The Rev. Ken Saunders
St. James Episcopal Church
Greeneville, TN
Year A - 2 Pentecost (Proper 6) - June 14, 2020
When I was growing up, I was never really a sports enthusiast. I liked sports some more than others. I played football in the neighborhood on the vacant lot with friends, but was never on a peewee football team. I never was on a baseball team though I played softball for a short period of time. Sports wasn’t my thing until I got to High School and found wrestling.
I enjoyed wrestling. I know it seems sadistic, but I enjoyed wrestling practice and drills sometimes more than I did matches. It was about practice and repetition and conditioning to build endurance and physical strength.
Those techniques are taught in basically every sport than I can think of. Perfect practice makes perfect performance. Right practice makes right performance…
It is possible to practice wrong, but then you end up needing to unlearn the things that weren’t good for you. It takes more than a desire to win in sports, it takes conditioning and training. In sports, work, practice, and sometimes pain produces results – you’ve probably heard that adage "no pain – no gain."
In the letter to the Romans, for Paul, hope isn’t wishful thinking, he knows that the Christian life is going to be tough. But he is absolutely certain about the outcome because it is grounded in God’s faithfulness to keep his promises. That is, what God will do for the believer in Christ is grounded on what God has done for the believer in Christ.
Through their tough training (suffering, ridicule, and persecution) that lead to endurance, and endurance that produced character and character that produces hope and hope does not disappoint us... He says that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
You’ve heard me say this before. You ever wonder why we pray the prayers, and practice the routines and rhythms of the prayer book daily office? It’s funny, but I’m ashamed that I couldn’t answer that question until I was way out of seminary... Until I had some experience under my belt. Until I had been through some things in my life that pressed me to connect with God in ways I never had.
Anyone who has ever trained for a sport, should be able to understand this. Anyone who has suffered to endure something that provides great benefit and character should be able to relate to this. I had a mentor once call our daily prayers calisthenics. Calisthenics for Christians, he called them. Calisthenics are short workouts intended to strengthen and train for endurance... to practice movements and train muscles.
All this daily prayer stuff is Christian calisthenics, so that when we’re in this journey of life, we are better equipped to handle it. We know how to respond when we are grounded in our faith…
Master Park, my Taekwondo teacher would say "we train Taekwondo" and when we train Taekwondo, we become taekwondo people. and when taekwondo people are squeezed, our taekwondo comes out.
It’s the same for Christians. We work to develop our relationship with Christ. We pray, we worship, we practice... we endure by taking a stand for what is right in this world. And when we are squeezed, our love of God comes out.
The reading from Exodus says, God tells the people of Israel, "Out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although all the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation”
I wonder how the people of Israel must have felt when they heard those words. They had traveled through many obstacles on their painstaking journey through the wilderness after God delivered this group of people from the powerful armies of Egypt. Now they, after three long months of hard travel, have arrived at the foot of Mt. Sinai, and they hear these unbelievable words from God, "You will be for me a “kingdom of priest” and a “holy nation…” Reminding them that they have been called... treasured and precious in God’s sight.
They would be set apart from all other nations for God’s purposes… a holy nation… and this holy nation would be made up of connectors… priests... those who connect people to God. A task that is full of wonder, work, and a lot of responsibility. An important task that would prepare a way for God to come among us. Can you imagine what they must have thought? how they must have felt.
After Moses had told all the elders and the elders told the people, the people answered as one, “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Saying yes…
They said "Yes" God, We will keep the covenant, Yes God, we will be a kingdom of priests, Yes God, we will be a holy nation. The people of Israel hadn’t even seen a job description and yet, they signed up for the opportunity of a lifetime something that they could never walk away from. Do you think they knew how to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation?
I’m not so sure they did trial and error seemed to be the task of the day. Error sometimes more than trial, and then more error and more trial and more error. It took them a long while to figure it out. I still don’t think that we've completely figured it out. But the biggest thing is, they didn’t quit. They kept practicing, they kept training. And that’s the biggest thing we’ve learned to date is we can’t quit. There is still a need to practice. We’re all still training…
We continue to worship and engage the holy mysteries of God trying to connect others, trying to be a kingdom of priests, and we make a lot of mistakes, but sometimes we get it right.
Jesus was traveling around to all the cities and villages teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the kingdom of God, and curing disease and sickness. He was gaining a following and great crowds started to form wherever he was and he saw that the people were looking for love and hope he saw that they needed direction and connection.
So he called the twelve together and sent them out. He sent them out to proclaim the good news of the kingdom sent them out to cast out evil and tend the sick. He sent them out with everything that they needed themselves and each other. He sent them out with great urgency for a task of utmost importance.
They had been with him and learned and practiced and trained. Now it was time. He empowered them to be agents for the Kingdom of God. Star players in the reconciliation of the world.
Our stated mission in the Episcopal Church is found on page 855 of the Book of Common Prayer. "The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ." It goes a bit further and asks "How does the Church pursue its mission?" The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.
Brothers and Sisters, we are part of this apostolic quest of reconciliation. We are sent out among the people of God to give them hope. We have been sent out to be a kingdom of priests to help the people of God connect and heal. We have been sent to help train future generations of players to say the prayers, and break the bread, and share in the Kingdom of God. We have been sent out to proclaim the Gospel and promote justice and peace and love. We have been sent out and given permission to put our faith and love of God into action. It’s what we’ve been training for. It’s how we respond to the hurting and the evil in this world.
We are agents of the kingdom of God and our work in this world is not going to be easy. But hopefully, when the world squeezes us the love of God comes out.
