I
have to tell you about an interesting incident of synchronicity
that
happened last Monday.
I
was out walking my dog,
when
we passed a recycle dumpster out by the curb,
and
there on the ground propped up against it was a book.
The
title stood out clearly: Go Into the City
That
struck a bell.
Those
were the words spoken to Saul on the road to Damascus
in
the dramatic vision of the Resurrected Jesus
turning
reality on its head for this rabid terrorist of the early Church.
“Arise,
and go into the city, and it shall be told you what you must do.”
So,
of course, I leaned over and picked it up.
What
I had in my hands was a book published in 1986,
but
looking like it had never been opened; it was in pristine condition.
Go Into the
City, Sermons for a Strenuous Age, by John Compton Leffler
John
Leffler, some of you may know, was the dean of St. Mark’s Cathedral
for
20 year back in the last century.
In
the 70’s I had been a student at the Diocesan School of Theology
and
had taken his homiletics course for which I wrote my first sermons.
Dean
Leffler was known for his sermons
which
were clear and accessible to the listeners.
His
intention was to awaken each person in the congregation
to
a realization of our true destiny
as
a people created in the likeness and image of God.
The focus of his sermons was often on current
issues of social justice and action
such
as his opposition to the Viet Nam war.
He
was not hesitant to express uncomfortable truths.
What
made this serendipitous find stand out for me
was
that I had just been thinking about the next Sunday’s sermon.
So naturally I kept the book and have been
reading these sermons from my teacher,
whom
I remember as being somewhat Yoda-like in appearance.
Here are a couple of gems from his sermons
that seem to me apropos for us here:
“Nothing kills religious worship so quickly
as monotony.
Nothing stifles religion’s vitality so
completely as being poured into a narrow mold.”
Pointing to 1 Corinthians 12, the passage
about the variety of gifts but one Spirit,
he
wrote, “That is what makes a church vital –
when
each man and woman, boy and girl,
contributes
of his God-given ability to the achievement of the common goal.”
and
this which goes with it:
“What
he (the Apostle Paul) … object[ed] to was the easy assumption
that
the church existed primarily as a background
for
the peculiar talents of its leaders.”
He
then referred to a saying I hadn’t heard since childhood:
“Let
George do it.” Anybody
remember that saying?
Let
George do it, meaning hand off responsibility to …
the
rector, the senior warden, whoever else was active in the congregation.
Do
you suppose there might be a synchronistic connection for us
between
that particular book propped up by the dumpster
and
this moment in the transition process for this congregation?
We
could do some mulling over about whether our mold for worship, personal
and corporate, our relationship with God, is too narrow.
We
are reminded of the role each of us here
has
in the life of the whole congregation
for
fulfilling both our own personal and our community purpose.
And
we are warned that the church doesn’t exist as a backdrop
for
exhibiting the next talented and charismatic rector
who
will stand out in the larger community.
Don’t
expect the next rector at Emmanuel to be “George.”
And
we can’t just use this time right now in the life of the parish
to
have the attitude of “Let Allan do
it.” God bless our Senior Warden!
I
say all of that so that I can ease into the Gospel for today,
a
passage which is difficult to hear, but just can’t be avoided.
Jesus
looked at the large crowds traveling with him and said,
“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.”
It’s
not like we can take a pass on these words of Jesus.
They
appear in all four Gospels at least eight
times.
That
repetition indicates
“This
is important. Pay attention.”
My
religious order, the Third Order, Society of St. Francis,
places
these words at the very first of our rule and principles.
“Those
who love their life lose it,
and
those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
“Whoever
does not carry the cross and follow me
is
not able to be my disciple.”
“…none
of you is able to become my disciple
if
you do not give up all your possessions.”
This
is a message from Jesus that we don’t want to hear.
If
we take his words seriously, then it sure looks like Jesus is asking too much.
Does
he really mean for us to hate father and mother,
spouse and children, brothers and sisters,
and even life itself?
Let
me ask a different question: Do we
all live in love and harmony?
No!
There
is no evidence in history of people living in love and harmony
for
more than the briefest period of time
before
war breaks out, one war after another.
Even
more difficult is just living together in families.
Have
you noticed, parents,
how
children start fighting with their siblings from very early on.
The
hate is already there, mixed certainly with actual love,
but
how many of you parents can recall some time during raising those kids,
that
they yelled, “I hate you,”
if
only out of their frustration at not getting their own way.
So
we bear our own cross, the wounds of life that have killing effect on us,
all
those crisis points
and
here we are like the great multitudes following Jesus,
showing
up here in church.
Why
would somebody follow Jesus?
Because
there is a natural liberation about him.
You
follow Jesus because everything else starts dropping away.
This
is what has been happening in our lives already,
as
we have been drug through these crises and difficulties and woundings.
We’ve
been coming here to church for awhile.
We
are already in this process
where
our values and attachments are being shifted.
There
is a presence and a love that you have to admit.
Jesus,
in this Gospel passage today, is saying,
I’ll
pull you through all this,
and
I can pull your family through too.
Yes,
count the cost. It will touch all
your attachments.
Don’t
you know that your attachment to life
is
actually attachment to the fear of death.
But
follow Jesus and you will know
freedom.
Why would we follow Jesus and trust these
words which confront our sensibilities?
Here’s
what I know:
Jesus
is the light of the world.
His
whole being, so much more than his words even, radiate love.
This
love enlivens every encounter people have with Jesus,
even
when he confronts them,
because
it is for the purpose of awakening them
into
the truth of their potential that they are ignoring.
In
each of us is light lost in our self enclosed darkness.
That
light is our life and freedom.
It
is how salvation can get expressed in us.
The
expression of the light in each of us in relationship to each other – is love.
Our
capacity as beings is to come to full recognition of self
as
a harmony of all the rays of God’s radiant light, love and wholeness so
that love may be realized without condition in the world.
This
is your capacity, truth and purpose for being.
The
mindset of the world distorts and obscures this divine radiance.
The
mind of the world lives in ignorance of this light
through
unconscious and impoverished thievery
substituting
counterfeit, artificial light in the form of gratification
which
entertains us without enlightening.
So
here’s an idea:
Simply
giving attention to Jesus sacrifices the mind of the world.
In
the act of turning attention to Jesus,
freedom
opens immediately in the revelation of light.
Jesus
does that in our lives.
Let
him work.
Can
you dig it?
