Sermon: Fire and Stress

A Sermon preached in 

Christ Church, Grosse Pointe, Michigan

by The Reverend Vicki K. Hesse, Associate

The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15, Year C)

14 August 2016

Listen here

Oh, God, take our minds and think through them, 

take our lips and speak through them, and

take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen.[i]

Raise your hand

if you have seen enough division

in recent news to last a lifetime?

I know! So why does Gospel text

seem to encourage more division?

As we unpack this dense text, we can find

– albeit somewhat elusive –

good news of God’s work in all realities. 

Situated as it is inside this teaching section of the Gospel, 

we hear Jesus set the stage

for his ministry’s outcome and

what his ministry means for his followers.[ii]

Let’s first talk about fire.

That fire that Jesus brings is a cleansing fire. 

That kind of fire reveals our own

inability to save ourselves. 

That kind fire Jesus announced,

heard in a historical context,

was meant to destroy the pagan religiosity –

the one the crowds followed. 

The crowds believed that

the more you prayed to the pagan gods,

the more you offered burnt sacrifices

the more pious you acted

Well, the more you guaranteed your salvation. 

The crowds believed it was all about

their own work, their own power.

That way of thinking, that religiosity, however,

moved people’s hearts away from God.

Jesus knew that they counted on

their own human strength.

So, with fire Jesus challenged this

human need for security 

(and institutions that promise security to people)

 instead of relying on the security found in God.

That’s the fire that Jesus

wished was already kindled. 

That’s the fire that Jesus kindles in baptism.

Often, Baptism is seen as joyous occasion –

a promise, a happy day. 

But for Jesus, his baptism meant sure death

 – on the cross –

so that we might have eternal life. 

Jesus’ death and resurrection brings us 

entry into the life of the church, with our baptism.

But that is just

the beginning of our spiritual journey.

That is why Fr. Drew

began experimenting last the week

by placing the baptismal font

at the entry of the church nave.

The font’s placement symbolized our entry into 

the church through the waters of baptism.  

Through baptism, we begin to stay tuned 

to the many ways that God calls us.

Our baptism means we are given grace

to rely on God’s promises and

to live out our callings. 

It’s not our work, but God’s work in us. 

In today’s text, Jesus reminds us

that baptismal work

is not always going to be pain-free. 

It is stressful to live into God’s call!

Sometimes, I think we ought to wrap

the baptismal font round and round

with “caution” tape. 

This would give a warning that lives begun 

as disciples will not be comfortable.

Because when we are baptized,

we take on the baptism that Jesus proclaims. 

His stress will cling to our bones

and course through our veins

until his baptism is completed.

And that changes everything, does it not? 

For in our baptism,

we cannot separate his life in us

from our life in him.

And so in the text, Jesus reminds the crowds – 

and you may already know this –

That living into the gospel will not always bring peace

 – at least not initially. 

In Jesus’ time and since then,

families were torn apart by a grace of Baptism,

this grace of God’s love (not human actions)

that guaranteed salvation.

Whether it is a newfound decision

to go to church, or

to take on a social justice cause, or

to reach out to others who are different from you, or

– the effect of the gospel can create division. 

and division is not the problem,

it is how we respond that stresses us.

But we know from our baptismal covenant 

how to respond to division:

with compassion,

with respect for others’ dignity,

and by seeking the face of Christ

with generosity, patience and forgiveness,

seeing or wondering how God is at work

in all sides, in all positions, in all realities.

With baptismal humility

we can respond to division,

realizing that only God has the whole truth.

A friend of mine use to say,

“the trouble with Christianity

is that you have to do it with other people.”

And Jesus emphasizes here that

no matter how hard we work toward unity,

it is God at work that makes us one. 

Any divisiveness and stress

is a signal to let go and let God. 

Our need for control

may be why Jesus brings up

the last point in this text,

talking about the weather.

We know the signs, but do we really know 

what is happening at a spiritual level?

The hypocrite label might apply

to those of us who believe in Jesus’ grace,

yet who continue

to depend on our own power

to earn a place in God’s kingdom.

This causes me to wonder about

our lives (mine, too) as baptized holy ones. 

Do we hear God’s call

through the ears of our heart?

Or do we

rest in our comfortable places?

Why do we

– as individuals, as community, as society –

Why do we pretend we don’t see injustices around us 

(racial or economic, for example)

and not respond 

when our baptismal covenant calls us to strive for

justice and peace among all people,

and respect the dignity of every human being?

Why? I don’t know. Or maybe we do know.

Maybe we don’t want to be stressed.

Maybe living into our baptism creates division.

Maybe it’s just darn hard.

BUT!  out of this discomfort,

we can open a conversation about injustice

we can bring light to an issue

we can join others in the struggle.

That light may be just the gospel event

that changes everything –

for you and for those in the conversation. 

When we open a conversation

that brings division,

the crack in our hearts

allows the light to come in.

And that division allows

God’s slow work of love

To weave wholeness around a situation

like an invisible cloak to mind our life.[iii]

See, God claims us in our baptism

– not because we have been perfect Christians. 

God’s love transcends the divisions. 

God’s love encourages us to love recklessly.  

God’s love offers us grace

to risk living into our call. 

Fire? Stress?

These are the marks of following Jesus. 

“When we submit to the fire of our baptism,

we can trust the master welder

to forge us together

into a new kind of family, divided no more.”[iv]

Amen

---

[i] William Sloan Coffin, cited at http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/view/18268/the-collected-sermons-of-william-sloane-coffin on August 13, 2016

[ii] Inspired by Erick J. Thompson “Commentary on Luke 12:49-56,” at https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2951 on August 8, 2016

[iii] Inspired by John O’Donohue’s “Beannacht” cited at http://www.johnodonohue.com/beannacht-for-josie on August 13, 2016

[iv] Inspired by Kayla McClurg, The Peace of Division, cited at http://inwardoutward.org/the-story/ on August 13, 2016

Sermon: Relationship Checkup

 

The Third Sunday after Epiphany

Christ Church Episcopal, Grosse Pointe 

The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse

Year C – 8am, 24 January 2016

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.

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

My friend, Fred, insisted that

we write each other once a year

on the anniversary of our friendship. 

He began this the first year after we met.

Fred wrote about

the highlights of the year,

the adventures of times together,

the few difficult times when we had argued,

the lessons we learned and

his hopes for the coming year,

together, as friends.

In reply, I shared my perspectives back.

This tradition helped us grow together.

We are now not in contact now,

since our lives changed course, but we did share a “going away” lunch, marking the closure of our friendship.

We see something like this in

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, including

the baptism highlights of the year,

the quarrels and difficult times they had,

his hopes for the community.

Paul highlights recommendations

for treating each other

as fellow members in the community.

Perhaps he wrote this letter annually

or as a response to an inquiry made

to deal with key issues

as their lives changed course.

Paul wrote this letter

with a revolutionary twist.[1]

In that time, other comparisons of

human community to the physical body

had reinforced the societal hierarchy:

·        lowly workers should obey and support

their military and political leaders,

·        those at the bottom of the social ladder

should be grateful for the guidance and protection of their natural superiors, just as

·        the brain is more critical than the lowly organs sustaining daily life

Yet here, Paul argued

for diversity and interdependence

with a strongly egalitarian message. 

The notion of superiority of one member

is ridiculous, he wrote. 

People cannot live with only one body part.

All the people of Corinth -

including the privileged and

those of lower status –

are bound together intimately, just as

·        the body relies on all physiological parts to work together. 

The believers in Corinth

were a tattered group

with seemingly nothing in common. 

Their work and their interests were so different

that they lost a sense of

what God was doing through them. 

Carpenters, politicians, homemakers,

teachers, stone masons, weavers…

They related to each other independently,

caring only for their own “tribe.”

When they came together for weekly worship

they often argued. What were their priorities?

What was God up to with this tattered group?

What is God up to in our world? 

Our society, too, draws us ever more apart

with individual cell phones, personalized news,

complicated schedules and separate lives.

Our society, too,

values CEOs more than janitors,

the “brain” more than the “lower” parts

of the body.

This fosters independence

so that deep conversations are be avoided.

It’s much easier to live independently and individually.

According to a Pew Research 2014 Study[2],

which surveyed 35,000 adults,

there has been a falloff in traditional

religious beliefs and practices in recent years.

A growing share of Americans are

“religiously unaffiliated,”

which accounts now for nearly 1 in 4 adults.

This leads to a conclusion

that society and our world

seems to draw people more and more

into an escapist approach

to spirituality, finding ways to affirm beliefs, through consumerism, individual interests, and unique experiences.

So what is God up to in that?

And what was God up to

with the people of Corinth? 

We see Paul’s reaction in our text.

They gathered together, once a week,

and God was sending them sent them out,

Paul wrote, as members of one body.

God called them to use the gifts God gave,

regardless of their social “status,”

to serve as prophets, apostles, evangelists, teachers.  What did God have in mind here?

Frederick Buechner offers that God was making a body for Christ, through these people with these gifts.[3] He wrote,

“Christ didn't have a regular body any more

so God was making him one out of anybody

he could find who looked as if [that person]

might just possibly do.

[God] was using other people's hands

to be Christ's hands and

other people's feet

to be Christ's feet,

and when there was some place

where Christ was needed

in a hurry and needed bad,

[God] put the finger on some

maybe-not-all-that-innocent bystander

and got [that person] to go

and be Christ in that place himself

for lack of anybody better.”

God used the people of Corinth

to sustain the fellowship of that community

to carry on God’s belief in the people,

through a tattered

and diverse bunch of people.

And so it is with us.

God uses us

to sustain the fellowship of our community

to share God’s belief in people,

through this tattered

and diverse bunch gathered here.

God works through our bonds of affection, as egalitarian members in Christ’s body

with different gifts,

until we all become fully human at last.

How are we doing?

Well, we express it each week and

each year, in our annual meeting, (today)

where we evaluate:

the highlights of the year,

the adventures of times together,

the few difficult times when we had argued,

the lessons we learned and

our hopes for the coming year,

together, as sisters and brothers in Christ.

Today, God calls us to be religious

through this community here

even when we are not

as “spiritual” as we might be.

God calls us to see each other

as equal members of this Body of Christ:

as apostles, prophets and teachers

for each other,

for our community.

Today, God calls us

to hear that we are forgiven and

to learn how our God

came down from heaven

“to enter the pain and beauty of humanity. 

and

climbs up from earth

to offer his body for us so

that we might, in turn,

be his body in the world.”[4]

Today, in this community,

Even in our annual meeting,

we are called

“Christ” to each other

“Christ” to God.

All of us. Finally.

It is just as easy, and just as hard, as that.

Amen

---

[1] Inspired by Lee C. Barrett’s “Theological” Commentary, Feasting on The Word, Year C vol. 1 (Louisville, Westminster John Knox, 2009) p. 278

[2] 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study, the centerpiece of which is a nationally representative telephone survey of 35,071 adults. Cited at http://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-religious/ on January 19, 2016

[3] See Buechner’s article about Paul, first published in Peculiar Treasures and later in Beyond Words at http://frederickbuechner.com/content/weekly-sermon-illustration-body-christ cited on January 19, 2016

[4] Nadia Bolz-Weber, “Accidental Saints” (Convergent Books, New York, 2015) p. 170