"Take up your cross."

Homily for Sunday, August 31, 2014

"Take up your cross and follow me."  When we think of the cross as an instrument of torture and death, Jesus's instruction to us does not sound very appealing. Even metaphorically speaking, the idea of "having a cross to bear" suggests a true burden. If we adjust our view of the cross, however, to consider what it meant to Jesus, we may be surprised. For Jesus, the cross was the fulfillment of his mission on earth. By bearing the cross with humility and courage, Jesus demonstrated what it truly means to serve others in the ultimate sacrifice of self.

            "Take up your cross and follow me." Jesus never tells anyone to worship him. More than once, as he does here, he asks us to follow him.  Do what I do, he says.  Love one another and show by your actions that you mean it.

            "Take up your cross and follow me."   Jesus says YOUR cross.  He doesn't say, "Take up my cross." We are NOT being asked to bear the kind of cross that Jesus bore, or to make the ultimate sacrifice. We ARE being asked to identify a pressing need before us and to do what we can to address that need.  On any given day, our cross is the most important task we are given to do. It is our best opportunity to demonstrate Christ's love to someone in need of that love.

            Today's epistle is an excerpt from Paul's letter to the Romans, and it is actually a good description of what Christian love looks like: 

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.   [Romans 12:9-21]

            Why can giving others love be considered a cross?  Because it's not always easy to love, as Paul suggests. Love requires patience, empathy, humility, and a willingness to serve, even a willingness to serve those we consider our enemies. Christian love is genuine and impartial. We are told it's a love that extends to people whose behaviors we may consider sinful. In fact, it's a love that does NOT consider what others do or don't do. It's hard work! It's the kind of hard work I see people in this community doing all the time.  For example, just this past Tuesday, Doug Graves, Phil Sterbling and Kevin Tucker installed a new handicapped-accessible toilet in the bathroom here in the chapel. If that's not taking up a difficult cross, I don't know what is!

            On Wednesday of this week, Doug, Dave, and I will travel to Spotsylvania Courthouse for a meeting of Region I of the Diocese of Virginia. Our purpose is to request that the Diocese continue to support Graves Chapel as a mission church. Our reason for doing this is that Piedmont Episcopal Church in Madison, which has long been our sponsor church in the region, is no longer able to support us. We hope to convince the Diocese, and in particular our region, to provide what we need in order to keep our doors open.

            For my part, I plan to tell the story of Graves Chapel and all the ways I see evidence here of people following the path of Christ and serving others.

            I've already mentioned Doug Graves. If you don't know how much he does around here, please consider. Doug does all of the mowing and landscaping that gets done on the chapel grounds. If there is a needed service or repair, Doug will quietly complete the repair and pay for it as well. In addition to all of the labor for the Lord that Doug performs here, we can also thank him for the brochures he has made available. We are very grateful, as well, to Joe Rowe, whose extraordinary generosity has made possible the many recent upgrades to the chapel. When those upgrades have happened--when the electrician was here to replace all of the wiring, the fans, the lights, for example--Doug was here with him, helping with the work and making sure it was done right.

            Our good neighbor Dreama Travis also gives of her time, talent, and treasure to keep the chapel going. She has brought so much beauty into the chapel with her eye for decorating. When the chapel needed to be spruced up for its inclusion in Garden Week a few years ago, Dreama organized those efforts and did much of the work herself. Just last Sunday, when we had a service of baptism in the Kinsey Run, Dreama brought vases of flowers to decorate the chapel for that special event.

            Carolyn Lamb has been driving from Greene County to play her guitar and lead us in song ever since I first began these services here. She brings the chapel to life with the joy of the old-time hymns we sing, and she does this as a volunteer. This service is the second of three services Carolyn attends on Sundays, and when she leaves here, she and her husband Nelson (who has also been a faithful supporter of the chapel) head over the mountain to Elkton, where Carolyn will play in another service.  Last winter, when health issues kept them at home for a few months, the services seemed very bleak without Carolyn and Nelson.

            Phil Sterbling, as I said earlier, worked with Doug to replace the toilet this week. There are so many more things Phil and Karen have done for the chapel over the years. They've contributed the tables and chairs, and they have worked to get the chapel organized, decorated and ready for the annual Christmas dinners. When David and I came to clean the chapel before our wedding in 2011, Phil was here to help us clean.            

            There are so many more things the people of this valley have done to take up the crosses placed before them and serve their neighbors with love. When Cecil Berry was in need of assistance, the whole community rallied around him, and Michelle Smith, Dreama, and Judy Berry took special care of him, taking him meals and driving him to appointments.

            We hope and pray Graves Chapel will continue to be the center of this very special, Christ-filled community.

AMEN.

Your Kingdom Come!

Homily for Sunday, July 27, 2014    Graves Chapel

Once upon a time, some seekers from the city went out into the wilderness to find a holy man who lived as a hermit. When they arrived at his small hut, they said to him, "Help us to find God."  But the old hermit shook his head and said, "No one can help you there."  The astonished seekers demanded, "Why not?"

And the hermit replied, "For the same reason that no one can help the fish to find the ocean."

            We may identify with the seekers in this story.  Where is God in our daily lives?  Why does God often seem far away?  How do we properly ask for help in getting closer to God?

            The first words of petition in the Lord's Prayer are "Thy kingdom come."  We are so much in the habit of repeating the familiar words of this prayer that we may not think about what it means. I'm sure we don't consider exactly what we are requesting when we ask God to bring his kingdom to reign on earth. Since both the petition and its verb are in the present tense, we ask God to bring his kingdom right here, right now, whenever we repeat the words, "Thy (or your) Kingdom come."

            And what is that kingdom?  The words "the kingdom," "the kingdom of God" or the "kingdom of heaven" are used 150 times in the New Testament, most often said by Jesus himself.  When I made a Google search of the phrase, the resulting document was ten pages long!  Clearly, what Jesus calls the kingdom is of major importance to Him, as evidenced by the words he placed so prominently in the prayer which he taught his disciples--"Your kingdom come." Here are a few more examples:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

"As you go, preach this message: "The kingdom of heaven is near."

"The time has come. The kingdom of God is near."

"The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say 'Here it is' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

Is it possible that thinking about heaven as something we have to wait for and earn is not what Jesus had in mind?  How many times does Jesus have to tell us that the kingdom of God is nearby, even within us, before we believe him?  As the resurrected Lord departed from his disciples, he told them, "I will be with you always, to the end of time." When we make ourselves present to God we find that God is very much present with us.  Doesn't that sound like the kingdom that has come?  I'm reminded of the old saying about not being able to see the forest for the trees. Or, as in the story of the hermit and the seekers, we are like the fish in the ocean. We are in the middle of heaven every minute and we fail to recognize the place.

            Jesus alludes to this very conundrum--of our not seeing what is all around us--in the gospel parables for today. He speaks metaphorically about the kingdom, and in each case, the kingdom of heaven is compared to something contained within a larger entity as we are contained in God, like a fish in the ocean or a treasure buried in a field. On behalf of his disciples, and we should count ourselves in that number, Jesus made this request of God: [John 21:17]:  "As you Father are in me, and I in you, so also may they be in us..." Being contained within God was a difficult concept for the disciples to grasp, as it is for us, so Jesus made some interesting comparisons.

            He tells of the mustard, the tiniest of seeds, planted within the soil--and from that small, enshrouded beginning, it grows into a tree large enough "for birds to come and roost among its branches." The mustard seed enters the soil, which contains and nurtures it, just as we are contained in and nurtured by God. If that relationship is fruitful, anything can be possible, like a tree growing from that minute seed and making a welcoming home for birds.  Once the seed sprouts and the roots extend in all directions, can we imagine the plant without the soil?  So it is for us, as we are planted in God.

            And then there is this parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."  Ah, the making of bread, and the fragrance of yeast bread fresh from the oven!  What can be more heavenly?  Yeast, however, is a microscopic organism, much tinier than a mustard seed.  When yeast is dissolved in water and thoroughly mixed into flour, only then will the bread rise. Again, something that seems small and inconsequential is contained within an agent that transforms it. Once again, it is impossible to imagine the bread without the yeast. Jesus says that in this very way, like yeast in a loaf of risen bread, we are contained within God.  Not only are we contained in God, but it is God who gives our lives purpose and meaning.

            The New Testament has also been called the New Covenant, and a covenant is a legally-binding promise.  The words of the promise Jesus made to his disciples--that he would be with them always--is the same promise He makes to us. The message of this promise is powerfully illustrated for us by Paul in today's memorable verses from his Letter to the Romans: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

            Nothing can separate us from God's love. Sometimes we may feel there is a vast distance between us and the powerful deity who parted the waters of the Red Sea. Sometimes we don't feel worthy of God's love, and we feel we have not earned it. When we feel distanced from God, we can remember that we are the ones who have turned our faces away.  When we refocus our attention on God, we find that God has been there all along. As Paul says, the Spirit is even there to teach us to pray when we don't know how and need some coaching. The message of the New Covenant is that all distance has been erased by God's loving mercy and grace. God and his Kingdom are right here with us...right now.           

           

The Collect:

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.