RCL Year B (Lent 1) - March 1, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Episcopal Church

Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Lent 1) - March 1, 2009

(Delivered on March 4, 2009 in the context of Evening Prayer)

Focus Text: 1 Peter 3:18-22

I don’t want to disrupt any preconceived notions, or un-teach what you may have been taught about the letters of Peter. But there has been a lot of different scholarship throughout the years that say som different things about the origin or writer of the letters of Peter.

Some say that it may have been a sermon given at a baptism or maybe a liturgy of the early church that was turned into a letter, but that line of thinking has long been abandoned.

The First letter of Peter is a real letter (an Epistle). According to the Oxford commentary on the Bible, "despite 1 Pet 1:1 (where the authors calls himself the apostle Peter), the author is probably not the apostle Peter" that we learn about in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. It claims that the cultured Greek of the letter makes it perhaps the most literary composition in the New Testament.

The apostle Peter probably knew some Greek, but the 1st letter of Peter does not look like the product of the unlettered Galilean fisherman (Acts 4:13). It uses a sophisticated vocabulary, and its author appears to have some command of language, using the techniques of Hellenistic rhetoric. The writer is also intimately acquainted with the Old Testament in the Septuegent (or the Greek OT). We should expect the Galilean Peter to have been more familiar with an Aramaic or the Hebrew. (The Oxford Bible Commentary, p. 1263)

Compared to some of Paul’s writings, the letters of Peter are short, and the 1st letter Peter is believed to have been penned in the latter part of the 1st century, written in Peters name to give it authority and a claim to the apostolic faith. Regardless of who wrote it, it is an important letter that, just in today’s reading, gives us a smorgasbord of things that we can focus on, in many different and interesting ways…

Such things like Christ’s atoning death, the nature of his resurrection, the proclamation of the descended Christ, salvation, baptism, the authority of the heavenly Christ, the Apostles Creed, and the role of our conscience in the life of faith… So much that we could be here a year from now and still be talking about the “richness” of the content of this portion of Peter’s letter.

The lectionary repeats every three years, so in my own career, I can look forward to preaching this passage in at least 10 different ways prior to my retirement. All of you know that I can’t go on for an hour or more… some of you are probably thankful! Those of you that know me, know that I believe that a sermon is only about 2 things, it’s about Jesus and it’s about 10 to 15 minutes long. So I won’t belabor the point and try to weave all the wonderful imagery that we find in this portion of the letter into one sermon.

Tonight, I would like to focus on baptism. About who we are as baptized people, about the promises we make at baptism, and about the path we walk after we are baptized, and what that may mean to us…

Lent is an appropriate time to talk about baptism, because since the ancient Christian Church, lent was the period prior to Easter when the catechumens, (those who were not baptized), were trained in the faith, they were “catechized” or taught how to articulate their beliefs. The church still uses lent as a period of focused instruction, either as a time for counseling baptismal candidates, catechizing confirmation aspirants, or with some extra discipline of a program of sorts (like this one) to gain some knowledge and insight about our faith…

By it’s claim, the 1st letter of Peter was written to a suffering church that was in exile… a persecuted church that was dispersed over 5 provinces in Asia Minor. These communities were scared, and needed help understanding that God was with them, protecting them in their hardship, and guiding their paths. Like we sometimes do, they needed a reminder about who were as baptized people…

Peter offers them some direct teaching that sort of looks to us like the Apostles creed in places. In fact, if you put the creed side by side with this passage, this passage looks creedal with it’s statements “suffered, dead, descended, resurrection, ascended, right hand of God, and forgiveness of sins.”

All these are phrases that we see in the Apostle’s creed, the most widely accepted unified Christian statement of faith… accepted across most all denominations, both protestant and Roman Catholic.

As most of you know the Apostles creed is sometimes referred to by us as the baptismal creed, becoming the statement of belief or testimony of the faith, said by us or on our behalf in question and answer form at the service of Holy Baptism. The Apostles Creed carries with it a power in the statement and becomes our vow or pledge and reminds us who we are as Christians and followers of Christ.

In the creed, as in the verses of 1st Peter, we follow Jesus’ through his life, passion, death, resurrection and ascension, while maintaining a duel focus on what affect that has on us as his followers. It is almost as if these verses in 1st Peter answer the questions that a young catechumen would ask during a process of faith exploration… “Who was Jesus, and what does he mean to me?”

Peter outlines it with a cause and effect: Jesus suffered – so we are made righteous before God… Jesus was put to death – so we are saved from our sins… Jesus was resurrected – so we must do good… Jesus ascended into heaven – so we (and all things) are subject to him… It is the claim of the church in the creedal statements. It is the catechism that we are taught, or should be taught, at confirmation. It makes a claim on us like baptism itself! (G. Oliver Wagner – Feasting the Word)

Just as God saved Noah and his family, and all created life on this planet, he saves you and me though baptism, a ritual bath… not necessarily removing any dirt from our bodies, but washing away the sins from our soul, appealing to God for us to have a fresh start and a new life in Jesus Christ.

Baptism is our entrance, it is our rebirth into the body of Christ, the church. It is our entrance into a journey with the faithful… part of that journey is the journey that we will take with Christ during Lent to his suffering and passion. The journey that leads where we don’t like to follow… a journey of self discovery and ridicule, through the wilderness places of our lives, filled with wild beasts and demons…

We will probably never be able to understand what the Church that Peter was writing to was going through, or experience the persecution that it faced or the fear that it felt. We all live in a place in America where it is ok to proclaim what we believe, it’s almost “mainstream”… So if it’s ok, then why don’t we do it more?

Why don’t we do well at articulating what we know about the God that we love? Is it because we feel that we are in some kind of Christian Diaspora, or not connected to others through Christ because we worship with a dignified pageantry?? Or is it because we embrace the apostolic teachings through our tradition of education, not thinking that education is bad for our soul. Or is it because we use more or less water than other churches do when they baptize? Why do we look for our differences rather than our connectedness???

Regardless of what your means of measurement, or how you look at it, as Christians, we are all connected. Because of our baptism, we all make up the body of Christ… and as Episcopalians, we stand at our baptism or confirmation or at another’s baptism, we acclaim the words of our faith in the Apostles creed... These are the words of our faith that aren’t challenged by other Christian bodies. It’s what we believe, and it’s where it all starts…

So how fitting it is to start our ecumenical Lenten program with the first Sunday’s epistle that focuses on our baptism and our affirmation of faith. In my preparation for tonight, I stumbled across an affirmation of faith that was based on 1 Peter 3:18-22. I would like to share with you… This was written by G. Oliver Wagner.

Washed in the saving waters of baptism,
we give thanks for the ark of the church.
Joined to the faithful of all times and places,
we proclaim the suffering of Christ for the sins of all.
We rejoice and trust that:
the righteousness of Christ brings us to God,
the death of Christ proclaims God’s love,
the resurrection of Christ awakens our spirits,
and the ascension of Christ enthrones him as Lord.
Therefore, with a good conscious and obedient lives,
we proclaim our faith in Jesus Christ –
even if for that faith we must suffer. So be it!

When our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized in the Jordon by John, as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and heard a voice that came from heaven, “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And when you were baptized in with the waters of salvation, the same water that delivered Noah and his family and all the animals of creation, the same water that parted in the Red Sea so that Israel could cross on dry land to escape slavery at the hands of an Egyptian tyrant – God continued in you the work of “the well beloved Son” in the world.

He gives us, in our baptism, the assurance of salvation, and passes the torch of responsibility to each and every one of us to go out and do the good work that Christ has given us to do… the mission of the church – to reconcile the world to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. In a way, with our baptism, the heavens are once again torn apart, and that barrier, that which separates us from God, is lifted…

So that all things and the whole of creation can be reunited with God. Jesus is the link, and we are his body in the world connected to him at our baptism, building up the kingdom and reconciling the world to God… It is our purpose… it is our faith… We proclaim Jesus Christ… so the world might know him and be reconciled to God through Him.

The letter of 1st Peter, here at the beginning of Lent, sets us on a journey that begins with our own baptism and points us to the cross… We travel through this season examining ourselves, but holding fast to who we are in our life of faith as baptized members of the body of Christ, the church. The Christ that the creeds confess and the Christ that reconciles the world to God.

RCL Year B (Last Epiphany) - February 22, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Episcopal Church

Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Last Epiphany) - February 22, 2009

2 Kings 2:1-12

Psalm 50:1-6

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Mark 9:2-9

I have always loved science. In fact, the first time I went to college, I was even a science major. I loved both biology and the physical sciences (chemistry & physics), and that led to my first career as a nuclear technician. Ever since my first experience of looking into a microscope in the 7th grade, I was hooked. There was a-whole-nother world out there that I couldn’t see with my naked eye, and I found it fascinating.

In my nuclear job I took surveys every day, looking for particles that I couldn’t see with my naked eye by using a detector device that was specifically designed to react to the radiation that the particles were emitting, and allow me to hear the energy because I couldn’t see it. It gave me another perspective, another way to find what I was looking for.

Have you ever heard the Dr. Seuss story of Horton Hears a Who? It is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss stories. If you have never read it, you aught to sit down and read through it. It’s only 72 pages, and it has lots of pictures. Some of you may be saying to yourself, “oh, that’s a silly children’s book. I remember reading that to my kids.” But if you have read it, did you ever pay attention to the story? Dr. Seuss does a fantastic job of using perspective to explain things.

Those of you that know the story, know that Horton is an elephant that hears a sound from what he perceives to be a speck of dust on a flower. Horton is convinced that there is something to this, and he listens closely to the small voice coming from the speck of dust. He realizes that there is another world there, and the other world is called Whoville and it is so tiny, so very very small, that to Horton, it looks like a speck of dust, but to the Whos it’s their entire universe...

Horton then decides that it is his duty to protect the small flower and convince others in the jungle of his discovery. There are many levels and dimensions to the story of Horton Hears a Who. It’s about being responsible and keeping promises. It’s about being very small in a very big world, but being just as important as those that are larger than you are. It’s also about every citizen in a community working together for the town’s well-being. It is all multi-levels. Multi-levels that are based on different perspectives.

There are lots of levels in today’s scripture stories. We could sit together and study the gospel passage and look at it several different ways, but I don’t think that two of us would probably have the same perspective. It’s because our own individual lives are often the lens that we look through. When we make comments about what we think, it is usually done in light of our own individual experiences. It doesn’t make it right or wrong, it just makes it our own perspective.

Sometimes to get a different perspective, we have to back up some to see more of the big picture, instead of being up so close that we only see the little speck of dust that is our own little world. Have you ever noticed that when you back up or get closer, things gain a different perspective? It is often then we are able to gain different solutions, or come to different decisions based on new information. When we back up you see how important the big picture is… and when we get close and listen, then like Horton, we hear the Who and can protect the flower.

Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain, literally on a high mountain up and away, possibly to get a different perspective on things. Jesus was then transformed before them, transfigured with his clothes shining whiter than any bleach on earth could make them.

Jesus appears on the mountain top with Elijah, the one taken to heaven in a chariot of fire, and Moses, the greatest prophet that Israel ever knew. We hear this story, but are often confused about what it really means. We often think that this is a simple sign of Jesus’ divinity. But I think it is more of a revelation of perspective.

Jesus is there to complete the work that those wonderful prophets of old spoke about, revealing to them the power, love, and the fullness of the kingdom of God. It is a reminder to us that this world that we live in has many layers, and many dimensions, Sometimes these dimensions that are hidden from us appear, then we get to take a look at a different reality, gasp with wonder, and then afterward see things totally differently. (N.T. Wright)

Peter, James and John experienced this transformation, and they are terrified. They are so afraid that they didn’t know what to do or say. So, Peter says the first thing that comes to his mind, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make 3 dwellings (or tents), one for You, one for Elijah, and one for Moses.”

They were having a direct encounter with the Kingdom of God, and they get so caught up in the moment that they want to house it, to shelter it, and to hold onto it, keeping it isolated in a tent. Peter just doesn’t "get it," just like we so often don’t "get it."

We take the situations that we experience, the encounters that we have, and we want so much for that feeling to last that we do everything that we can to contain it, preserve it, and protect it, or worse yet recreate it, instead of living into it, and letting the experience show us and teach us.

Instead of learning to look at things with a different perspective, and seeing the different reality that may be scary and uncomfortable, we opt for the familiar and comfortable... Like the way it was when I was a child, or the way we think it ought to be based on our own isolated individual experiences.

For the second time in the New Testament, we hear the voice of God coming out of a cloud telling us, “this is My Beloved Son, Listen to him.” Elijah and Moses paved the way, and Jesus is there to finish the job. If we listen to Jesus, and follow Him and do what he calls us to do, then we just might need to learn to look at things with a different perspective sometimes… through a different lens.

Jesus calls each and every one of us to be molded and formed by our experiences, not necessarily to hold onto them, but learn from them, and then continue to follow, grow in faith and love, and go out and proclaim the Kingdom of God.

We may not see or understand the vast world around us, and we may not even understand what an impact we have on that world by the things that we do, or the decisions that we make. But we need to remember that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. As Episcopalians, we are a connected part of the 3rd largest Christian body in the world. It means that we are not out here all by ourselves floating like a speck of dust.

That means that there are people all over the world today, some at this very minute are hearing the same lessons, saying some of the same prayers, sharing the bread and the cup, and engaging the liturgy of corporate worship.

If we allow ourselves to back up a bit (maybe go up a mountain) and change our perspective and see the larger body around us, we just might see how important what we do is… and then, and only then, we might be able to encounter the living God who loves us and cares for us a little more closely.

It’s all about perspective! We can choose to let the four walls of our beloved Christ Church Cleveland be the tunnel vision of our experience, and try to shelter it and protect it or we can encounter the living God in bold and bright new ways, letting Jesus lead us to places we may be resistant to go, and experience some of the fear and discomfort that goes along with that.

We can work together, like the people of Whoville, to make our voice known, or let our speck of dust cease to exist when the flower drops to the ground…

Even more simply. We can follow Jesus, or we can build tents…

RCL Year B (Epiphany 6) - February 15, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Episcopal Church

Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Epiphany 6) - February 15, 2009

2 Kings 5:1-14

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Mark 1:40-45

Psalm 30

I talked to you a bit in Advent about God speaking to us through what I have called “Unlikely Messengers” – Folks we may not want to pay attention to or listen to… Folks that may be “different” from ourselves, but somehow offer us the message of divine hope if we would only stop – focus – and listen.

In Advent, we encountered John the baptizer as he announced the coming of One greater than he. And now in Epiphany this morning, yet again, we encounter another couple of “unlikely messengers.”

The first is a servant girl, a young Hebrew woman who was taken captive when the Aramēans raided the land of Israel. She became a servant to the wife of Naaman, who was a mighty Aramean warrior.

We don’t even know her name… But she is our first unlikely messenger this morning… Someone who we don’t expect to be the bearer of compassion and hope for creation.

Though he was a commander of the Aramean Army, Naaman had a skin condition that was identified as leprosy. It may not have been actually been Hanson’s Disease, but may have been more like a rash or some sort of psoriasis – None the less, we know he was afflicted, and he suffered.

But we don’t know exactly how Naaman suffered… Looking closely at the story, we can assume that the Arameans didn’t have the same rules that Israel did concerning leprosy, because Naaman had a wife, he was a warrior, and he obviously had a ranking social status. Still, in some way, he was afflicted, and he suffered…

Moved with compassion for her master, the young woman (the unlikely nameless messenger) told Naaman’s wife, who she was serving, about a great prophet in Israel who could cure him of his affliction.

God used this slave girl and the situation to expand the kingdom of God. The nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, were weak during this time. They had been invaded by the Arameans and a girl was taken captive and made a servant, but God used that simple servant girl, that unlikely messenger to broaden our prospective and further the kingdom.

Naaman goes and the Prophet Elisha sends word out to him to go wash in the Jordan seven times. After he reluctantly washes in the Jordan river (seven times), his flesh is restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was made clean.

We learn about our second unlikely messenger in the Gospel story this morning. A man, afflicted with a skin disease and considered unclean, who humbles himself before Jesus, and begs him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” This unlikely messenger, who was a social outcast and forgotten by society, by-passes the boundary of 50 paces that he was supposed to maintain by Levitical laws. He crosses the distance and says to Jesus, Lord, I know you have the power to make me well! How dare he!?!

But Jesus doesn’t rebuke him, or repel from him, but is moved with compassion by the man’s boldness, and the man’s faith. So Jesus reaches out his hand and touches the man, and says to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately the leprosy leaves the afflicted man and he is made clean.

It is too easy for us to look at this as just a healing. But this wasn’t just another healing, this was a total restoration of human life. Jesus takes a sickly, afflicted, outcast of society and restores him, not only to wellness, but to wholeness. Therefore, restoring society, order, dignity, and respect.

He takes a man who was banished to the outskirts of the city (the fringes of society) to sit and beg for alms, and restores him to a fully functioning “well” member of society. And the man couldn’t sit still.

After being warned not to say anything to anyone, anyone except the priest who had the authority to declare that he was in fact ritually clean, (but he didn’t care about that) he just couldn’t contain himself. He couldn’t contain himself so much that he proclaimed it freely in the streets. He became that “unlikely messenger” who was touched by the hand of God and he carried his testimony to the whole town…

He raised such a ruckus that in order for Jesus to complete the work that He had to do, Jesus couldn’t go into a town openly, but remained on the fringes. Banished to the outside, so that he man might remain inside.

See, in a way, you can say that Jesus actually changes places with the man. Jesus touched him and restored him, but it is now Jesus that must stay on the edge of the community that he can no longer enter.

The heroes this morning don’t have any names, they are very simply called, “servant girl” and “leper.” But they both have exercised that divine purpose that we all should in our life, to show others the way to God. They are unlikely messengers, everyday folks kind of like us, with a simple trust in God’s ways and God’s power in their life. God’s ways that reach out, and God’s ways that heal and restore.

When you are here at Church, do you let Jesus touch you, do you let him heal you and restore you or do you put up your guard and just punch your card and go through the motions? Do you let the life giving, and life forming Christ melt the inner-coldness of your soul? Are you here to be engaged in worship and spiritual focus, or are you here to socialize and then just sit back and try to enjoy the weekly show.

If we let Jesus touch us, really touch us, magnificent things will happen, beyond all of our wildest imaginations.

The Psalmist says,
You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have taken off my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy.
so that my soul may praise you and NOT be silent.

When you let Jesus touch you, really touch you – you are so filled with excitement that you cannot be silent! You want to scream it from the rooftops and make others realize that Jesus Christ is Lord, is Life, is Love, and is Salvation.

If you let Jesus take your place, bear your burdens, and have your worries, so that you might be healed, then you have truly been touched by the hand of God, and you have been restored to new life… new life in Jesus Christ our Lord…

for this Jesus died, so that we might HAVE life, but not JUST have life, have it more abundantly. Amen!

RCL Year B (Epiphany 5) - February 8, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Episcopal Church

Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Epiphany 5) - February 8, 2008

Isaiah 40:21-31

Psalm 147:1-12, 21c

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Mark 1:29-39

As a parent, sometimes our teaching and instruction falls on deaf ears. We may tell our children over and over again, show them, and carefully and lovingly teach them, but sometimes they just don’t listen. Sometimes we know that we go through the motions with them, knowing that we were the same way when we were kids, and we did the same things… We longingly pray for them to listen, but their quick response “I know” seems to send the message in one ear and out the other. It’s almost as if we haven’t spent ANY time at all trying to teach them the right ways… It is almost like they have some kind of convenient amnesia.

Bill Cosby, the famous comedian, calls this “brain damage.” According to Cosby, children suffer from selective “brain damage” when they go “I don’ know” after being asked why they did or didn’t do something… It has got to be the most frustrating thing that we ever get to do as parents is teach our children.

Any parent that has raised teenagers, or anybody that has ever kept any children - EVER, can relate to our Old Testament prophet this morning…

The people of Israel seem to have contracted some kind of selective amnesia, so the prophet starts out, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Have you not been told from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?” Like we do with our children, he goes on and on telling them and reminding them about the things that they already know…

This portion of Isaiah was written when Israel is in Babylonian captivity, and they all seem to have forgotten. They have contracted a sort of “theological amnesia” – they have forgotten who God is. So the prophet is reminding them… Reminding them that God is the ground of all being and the source of all that is, all that was, and all that will be… and that there is nothing that they can do to hide from God.

He reminds them that God is still God, despite of everything that is going on around them to the contrary… Times are tough for the Israelites in captivity, they have been beaten down, fallen into ruts, been subjected to worship of false idols. They have been trying to deliver themselves… and they have forgotten. They have developed theological amnesia, and forgotten who God is… They have stopped trusting in God to deliver them.

But, the problem for them isn’t only that that they have forgotten God, but they have also forgotten who they are… They are God’s people / God’s children, and God loves them and wants the best for them. They have not held onto their interconnectedness as God’s people… learning from each other and leaning on each other to nurture their common thread to God.

The prophet begs them to remember, and wait for the Lord, and the Lord will renew their strength… so they will mount up with wings like eagles, and run and not be weary, and walk and not faint.

Now, we are a long way from being captives in Babylon, fearing for our lives… Most of us could be considered extremely well off by global standards… We all know that money is a little tighter than we would probably like it to be… but all in all, we are ok.

We have a roof over our head, we eat pretty well, and most of us drove here this morning in an automobile… we could actually be considered privileged in some circles. Yet sometimes we get that same theological amnesia and forget who God is. This especially troubling for us… How easily we forget God when everything in our life is on track and going well… We forget to praise and thank God for the blessings that we receive every day. We forget that God is our Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, and Friend…

So, the second that something doesn’t go the way we want it to, when something runs amuck, falls apart, or we confront trouble in any way, then we collapse into anxiety and stress. There is so much stress among people these days. Everyone is stressed out, because they lack trust in God. This is why the prophet Isaiah reminds the Israelites that it’s God who really DOES reign over all nature and history, “who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.”

It is almost a motivational speech to them… and it speaks to us today, enlightening us throughout the ages, telling us that God hasn’t forgotten us… and asking us, why we keep forgetting God? The God who’s understanding is beyond all measure. The God who came down to earth to be one of us, to teach us, and show us God’s way.

Jesus leaves the synagogue after teaching and goes immediately to the home of Simon’s mother-in-law who had a bad fever. Without question, Jesus goes into action, takes her by the hand and lifts her up. Immediately the fever leaves her, and she reengages her domestic role as the hospitality giver and serves them, as if she were never sick. Jesus stays there a while and cures many who are sick and casts out many demons. Then he goes out to rest and pray. Then Jesus is on the move again, going into the neighboring towns to proclaim the message and show them that the kingdom of God has come near.

I said last week that when Christ comes near, the demons come out… the demons who are the forces that keep us from proclaiming the gospel. The demons who give us that “theological amnesia” and make us forget who God is, and the wonderful things God has done for us. We forget to praise and bless God for all the wonderful blessings that we have.

Like the ancient Israelites, we encounter God though the interconnectedness of the community we are in, but beyond that, we encounter God… who loves us so much that God become one of us, in the person of Jesus Christ, so that we might be reconciled with God. For us, Jesus makes God accessible.

But we can’t ever really KNOW God, in all of God’s vast glory, and abundant power. We can only hope to ENCOUNTER God. And it is in the community, in our relationships with each other, our interconnectedness, that we encounter God, in the teaching, in the fellowship, in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers. Our mission as the people of God is to let Jesus into our lives and experience God’s presence among us, let God work in our lives and form and transform us… not let what God is trying to tell, or what God is trying to teach us fall on deaf ears…

Let Jesus remove the demons in our life that block us from sharing the gospel with others so we can engage the mission together. Because we are all on a mission together, it’s the mission of the church, to reconcile others to God through Christ. Unless we are on that mission and remain true to that mission, we can never encounter God.

We have a chance to encounter the living God this morning when we, as an interconnected community break the bread and share the cup… We worship and celebrate our life in Christ. Christ nourishes us with the spiritual food of his body and blood that will sustain us on our mission and enlighten our paths.

Then we can go forward from this place, doing the work God has given us to do, proclaiming the good news to others that the kingdom of God has come near...

RCL Year B (Epiphany 4) - February 1, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Epiphany 4) - February 1, 2009

Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 111
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28

When I begin a sermon, sometimes I say what is called an invocation at the beginning, “I speak to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit… or I may speak the beautiful words of Psalm 19 and say, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable to you, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”

There are different schools of thought on how and why this should or shouldn’t be used, but whatever the phrase, I am asking for God’s prophetic voice to be present with me as I speak to you…

I believe that is what preaching is... A message of a prophetic voice. That is why I work hard at sermon preparation and that is why I take it very seriously. It is why the ministers in our tradition need to be educated and licensed to preach.

But “preacher” isn’t the right word for what I do. In fact, it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck to hear me introduced as your “preacher.” Because preaching isn’t the point, Christ is. I would hope that I am so much more to you than a preacher, just like our service is so much more than a sermon.

So to call me simply a preacher is improper. And I never claimed to be a prophet, though I pray to God every day that I have a prophetic voice that points to God in all of God’s wonder and glory. So, please don’t call me prophet, either.

I am your priest. I am here to share with you the wonders and mysteries of God. Not necessarily to give you all the answers, but to help you live with some of the questions, and celebrate with you God awesome grace… to nurture you with the teaching, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers. I am your priest; maybe you should just call me Ken…

And though I have a certain authority that comes because of the responsibilities of my position, and I try to be very careful to use that authority in a way that will enrich our spiritual lives. The primary thing that I do is point to Christ, and show the world that it is only Christ who is the one that forms, informs, and transforms. It is my job to get out of the way and let the light of Christ shine through. I am convinced that something great will happen for you if you learn to let yourself relax a little, and be open to what the spirit of God is trying to do in your life.

Be willing to be uncomfortable sometimes, and let go and let God get close… to listen and then go where God leads.

Be willing to be like Moses, who was the prophetic leader of the Israelites. He was the one that had authority. At the point where we pick up the Old Testament Lesson, Moses and the Israelites were wondering around in the wilderness, and have been for almost 40 long years. Our story takes place toward the end of their travels, and God was giving the people the instructions that would govern their life in the Promised Land that God was leading them to.

Moses was getting old, and he was starting to realize that he wouldn’t be around for the final leg of the trip. The prophetic voice that led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt would soon not be around, and the people were starting to get worried.
So Moses assures them of God’s plan to raise up for them a new prophet from among them, a prophet that will lead them, and be the voice of God for them. This prophet will speak the words that God has commanded them to speak.

Moses gave this new prophet his endorsement, and assured the people that God will continue to guide them (and guide all of us) through prophets that deliver the divine Word of God. Those unlikely voices that you may not want to listen to. Those voices that take you to uncomfortable places. Those places that God is doing the most work in your lives.

There are prophets like Moses among you sitting right here in these pews. Because sometimes the prophetic voice isn’t just in the pulpit, it is among the people of God that are working for justice, freedom, and peace. Modern day prophets that preach the good word, God’s word, with the actions of their everyday lives.

We find Jesus today in the temple. He had gone there to teach on the Sabbath, but he did something different than their normal lesson that the scribes has always done. He was a true prophetic voice… He taught the people with authority. Jesus spoke with a prophetic voice, and revealed to them the divine word of God.

The Evangelist, Mark, tells us that in the crowd there was a man with a demon, or an unclean spirit. The spirit that cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Then Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the man was sent into a convulsive spasm and the unclean spirit left him.

What is so interesting about this story is not the fact that Jesus was teaching, or even the fact that he cast a demon out of a man. It was how he handled the situation, and the story that it tells us.

Jesus was teaching, but not like any other teaching that they had ever heard. Jesus was teaching with authority. One with the authority that was recognized only by a demon in their midst… A demon that challenged him, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” A demon that recognized him as the Holy One of God.

Among the ordinary everyday folk, there was only one that stood up and challenged Him. One that was right there in the middle of the synagogue. And Jesus performs an exorcism and casts the demon out.

But the story lacks a bunch of the Hollywood drama that we would expect to be associated with in an exorcism. Jesus’ prophetic voice said, “Be Silent, and come out of him!” Very simply, “Be silent, and come out!”

We could probably sit here for hours and challenge the happenings of the story, picking each detail apart saying that the man must have been a epileptic, or autistic… needing some kind of medicine or magic, but that’s not the point.

Jesus is the point, and his teaching with authority.
So many of us miss the point so much that we focus on the action, rather than the miracle. We focus on the demon, rather than the Christ. We focus on what has gone wrong, or the negative, rather than what went right, or the positive. It almost seems that we would rather have an exorcism, than do evangelism.

We would rather be content listening to the scribes rattle on in the temple, and teach what has been taught, and re-taught, and re-taught over the centuries. We would rather hear the comfortable words than the prophetic voice from unlikely messengers, or worst yet BE that prophetic voice to others.

Epiphany goes on for a few more Sundays, and Jesus continues to enlighten our paths with his path. A path that will eventually lead us into lent. A lent that ends in Jesus’ crucifixion and death.

We don’t need a preacher now. We don’t need someone to stand in a pulpit and tell us what we should and should not do. What we do need is Jesus. We need Jesus the Christ who teaches us with authority, to the point that demons, our demons (those parts of us that rear their ugly heads from time to time) come out, so Jesus can deal with them, and cast them out.

We need Jesus, who when he speaks, something will surely happen. We need Jesus, but it’s just me standing up here hoping to point you to him.

Hoping that God will use me as a vessel, a prophetic voice, to help you see Jesus a little closer.