Trinity Church - Towson, MD
Year C - 3 Lent - February 28, 2016
I was immediately caught by the phrase in today’s collect… “we
have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.” As much as we think that we have
it all figured out and that we have it all together, we don’t! Not without the
help of something else… Not without the help of someone else.
I can remember as a young child, full of ambition and pride,
knowing and feeling like I could actually accomplish something on my own. You
can probably remember a time like that too… Pick the task… Maybe tying your
shoes, dressing yourself, or riding a bike. We can sometimes remember when we
first did things by ourselves.
I can remember the time when my mom and dad thought I was old enough to
order my own meal at the local Carroll’s drive in. (was Carroll’s a thing in
Baltimore?) I’m now showing my age… Anyway, I can remember taking the change and
walking up to the counter at Carroll’s (Because they were both eat in and dive
in) and ordering my first meal… I was so proud of myself…
But our collective prayer that was written in the year 590 says,
“we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.” The church has been praying
this for over 1425 years, and yet we still think we can do it all by ourselves…
Moses didn’t think he could do the tremendous task of
bringing the Israelites out of Egypt by himself… That’s not the example that we
get from Exodus. When given the great task by the mighty voice coming to him
out of a bush he says, “who am I that I should go to Pharaoh” as if to say… I’m
not able, I can’t do this by myself… And the voice then assures Moses… “I will
be with you!”
Let’s think back again on those tasks that we remember… That
we think we did all by ourselves, like Tying your shoes, dressing yourself, or
riding a bike. I can assure you that when it came time for you to learn to tie
your shoes someone taught you! For me, it was my grandfather… and he didn’t
only teach me how to tie my shoes, he taught my kids how to tie their shoes… So,
tying my shoes is not something I did by myself. And neither was dressing
myself, or riding a bike…
If you can ride a 2-wheel bike, you can probably remember
someone helping you, coaching you… maybe holding the back of the seat and
giving you a gentle push. We all had help in one way or another.
In our baptismal vows, we ascribe to the covenant and
promises … with God’s help… I will, with
God’s help. We say it allowed “I WILL, WITH GOD’s HELP!” We are not expected
nor or we encouraged to do it any other way…
And we are definitely not encouraged to live the Christian life alone.
Part of our formation… part of our learning is our dependence on
being taught… it’s our willingness to engage… Our willingness to reach out for
help and encouragement. In my opinion, It’s part of why we have many of the issues
that we have today with narcissism and self centeredness…
It all part of the stresses of life that have been wrapped
around us by a society that expects everyone to have it all figured out… all
figured out – all the time – all by ourselves. So we drive ourselves crazy as
we puff out our chest and go in to tackle it… and not ask for help or input, because
society thinks that asking for help is somehow considered a weakness.
The 1400 year old collective prayer says, “Almighty God, you
know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.”
The fig tree is not producing fruit… It’s not producing bad
fruit, it’s not producing good fruit… It’s not producing ANY fruit… And
somehow, the owner of the vineyard thinks it’s the tree’s fault. Obviously he’s
forgotten that it’s just a tree… and like any part of God’s creation, it needs
to be cared for… None the less, the owner wants the gardener to cut it down. He
says, “Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?”
The gardener pleads with the owner to give him another year…
to nurture and fertilize the tree… to give the tree a chance...
We are all given a chance, a chance to learn… a chance to
ask for help… Help from God - the only One
who can help us. A chance to relinquish some of our worldly control and stubbornness,
and let go of our need to do it all by ourselves.
A chance to realize that we are not just a waste of soil, but
we are held fast by the right hand of God like the Psalmist says. A chance to
be nourished and given the opportunity to bare the good fruit.
But to also remember, when we do bare the good fruit, and if
we follow and trust in God to do so… When we do, it was only done by the grace
of God… And we didn’t do it ourselves…
