Just Worship/No Distance Too Great
/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!
Just Worship/No Distance Too Great
Monica Baldwin said, "What makes humility so desirable is the marvelous thing it does to us; it creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God."
Br. Geoffrey Tristram said about Challenge - Not only does God see us as we truly are, not only does he love and accept us as we are – but he also challenges us to change and be transformed – to become that unique person whom God made us to be.
…all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted. (Luke 18:14b)
What is the most spiritually transformative event of your life? And, what is your prayer about that event? Maybe it was during that oh so difficult and awkward age as a pre-adolescent, right on into adulthood as our bodies change and our perspectives are stretched so far. It could have been as a young adult or even in the middle years as we begin to have children of our own (or not…) or when our parents die. But perhaps the most transformative event in your life is something more like being diagnosed with a lifelong illness or like finding sobriety when it was so difficult to even know what the problem was… So, what in your life do you identify as the most transformational happening.
Perhaps a better question might be what is the condition in your life you want most to change? How do you pray for this transformation to happen? What is it that you do that you don’t want to do anymore, like a bad habit? Do you think that making that change in how you do things is easy? If it was, maybe you would have made the change already? What is keeping you from being able to take that transformative step?
Another way to approach what I am talking about is to consider what is it in your life you really want to do but haven’t done yet? I don’t mean like a bucket list item like a trip you want to take. Or maybe you have always wanted to climb a particular mountain or jump out of an airplane, just once… that’s not what I am talking about here either. I am wondering if there is something that is on your mind or on your heart that if you were to face the end of your life tomorrow, you would deeply regret not attending to that thing. Perhaps you haven’t made amends to someone you offended or perhaps you haven’t told someone how much you really love them.
I bring up these questions in order to find out where in your life, you can be open to God in prayer. The things I am asking you about: changing old, ingrained bad habits; reflecting on your most transformative moment; reaching out past your comfort zone to affect a positive outcome just by telling someone you love them; or even something that you don’t know exactly but just sense that it is there to attend… that too can be something to open your heart to God about.
On Friday evening, I shared the story of my most transformative moment in my life, becoming a birthmother as a teenager. Giving my infant son up for adoption was the most transformative event of my life. It was brave, sad, joyous, painful, risky, indelible, and many other adjectives. But most of all, the act was one that I could not do without love as the one and only truth, and I couldn’t access that love without constant and deep prayer to a loving and abundant God.
My friend Kate says that in this second of two parables about prayer, Jesus again uses a most unlikely example as a teaching aid: the despised tax-collector. Here, Jesus addresses the heart of prayer: who God is, and who we are before God. For the Pharisee, God seems to live right inside him. His prayer is more of a Shakespearean soliloquy, praising himself and his works and his own goodness. He has it all figured out, and things add up rather nicely for him. Perhaps he comes out looking better than even God does! It helps to have the tax-collector nearby for stark contrast, because the Pharisee far outshines him in his virtuous works. To this religious leader, God is benevolent and has surely noticed how good the Pharisee is. Actually, there isn't much need for God to do anything in the life of this Pharisee except to agree with him.
In sharp contrast, the tax-collector pours out his heart to God and buries himself so deeply into the voicing of his deepest anguish, his most profound awareness of his own weakness, failures, and sins, that he apparently never notices the Pharisee, let alone compares himself with him. He flings himself on the mercies of God and depends on God to do something remarkable in his life. There are so many reversals in the Gospel of Luke that perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that this hated collaborator goes home justified while the observant religious type doesn't. If we, too, come before God in humble openness and fervent trust in God's goodness, we make room for God to work in our lives. That is much closer to righteousness than all the good works we can manage. Honesty in prayer flows from openness: an open heart, an open mind, a life opened to God and to transformation. Such humble and trusting prayer helps us to discover who we are, and who God is: merciful and loving and just. [Kate Huey]
One of the things that keeps us from being open to God’s transformative love is when we judge others in a way that deflects our focus and keeps us focused on the spec of other’s eyes instead of seeing the log in our own. That quality of judgment of others, sometimes it is simple comparison, keeps us from opening our own heart and seeking forgiveness for our own misdeeds.
If we, too, come before God in humble openness and fervent trust in God's goodness, we make room for God to work in our lives. So, this is important in our individual lives to consider as I demonstrated in my transformative life event. All our life transformations effect our family and closest community members in a way that invites this kind of prayer too. What I wonder though is, if we at St Barnabas were to pray together in the truth of love in this transformational way, what might God set in motion for our whole community? It might be like that question about that something you don’t know exactly what it is but you just sense that it is there to attend to and you need to pray to even see it. Then, God willing, get the insight, the aha moment, and wisdom to act on it. When we pray, we want to pray like the tax collector, about those things that bruise our hearts… those things that change the way we do things and make us wonder why we haven’t done ministry in this way all along. When we pray, we invite a kind of change that disturbs us. Remember the blessing I liked to offer earlier in the year.
“May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may wish for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
And May God’s blessing, creator, redeemer and sustainer, be with you now and forever.”
So where is God? Where is that connection to God that brings us the heart, the courage, the openness and the flexibility to change? God is right in the center of our most vulnerable moments as individuals and as a community in prayer. Let’s all reach out for God in prayer and see what God does with us then!
Monica Baldwin said, "What makes humility so desirable is the marvelous thing it does to us; it creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God."
-Br. Geoffrey Tristram said about Challenge - Not only does God see us as we truly are, not only does he love and accept us as we are – but he also challenges us to change and be transformed – to become that unique person whom God made us to be.
…all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted. (Luke 18:14b)
Let us pray. O God, the strength of those who humbly confess their sin and place their hope in you, save us from vain displays of righteousness, and give us grace to keep faith with the true humility of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.