Sunday, June 24, 2007

Set On A Sure Foundation



Set On A Sure Foundation
June 24, 2007 ~ Proper 7C ~ Susan Russell
Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39


When my son Brian was about seven years old it was “the summer of The Lion King” – and there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide from the relentless promotion of the MUST SEE movie of the summer. From beach towels to billboards to Happy Meals we were bombarded by images from the film and he was DYING to see it and -- given the relentless, persistent, dogged ways of a seven-year-old “dying” for something – there would be no peace until he did.

And so one hot, muggy summer afternoon I girded my loins and set off for the local multiplex with a station wagon full of small people – Brian and his neighborhood entourage – for a Lion King matinee. We settled in and the film began, you will remember, with the birth of a new prince to the First Family of the Jungle – and as the music to “The Circle of Life” swelled to its climax the spiritual leader of the animal kingdom cracked open a coconut, wiped the brow of the baby lion with the juice and held him up for the community gathered to receive as one of their own.

And as I was sitting there wondering who thought casting a baboon in the role of spiritual leader was a good idea, Brian piped up in his loud “yes-he-inherited-it-from-me” voice and said, “They baptized the LION!!!” I was torn by embarrassment as the heads swiveled in the crowded theater to see where the big mouth was and delight at a seven-year old who recognized a sacramental moment when he saw one. It may have been a baboon and a coconut shell instead of a priest and a baptismal font – but Brian recognized in those opening moments of “The Lion King” a ritual he was familiar with – the ritual of incorporating a new member into the circle of community life.

And it is that same ritual we celebrate here at All Saints Church – the one with the priest and the baptismal font – as we incorporate today 39 new members into the All Saints Community – 3 through baptism and 36 by registering their baptisms as new members – welcomed by these words from the rector, “May we so live our lives in an imitation of Christ that we honor our baptismal covenant with Christ and one another and the world for which Christ died.” That baptismal covenant consists of the promises we make – or were made for us – at the time of our baptism. Promises that frame how we live our lives in relationship with God and with each other. Promises that take us out into the world as Christ’s Body in the world.

It’s a high calling – this baptismal covenant stuff – which is why you’ll note the response to each of the questions is not just a simple “yes” but “I will with God’s help” – because we need God’s help to even ATTEMPT these promises we make:

Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

Remember that this is what we promise – this is what we aspire to “with God’s help” – the next time you read somewhere that the Episcopal Church is an “anything goes” church – the next time you hear that we have abandoned the faith received through the ages. Remember when you are asked to put your faith into action that at All Saints Church it is our faith that inspires our action – and that this baptismal covenant is the sure foundation upon which that faith is set.

In the month of July we’ll have the chance during the Sunday Adult Education hour to explore each of these promises together – to reflect on the theology and on the ethical values we claim when we affirm or reaffirm those baptismal promises. I hope that many of you will join me for that series of classes – I’m looking forward to them – and looking forward to the opportunity to engage in the kind of questioning together that I believe deepens all our faith.

Here’s how a recent Harvard grad named Erin White described her journey of faith: “When I embraced doubt instead of fearing its effects I found a greater understanding of my own beliefs. I did not casually discard long held convictions but was able to evaluate them in a new light. To move through the discomfort into a deeper, more meaningful faith life. I became more confident in that faith. Questioning is not easy. C.S. Lewis makes this point with his typical wry wit in Mere Christianity: "If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth- only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair."

Erin goes on to conclude, “I prefer the vibrant faith life to the soft soap.”*


It is that vibrant faith our baptismal covenant calls us to. It is that vibrant faith we celebrate in this morning’s Collect of the Day: O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness. Note that the sure foundation we are set upon is not uniformity of belief or experience or opinion – it is not a creed or a doctrine or a theory of atonement – and it certainly isn’t a Convention Resolution or a Windsor Report a Tanzania Communiqué. Instead, it is the sure foundation of GOD’S LOVING-KINDNESS available to absolutely everybody – for as today’s Epistle – Paul’s letter to the Galatian Christians – tells us: “All are one in Christ Jesus.”

Paul’s point is not that there should be no distinctions among us, but rather that there can be no superiority of one over another or exclusion of one by the other. Male or female; rich or poor; young or old; educated or unschooled; – as Archbishop Tutu put it – clever and “not so clever”; black, white, brown, red, or yellow; gay or straight -- racism, culturalism, sexism, and nationalism have no place among the values of God. This truth is rooted in the fact that each individual has been restored to unity with God by the loving, self-giving action of Christ. In so being restored to God, we can be restored to unity with one another in Christ. **

Which brings me to Luke – who tells us story after story of how Jesus encounters someone who lives outside the covenant community, removes what separates them and then sends them back home where they’ve longed to be – walking in love with God and with each other. In Luke’s accounts, Jesus often ministers along the margins of society. There he finds the lepers hiding, the blind begging, the possessed raging and the sinful cowering. The gift Jesus brings to those on the margins is to take away the things that separate them and restore them to the heart of the community.***

“Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself on the journey of faith there is a place for you here.” Many have come to All Saints Church and wept as they heard those words of invitation – as they heard the voice of Jesus calling them from the margins into the heart of the community – to this rail, to this altar. The words we recite may be attributed to George of Regas but they are rooted in the gospel according to Jesus of Nazareth.

The healing grace that called the man in Luke’s gospel from the margins to the center is the same healing grace that continues to be poured out – measure upon measure – as the Holy Spirit of the Living God lives and acts through those called to be the Body of Christ in the world and through the bread and wine made holy we receive as strength for the journey God sends us on.

And just for the record, that “us” is not just those of us who might get played by a baboon someday and who stand up here in front on Sunday mornings … that “us” is each and everyone of ALL ya’ll as members of this circle of life, this community of faith, as outward and visible signs of the inward and spiritual grace present in each and every beloved member of God’s human family. For while the second half of this morning’s gospel story may lack some of the drama of pigs off cliffs and cast out demons it has another very specific message for “us” this morning.

At the end of the story, the man who sat at Jesus’ feet and who learned from him wants to go with them. He is standing on the beach with Jesus, with the disciples in the boat in front of him and the townsfolk who banished him to the graveyard at his back. He wants to go with the one who healed him, the one who wasn’t afraid to come near him, who didn’t walk on the other side of the street. He wants to go with his new teacher and Lord and learn more about the kingdom of God. He’s ready to follow Jesus. But Jesus says no. To others along the way Jesus issues the invitation, "Come, follow me,” but to this one he says, "Go back home and tell everyone what God has done for you."

This turns out to be not only the story of one man’s healing, but also the story of one man’s calling. Jesus does ask the man to follow, but in this case the following involves staying rather than leaving. “Go and tell” Jesus tells him. And he does.***

Who will you “go and tell?” Some of you will go back to work tomorrow and have the chance to answer the question, “So whatja do this weekend?” Will that be a chance to “go and tell” about a community of faith they might be yearning for and don’t know would welcome them? It could happen!

Some of us will go this week to New York City and meet with representatives from the Anglican Communion “Listening Process” – and I really understand the temptation to climb in the boat with Jesus rather than “go and tell” ONE MORE TIME -- to witness ONCE AGAIN to the power of God’s inclusive love transforming lives to those who seem not at all interested in listening to us.

What I’m wondering this morning is if maybe the Episcopal Church is being sent by Jesus back to the Anglican Communion to “go and tell everyone what God has done for you.” Go and tell about the demons of homophobia and bigotry that continue to be cast out – go and tell about the fruits of the Spirit present in the relationships and vocations of those Jesus has brought from the margins and restored to the heart of the community.

Maybe what we’re supposed to notice this morning is that Jesus didn’t promise the Garasene formerly known as demoniac that anybody would LISTEN – he just told him to go and tell. And maybe what we’re called to do is to go and do likewise.

In spite of our been-there-done-that attitude. In spite of our doubts. In spite of our fears.

I’m thinking that the faithful response to “will you go back home and tell everyone what God has done for you?” is the same as the response to all the other promises we make today: “I will with God’s help.”

With God’s help – and set on the sure foundation of God’s loving-kindness. And that, my brothers and sisters, is a very sure foundation indeed!

Now ... go and tell! Amen.

================
*Erin White, Post-traumatic Faith Disorder
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2007/06/erin.html

**Ken Kesselus,
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermons_that_work_86677_ENG_HTM.htm

***Mary Anderson in a 1998 reflection in “Christian Century” Magazine;
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=645


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Rev. Russell:
"Some of us will go this week to New York City and meet with representatives from the Anglican Communion “Listening Process” – and I really understand the temptation to climb in the boat with Jesus rather than “go and tell” ONE MORE TIME -- to witness ONCE AGAIN to the power of God’s inclusive love transforming lives to those who seem not at all interested in listening to us."

In that last sentence "...to those who seem not at all interested in listening to us."
From those on the other side, we might say lovingly that we have been listening for 30 years now. But listening, unfortunately for those on your side, does not mean agreeing with.
In fact, we might make exactly the same argument that we have been listening, listening and listening and that you are not at all interested in listening to us. For you listening means agreement and capitulation to your agenda. You will be satisfied with nothing else.
What we want, what we still request is a doctrinal and Biblical argument that answers our concerns. You continue to avoid that.
We love all sinners, but we won't bless the sin. Not ours and not yours. But then we continue to talk past each other.
The difference is when your side was preforming irregular ordinations or fighting with us we turned the other way and let it happen. When you got the controls your bishops cruelly and forcifully went forward with inhibitions and worse. Shame on us.

From a sinner saved by God's grace.

Jim
a former Episcopalian and member of an AMiA community.

SUSAN RUSSELL said...

Jim ...

What we want, what we still request is a doctrinal and Biblical argument that answers our concerns. You continue to avoid that.

Ummm ... beg to differ. We've offered -- repeatedly -- doctrinal and Biblical arguments that answer your concerns. Ya'll just don't like the answer.

To name just one:

http://claimingtheblessing.org/files/pdf/CTBTheology_Final_.pdf

Have a nice day.

Anonymous said...

Dear Rev. Russell:

I have previously read the item you linked to. For me it does not answer the question how a person in an uncommitted, unblessed union (whether homosexual or heterosexual, by the way) can in any way be considered as qualified to be a bishop.
And no offense intended, but the same would apply to ordained clergy, in my humble opinion.
In my reading of Scripture, a bishop is to be a person of "one wife" (which would also exclude divorced bishops) and free of drunkenness (which would also apply to some high profile bishops).
I respect the fact that we have differing points of view and probably won't ever reconcile them under the same roof.
But for people who returned convention after convention, returned defeat after defeat to push the "new theology" it is a bit disingeneous, don't you think, to tell those of us of another opinion that the matter is now decided and that no further discussion is necessary?
I believe in civil unions, I believe that gay people have been discriminated against and that is wrong.
But to confess my major sin - alcoholism - I'm certainly appreciative that my Christian brothers and sisters helped me realize that even though I may be genetically inclined to excess drinking that it was harmful to my human and spiritual life.
For many of us, and I'll admit there are a few homophobes on our side, the matter is one of salvation for our gay brothers and sisters. We believe we are called to minister to them, as we pray others will minister to us, to turn from our sin and be healed.
That said, I believe we can be friends and that we can agree to disagree, just not in the same worship service.
I left my lifelong (58 years) church because I didn't want to be divisive to my local parish. The votes were in, the die was cast, it was time to quietly depart.
But I do tire of hearing people saying we have to keep telling them our story because they aren't listening.
We are listening, we just don't agree and likely won't. You folks, should certainly understand that after 30 years of fighting for it.
A sinner saved by God's grace
Jim

SUSAN RUSSELL said...

Jim ... thanks for taking time to write.

Your experience and mine clearly differ and I wish you every best blessing as you live your life of faith in your chosen faith community.

My issue with your original comment was your assertion that "listening means agreement" and nothing could be further from the truth. Read again Michael Hopkins "Message to the Church" in the CTB Statement ... we are ready,
willing and able to live in communion with those who disagree with us -- the same is not true on "the other side of the aisle."

And to say that we "continue to avoid" making a theological and biblical case when we have indeed made it over and over ... not to your satisfaction but over and over ... is -- to use your word -- disengenuous.

As far as the "listening" piece goes here's my experience: as tired as I am of it the truth is the incarnational witness of God's Holy Spirit present and active in the lives and vocations of the gay and lesbian baptized DOES change heats and minds. Which is why after 30 years of dialogue in the EPiscopal Church we have moved forward to the point where +Gene is a bishop and where blessings are happening and where the full inclusion of all the baptized is closer to reality than many of us could have imagined 30 years ago.

Which is why I keep "going and telling" -- even when I complain about it a little some of the time.

Gotta run ...