"Hope is when you believe God's vision will prevail" was the title of Ed's sermon Sunday -- Stewardship Sunday -- at All Saints Church: a sermon based in part on this reading appointed for the day by the prophet Habbakkuk:
A Reading from Habakkuk (1:1–4; 2:1–4).
“How long, God, must I call for help before you listen? How many times do I have to cry, ‘Violence! Injustice! Oppression!’ before you come to the rescue? Why do you force me to look at injustice? Why do you tolerate evil? Destruction and violence are before me; strife, and conflict are everywhere. The rule of law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked have the righteous hamstrung, so that justice is perverted. I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will wait to see what God will say to me, how God will answer my complaint.” Then God replied: “Write down this vision and make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it. For this vision awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. When it seems to linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. Look at the proud; their spirit is not right in them but the righteous will live by their faith.”
You can watch it on the video here -- and I commend it to you ...
... but here's the part that jumped out at me as the core message:
What an incredible message for Stewardship Sunday. Of course it's about money. And resources. And time and talent. And all the things we "pledge" when we fill out our pledge cards each year toward the mission and ministry of All Saints Church.
But first and foremost, Ed challenged us, it is about being stewards of the natural, God given goodness that we have been gifted with as God's beloved: created in God's image and called to walk in love with God and with each other.
.
"Jesus will never ask us to turn our back on compassion," said the preacher. And then went on to illustrate how our natural God given goodness is being corrupted by a culture and a church calling us to do precisely that.
.
And it struck me Sunday morning as it strikes me still 24 hours later that this core message strikes as the core of the debates raging in the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion.
Yes, the relationships and vocations of the LGBT baptized are in the "bull's eye" but the greater target is a theology of humanity as old as Ireaneus (calligraphy by Br. Roy, OHC):
A Reading from Habakkuk (1:1–4; 2:1–4).
“How long, God, must I call for help before you listen? How many times do I have to cry, ‘Violence! Injustice! Oppression!’ before you come to the rescue? Why do you force me to look at injustice? Why do you tolerate evil? Destruction and violence are before me; strife, and conflict are everywhere. The rule of law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked have the righteous hamstrung, so that justice is perverted. I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will wait to see what God will say to me, how God will answer my complaint.” Then God replied: “Write down this vision and make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it. For this vision awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. When it seems to linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. Look at the proud; their spirit is not right in them but the righteous will live by their faith.”
You can watch it on the video here -- and I commend it to you ...
... but here's the part that jumped out at me as the core message:
We are called --
first and foremost --
to be stewards
of our natural,
God given goodness.
What an incredible message for Stewardship Sunday. Of course it's about money. And resources. And time and talent. And all the things we "pledge" when we fill out our pledge cards each year toward the mission and ministry of All Saints Church.
But first and foremost, Ed challenged us, it is about being stewards of the natural, God given goodness that we have been gifted with as God's beloved: created in God's image and called to walk in love with God and with each other.
.
"Jesus will never ask us to turn our back on compassion," said the preacher. And then went on to illustrate how our natural God given goodness is being corrupted by a culture and a church calling us to do precisely that.
.
And it struck me Sunday morning as it strikes me still 24 hours later that this core message strikes as the core of the debates raging in the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion.
Yes, the relationships and vocations of the LGBT baptized are in the "bull's eye" but the greater target is a theology of humanity as old as Ireaneus (calligraphy by Br. Roy, OHC):
To be stewards of our own, natural, God given goodness means we look for that goodness in others. In the other. In the different. In the marginalized. In the oppressed. And in the oppressor. "Some people say 'I'll believe it when I see it' but others say, 'I believe it because I've already seen it.'" (another quote from Sunday.)
To be stewards of our own, natural, God given goodness calls us to believe it because God can see it -- even when we can't -- and to both live AND give as if God's vision will prevail ... because it will.
Have a Happy, Hopeful Stewardship Season, Everybody!
4 comments:
"But first and foremost, Ed challenged us, it is about being stewards of the natural, God given goodness that we have been gifted with as God's beloved: created in God's image and called to walk in love with God and with each other."
Sounds like Pelagius to me...
"'Jesus will never ask us to turn our back on compassion,' said the preacher. And then went on to illustrate how our natural God given goodness is being corrupted by a culture and a church calling us to do precisely that."
Sounds like Rousseau to me...
St Paul has a more accurate picture of our condition and the work of Christ: " For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Phil 3:18-21)
hiram said:
Sounds like Pelagius to me...
Sounds like Rousseau to me...
And your point would be? Pelagius was a sincere man of G_d. That his understanding proved to be the minority view hardly makes it unworthy of our consideration. And Rousseau? Only one of the brightest minds of the West. Sure we are not precluded from recognizing wisdom regardless of its source.
hiram Quoting St. Paul: "many live as enemies of the cross of Christ."
And many live in fear of tyrannical constructs of G-d that folks like Pelagius and Rousseau long ago recognized as doing more harm to the Way of Jesus than good. Thank G-d that is only one facet of the larger gem of the Christian tradition. Here's another that seems a little more in keeping with Jesus: "What does G_d ask of us? To do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with G_d."
Susan wrote...
But first and foremost, Ed challenged us, it is about being stewards of the natural, God given goodness that we have been gifted with as God's beloved: created in God's image and called to walk in love with God and with each other."
Hiram said...
Sounds like Pelagius to me...
Marg says...
Sounds like Paul to me...
"We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant for us to live it."
Ephesians 2:10
According to Susan, Ed said...
"Jesus will never ask us to turn our back on compassion," and then he went on to illustrate how our natural God given goodness is being corrupted by a culture and a church calling us to do precisely that.
Hiram said...
"Sounds like Rousseau to me..."
Marg says...
Still sounds like Paul to me.
"Serve one another in works of love, since the whole of the Law is summarized in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself. If you go snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, you had better watch or you will destroy the whole community." Galatians 5:13-15
St. Paul has many helpful pictures of our condition and the work of Christ. In Romans, for example, he chastizes those of the Church of Christ who would lay the Law, the written Law, onto the lives and souls of those whom Christ loved and saved. He warns us it is not the letter of the Law that saves but the spirit of the Law, that the Law multipies the opportunities for failure but that the grace of Jesus is greater and will bring eternal life to those whose faith holds fast to Jesus.
I grieve that good folks like Hiram have unwittingly put themselves back under the Law. They live their Christianity in white-knuckled earnestness and try passionately to pull others back under the Law. What disturbs them most mightily is the joyful trust in God in which Christians like Rev. Ed and Rev. Susan live their lives. Paul talks about Christians like Ed and Susan when he says, "Now that we have been reconciled, surely we can count on being saved by the life of his Son. Not merely because we have been reconciled but because we are filled with joyful trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconcilation." Romans 5:10-11
When I am confronted with Christians like Hiram, I am reminded of verses 3 and 4 of the old hymn "There's a wideness in God's mercy":
"For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man's mind.
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own:
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own."
Margaret, the last thing I preach is law. What I was driving at was that human beings, though created in the image of God, and created good, have become sinners. There is no natural and pure goodness in people. There is, in God's common grace, a lot of compassion, kindness, etc. We do not act as badly as we might. But our hearts are darkened and every human faculty is touched by sin, so that no one is righteous before God.
And our deficiencies are not the result naturally good children growing up in a corrupt culture, but of sinners who come into the world in rebellion against God.
It is only by the mercy of God that we can repent, ask for mercy, receive abundant grace, and be given the power to be transformed more and more into the fullness of Jesus Christ. This is a very Anglican position; check it out in Articles IX through XIX of the XXXIX Articles. (Pages 869-871 of the BCP)
I am not under law but under grace -- but if I want to live according to God's revealed will, I need to know what God has said, and to follow it. I will never (in this life) do so perfectly; both my understanding and my ability are too small. But Jesus did say that we are to be and to make disciples, and to learn, do, and teach what he has commanded -- and that is the pilgrimage I am on, knowing that God's mercy in Christ and through the cross -- and not my own efforts -- have reconciled me to the Father.
Post a Comment