Sunday 1-3-16
/St Barnabas, Norwich VT
Sermon by Rev Jennie M Anderson
Lord, make us stewards of ourselves, that we may be servants of others. Take my words and speak through them, take our minds and think through them, take our hearts and set them on fire, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. Good morning!
Welcome
Albert Einstein said, “Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” T.S. Eliot said, "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" J.M. Barrie said, "I'm not young enough to know everything." And H.L. Mencken said, "The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom."
I am open and I am willing
To be hopeless would seem so strange
It dishonors those who go before us
So lift me up to the light of change
What do you dream about when you are going through a particularly scary or fearful time? When there are changes going on in your life, like relocation to a new or different home? Starting a new job or a new project within the old job? Or maybe there are conflicts in the old job that might lead to relocation and/or a new job? When you are going through those hard and demanding times, what do you dream about at night? My most prevalent “stress dream” is the one where I forgot the baby. Do you know the dream I mean? We, as a whole family, plan to go somewhere, we get all loaded up and find ourselves a couple of miles down the road and as we look at each other and realize that the baby isn’t there with us. The baby has been left behind and forgotten! I have had the stress dream of forgetting the baby often in my life. So, this Sunday’s gospel lesson, at least in that parent haunting fear, is one I can relate to, especially that exceptional kind of terror.
We here at St Barnabas, just this morning, are beginning a new ministry together. One metaphor for beginning a new ministry together, priest and congregation, is the image of a new family. The metaphor, more specifically, could be that the family is gaining a new baby. Or perhaps it is increasing in souls through the adoption of a distant cousin. Or maybe, the family is shifting around so that the long lost crazy aunt has come home to live and brings with her some adventure! I like the baby image but, whatever the image you like, we here at St Barnabas are beginning a new ministry together.
I am open and I am willing
To be hopeless would seem so strange
It dishonors those who go before us
So lift me up to the light of change
In its purest sense, the new baby image carries with it an aspect of being very fragile, vulnerable and yet amazingly strong with life. A new baby is hungry, for food, for love, for nourishment and for sustenance. In a different kind of way, that new baby feeds others with its love and its need for care and attention. So, you get this, right? As we start this new ministry together we learn to hold it both gently so we don’t hurt it, and firmly so we don’t drop it. We have to practice caring for it and making sure all of its needs are met. We have to love it and perhaps one of the most important parts of the process is to open ourselves to being well loved in the process. Starting a new ministry now, in the darkest of the dark winter can be a challenge I believe it also has its advantages.
My UCC friend Kate said about this Sunday’s reading that we are just coming through a season that is at once family-centered and yet often full of family tensions, from money problems to old hurts brought to new life, from pressures and misunderstandings to unfulfilled expectations and disillusionment. The people who love one another most, disappoint and hurt one another most deeply.
I am open and I am willing
To be hopeless would seem so strange
It dishonors those who go before us
So lift me up to the light of change
In the gospel lesson today, the lovely image of shepherds and stars and angels singing in the night gives way, a week later to anxious parents perplexed at their adolescent son's preoccupation with things above their understanding. We ask ourselves, will life ever be the same for any of them, or for us? Of course, the answer to that question is simply, "no." And that is where the anguish and the perplexed hearts of Mary and Joseph share common ground with our own questions and pain. On the edge of a new year, our lives might feel new in this moment and maybe a little vulnerable. Where are the places, and when are the moments, that we may be called away from the safe and the familiar to new and risky experiences of faith? [Kate Huey]
Jesus’ birth story is filled with riskiness and the threat of death at every turn. Herod is out to kill Jesus. After Herod died then, Herod’s is son scared Joseph so he couldn’t take Jesus to Judea to live but instead took him to Galilee. Think about it, Jesus was hunted throughout his birth and his life as an infant, and yet somehow he has been kept safe. Through angels, coming to Joseph in dreams, the decision of the wise men to betray King Herod and escape themselves… Jesus is safe… So, when Mary can’t find him now, after ten plus years of keeping him safe, it must be crazy making for her. Let alone for Joseph his father who has worked tirelessly to keep the baby and boy safe from assassination!
What did Mary do when she was most scared in her life? She prayed and she sang, she went to be with family and she just did the next right thing. She presented Jesus to the temple, she attended the festivals of the Passover in Jerusalem every year faithfully. She remained open to God’s light and love. Then that one year when Jesus is lost to Mary, she searches and searches and finds him… and she treasures all these things in her heart… Now, I am sure that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature because it says so, AND I am also sure that Joseph and Mary grew in wisdom and stature too, even though that isn’t in the text.
Our new ministry here at St Barnabas, that we begin together, today, happens at the same time as many other new ministries in The Episcopal Church. This is the time when, The Most Rev. Michael Curry’s staff begin their work. I am very grateful to say that TEC is continuing to progress as a whole church. I want to share with you a quote from a priest and colleague of mine, Stephanie Spellers, who is the new Cannon to the Presiding Bishop for evangelism and reconciliation. She reflected not only about the courage new ministry takes, but also the joy. “There’s no better time than this to be in the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement,” Spellers said. “So many of us are ready to partner, risk, heal and celebrate the good news in our neighborhoods. So many of us are hungry to fall more deeply in love with Jesus and to create spaces where [very] different people can grow in that love, too. So many of us are yearning to follow Jesus beyond fear, beyond comfort and beyond the walls keeping us from each other and from our neighbors. I can’t wait to commit my whole heart and energy to this Spirit-work with our whole church.”
What is it that makes it possible to keep showing up, even at the risk of persecution, or death? What does it take to be open enough to feel God’s own gift of courage and take the difficult path that isn’t the way of the world, but the way of Jesus? It takes a kind of courage, yes, God’s courage. And a kind of openness… as well as a kind of obedience, and it takes all of that in the face of fear sometimes in the face of our own terror, maybe at times not so different from Joseph and Mary’s fright and panic. This is the kind of faithfulness that belongs to Mary and Joseph. This is the kind of faithfulness that Jesus teaches us to pray for and to practice as his followers of the way. And this is the kind of faithfulness that is, at times, hard to nurture in others who are also followers of the way, but that is just what we are called to do. It is facing into fear and doing the next truthful action anyway, with an open mind, heart, soul and a kind of obedience to that action that, most of the time, goes against the way of the world. That we are called to do, with God’s help. Facing into fear, the hard times we dream about, and finding an openness through which we grow in wisdom is God’s gift of courage. Wisdom is the fruit of courageous acts.
I want to take some of God’s courage and together, sing the whole song, the chorus of which I have been teasing you with up to now. It is by Holly Near and it’s called I am Willing. I have provided the lyrics in the extra insert. Please join in as you much as you want to. Let’s sing this prayer together!
Chorus: I am open and I am willing
To be hopeless would seem so strange
It dishonors those who go before us
So lift me up to the light of change
There is hurting in my family
There is sorrow in my town
There is panic in the nation
There is wailing the whole world round
Chorus
May the children see more clearly
May the elders be more wise
May the winds of change caress us
Even though it burns our eyes
Chorus
Give me a mighty oak to hold my confusion
Give me a desert to hold my fears
Give me a sunset to hold my wonder
Give me an ocean to hold my tears
Chorus
Let us pray. From our mother's womb you have known us, O God. You call us to follow you through all our days and you seek us even when we wander. As we advance in years, clothe us with your love, so that we may grow in grace and find favor in your sight, through Jesus Christ. Amen.