RCL Year A (Advent 1) - November 28, 2010

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

RCL Year A (Advent 1) - November 28, 2010

Isaiah 2:1-5
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44
Psalm 122

I have got to be honest with you, when I was little, I was afraid of the dark… Not that I believed that there were monsters hiding under my bed or in the closet… It was just that the darkness made things seem so different. Different in a way that was a bit scary.

Needless to say, I was a child with a very active imagination, and the darkness held the unknown and unseen, and it made it difficult for me to relax and get to sleep. Sometimes the shadows of the darkness cause me to see things differently… What I knew to be a coat hanging on the doorknob, became a short person standing guard at the entrance to my closet, or what was a chair with an afghan thrown over it, became that odd looking thing that I had never seen in my life… I would sometimes stare at these things for hours, waiting for them to move… waiting for the light to come on again in the room, and reveal its true identity.

I can bet that perhaps some of you don’t like the darkness. And even though you probably won’t admit it, you don’t like not being able to recognize and understand what lurks in the shadows. No matter how much we mature, our natural instinct is to be afraid of the unknown – of what we can’t see. And the absence of light makes it very difficult to see anything.

Now, we have several ways that we deal with this… We can age, and simply grow out of the fear… We use night-lights (or artificial sources of light) that give us a sense of false security… but, some of us never deal with it, and just end up living in the darkness. These folks sometimes need assistance (a professional) to help them deal with the darkness in their lives, a counselor.

That is what our scripture lessons are talking about this morning… About keeping awake, putting on the protective armor of true light, and walking and living in the light of the Lord, the light of Christ. A place where there is no fear, and there is peace and rest. We deal with the darkness in our lives by relying on the wonderful counselor, Jesus Christ.

In the season of Advent, we all become the keepers of the watch, and must keep awake and be ready. Even though it’s dark and scary sometimes, we know that this is our time to wake from sleep, live honorably, and keep watch. We watch in active anticipation for the arrival of Christ. Not to commemorate the baby Jesus being born in a barn, but the arrival of Christ in His power and glory, descending on the clouds, coming back to reclaim the world for justice and peace! For him to establish a Kingdom under His rule where there is no war and the swords are beat into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.

But we live in a world that doesn’t honor faithful living… and we aren’t prepared for this final judgment. Like Paul tells the Romans, we need to wake up and recognize our salvation because the day is near. But, we are not good watchmen… We want to be comfortable, so we chase after things that give us a “quick fix” but do not gratify in the long run (things like reveling, drunkenness, debauchery, and licentiousness) aggressively going after pleasure, and over indulging.

Think about the holiday that we just celebrated… Thanksgiving. Another major feast of the church that our society has hijacked… It has taken it, and rearranged it into a gluttonous feast followed by football and shopping. I am wondering if our forbearers, the ones who sat down with strangers to give thanks to God over a shared meal, would be proud of what we have become…

Instead of walking in the light of Christ, we are wandering around in the dark cloud of consumerism. The consumerism that has convinced us that we need this or that… it has become an artificial light in our darkness. And we wonder why this time of year is so difficult for folks that are dealing with depression and anxiety… It’s because, in our American way of life, we have replaced the true foundation in Jesus Christ with the “Stuff” that doesn’t satisfy.

We try to overcome our anxiety by trying to make it happen quicker by decking the halls early with all kinds of stuff… somehow trying to make that euphoric holiday feeling come, thinking that the artificial lights will chase away our darkness.

Jesus said that he will come back… and like the days of Noah before the flood, life has been one big party, not being concerned with doing anything to honor God, or giving God the glory… we all know what happened during the time of Noah – the flood came and swept them all away… so Jesus warns us to keep awake and be ready because we will not know when he will come… be ready, because one will be taken and one will be left… He will come like a thief in the night at an unexpected hour.

Our advice today from our Lord Jesus Christ, our Wonderful Counselor, as we start a new church year together, is to stay alert and live faithfully… Like the scriptures tell us, we should “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” – Be clothed with Christ as we take on his teaching and model his holy righteousness… This is our “armor of light” that repels the darkness…

We are the keepers of the watch… and what we do as Christians, our work in this world, is only accomplished in the spirit of wakefulness and watchfulness. We are called to faithful work, awareness and sensitivity, living in the mystery of things that are to come. And it’s not an easy place to be… it’s like living in the middle of the “already” and the “not yet.”

We are called during the season of Advent to a period of eschatological waiting, anticipating the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to vanquish the world’s darkness…

Today, we have a beautiful new advent wreath here, adorned with new oil candles that will be dedicated in a few minutes. With the passing of the Sundays in Advent, we light another candle, symbolizing the light of Christ that is coming into this world… growing brighter and brighter, casting away the shadows of darkness, until the day of the incarnation when the true light comes into the world and all the candles will be lit…

So keep watch my friends, put on the armor of light, and let the light of Christ grow in our hearts and in our lives… and be ready to receive our Christ at His coming.

RCL Year C (All Saints') - November 7, 2010

Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (All Saints') - November 7, 2010

Daniel 7:1-3,15-18
Psalm 149
Ephesians 1:11-23
Luke 6:20-31

Sainthood, what is it? – and more importantly, how do we attain it? Because this is All Saints! (November 1st – transferred to the following Sunday) One of the 7 principal feasts of the church! Yes!!! As big as Christmas Day, and Easter Day and The Epiphany and the Day of Pentecost – this is All Saints!

It is the day that we celebrate ALL the Saints (Sanctus) – All Hallows – All the Holy Ones! When most people think of saints they think of those folks that have a special day of the calendar. You know – the great ones – the martyrs of the faith, who stood out by the way they led their life and were recognized as the Holy Ones – Saints (from the latin Sanctus)

But if you think about it for a minute All Saints is about us! It’s about ALL the baptized. We attain sainthood by virtue of our baptism… our baptism, by water and the holy spirit that brings us to new life in Christ and includes us fully as members of Christ’s Body, the Church.

In Baptism, we participate in Christ’s Life, Death, and Resurrection, and are made heirs of God’s heavenly Kingdom… Not the kingdoms of this world, that our first lesson in Daniel speaks about... those are the Kingdoms that tear down and destroy. But the Kingdom of God… where we will have life everlasting in the presence of God.

When we pass from this life to the next, we will take our place among the saints of God the holy ones that have gone on before us… I’m not necessarily talking about the ones who have a special day on the liturgical calendar… But ALL the saints, who have professed and practiced a faith in Christ Jesus and proclaimed Him as Lord and Savior. That’s exciting stuff!!! Exciting News!!! We should be jumping around and celebrating… shouting from the rooftops!!!

But we are just sitting here like Episcopalians – straight faced, with no emotion… (the frozen chosen) Yes, that’s lovely…

It’s exciting!! It’s something to get jazzed about!!! You can feel the excitement that Paul expresses to the church in Ephesus… He is so excited, you barely know where one sentence ends and the other begins…

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power…
(even in 16pt font it take up 7 lines)

We can feel it in the rhetoric as he displays his uncontrolled and uncontained excitement about faith and love and the will for the future… The people in Ephesus weren’t just living in history, they were making history by the way they led their life and Paul was excited! He has heard of their faith in Jesus, and their love toward the saints and he was excited!!

Have you ever been that excited about anything? Have you ever been that excited so much that it seemed nothing else mattered? Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot, we’re Episcopalian and we’ve developed a melancholy faith… and we don’t get much excited about anything… Unless someone (God forbid) is sitting in our pew, or unless someone doesn’t kneel or bow in the liturgy when we think they should.

We need to stop worrying about the “stuff” of this world and get excited about the everlasting life that we share in Christ Jesus. We need to get excited and claim our Sainthood, and live out our holiness in the streets and in the workplace, not just come here on Sunday and rot in the museum.

But again, we are a melancholy people, how dare we mention Jesus in public or make any sacrifices in our life that might be considered holy… It’s just not proper… We are scared to be Saints… We are scared to be what God has called us to be because it may cost us something… We may have to adjust our busy schedules or open our minds enough to let the graces of God transform our thinking and show us something new.

Maybe we think that we are not good enough, or maybe that God doesn’t love us enough, or that we, for some reason, aren’t dressed right, or that we don’t have enough money in our 401K. Whatever the reason, we are afraid, and we don’t claim our sainthood, but none the less, we are created in the image of God (and God don’t make no junk!) and by our faith and witness of Jesus as our Lord and our baptism, we are Saints!!

Today, Ivan, Beth, & Joey will join the ranks of All the Saints and be welcomed into the fellowship of Christ Body, the Church through Holy Baptism. A holy baptism that adopts us as God’s children sets us apart for God’s service and bestows on us the Grace of God in the promise of everlasting life.

As always, I had the pleasure to speak to Ivan & Beth about baptism in preparation for this big event… I explained to them that baptism is the initiatory step (the primary sacrament), the way into the fullness of life and participation. The way into the community of the church and the door to the sacraments – which are the vehicles of God’s grace.

Ivan, Beth, & Joey… this is your license to learn, to be involved, and let the love of God in Christ guide you as you grow in understanding of God’s great love and God’s abundant grace…

We are all in different phases of the great journey that we call growth in the Christian life… but none of us is any more privy to God’s Grace than any other.

Then we have the business of the Gospel reading: the beatitudes… or attitudes that some have suggested we must adopt or ways we have to BE in order to live the Christian life…

Jesus has just come down to the people from the mountain - to be among the people, and he blesses them – and he heals them… Then Jesus begins to teach the newly chosen disciples that are with him…

Blessed are you who are Poor… Blessed are you who are Hungry… Blessed are you who weep… Blessed are you who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed on account of the Son of Man… Wait a minute… the disciples must be saying… What does it mean to be blessed??? Does this mean that we have to be poor, hungry, weeping, or prosecuted? If so, I don’t want any part of it!!…

After a quick cursory and uninformed reading of the scripture passage we just heard… it seems that Jesus might be giving us a bunch of marching orders or imperatives to be followed … It has been the past interpretations and even could be the interpretation of some folks today… that you actually have to be Poor to get to heaven…

But once again, we must remember that this is the “scandalous” Jesus, the man who hung out with outcasts, women, lepers, tax collectors and sinners, the one who is always challenging the conventional understanding of the way society was supposed to be… Jesus begins to upright what society has turned over and straighten out what has been perverted and abused…

Jesus says that if you go against the conventional understanding of society, and honor the poor, and bless and heal, then society will probably hate you, reject you, and defame you… But no worries… your reward will be everlasting life with God in heaven!

But then we have the woes… the turn of focus turns from blessings to woes… With the woes, Jesus condemns the stubborn ones… the rich who think they are self sufficient… the ones who are laughing at God because they think they’ve got it all figured it all – out by themselves… These are the folks who don’t think that they have any more to learn… and these are the ones who vie for control…

In the big picture of things, the blessings for us are many… and we all are all very blessed in our lives… Most of us have a roof over our heads, and most of us are not wondering where our next meal will come from…

Jesus’ beatitudes are not a prescription by which we should live… But rather, they provide a focus of reflection on how we should respond in thanksgiving to God’s generous blessings in our lives… how we should live out our sainthood.

If we set our lives with the priorities of the beatitudes: If we truly let our holiness given to us in baptism shine though us and the way we live our lives and let it form us into the saints God wants us to be… If we honor the poor, and proclaim the teaching of Christ, what could that mean to our society today?

My brothers and sisters, (and my about to be – brother and sisters in Christ Jesus) I challenge us to live out our sainthood, claim it, own it, and then go out and live it… and let it so form us as Saints in God’s heavenly kingdom.