Sunday 9-4-16
/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!
"What should move us to action is human dignity: the inalienable dignity of the oppressed, but also the dignity of each of us. We lose dignity if we tolerate the intolerable." Anonymous
"Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity." Herbert Hoover
Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple…” Let me read that again. Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple…” What the heck is Jesus talking about here? I will tell you that I don’t know. Not at all, at least not in my first glance of this reading. And so I read it and read it and I shared it with at least 4 different friends during the week and at least 5 different sets of hikers got to get in on the conversation, mostly at the dinner table when we were sharing a meal. The part about this reading that most challenges me, brings me up short and is really kind of shocking… is the part about when Jesus is saying to the bunch of people following him, the “large crowds following” is that we have to hate the things that most of us, and very likely most of them, clearly love with all of our hearts. It is after all one of the commandments to love your neighbor as yourself…
Let’s look at those commandments a little more closely right now. Turn in your prayer books to page 847. Let’s look at the 10 commandments a la the Episcopal Church. I will ask the Q. questions and you respond with the A., the answer part. Do you have the page?
The Ten Commandments
See pages 317 and 350.
Q.
What are the Ten Commandments?
A.
The Ten Commandments are the laws give to Moses
and the people of Israel.
Q.
What do we learn from these commandments?
A.
We learn two things: our duty to God, and our duty to
our neighbors.
Q.
What is our duty to God?
A.
Our duty is to believe and trust in God;
I
To love and obey God and to bring others to
know him;
II
To put nothing in the place of God;
III
To show God respect in thought, word, and
deed;
IV
And to set aside regular times for worship,
prayer, and the study of God's ways.
Catechism 847
Q.
What is our duty to our neighbors?
A.
Our duty to our neighbors is to love them as ourselves,
and to do to other people as we wish them to do to us;
V
To love, honor, and help our parents and family; to honor those in
authority, and to meet their just demands;
VI
To show respect for the life God has given us; to
work and pray for peace; to bear no malice,
prejudice, or hatred in our hearts; and to be
kind to all the creatures of God;
VII
To use our bodily desires as God intended;
VIII
To be honest and fair in our dealings; to seek
justice, freedom, and the necessities of life for all
people; and to use our talents and possessions
as ones who must answer for them to God;
IX
To speak the truth, and not to mislead others by
our silence;
X
To resist temptations to envy, greed, and
jealousy; to rejoice in other people's gifts and
graces; and to do our duty for the love of God,
who has called us into fellowship with him.
Q.
What is the purpose of the Ten Commandments?
A.
The Ten Commandments were given to define our
relationship with God and our neighbors.
Q.
Since we do not fully obey them, are they useful at all?
A.
Since we do not fully obey them, we see more clearly our
sin and our need for redemption.
Now that we are reminded, how could it be that Jesus is now telling the crowds that we have to hate what he has said all along that we have to love and honor with all our might? Not only does he say that we have to hate mother, father, brother, sister, spouse and children but also life itself! Why might Jesus say these things in this gospel lesson? It is a little confounding…
I want to ask you another question. Have you ever needed to change something about the patterns in which you live? Have you ever had to say, give up drinking, smoking, or maybe something else that is part of your life that you need to change, like the way you drive too fast or how you yell at your dog… A lot of the time, the desires and habits we want to change have become addictions. Think about what it takes to try and change your behavior and not do that one thing anymore. You first need to identify exactly what it is that have been doing. Then you make a plan about how you are going to live differently and you take step by step to do all of your life differently. Then, when you begin down that different path, you find out that it is harder that you thought. You do it anyway because you know that it is “better” for you. So what, wouldn’t you rather have the smoke or drink, or go shopping or play that video game? Think about what that tension feels like. Imagine how it is that you have a desire to do something and at the same time, you know a different and a better way to live by denying that desire. You know deep in your heart that you are better off not doing what you want in the moment. So, just hold that tension in your mind for a minute.
Now I turn back to the gospel and in trying to understand the first part of the lesson today about hating what we actually love, let’s consider that last part of today’s reading that really bugs me. “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." What is that all about? How can we live and live well without all our possessions? We need food and shelter, a car and the things in life that make it possible and maybe a little bit easier to live. We need those things… or do we?
What Jesus is saying, I think, is that we all need to let go of the STUFF of our desires so that we can have a better grasp of what it is truly like to love God first and then through that love, we love our neighbor. I sat with this text and had lots of conversations with people. It was hard to understand it, but in the end I think I began to catch a glimpse of its meaning. It is so hard not to get caught up in our more petty desires, our more immature desires, harder to choose the better way. It is perhaps AS hard as it is to choose to love God well FIRST as it is if we were to hate those things that we THINK bring us our happiness and joy. I think that might be the beginning of what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel lesson.
I want to turn to Richard Rohr for a moment. He is a monk in New Mexico, and a Franciscan Monk at that so they know a little something about the practice of letting go of possessions. I receive his meditations daily and if I know what’s good for me I read them and study and I, “read, mark and inwardly digest” what he has to say. As it turns out, this week’s daily lessons were all about the principals of this week’s gospel. Here is a one sentence summary of what each day’s meditation was about.
“God is not found in the soul by any kind of addition, but by a process of subtraction.” —Meister Eckhart (Sunday)
Healthy religion names what’s real, what’s true, what really works, and what works in the long run—here and later. This ultimate reality, the way things work, is quite simply described as love. (Monday)
We let go of illusions and pretenses so we can be more and more present to what actually is. That’s why the Buddha and Jesus both say with one voice, “Be awake.” (Tuesday)
The world is good in its wholeness, but our little portion of separated parts is never the whole, so we must leave our addiction to the system to discover the Empire of God. (Wednesday)
All great spirituality is about letting go. (Thursday)
Contemplation trains you to let go of what you think is success, so you can find the ultimate success of simple happiness. (Friday)
"What should move us to action is human dignity: the inalienable dignity of the oppressed, but also the dignity of each of us. We lose dignity if we tolerate the intolerable." Anonymous
"Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity." Herbert Hoover
I believe that when we learn to love God first, we can then find the ability to love neighbor and self, and be moved to strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Let us pray. Source of life and blessing, of garden, orchard, field, root us in obedience to you and nourish us by your ever-flowing Spirit, that, perceiving only the good we might do, our lives may be fruitful, our labor productive, and our service useful, in communion with Jesus, our brother. Amen.