CELEBRATING:
SERMONS
"Living Closer to God"
Aug 31st
Prayer:
By your Word of Truth free us to be your faithful people,
gracious God. AMEN
Do you feel like a human being or a human doing?
Increasingly in our time, we are made to ask whether
what we DO is more important than who we ARE!
We like to talk about productivity, end results, outcomes,
efficiency - all describing work in an increasingly
technologized world, with people as cogs in that great
work machine.
We know that we are working much harder than we were
a generation ago.
In the USA - and it's not much difference here, employed
parents with children at home work 85-87 hours for mothers
and 66-76 hours for fathers. And while this has resulted
in doubled productivity and consumption since the 1940s,
it has also produced overwork and burn out for far too
many..
(source: Wm. Willimon, Pulpit Resource, Vol 31, #3,
p. 38)
Even in the church, it is easy to get caught up by
the work of the church.
Sometimes we find ourselves doing so many things, that
we forget what the point of it all is. We can become
a beehive without honey.
Do you remember the 60's and 70's - whatever happened
to the much promised leisure time that automation and
technology would give us.
Aside from the occasional bored retiree, I haven't discovered
too many people oppressed by too much leisure - and
have seen many more saying that the pressures of work
are dragging them down and burdening their spirits.
So on Labour Day weekend, it seems timely to think
about ourselves as human beings - people of faith -
who work. What does it mean to be human? And what place
does work have in that?
Our scripture readings both point to the human dilemma
lodged in these questions.
The passage from James has stark conclusions about the
need to be doers and not just hearers.
The letter of James is not one of the Bible's most highly
esteemed books.
In fact, that giant of the Reformation, Martin Luther,
pretty well trashed James - felt it was a book of straw,
because it over emphasized works, and didn't mention
the unearned grace of God.
So James - some think this is the brother of Jesus
writing, others think it was written by others in the
Jewish Christian tradition James represented - so James
makes this point: God's action is always toward those
in need - the orphan and the widow in distress.
True faith - real religion expresses itself in action
- action that honours God by caring for those in need.
Faith and work, says James, need to be deeply connected.
In our Gospel reading we have another take on this.
The reading is yet another story highlighting the ongoing
struggle Jesus has with religious authorities of his
day.
Part of Jewish practice of the time was ritual washing
of hands before eating.
We immediately think of hygiene and public health.
SARS has made us hand washers. And recent Vancouver
restaurant closings have made us all too aware of the
importance of washing hands before touching food.
But hygiene is not the issue here.
Rather ritual hand washing has to do with washing off
contact with Gentiles and other outcasts, of keeping
free of people who are not "us" - of keeping
barriers of separation in place.
Religious law required ritual washing, so that any direct
or indirect contact with Gentiles would be cleaned away.
You know: touching the same door knob, or brushing against
each other in a busy street. Gentile contact contaminated
and the religious law of the day required it to be washed
off before eating.
But Jesus is not compelling his disciples to observe
the rules. So, say his detractors, what kind of Rabbi
are you, Jesus? Don't you care about the Torah - the
Law - the Tradition of our religion - aren't you committed
to observing its requirements?
But Jesus won't play the game. He won't let himself
be drawn in to whether you're supposed to wash or not.
He's not saying: it doesn't matter what you do or how
you do it. But he is saying that our work, our observance
of the faith, needs to be more than just following the
rules. Just doing or working - by itself is not enough.
The work of religious observance - all work, needs to
be rooted in something much deeper.
For me this is at the heart of the conflict we as United
Church folk went through in the eighties, and the Anglicans
are struggling with today -
I'm talking about the place of gays and lesbians in
the human community and in faithful discipleship.
Some religious folk would say: the Bible speaks against
homosexual practice - albeit in very few places.
And therefore they oppose any affirmation of homosexual
lifestyle. It's the law of God and the tradition of
the elders.
So they "have no choice" but to observe it.
For me, what Jesus says to the religious authorities
in this Gospel passage is very relevant to this heated
issue of our time. Hypocrisy for Jesus is when we are
more concerned to observe the inherited rule, than to
have our hearts rooted in love - in God. Faithful work
must be connected to the heart - to a heart that sees
work as a blessing of God.
How much of this hard-work activism against blessing
same-sex unions is just a cover for ungrounded fear,
ignorance and hatred of homosexuality? Does all this
heat and anger about same-sex issues reflect a loving
heart, a faithful soul, a close walk with God?
So for Jesus the issue is congruity between what is
inside and what appears on the outside. If the heart
is cold or hard, then even actions dedicated to God
are hollow and empty.
A heart really in tune with God, will act differently.
When we were in Skagway on our holidays, we heard about
Captain Jefferson Randolph Smith who in the Gold Rush
era at the end of the 19th Century cast a spell of evil
over that Alaskan access town. Soapy Smith, as he was
known, would be seen to welcome newcomers and give money
for poor widows and orphans.
But behind the charade was the godfather of a gang that
robbed and murdered without hesitation - his gang even
robbed the first Presbyterian minister sent to Skagway,
Robert Dickey, of his wallet.
Now most people aren't as clear cut in the split between
being and doing - in their hypocrisy - as Soapy was.
Most are more subtle. But we all live with the ongoing
challenge to integrate how we act, with what we believe.
Integrating our observance with our relationship with
God. Our work with our faith.
In Jesus terms: the outside and the inside need to be
in synch.
How do we nurture this kind of congruence? How do we
get heart and hands closer together? How, in the words
of that great medieval mystic Hildegard of Bingen, does
a person wanting to do good work become a "flowering
orchard permeating the universe and making the cosmic
wheel go around?"
How do we help good living and good working to go together?
Or in divine terms: how can we come closer to God's
way of being - God whose creative acts - whose work
- is always rooted in love.
Heaven and earth, you and I are born of the loving work
of God.
So how can we live closer to God in our working and
doing?
Let me offer three brief suggestions for keeping work
and faith, doing and being in more faithful balance:
1. Reflect on the question: are what we are doing and
what we deeply hold in faith really in synch. We need
time to take stock whether what is inside us and what
is on the outside really line up and inform each other.
Meditation on scripture, retreats, long walks, the feedback
of trusted friends, honest introspection - all can help
us assess whether we are indeed living close to God.
2. Make a conscious choice for kindness and love. It
is very easy to give in to anger and dislike when things
don't go our way - we've all been there and done that.
Cultivating patience, perseverance, gentleness is a
gift of the Spirit. Not mushy tolerance and sentimental
acceptance of anything goes, but gracious action in
the Spirit, informed by God's vision of a healed and
whole world.
3. As a priority in our day, choose ways to work less
and play, pray, and rest more. Sleep deprivation drives
people crazy. Play brings a light heart and opens the
door to humor and fun. Lighten up - even God took a
day off. Learn to say "no" to things that
matter little and "yes" to opportunities for
deepening life and nurturing community and strengthening
justice.
Or to summarize - live closer to God so that we can
be fruitful humans, carrying out good work motivated
by love, contributing to God's creating, healing, and
sustaining activities.
That is more than humans working, it is people sharing
in God's being - God being of fruitful love.
That is being human as God intended. Thanks be to God.
AMEN
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Shaughnessy Heights United Church
congregation is a Christian faith community respecting
each other in our diversity and reaching out to all
who seek God’s love.
1550
West 33rd Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V6M 1A7
Canada SEE
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Tel:
604-261-6377
Email: admin@shuc.ca
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