Sermon: The Spirit is snatching you!

Photo by Trevor Gerzen on Unsplash

Sermon for April 29, 2018

The Fifth Sunday after Easter (B)

The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse, Preacher

St. Michaels and All Angels Episcopal Church

Onsted, Michigan

God, take our minds and think through them,

take our lips and speak through them,

take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen.

Watch this sermon on YouTube, here. 

Good Morning St. Michael’s!  My name is Vicki Hesse and

I am the director of the Whitaker Institute for the Diocese of Michigan. 

The Whitaker Institute is the educational arm of the Diocese.

Our overall purpose, our mission since 1954, is to form disciples

to carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ.

We do this through education, equipping and empowering.

We exist to provide lifelong formation –

that is, learning opportunities

members of our faith community to

grow in knowledge, mature in their faith

and become better equipped for their unique ministries.

Practically speaking, this includes three main programs:

First, Academy for Vocational Leadership –

a monthly school for ministry operating collaboratively with

Dio E Mich and Dio W Mich.

The Academy provides theological training

for people seeking ordination.

Second, Exploring Your Spiritual Journey –

a twice-monthly circle of people (from our Dio)

listening with the ear of their heart

how God is calling them to serve in the world.

Third, Safeguarding courses –

regular courses designed to teach church ministers

about protecting the safety and dignity

of children and vulnerable adults. 

Perhaps at coffee hour we will have a time

to explore the programs that Whitaker offers:

next Saturday’s Ministry Fair,

or e-Formation for Digital Literacy in Ministry

or participation in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land next year. 

Thank you to Judith and Diana

for the invitation to preach today

and be with you in celebration of our Lord’s resurrection!

A few years ago, the parish in which I served

hosted video-oriented Sunday course called

“Living the Questions,” by author and theologian Diana Butler Bass. 

In this series, Bass explores how

the times, they are a changing for The Church.

– and importantly so.

In the series, Bass shares that

“The basis of the institutional church

is believing (creed and dogma),

behaving (rules and techniques) and

belonging (membership and choice).

All of this results in people thinking

that Christianity is about getting the answers right,

living by the rules, and passing the test.” 

Learn what we believe so that you may behave this way and then you belong.

However, she contrasts, our faith formation (our “catechesis”)

needs to change and align with post-modern spirituality. 

She says that, “When talking of spirituality,

the three B’s (believing, behaving and belonging)

are still important but their emphasis changes

from what you believe to how you believe,

from what you do to how you act and

from what is your membership to who are you?

This focuses on relationships and community.

And perhaps the order shifts, first to belonging,

then behaving then believing.

For Jesus asks, “Follow me”

before he asks, “believe in me.”

So, the model is worth considering,

knowing that in fact it is spiral –

each person’s participation in a community –

and therefore a communities engagement with God –

works on all levels according to context.

Today’s story from Acts of the Ethiopian eunuch

echoes these very themes.

His way of salvation offers

a pattern of “catechesis” (or formation).

How often we, too, need to travel a wilderness road

to secure God’s salvation.

See, the eunuch yearned for salvation.

He longed for and suffered for a people of which to belong.

Although he had worldly success

as a wealthy court treasurer,

he was doubly outcast by his religion.

He was rejected because of where he lived (Ethiopia is not Israel) and

because of his sexuality – he had been castrated,

which is against the Torah law[1].

He definitely traveled the wilderness road.

And that is where Philip found him.

“Do you know understand what you are reading?”

With honest vulnerability, the eunuch replies,

“How can I, unless someone guides me?”

The eunuch yearned for salvation through belonging,

so he behaved as one “should” by taking a pilgrimage

and read scriptures for right belief.

I wonder how we, too, yearn for salvation –

for personal and for societal transformation. 

We are far from Jerusalem, the way of peace. 

The list of ways our hearts are broken is long:

we ache for healing for our family and friends affected with disease.

We long for hospitality of, instead of punishment to,

the refugees and immigrants.

We look for peaceful solutions from gun violence. 

We know there is sufficient food

yet we see neighbors who are hungry.

We weep for the devastation of the earth

and crave legislation that cares about creation.

We thirst for civil conversation in our thorn-infested, desert-dry politics.

We definitely travel the wilderness road.

And that is where Philip finds us.

“Do you know understand what you are reading?”

Where is God in that mess?

With honest vulnerability, we reply,

“How can we, unless someone guides us?”

So who is guiding you these days?

How do you follow Jesus – and with whom?

-------------------------

When the eunuch said that,

God’s Spirit guided Philip and

God engaged in the eunuch’s life right then.

Philip went over to the chariot, joined the eunuch,

and offered communion – through the scriptures –

to belong to the way of Jesus.

Philip spoke and proclaimed the good news,

pointing out salvation which was in plain view.  

Philip showed how God got involved in all of life

by water and the Holy Spirit.

“What is to prevent me from being baptized?” the eunuch wonders.

What is to prevent me from belonging?

And through water and the Holy Spirit,

God began doing God’s work through the eunuch, and

encouraged Philip to keep sharing the good news of salvation,

especially among those who the religious traditions marginalize.

See, that same Spirit is among us here – in this Christian community.

That same Spirit is working among us, to remind us we belong. Here.

That same Spirit drives us to follow Jesus.

Here, we can behave as Jesus shows us in the gospels:

Beseeching prayerful healing and reconciliation for family and friends,

offering hospitality and aid to refugees and immigrants,

working for laws that make our society safer in the midst of violence,

reaching out with food to those who are hungry

while challenging the laws that make people poor

Educating folks everywhere to care for creation

while challenging unjust legislation that allows pollution to continue.

Practicing patient, open conversation with brave space guidelines

for diverse and inclusive communities.

         

Look out!  Following in this way is not easy!

It’s turning the whole world upside down!

This God we believe in is training us, through this community,

in the art of mutuality and co-creation. 

God offers us a catechesis modeled by this eunuch to depend on others:

Do you like to learn? God calls you to teach.

Do you like to give? God calls you to receive.

Do you like to talk? God calls you to listen.

Do you like to act bravely? God calls you to be vulnerable.

The eunuch yearned for salvation and we yearn for salvation.

And God in Jesus enlists us to engage this crazy Spirit.

What is to prevent us from being baptized, from belonging?  Nothing. 

For we are God’s answer to what is wrong in this world.

Today’s good news is that the Spirit is among us,

engaged in our belonging, our behaving, our believing –

God is here, enlisting us

not to stay where God found us but

to move us to where God needs us to be.

Today, the Spirit is snatching you

to proclaim the Good News to this very broken world. 

Go on your way, rejoicing in the Spirit of God!

Amen

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[1] See http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=391930990

Sermon: Come and See. Go and Tell!

A Sermon preached in 

Christ Church, Grosse Pointe, Michigan
by The Reverend Vicki Hesse, Associate

The Great Vigil of Easter

April 15, 2017

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts
be always acceptable to you O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

Listen Here:

Happy Easter!

Growing up in California, earthquakes were part of my life. We became familiar with earthquakes, but were never really prepared for the unsettling feeling and the aftermath.  During the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, one of my colleagues was swimming laps in his pool. When the earthquake hit, the pool created such a wave that he was literally thrown out of the water onto the deck.  All that water then flooded his patio and adjacent dining room. He was fine, just very shaken up.  Until that day, he wondered what he would do with his life, what was the purpose to which he was called. After he rode that wave (or shall I say, the wave tossed him out), he believed he had a specific purpose.  This event was only the beginning of his determined, purposeful life.

In today’s gospel text we heard of another earthquake, which initiated the beginning of a surprising scene for all involved – and for all of creation.  During that earthquake, the angel who descended from heaven, rolled back the stone and sat on it. That same angel spoke to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.  “Do not be afraid,” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus… Come and see!” So the Marys left the tomb with fear and with joy.  Jesus met them. “Do not be afraid,” he said, “Go and tell the others!” That earthquake-angel-accompanied event was not the end of their story, it was the beginning of their purposeful life of Easter.

Do not be afraid.  Come and see.  Go and tell! That is the message of Easter!

But wait a minute!  What about us? There is so much in this world for which to be afraid.  Fear is pervasive – from Syria to Afghanistan, from the Kremlin to the White House, from Flint to Detroit – everywhere, it seems, fear rules the hardened heart of Pharoahs.  Everywhere, it seems, fear unsettles our world.  Fault lines split the family meals.  Tremors rattle when employment is uncertain. Aftershocks quake our resilience when illnesses that drag on.

Loneliness reverberates when a loved one dies.

I don’t know about you, but I seek stable ground. And that is why you and I have come together on this holy night, right? Because we need a firm foundation. We need a new ending – no, that’s not it…we need a new beginning. We need hope for different outcomes. We need encouragement. We need groundedness.

St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, reminds us that, “no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.”[1] And that is a firm, dependable foundation: Jesus’ resurrection accompanies every earthquake in our lives. Resurrection means steadfast, perfect love that casts out that pervasive, quaking fear.  Resurrection does not answer or end problems, nor does it remove us from hardships, limitations and challenges of this life. Resurrection reinforces our lives with rebar of God’s imagination and shock absorbers planted in God’s fertile ground of possibilities. 

From the first day of creation when God said “let there be light” and a new world came into being – shimmering and pulsing with life – to the dawn of that first day of the week when Jesus appeared to the women, God continues to break in.  God continues to break in. When human sin wrecks its worst havoc, our gracious God unceasingly resurrects life and hope in the depths of our lives and in our communities.

How do we know this? Because God has a more lush and abundant imagination than fear-induced human rulers can provoke.  This is the creative, surprising, dependable trademark of God.  And with God’s trademark creativity, we welcomed Hillary Wing Hampstead into our Christian community. Was this simply a societal initiation?  No.  Was this for mere religious statistics? No.  Hillary was baptized today into Christ Jesus: into his death so that she can be united with him in a resurrection like his. Cyril of Jerusalem, theologian of the early church (around 300’s) used to tell the newly baptized that, “by this action you died and you were born, and for you the waving water was at once a grave and the womb of a mother.”[2]

This evening, Hillary was bathed in a wave of holy water so that she, too, can walk on a firm foundation, with purpose and newness of life. That life that is grounded in God’s confident love. That life that invites her to “Come and see” and then “go and tell.  Hillary’s kin, those gospel women, were the first witnesses and the first missionaries of the church.  No pressure, Hillary!

Tonight, those gospel women join our prayers for Hillary that she know her life with Jesus means a life of grace, an inquiring and discerning heart, and a courage to will and persevere with joy and wonder on the bedrock of God’s love. Hillary, now that you have been in the water, we send you out with strong purpose to meet the challenges of life.

May we, this night, know with confidence that the God who raised Jesus from the dead is not done yet… God is not done with the world that God loves so much, not done with us, the children of God, who God loves so much.

May we know with confidence that Easter is not the end but the beginning of a life grounded on the unshakable, firm foundation of Love. 

So… Go and Tell the good news:

Christ is risen, indeed!

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[1] 1 Corinthians 3:11

[2] Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday (Nashville, Norton Books, 2015) p. 21