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

Sermon: Names

Photo by Dewang Gupta on Unsplash

Sermon for April 22, 2018

Easter IVB

The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Detroit

Open our lips, O God, that our mouth may proclaim your praise. Amen

In addition to being Earth day, we also commemorate Good Shepherd Sunday – where the readings call us to recall Jesus’ “nickname” as the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep.

Which is where I would like to start today.  What is your name? 

Where did you get your name? 

Think of the source of power that was conferred

when your name was placed in your heart.

The Jewish tradition[1] holds that

the Jews were redeemed from Egypt

because they kept their names and their language.

Their names and language separated them

from the Egyptians in their midst.

And this decreased their temptation toward idolatry.

So even today, Jewish names are understood

to arise from divine inspiration during the naming ceremony. 

In Hebrew, the name of every object

is the conduit for divine energy and

so that is true of every person’s name –

the channel through which

the soul’s energy reaches the body. 

So names have power.  Influence.  Divine direction.

In our first reading,

the ruling elders and scribes challenged the apostles Peter and John,

“by what name did you do this?” 

The challenge arose because

Peter and John were teaching and healing. 

They proclaimed that

“…in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead …” the scripture goes,

“…And many of those who heard the word believed;

and they numbered about five thousand.”

The rulers demanded to know:

By what power or by what name did you do this –

this healing, this conversion to your way of life?

Because names have power.  Influence.  Divine direction.

In the Gospel reading,

the rulers also challenged

Jesus’ ability to heal and

            to liberate people from their oppression.

They demanded to know from Jesus –

by what power did he have to heal the blind man? 

Jesus replies by giving his name,

his various I Am nicknames –

“I am the gate” and “I am The Way” and

“I am the Good Shepherd” –

essentially naming the power and divine reflection

from which he is able to do this. 

Names have power. Influence. Divine direction.

And, if Jesus is the Good Shepherd,

I wonder if there are more than just a few ways

[we] are like sheep.

Sometimes we don’t live into our powerful God-given names.

Sometimes we are timid, greedy, foolish, and half holy.  

Sometimes, like sheep, we forget who we are and whose we are ---

we get hungry, and hungry for more than just food.

We get thirsty for more than just drink.

We are bereft of Divine Inspiration –

our souls get hungry and thirsty…”[2]

Maybe this sense of inner emptiness

is what makes us know we have named souls in the first place?

I remember watching my friend Mark

sheer his flock one day.

He just tipped the sheep on their backs

and they lay, defenseless, as he clipped their wool. 

To be like a sheep is to be like a child,

being guided and taken care of

by someone larger and stronger –

always receiving and seldom giving.

The trouble with seeing Jesus as the Good Shepherd

is that it makes us sheep –helpless, needy, sheep. 

The trouble with thinking of ourselves as sheep

is that sheep do not ever grow up to be shepherds. 

As children, we needed this loving care. 

As we mature, we have an even deeper need. 

That need, that call from God,

is to care for and feed someone else.

That is when we find abundant life. 

Names have power. Influence. Divine direction.

In the power of the Divine name of Jesus,

that inner emptiness can be filled.

That is what Psalm 23 means

by saying that God is a shepherd:

God feeds that part of us which is hungriest and most in need of feeding.

God pours a drink for the part of us

which is parched and most in need of hydration.

Jesus is both the Good Shepherd of the sheep

AND the recruiter and trainer of shepherds.

In this Christian community,

it means both receiving and giving in the power of his Divine Name –

of caring for and being cared for,

of giving and receiving,

of loving and being loved.

Hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd

means to go outside of St. Peter’s walls.

To involve yourselves in the fight for justice.

 To gather at rallies, vigils, protests.

To hold trainings and to risk arrest. 

To speak truth to power and to walk together while building beloved community.

By what power or by what name did you do this?

Names have power. Influence. Divine direction.

In the name of Jesus, it means, profoundly: trust.

It does not mean that death will not come,

that tragedy will not sting,

that our hearts will not be broken,

that someone will not betray us. 

Trusting the One named the Good Shepherd invites us into Psalm 23½:

Even though I walk through the blight of Detroit,

I will not fear death…

Though I pass through the valley of dismay at our political process,

I will not be alone…

Though people may think less of me

because of my decisions, I will not lose heart…

Though my relationships are strained and my work is never done,

I will fear no evil…for you anoint me, guard me, love me.

This is really good news!  To be free of fear,

to be empowered by the Name of Jesus,

to be a glimmer of divine reflection…

THIS is a gift beyond words. 

I know this because I am a specialist in fear,

in uber-responsibility and paralyzing self-shame.                

But then there is this Good Shepherd, Jesus,

who promises to meet us in ways

we cannot imagine in the most difficult places

of life – and death.

May we, this day, follow where he leads

and trust that he loves us beyond measure.

May we, this day, follow his voice,

share in his ministry, and

allow him to guide us into paths of service and compassion.

Names have power. Influence. Divine direction.  

With the one named Good Shepherd, may we have life, and have it abundantly.

Amen

---

[1] Cited from https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1158837/jewish/The-Laws-of-Jewish-Names.htm on April 19, 2018

[2] Frederick Buechner Sermon Illustration cited here on May 1, 2017