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.

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*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