we listen to that small, still voice of God to – listen and hear and see what extraordinary things He has in store for us!
AMEN!
The Nativity of Our Lord
December 24, 2010, 11:00 p.m.
Once upon a time . . . . Once upon a time . . . . For many, if not all of us, those words signal the beginning of a story. As soon as we hear those words, “once upon a time”, we assume that whoever has spoken that phrase is about to tell us a story. And I think we assume that the story we are about to hear is a legend or a fairy tale or a fable or some sort of fiction that can be recounted orally in fairly short order.
And I also think that when we hear someone say, “once upon a time” most of us – at least most of us with a little gray hair – probably assume that the story we are about to be told is a familiar one. Even if it’s not a story that we already know, we probably think, this story has a theme or a moral or a lesson to be learned that is already familiar to us.
And I can’t help but think that it’s kind of like that with these first verses from the second chapter of Luke’s gospel. Think about it for a minute. Think about how many times you’ve heard this story. Think about how many times you’ve heard this account of the birth of Jesus that we just heard. How many times have you heard this reading from Luke in church? How many times have you heard it in a church or a school play? How many times has this story been read in your own home as part of a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day family tradition? How many times have you heard it since Charles Schultz’s A Charlie Brown Christmas began running on television in 1965?
Has this short piece of scripture become so familiar to us that, as soon as we hear the words, “In those days a decree went out . . .” that we begin to think “once upon a time”? When we hear these first fourteen verses from the second chapter of the third gospel, do we immediately say to ourselves, “Oh, I know this story – this is the story about the birth of the baby Jesus”? Do we hear this all too familiar account of the birth of this baby to Mary and Joseph as just another fairy tale – just another sweet story? Has this become for us just a story about the birth of a child that all turns out just fine because momma and baby are warm and dry – and everybody is healthy and they all live happily ever after?
My hope – and my prayer – is that we haven’t lost sight of or forgotten that this story is not just another “once upon a time”! This is the story of the Nativity of Our Lord! And you might be thinking “well, I know that! But what do we mean when we say that this is the story of the Nativity of Our Lord? Why do we celebrate what the whole world calls Christmas as the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord?
Well, the prophet Isaiah tells us. Isaiah says “for us – for us”! For us – for you and for me – a child has been born! For us – for you and for me – a son is given! And this son – this gift – that is given to us – is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace!
But this son, this baby Jesus, this gift that God gives us isn’t just for you and for me. I don’t think it’s any accident that the angel of the Lord that Luke tells us about appeared to shepherds.
It seems like we hear a lot about shepherds in our Sunday scripture readings. We seem to hear a lot about sheep and shepherds but have you ever noticed what we don’t hear? What we don’t ever seem to hear is anything about the station in life of these biblical shepherds that we always seem to be hearing about. What the Bible doesn’t tell us is how these shepherds fit into the world in which they lived.
Perhaps not surprisingly, shepherds weren’t well regarded by society. They had bad reputations and were generally thought of as thieves. And perhaps they were thieves out of necessity for they were certainly financially disadvantaged – in a word, they were poor! And regardless of the reasons, shepherds were lumped together with the likes of tax collectors and prostitutes as members of despised trades.
And so the angel of the Lord appears to the poor and the despised shepherds – and the angel tells them “I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all people”. The good news isn’t just for them either – it’s for all people. The good news that the angel of the Lord brings to the poor and the despised – and indeed to you and to me and to the whole world – is that this baby that is born to Mary and Joseph – this baby Jesus – is God incarnate. This baby Jesus is Christ the Lord!
And so as we celebrate, let us remember that this isn’t just “once upon a time”. This truly is the beginning of the good news of the Gospel. This is the beginning of the Christ event. The Nativity of Our Lord stands for the whole saving act of God in Christ Jesus.[i] It not only stands for his birth, it reminds us of his life and teaching. It points us to his passion, death and resurrection. This Christmas that we celebrate, this Feast of the birth of Our Lord that we proclaim – it calls us to new life in Him and for Him. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to you and to me and indeed to the whole world!
Thanks be to God! AMEN!
23 Pentecost – Proper 26
October 31, 2010
St. James’ Episcopal Church, Quitman, GA
For most of us living here in the Deep South, the giving of directions is something of an art form. Many of us are very creative in the ways in which we give instructions to others about how to go from one place to another. We tend to be generally unconcerned about whether the direction in which one needs to travel is north, south, east or west. And we don’t seem particularly interested in street names or highway numbers. I suspect that for many of us, we see those road signs out on the highways headed out of town toward Boston or Valdosta as just a waste of money.
What is most interesting to me is the way in which most of us tend to use landmarks to tell other folks how they need to get somewhere. I’m sure most everyone here has at one time or another told someone that they needed to go across the river and then turn at Farmer Jones’ grain elevator in order to reach their intended destination. Or perhaps we’ve said something like, “You need to turn at the end of the fence just passed Miss Sadie’s old home place.”
I remember a time many years ago when I needed directions through a rural part of northeast Georgia. I vividly recall my father telling me to be sure to turn left at the crossroads with the big sycamore tree! I remember thinking as I drove through there late one fall afternoon, “I sure hope that sycamore tree isn’t already someone’s winter fire wood.”
But perhaps the best example I know about how we Southerners give directions is from a story I heard some years ago. I don’t know if it’s true – but if it isn’t – it should be!
It seems there were these two fellows. One was trying to tell the other how to reach the place he needed to go. The first fellow tells the second that he needs to go down a certain dirt road. And he tells him that he will come to a place along the road where he’ll see in the yard, a truck and an old dog – and that’s where he needs to turn to get where he’s going. It’s then that the second fellow asks the first, “What if the truck and the old dog aren’t there?” To which the first fellow says, “Turn there anyway!”
So, what’s all this about the quirky ways in which we give directions have to do with today’s lectionary readings? Well, aside from the obvious but coincidental sycamore trees, perhaps more than might be immediately apparent. So let’s see if we can unpack Luke’s story about Zacchaeus for a minute or two.
Who is this character Zacchaeus? And what is he up to? I have always had an image of Zacchaeus, in my mind’s eye, as a kind of shady, swarthy sort. He’s the type that you can tell is up to no good just by the look of him. One biblical commentator describes him as “a quisling who had thrown in his lot with the hated occupying power for the sake of pecuniary gain.” [i] By virtue of his chosen vocation as a tax collector, he is seen as dishonest – corrupt – deceitful – in a word, a sinner of the worst sort – not worthy of the company of the righteous.
But what is Zacchaeus up to? Well, Luke tells us that he “was trying to see who Jesus was.” Jesus was passing through Jericho and he had drawn a crowd. It’s not clear whether Zacchaeus has some notion that this might be “THE Jesus” that everyone has been talking about or whether his identity was a complete mystery at that point.
But either way, Zacchaeus seems to know Jesus is coming.
Jesus is coming and Zacchaeus wants to see him – but he can’t. Why? Because the crowds were large and Zacchaeus was small – he was short in stature – Luke tells us. So, it’s the people in the community – the crowd – and Zacchaeus’ own nature – his size – that impede and interfere with his ability to see and to find Jesus. But just the same, Zacchaeus seems, almost intuitively, to know where to go and what to do to get a glimpse of this Jesus that he is looking for.
So he gets past the obstacles – he runs ahead of the crowd that is in his way – he climbs this sycamore tree to improve his view – and what happens next? It’s here that the story takes a subtle but I think very important turn. It’s here that Luke tells us that it is Jesus that sees Zacchaeus – not the other way around. Luke doesn’t say that Zacchaeus sees Jesus – he says “When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’”
It is Jesus who sees Zacchaeus first. It is Jesus who calls Zacchaeus to him. It is Jesus who addresses and calls out to this despised, despicable tax-collecting sinner!
Jesus calls out to this Zacchaeus and invites himself into the life of this miserable sinner. He invites himself into his home – he invites himself to stay – Jesus invites himself to stay in the very home of this man who was despised by all whom he encountered.
And Zacchaeus responds to Jesus’ self-invitation with hospitality and repentance. He finds his way to Jesus by answering Jesus’ call to him – to open his home and his heart and his life to him.
And so it is that we find our way to Jesus. You see, there are no clear directions. There is no north or south or east or west. There are no maps or street names or highway numbers to follow. And we really don’t need to know to turn at the sycamore tree. And it really doesn’t matter if the truck and the old dog are in the yard.
All that matters is our faith! All that matters is that we look for Jesus, even if we don’t know the right direction. If we open our minds and our hearts and our lives to Jesus, he finds us – he calls us to himself – even when we don’t know the way. Because it is Jesus who is the way! Jesus is the direction! It is in Jesus that we find our direction and our salvation. For the Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost!
Thanks be to God! AMEN!
[i] Reginald Fuller, Preaching the Lectionary, p. 515.
21 Pentecost – Proper 24
October 17, 2010
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Hawkinsville, GA
I should probably begin by making something of a disclosure to you. Please don’t be worried that I’m about to make some sort of public confession that will leave you all aghast – but I do need to tell you – right up front – that I’m . . . a lawyer. Now, some of you may be feeling a little faint right now – sort of like Aunt Pitty Pat in Gone with the Wind when she exclaimed “Yankees in Georgia!” And, you might be a little concerned at the thought of having a lawyer in your pulpit right here at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in the heart of Hawkinsville, Georgia.
But, lawyer or no, I really am a priest in the Church. I am an associate priest at Christ Church Valdosta where I live with my family and also practice law. Some of you may have seen me at Diocesan Conventions sitting next to the Bishop in my capacity as Chancellor for the Diocese. So when Fr. Abbott gets back to Hawkinsville, I hope you won’t give him too much grief about having a lawyer fill in for him in his absence.
I must say that part of the reason that I wanted to tell you about my background has to do with the readings that we’ve just heard here this morning. Whenever the lectionary readings make mention of lawyers or judges, as they sometimes do, those lessons always tend to pique my interest. Not unlike Luke’s gospel lesson this morning, the scriptures don’t always portray lawyers and judges in the best of lights. And while I don’t take any personal offense at how the lawyers of antiquity are portrayed, I sometimes feel challenged to examine these lessons with a bit more scrutiny than I might if the character in the story were – let’s say – a used camel salesman.
So, what can we say about the judge in Luke’s gospel? What might we learn from this judge who neither feared God nor had any respect for his fellow man? I think it helps if we understand a bit about what it is that this judge was supposed to do. What were the judge’s duties, his responsibilities – what was the judge’s job in world in which he lived?
In ancient Israel, a judge was something of a keeper of the peace. I don’t mean that judges were like constables, or sheriffs or law enforcement officers. On the contrary, these judges were supposed to be problem solvers who helped people adjudicate disputes. These judges would resolve conflicts between folks in the community in an effort to keep the peace. The judge was charged with fair and just and impartial adjudication of controversies. The judge’s duty was to pronounce God’s judgment in the resolution of conflict so that the people of Israel could live together in peace.
So, let’s consider for a minute what it is that’s going on with this judge in the parable of the judge and the widow, which is what biblical commentators tend to call this lesson. That’s not what Luke calls it but we’ll come back to that in a moment.
In this parable, this judge, who neither fears God nor respects his neighbor, is repeatedly confronted by the widow who has a dispute with another. The widow, who enjoys few rights in her world, comes away empty, time and again. Widows couldn’t inherit their husbands’ property under Hebrew law and thus had no real way to fend for themselves. The mores of the day required that they be afforded special treatment. It was the responsibility of the community to care for widows and orphans because they weren’t able in their social structure to be self-sufficient.
And notwithstanding his obligation to pay special attention to this widow, this judge pays her no attention at all. Regardless of his duty to look after her best interests and insure she is not taken advantage of, this judge does nothing. But what does the widow do? She is persistent. She is relentless. She goes to the judge again and again and again until justice is done. She returns time after time after time after time until she is satisfied.
But it’s at this point that I think we need to be careful. We need to be careful not to see this as a parable about who’s right and who’s wrong. We need to avoid the temptation to look at this as a story about the disadvantaged widow – who is right – being vindicated against the self-centered judge who’s not doing his job. We mustn’t view this as a sort of David vs. Goliath victory of the weak over the strong. That sort of interpretation clearly misses the point of this parable.
This isn’t a parable about good versus evil – it’s a parable about faith. It’s a parable about piety. It’s a parable about living into our responsibility as the people of God. Luke says it – right out loud – at the very beginning of the lesson – Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.
This is a parable about being in proper relationship with God. It’s a lesson about how we do our duty as Christians to understand our responsibility to God and our neighbor. So how do we do that? Jesus tells us to pray. When we have a problem, we pray. When we are in conflict, we pray. When we don’t know what to do, we pray. When we have nowhere else to go, we pray. And yes, even in those times when everything seems to just fine and dandy, we pray and give thanks to God for all of the blessings that He gives us.
But our prayer ought never to be for what we think best. Our prayer should never be for what we want. Our prayer should never put our own interests before those of our neighbor or those less fortunate than us. Our prayer should always be for justice – not justice as we see it or want it – but justice in the eyes of God. I have a friend at home who sometimes jokes, “I want mercy for myself and justice for everyone else.” So, our prayer should be that the judge in the gospel lesson would do not his will, but God’s will.
It is through prayer that we stay in relationship with God. It is through prayer that we maintain our faith. It is through prayer that we hear that small, still voice of God and know that He came into the world to save us from ourselves and all that separates us from Him. Whether we are experiencing feast or famine – whether we are in good times or bad – whether we are priests – or lawyers – or even used camel salesmen – it is through prayer that we know God and know what his will for us is. Not our will but His.
And so it is that through prayer, we deepen our commitment – we deepen our understanding of God’s will for us – we deepen our faith. And that is why Jesus calls us to pray – not just when we need something – or want something – but always – pray always and do not to lose heart. Because it is in our prayerful faith that we have the blessed assurance that when the Son of Man comes, he will indeed find faith on earth. And our iniquity will be forgiven and He will remember our sins no more!
Thanks be to God! AMEN!
Proper 15 Year C
August 15, 2010 [Please see note at end]
Someone in our parish made the observation in my presence not long ago that our Sunday lectionary readings don’t always seem to go together. That is, the readings sometimes, perhaps many times, don’t seem to have a common thread or theme or message. When I first read today’s lessons earlier in the week, I wondered about that observation as I thought about what I might say to you this morning. I began to wonder about Jeremiah’s warning against false prophets. Then I pondered the letter to the Hebrews and its veritable ‘who’s who” of the Old Testament faithful. And I even read a couple of commentaries on Jesus’ warnings about genealogical divisions that we just heard about in Luke’s gospel lesson.
And after all of that, I still wasn’t quite sure how I would respond if that parishioner asked me at the coffee hour what it is that makes these readings hang together. So, what did I do? I put it all aside. I put aside the question of whether these readings had anything whatsoever to do with one another in the sure and certain hope that I would conjure up something to say to you, and to that parishioner, before I got to church this morning.
And then it came to me. Actually, it came to me Friday night – on a football field – but it came to me nonetheless. Many of you know that our boys go to school at Valwood and that they have long been involved in athletics. Alex and Carter are both on the varsity football team and we traveled to a nearby town for a scrimmage on Friday night. While Susan and I were at the scrimmage, I remembered something that happened on that very same field two years ago when our oldest son Gus was a senior on the Valwood football team.
Gus’ senior year was not the kind of season that dreams are made of. They were a small and inexperienced team and Gus carried a heavy burden as one of the very few seniors on the team that was mostly made up of sophomores and freshmen. They struggled the whole season against teams that were bigger and stronger and faster and just plain better.
For those of you that don’t know Gus, he is in many ways a stereotypical first child. He is independent, self-motivated and can be at times, dare I say, demanding. On the particular night that I recalled, Valwood was yet again playing a team against which they just couldn’t measure up. Gus played defensive tackle on the right side of the ball. One of the defensive backs on the opposite side of the field was an inexperienced sophomore. But he was blessed with a good measure of athletic ability with which he sometimes overcame his lack of experience.
Our team was losing the game but our opponents were faced with a long yardage situation on the particular play that I now have in mind. They called a reverse – a trick play of sorts – which completely suckered the young defensive back. Gus pursued the play from across the field to make the tackle – but not until long after the young player’s mistake had yielded a long gain and a first down for the other team. He immediately leapt to his feet and searched the field for the young defensive back whose mental lapse had cost the team the huge play. When Gus located the young man, he grabbed his facemask – he grabbed his facemask and pulled it close to his own. And Gus said to him in a voice heard all across the field: “FOCUS!”
What Gus was telling his young team mate in that one word admonition was to pay attention. He was telling him not to be caught off guard. He was telling him not to be fooled by deception. He was telling him to FOCUS on the task at hand – lest he fail. In a word, Gus was telling the young man to do the job he had been given to do.
So, I think that maybe, just maybe that’s what these readings have to say to us this morning. Perhaps the prophet Jeremiah and the lesson from Hebrews and Luke and Jesus are all telling us to FOCUS!
Jeremiah warns us against false prophets. He tells us to beware of those who prophesy lies and the deceit of their own hearts. He tells us that false prophesy separates us from God and leads us to worship false gods. He tells us to listen to those who speak the word of God faithfully. And he tells us to discern the truth. In short, this lesson from Jeremiah tells us to focus on God. It tells us not to be fooled and distracted from God by those things that separate us from Him.
The reading from the letter to the Hebrews holds up for us as examples many of the Old Testament faithful. We hear that, notwithstanding the myriad trials and tribulations with which they were faced, these people maintained their faith. We learn that these remained steadfast in their faith – even when they encountered great personal risk and the threat of bodily harm or even death. The lesson commends to us the witness and example of these who maintained their focus on their God especially in the worst of circumstances.
And finally, Jesus tells us in Luke’s gospel lesson this morning that he came to bring fire to the earth! Sounds kind of scary, doesn’t it? We learn that this is the kind of fire that divides households. It separates family members, one from another. But this isn’t the kind of fire that destroys. This is the kind of fire that purifies. This is the kind of fire of which John the Baptist spoke when he said that the one who comes after me will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is telling us to pay attention. He is telling us to focus on Him. He is telling us that we know that inevitable summer thunderstorm will be here when we see the sky grow dark and feel the wind blow cold. He is telling us that if we are focused enough to see that storm coming, then we can see that He is the Word made flesh. If we don’t maintain our focus on Jesus as the Christ, we will be separated from Him. If we focus on Him as we should, we will know that He is indeed God incarnate, come into the world to save us from ourselves and all that separates us from God.
And so it is that these lessons from Jeremiah and Hebrews and Luke call us to focus – to pay attention – to discern the truth. So it is that we are grabbed by our proverbial facemasks so we might focus in order to know the truth – the truth that Jesus is indeed the pioneer and perfecter of our faith who endured the Cross! He endured the Cross for you and for me - and indeed for the whole world.
Thanks be to God! AMEN!
[Fr. Jim+ was ordained priest on Aug. 21st; this is his last diaconal sermon, preached at Christ Church.]