Monday, June 18, 2018

Sermon: Oil and Anointing for End of Year


Sermon Preached on June 17, 2018
Proper 6B RCL
The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse
Academy for Vocational Leadership
Colombiere Retreat and Conference Center

In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer
Amen

Wow. The final HE for our year together.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes[1]
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles
In laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life
How about love?
…Measure in love
----
And we have loved a lot this year. So thank you.
And today is the last day.
Does that mean you are done? you stop learning?  you have arrived? 
Of course not.
Does that mean you might be sad for this experience ending?
Sure.

So you can relate to Samuel’s grief.  For,
Today was the last day for Saul, the very King that Samuel had anointed.
Samuel must have felt like it was the last day ever.

“Samuel grieved over Saul.
And the Lord was sorry
that he had made Saul king over Israel.”

You know the story:  The Israelites rejected God as their king.
They wanted a king in flesh and blood that sat on a real throne.
They demanded a king and God listened,
appointing priest Samuel to anoint Saul as the king. 
In that anointing, Samuel poured a vial of oil over his head. 

And their life in ministry together began;
they were bound together into God’s story. 
But you know what happened.
Along the way, Saul rebelled. 
By sparing the Amalekite’s cattle
and offering it as a sacrifice,
Saul’s version of sacrifice
became more important to him
than obedience to God. 
So, God rejected him as king over Israel.
And Samuel mourned. The Lord was sorry. (pause)

Only twice throughout the bible
does God seem to regret anything. This was very unusual.
You know the first time, in Genesis,
the matter of the, ahem, little rainstorm and subsequent flood.
Then, here, we read The Lord was sorry. 
God regrets having anointed Saul –
 The one who had promised to keep covenant but did not.

What strikes me today is the nature of missed expectations.
Saul did not live up to The Lord’s expectations.
Samuel grieved the loss, the seeming end of his (Samuel’s) purpose.

I wonder if we, too, grieve over “Saul.”
·        We expected answers that AVFL didn’t have:
o   like the meaning of life or why the pit of an avocado is so large.
·        We expected our parish discernment committees
o   to recognize our untapped gifts. 
·        We expected sooner ordinations,
o   or quicker responses of COM interviews,  
·        We grieve the friendship expectations we will have to re-make
o   as we become ordained pastoral leaders and that changes relationships.
·        Broader, we ache for a Benedictine hospitality
o   to be extended to families at the border who seek refuge.
·        We grieve the way that
o   people who are perceived as “other” are invisible,
§  or worse, targeted with phobia.
·        We mourn the loss of civility in public conversation
o   and now recognize a lack of Benedictine humility
o   in much of our governmental leadership.

What expectations do you have for others, now at the end of this year?
We grieve over “Saul.”
pause
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
What about love? Oh, right, LOVE! And grace!

The good news in today’s text? 
This text demonstrates so well,
God knew the story was not over.
There was a lot of Love to be spread around! 
The Lord was not done looking for a new king yet.

The Lord said to Samuel, ‘How long will your mourn for Saul,
since I have rejected him as king over Israel?
Fill your horn with oil and be on your way’. 1 Samuel 16:1 

Fill your horn with oil!
This time, it’s not a little vial, but an entire HORN of oil. 
“I want the guy to be drenched in oil – make it stick!”
you can imagine The Lord remarking.

“Don’t spend any more precious time mourning the past when I have moved on.”
God had a new king for Samuel to anoint. 
God could not do God’s work
as long as Samuel was stuck in disappointments and missed expectations. 
Because you know, there was a shepherd boy
waiting in the fields
for Samuel to relinquish “what had been”
so he could be part of “what was to be.”

King David was part of Samuel’s future
but he couldn’t have gotten there while still mourning Saul.

On that day
the Lord told Samuel, go to Jesse and – don’t worry,
I’ll tell you what you shall do
and you shall anoint for me the one that I name.
I’ll tell you what you shall do….pause

Today’s good news? The Lord is asking you to become new. 
Fill your horn with oil!
This time, it’s not a little vial, but an entire HORN of oil. 
“I want the YOU to be drenched in oil,”
you can almost imagine The Lord remarking. 

Yes, it’s the end of the year,
the end of these relationships,
the end of the AVFL community as we know it.
AND God anoints you in this ending, so that you can anoint others. 
Your mission through these texts
to co-create the world in a fresh way.

You go and fill your horn with oil. 
God will tell you what you shall do with God’s love and light and blessing.
God chose you, at this time, to go
and anoint God’s people in
Grayling, Otter Lake, Lapeer,
Gladwin, Mt. Clemens, Lansing,
Belleville, Novi, Chelsea,
Lake Orion, Saugatuck, Grand Rapids,
Grand Haven, Kalamazoo, Sturgis and Marshall.. go and anoint!

Guide them in community work.
Guide them to provide radical hospitality.
Guide them to honor their precious style of worship.
Guide them to break the mold and do something new.

God chose you, your unique gifts, your special perspective,
for a new church,for a new society, to make God’s dream come true.
God values your unique set of ears
that will hear when God says,
“rise and anoint that one, chose that one to continue my dream.”

One of the best lessons a mentor taught me was this:
Church will nearly always fall short of expectations. 
People will disappoint you.
No rector will meet your expectations.
You will work for some goofballs. 
You will have to do menial work.
You will be surprised by grace.
You will be embarrassed.
And you will SHINE!!

Today’s good news?
God has not stopped looking – there is no last place. 
Not until the day of Resurrection where all things are made new –
For today God pours out God’s love and oil on you. 

Out of the ending of our program year,
new beginnings can come forth.

“Because you are in Christ and there is a new creation –
see, everything has passed away – see, everything has become new!”

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes[2]
How do you measure a year in the life
Of a woman or a man?
In truths that she learned
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned
Or the way that she died
It's time now to sing out
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends

Fill your horn with oil and be on your way’



[1] Seasons of Love, Song by Donny Osmond, Lyrics cited at https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Rent-3/Seasons-of-Love on June 14, 2018
[2] Seasons of Love, Song by Donny Osmond, Lyrics cited at https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Rent-3/Seasons-of-Love on June 14, 2018

No comments:

Post a Comment