Guest Sermons

uest ermons

& Homilies

2008

Susan Elliott

Vespers Homily

January 13, 2008

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.+

I love these passages because I have found two things in common with Jesus! I was baptized as an adult and while for many years I was embarrassed or didn’t understand why I wasn’t baptized earlier I know that it all happened in God’s time. It was the absolute right and best time for me. And as I have a tendency to do things non-conventionally, I was baptized in a “private” ceremony – just my priest, my parents, one of my godmothers and Jim along with the prayers of those not able to attend and as Father Barrus said, “with the angels, archangels and all the company of heaven.” I hope it still counts.

Although I didn’t immediately go out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, I did soon embark on a new life away from my home – marriage, a new town, a new job and new friends. Wanting to be a part of God’s family – where ever and whom ever that may be – fulfilled my promise to myself that I would make room for Jesus in my life. Jim and I chose to have our children baptized as infants and I believe that was also in God’s time and the absolute right and best time for us.

In the early days of the church, and at different times throughout history, it has been the custom to wait until one was “of age” to be baptized. There were years of study and work. That makes sense to insure people are serious about their commitment to the Word of God.

Yet despite the prophesy and the event of Jesus’ baptism and all he did during his earthly ministry people still wouldn’t or couldn’t fully believe He was the Christ.

It is easy to understand why people might have thought John was the Christ although he looked no more kingly than Jesus. He was a prophet who spoke with authority and conviction about the coming Messiah. He had known since before his birth - when he jumped in his mother’s womb upon hearing Mary’s voice - that Jesus was/is the Christ.

So why would the people think it was him and not Jesus?

They seemed so willing to believe that John might be the Christ; why couldn’t they believe that Jesus is the Christ - the one they’d been waiting for for so long? Didn’t they know of or remember Christ’s birth with the star and the shepherds and the Magi? Couldn’t they tell the difference between cousins John and Jesus?

True, Jesus had not yet performed any miracles or begun teaching so maybe people had forgotten he was around. It wasn’t like he was a “boy king” who was kept in the forefront. I think he had been learning his earthly father’s trade and studying the Old Testament and the Prophets. This was God’s time for him to begin his new journey and life.

Baptism is the beginning of a new life for everyone. The old ways and laws are to be set aside to make room for the new way with only one leading the way.

John knew he only had authority to baptize in the Name of Christ and that only Christ could baptize and convey the Holy Spirit and fire for he was not worthy. He was fulfilling his duty just as Jesus was accepting His. The act of Baptism is our labor into our new life with Jesus. Whether that is in infancy or in adulthood, it is rebirth. As much as I love all of the infant baptisms we celebrate I have a special fondness for adult baptisms and the greatest one we have ever experienced was Vernon Pizer’s. There simply are no words to describe it.

I also love these passages because, like Jesus, a voice came from heaven, not descending in bodily form, as a dove, rather in the form of a white-bearded, grandfatherly looking face descending on a rolling, thundering cloud. Kind of like the “voice” we read about in Psalm 29 today. While the voice said I was His and He loved me, He also said He was not well pleased. This was not a planned announcement on my part! Yes, I had been baptized with water, received the Holy Spirit and reborn into God’s family but I think this was my baptism with fire. Not fire to destroy but fire for me to use as a shield to protect me from harm.

While if have slipped and fallen many times I know that God still loves me. He promised me that. I am not worthy yet He helps me up, dusts me off and sets me on the right path again. That is what families do.

Amen.

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Stefani Carroll

Sermon for the last Sunday after Epiphany; February 18, 2007

Exodus 34:29-35
1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13
Luke 9:28-36
Psalm 99

I wonder if you have ever thought of the circle that is our church year? Every year we cycle through the seasons of worship, beginning and ending linked together seamlessly, “moving through a circle of memory and expectation” (Godly Play, Vol. 1) that is intended to invoke in us an awareness of our relationship with God. We are on a journey, in essence, on a path we travel over and over. Now, this isn’t to say that this is a bad thing, because in truth, the journey itself is never really the same. Think about it: How many times have you heard the readings for today, but realized they meant something different to you than they did three years previously? This is, of course, because we ourselves change as the years pass. The ins and outs of our lives, the people we meet, the people we lose, the events of the world around us – all these things change us. And so today, these readings speak to me about change and about journeys.

Now, it’s hard to miss the connections between the passages from Exodus and Luke. Both events take place on a mountain; both Moses’ and Jesus’ appearances are altered – transfigured, as it were – in the presence of God; both Moses and Jesus are intermediaries between God and the people; and in both cases the others who are present show fear in the face of the obvious presence of God. When Moses and Eli'jah both appear and speak of “[Jesus’] departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31), Luke uses the word éksodos for departure, a clear allusion to the exodus of the Old Testament. Jesus is placed on equal footing with Moses and Eli'jah, who respectively represent law and prophecy, and who are intermediaries between God and the people. Peter even places them on the same level when he proposes to make a booth – a tabernacle – for each.

And then something happens that changes everything:

“As he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they
were afraid as they entered the cloud.

And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son,
my chosen; listen to him!’

And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone” (Luke 9:34-36).

Moses and Eli'jah are gone, and Jesus alone remains. The focus has shifted onto Jesus alone, setting him apart from the law and prophecy that came before, and this is echoed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:

“…as for prophecies, they will pass away … as for knowledge, it will pass away.
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away…
So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Now the stage is set for Jesus to fulfill his mission as the Messiah of God, a mission that entails a physical journey to Jerusalem and a spiritual journey toward his own death and resurrection.

Now, for me it’s no coincidence that the moment in Luke’s passage in which the focus shifts to Jesus is a parallel to the moment in which Jesus is baptized. At that moment, too, the heavens open, the Spirit descends, and a voice from heaven says, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.” Just as Jesus is beginning his mission, we are reminded of the moment in which our own mission begins. Because when we are baptized, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. We enter into a covenant in which we give ourselves over to love and serve God, in whatever way is set before us, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

This is World Mission Sunday. Today, all Episcopal churches are united in celebrating the one call to God's mission in the world. As God sent Jesus into the world, we too, are sent into the world. And while my own mission has been outside the boundaries of this country, yours doesn’t have to be. Your call may not take you outside the country; within the boundaries our church alone, the number of possibilities for ministry can be almost overwhelming. Look around you and you will see what you could do: You could be a layreader, a chalice administrator, a choir member, an acolyte, an altar guild member, a host or hostess for coffee hour. You could be a Sunday School teacher, a preschool teacher, a caregiver in the nursery. Your mission could go beyond our churchyard to Habitat for Humanity, the Food Bank, or LAMP. You could visit the homebound, those in the hospital, those in a nursing home. Your mission may be your job as a teacher, a doctor, a caregiver, a parent. I could stand here all day and not have named all the ways in which the members of Christ Church minister to each other, the community, the city, and beyond. The possibilities are endless, so how do you know which is the best way for you?

As Epiphany ends and Lent begins, we begin to see the shadow of the cross stretch across every act, word and deed of Jesus, and we find ourselves in the perfect moment to address the way in which we will express our Baptismal covenant. For just as this is the time in which the apostles follow Jesus on his mission and struggle with their own discipleship and ministry, so we follow Jesus, and we struggle to discover what it means for us to be followers of Jesus, to be “the body of Christ, and individually members of it” (2 Cor., 12:27). The apostles had a hard time understanding the enormity of what was about to happen. Jesus can tell them over and over – and he will – about his impending betrayal, suffering and death, and they still won’t get it. For all that God has just told them, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” (Luke 9:35), they can’t do it. They simply can’t wrap their minds around the concept. And, to be frank, neither can we. We, too, are trying to understand that which defies understanding, and we can’t wrap our heads around it, either, no matter how hard we may try.

So stop trying. During the coming weeks, stop trying to understand with your head. Take this time to follow Jesus on his journey, to get ready to come close to the mystery that is Easter, to get ready to love and serve God through Christ our Lord.

Turn off your head.

Open your heart.

Listen to him.

Amen.

Stefani Carroll

Sermon for Mission Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006

Wisdom 1:16-2:1(6-11)12-22
James 3:16--4:6
Mark 9:30-37
Psalm 54

The Lord be with you! (And also with you.)

I love that. That response has always exemplified for me one the things I love about the Episcopal Church. No matter where you go, the service is essentially the same, the responses the same. There is a great comfort for me in the rituals of our services, in the way in which we always affirm our faith together. It makes us part of a community, definitely of the Episcopal Church as a whole, but especially of this church in particular.

If, like me, you were not raised in a church community, you know that from the outside of a church community looking in, one can often feel like the ungodly in the Old Testament reading today. In trying to find some loophole, some proof that belief in God doesn’t make a difference, the ungodly want to test the believer. The paradox of this situation is that you have to believe to know that God does make a difference. You have to first open your heart and mind and life to God in order to feel His grace; otherwise, you can’t see the difference. You are, in essence, blind.

In Godly Play, we believe that every child comes into this world ready and capable of having a relationship with God. Our job is to give him or her the language with which and a safe place in which to express his or her relationship with God. That is what this church did for me. T.S. Eliot wrote that:

Except for the point, the still point,

There is no dance, and there is only the dance.

The Episcopal Church may have given me the language I needed to express my relationship with God, but you, this church, gave me a safe place, gave me a way to see the still point, gave me a way to dance. When I was confirmed, Bishop Loutitt was here for the confirmations. I asked him if it was just my perception, or was Christ Church different, special in some way? His immediate response was that there are few churches like this one. So I owe you thanks, because without you, I wouldn’t be up here today.

Have you ever noticed, though, that just when you think you’ve got the hang of things, something happens to throw you off? There I was, teaching Sunday School, reading when called upon, feeling pretty much like I had this religion thing down pat. I have a relationship with God, I know what I’m doing, I have it all under control. It is in a moment like that that your relationship with God hits shaky ground. Remember what it says in James today: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” What it came down to was that I was starting to just go through the motions. And don’t we all tend to do that from time to time? Don’t we all hit autopilot every once in awhile, lose our humility a bit? For goodness sakes, the apostles do just that in the Gospel reading today. Jesus is telling them, just as he did in last week’s reading from Mark, of his approaching suffering, death, and resurrection and they don’t get it. In fact, they are so far removed from understanding what is about to happen, that they’re arguing about whom among them is the greatest. They have the Messiah in their midst and they’re arguing about who’s the greatest. Now, this would be the moment when we might have a tendency to laugh at the apostles and the fact that they don’t understand. In truth, though, what we ought to do is be a bit more humble, remember that even with more than two thousand years of experience with scripture, theological debate, and religious commentary, we ourselves sometimes don’t get it, either. Maybe we can learn from their example, for when the apostles are at their least humble Jesus says something that should resonate with us all: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” This is huge. It’s not enough to have a relationship with God, you have to have one with Christ, and you can’t have a relationship with Christ unless you “welcome one such child in [Christ’s] name.”

But how do you do that?

Well, if you’re me and you’re on autopilot like I was, you get an email from an Episcopal priest in Philadelphia and a teacher at your daughter’s school starts to drop hints that you need to go the Dominican Republic. The email, from Father Craighill, who is the father of a college friend of mine, referred to a new website that Father Craighill and several of his colleagues had started: The Center for Baptismal Living (www.baptized.org ). The site describes baptism in this way: “More than an event; [it’s] a way of life. Think about it: In baptism, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. At that moment, we enter into a covenant with God and we are commissioned by Christ to serve him through the ministries he gives us. Every time someone is baptized in this church and we renew our baptismal covenant, I am now reminded that I’m working on commission these days, and that sometimes you don’t always see the ministry Christ has put right in front of you.

At about the time, I had the epiphany about baptism, Mimi Allen started in on me. “You should really go to the Dominican Republic; you speak Spanish and we really need you there.” “Don’t you think it would be great if you could go with us this year?” “Did I tell you about the time…?” I may be slow on the uptake sometimes, but even I can take a hint. I figured, hey, I’ll go for a week, I’ll come back, and if I like it I’ll consider a repeat. Do you notice in that line of thinking a certain lack of humility?

And then God said, “Ha!”

Because having gone, I have to go back. It could have been the worst experience I had ever had and I still would have to return, because the community of Jarabacoa is as much my community now as this one is. And the work there is not finished, because the mission continues to grow. The first group from Christ Episcopal traveled to Jarabacoa with the mission of giving 200 children vacation bible school, which they did. Today, however, in addition to vacation bible school, the group counts among its successes taking part in a new church and school. The impact the church and school will have on the community cannot be stressed enough. We have, through this ministry, given the people of Jarabacoa a center, a safe place, a place to, as it were, dance.

It is impossible to describe a mission trip without talking for hours, so I give you these scenes:

A two-bedroom house in which seven people live, including a bedridden man who previously spent his life in the fields;

A little girl who is about 8 years old, and who wears the cutest little pair of shorts every day, a pair of shorts that you finally notice has a broken zipper. These may be one of the few pairs of shorts she owns;

Any number of children who wear shoes two sizes too large, again because that is all they have, or who go without shoes entirely;

A young teenaged girl who has been, in essence, “given away” by her mother, only to be returned later because someone else didn’t want her;

A boy who quits school so that he can make money for his family to survive.

These are some of the people of Jarabacoa.

On our last night in Jarabacoa, all of these people, and people from the community we had never met, crammed into the church. The wiring was still hanging out of the walls, there were no doors, the drawings of children decorated the pulpit and the lectern. The thurible didn’t function quite as it should have, and to be honest, I didn’t catch most of what was sung. But it was magical, because we were witnesses to and participants in the first Holy Eucharist that church had ever seen. The offertory was a piece of marble painted for Christ Church, and it is the most precious offering I have ever seen.

But there is more: On September 5, el Colegio Episcopal Monte de la Transfiguración opened its doors to its first students, students who were able to attend thanks in part to generous donations by many of you.

During the construction of the sanctuary and school, these crosses were scattered throughout the building. They are in the very structure of the building and they are in the cross that hangs over the altar. I offer them now to you as physical reminder of a spiritual connection that binds Christ Church to the church and school at Jarabacoa.

Anne Lamott says, in her book Traveling Mercies, that the two best prayers she knows are “Please, please, please” and “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” I have already tendered my thanks, but they bear repeating. For bringing me into the dance, for supporting my journey through and in Christ, for the miracle that is and will be the ministry at Jarabacoa, I can only say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Now I ask one more thing: Help to continue this ministry with which Christ has commissioned us. Please, please, please. From my mouth to God’s ears; from God’s ears to your hearts.

Amen.

James Guthrie

Lonnie Lacy

Oct. 16, 2005: Year A, Proper 24

Isaiah 45:1-7

Psalm 96

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Matthew 22:15-22

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James Guthrie

The clock beside your bed reads 2:00 a.m. as you awaken to the ringing of the telephone next to the clock. “Who could be calling at such an hour?” you ask yourself. Your reach over and answer the phone. The party on the other end of the lines says, “I’m sorry, wrong number” as they hang up the phone. Now if you have caller identification, which so many of us do these days, you may want to call them back and tell them off. But decide, you could make better use of the time you have left if you just went back to sleep. You may not have experienced this kind of call, but there is a small part of me that is almost willing to bet that you have experienced some sort of call in your life. The call could be the call to your life’s vocation. The call could be the call to serve God in helping with outreach to the community. The call could be to help with mission to the Dominican Republic. There are a host of calls that we answer in our life’s journey. Regardless, of the calls you have experienced in the past, there are additional calls that will come to you in the future. We have been issued a clear call in this morning’s gospel: “Give to God that which belongs to God.” Let’s explore the implications of this call for a few minutes this morning.

Let’s examine what is taking place in this morning’s gospel. The scene we see in Matthew this morning is a scene that is not at all uncommon in the gospels. The scene is that of the religious establishment of the day attempting to trip Jesus up. The Pharisees and the Herodians have conspired together in order to find some small thing to charge Jesus on. Now for these two groups to work together is nothing short of a miracle. They did not even like each other in the first place. They approach Jesus with a tone of sarcasm in their voice. The gospel calls it malice. Imagine the discussion: “Teacher we know that you have come from God and teach what is true.” They then pose a question to Jesus about taxes. “Should we pay taxes to the emperor?” Jesus knows what they are up to and first calls them hypocrites. Then he asks for a coin used to pay the taxes. He asks the question, “Whose picture is this on the coin?” The crowd gathered answers “the emperor’s.” The reply of Jesus to the question of the testers is of course give unto the emperor what is the emperor’s and unto God that which is God’s. Let’s spend a few moments and dig a little deeper into this passage, and draw some truths applicable for us today.

If you were to examine the original language of this passage, the word translated picture also can be translated likeness or image. Give unto the emperor that which is the emperor’s – his likeness or image appears on the coin. Give unto God that which is God’s – what is the likeness or image of God? Where do we see or find the likeness of God? What would that image or likeness look like? Where would we see the image of God? Look at your neighbor on the left or right and you will see the likeness of God. In the Genesis account, when God first created mankind, he declared “let us make man in our image.” We were created in the very being, likeness and nature of God. Our Gospel this morning calls us to give back to God what is God’s? If we are the likeness of God what do we give back to God? What is God’s nature? What is his being? Let’s look at what God call us to as his creation and likeness.

First, God is love. We are taught from a very young age the central passage of the Christian faith: John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In Jesus Christ, there was embodied the ultimate expression of love for a lost human race. If the first attribute of God’s being is love, shouldn’t we as the image and likeness of God demonstrate love to our fellow man? Shouldn’t we allow God, and his love, to flow through us to those who are hurting and alone? God gave us a special gift – the gift of his Son. It reminds me of the story told of an avid art collector many years ago. This collector had amassed a collection of rare pieces of art worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a large price in the early part of the 1900’s. The collection contained rare Van Gogh’s, Chagall’s, Monet’s and other artists as well. The man’s wife had died and they had only one son. One of his most prized possessions of art was the portrait of his son that hung over the mantle in his large home. His son had been killed in a war and the older gentlemen missed him greatly. When the collector died, an announcement was made that his rare collection was going to be sold at auction. The art community was extremely excited. One the day of the auction collectors and museum curators gathered. The auctioneer held up the picture of the son and indicated that this was the first painting to be sold. It seemed no one wanted to bid on this painting they were waiting for the rare ones. Finally, an older gentleman who lived close by placed the first bid only because he had watched the son grow up. No one even bothered to bid, they were just glad it was getting sold so they could get on with the real art. The auctioneer toned “Going once, going twice, sold.” Once the man had paid for the picture the auctioneer then made an astonishing announcement. “The auction is over!” the auctioneer cried. “What do you mean the auction is over?” bemoaned the crowd. The auctioneer then explained that the collector’s will dictated that the bidder who purchased the picture of the only son of the collector, his most beloved possession, purchased the entire lot of rare and sought after paintings. The person who had bought that one picture had received everything. Isn’t that the way it is with God? We have received everything because of our acceptance of the Son. Give back to God that which is God’s.

Second, God is holy. There is no sin found in God’s nature. God could send Jesus to redeem us and allow his son to take our sins in order to set us free from the fall that was created by Adam and Eve in the garden. Now, I am not saying that we will ever achieve the holy nature of Jesus, but doesn’t God’s call to us this morning call us to lead lives consecrated and set apart unto him? Give back to God that which is God’s.

Third God is peace. At the conclusion of our common meal together, the Eucharist – the priest or bishop often says: “May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his son Jesus Christ.” The peace of God is the peace that passes all understanding. Have you ever found yourself in a situation and there seemed to be no way out? The circumstances seemed to indicate that things were over. Things were finished. There have been times in my life when that was the feeling, but at the same instant there was peace that overshadowed me in the midst of those times. That peace was the peace that passed understanding. If you were to ask me to explain how this happened, I couldn’t because there is no explanation except for God. Ask me to tell you how this peace felt, and I could attempt to, but this peace is an experience that needs to be felt. God is peace. Give back to God that which is God’s.

How do we give back to God that which rightfully belongs to him? For me, there are multiple ways we give back to God. What are some of them? We give back to God that which is God’s through our time – helping others; through our resources – supporting the local parish; through our outreach – sharing Christ’s love, peace and holiness with others.

We also give back to God that which belongs to God through our praise. When we spend time alone with God in private, giving him the thanks and praise that is his, we are then strengthened to carry out what we are called to do.

The clock on the night stand reads 2:00 a.m. and the phone rings. This time the party on the other end of the phone says “This is God, give me your life, give me your love, and give me all of you.” That is the call of our gospel this morning. We give back to God that which is God’s. Shortly we will come to this table that will be set with bread and wine, and at that moment God will meet us at the table. We are strengthened at this table to serve our God and others he puts into our paths. Where is God calling us to this morning? Is he calling us to new and deeper encounters with him and his son Jesus Christ? Is his call to you this morning to spend more time with him in prayer and devotion before him each day? Where is God calling you and me this morning? Like some of us here this morning, you may feel your call is to serve God in the ministry of the church as an ordained person? If you are feeling that call, what are you doing about what you are feeling? For others, our call is to be the strong laity and serve God alongside the clergy and support them as they minister to those who are in need. Maybe God is calling you to reach your neighbors for Christ.

In Isaiah, God told Cyrus, “I call you by your name.” God calls each of us by name this morning. Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s. How will you respond to his call today? Will you accept his call or reject his call. The choice is yours. In his holy name, Amen.

[Editor's note: James Guthrie is a seminarian at Virginia Theological Seminary.]

Lonnie Lacy

I don’t know about you, but every time I hear today’s Gospel lesson, I always find myself asking, “Alright … what is this story really all about?” I suppose we could use it to talk about a variety of topics. For instance, we might use it to say something about taxes. Or, perhaps, we might say something about citizenship or the differences between the Church and the state. I could even use it to talk about that most dreaded of all sermon topics: the annual stewardship campaign! (But don’t worry; I’m not touching that with a ten-foot pole.)

The truth is that before today’s Gospel lesson is about any of these things, it is—to our surprise—about conspiracy. It is about conspiracy; it is about hate; and it is about the sad reality that when we humans are not careful, we are much more inclined to draw our allegiances along lines of hate than we are along lines of love.

Over the past four weeks, Matthew has been painting a picture of Jesus in his gospel, and Jesus, in turn, has been painting a picture of the Kingdom of God. As we have followed along, we have heard him tell some of his most famous parables … those wonderful stories that reveal the Kingdom of God and that show us that the Kingdom is not at all what we thought it was supposed be. According to Jesus, the Kingdom of God is here and now, and it is a place where the weak are welcomed, where the humble are exalted, and where the filthiest of all humankind are loved without restraint and without condition.

But while that’s good news to you and to me and to many of the people who were in the company of Jesus, it is not good news to the local leaders in Jesus’ day. With every parable he tells, he gains more and more disciples, and with each new disciple he gains, the people in power begin to feel the sting of their own authority slipping slowly through their fingers. They soon realize that something has to be done.

And so, Matthew tells us today, two groups go out and do their best to destroy Jesus’ reputation … two groups known as the Pharisees and the Herodians. But here’s the catch . . . here’s what makes this story so interesting and, in some ways, so tragically familiar. At this time in Palestine, you could not have found two groups of people who hated one another more vehemently than the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Pharisees were Jewish leaders who deeply resented the Roman occupation and desperately wanted to return the throne to a Jewish king, and the Herodians were agents of the state whose very job it was to shore up support for the occupation and to keep King Herod on the throne! They were natural enemies. And yet here they stand in today’s Gospel conspiring together … “strange bedfellows” with nothing in common except their fear and hatred of Jesus of Nazareth.

Their plan is to ask Jesus a question about taxes. If he says it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, then the Pharisees can say he is a bad Jew and have him ostracized from the Jewish community. If he says it is not lawful to pay taxes, then the Herodians can say he is a bad Roman citizen and have him put to death for treason. But as we see, Jesus has not, in fact, just fallen off the turnip truck, and he gives them an answer that goes well beyond the black and white of their clumsy little plot. And so, Matthew tells us that they retreat. They retreat in order to regroup and to continue conspiring in hate . . . because they know this will not be their last chance to destroy this new teacher named Jesus.

I don’t know what it is about human nature that makes us so cooperative when it comes to destruction. I just don’t know. But what I do know is that that kind of behavior is not part of the Kingdom Jesus has been describing these past several weeks. According to Jesus, if the Kingdom of God is marked by any conspiracies at all, it is marked by conspiracies of love. In the Kingdom of God, enemies do conspire; they do put their differences aside … but they do so not because they are both threatened by a third enemy as the Pharisees and Herodians were, but because in the Kingdom of God, enemies finally figure out that they will always be incomplete until they complete one another in the vulnerability of God’s love. That is simply the nature of the Kingdom of God.

In God’s view of things, you and I just flat out need each other, even if we hate each other. (Or perhaps I should say especially if we hate each other.) Pharisees need Herodians. Red states need blue states. Episcopalians need Southern Baptists. And WHY do we need one another? Because, for goodness’ sakes, we’re family. We’re family, and it’s worth our time to imagine what good we could do in the world if we consistently and intentionally suspended our differences, made ourselves vulnerable, and conspired together in love.

Now, the thing is that I know you all are reasonable people. And you’re probably thinking, “Lonnie, this is all well and good, but it’s not all that realistic. You’re talking about a fantasy … a fantasy of love the likes of which we will never know.” And you’re probably right. This kind of love is a bit fantastic, but that doesn’t mean we will never know it. In fact, I think we find a taste of that brand of love every week when approach that Table together.

For after all, it is at that Table that we recall the greatest conspiracy of all time … when a Father and a Son conspired together in love to rescue a world of people crushed by the weight of their own betrayal. That blessed conspiracy of Love is our story … it was for us. And by God’s good grace, you and I become participants in that great conspiracy every time we come to this Table—in all our difference and diversity—and make our Communion with one another and with the God who loves us beyond all measure.

So I say come, let us conspire once again. Let us affirm our faith; let us say our prayers; let us come to Table; and let us leave this place as co-conspirators in Love, just as God has hoped and dreamed we would be. For I am convinced that the world is still young, and we have a lot of good left to do.

[Editor's note: Thomas A. "Lonnie" Lacy, II is a seminarian at Virginia Theological Seminary. See his collect for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and, on a lighter note, photos from the VTS class of 2006.]

A note about sermons: Please remember that since sermons are oral presentations, they are likely to change each time they are given. Often they are constructed of notes, not whole sentences; and often they carry the rhythm of speech, not of writing, and so the sentence breaks and punctuation are individualistic.