Homily for January 25, 2015 Buck Mountain Church and Graves Chapel
The Collect for today:
Give us grace, O Lord, to answer
readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good
News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of
his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Answering
the call of our Savior and proclaiming the Good News can be difficult, as the
disciples discovered. Cornered and challenged—that’s what happened to me
recently. An acquaintance of ours
pulled me aside to ask me a question that clearly concerned him, as I saw by
the expression on his face. This is what he said: “You work with scientists. A
scientist I talked to recently told me that no scientists believe in God. You
are a person of faith. What do you say to those scientists when they tell you
the earth has existed for billions of years?”
I
knew that this man—I will call him George—had recently lost his mother, and I
understood that matters of faith had become suddenly urgent for him. There was
clearly pain behind the question, and I needed to respond with compassion.
I
began by saying I have no problem believing what science tells me about the way
the world began. I told George that
I know many scientists who ARE believers.
Since it was clear that the Genesis story of creation was the source of
the crisis for George, I said that I believe scripture to be the absolute Word
of God—but that Word has been passed down, written down, and interpreted for
generations by humans.
At
that moment, George flinched and gave me a look, as if he’d heard that argument
before. So I said that it isn’t hard at all for me to see Genesis 1 as poetry,
full of metaphors, all having deep meaning and speaking great truth. One day of
creation to Almighty God could actually, in human terms, be millions or
billions of years. That first utterance of God’s, “Let there be light,” could
refer to the Big Bang. George
rolled his eyes at me, so I reminded him that Jesus himself preferred to teach
in parables, and parables are stories used to illustrate a point, not the
literal truth.
Then
George raised his hand and waved it across his face as if to say “Enough.” Clearly, he wanted to change the
subject. I was very sorry to have failed him. This incident reminded me of how grateful
I am to be part of the Anglican tradition. In the prayer we say over the newly baptized in the
Episcopal Church, these words resonate:
“Give them [those being baptized] an inquiring and discerning
heart.” In my faith tradition, and
I know this is also true in other Christian denominations, I am encouraged to
ask questions, to use reason, to cherish scripture as the Word of God, but also
to see that it can be interpreted in a way that makes it relevant for each new generation.
I can permit others to use their own reason and not condemn or reject them for
their interpretation of scripture.
Instead
of accepting one another’s differences, Christians often dispute the meaning of
laws that were laid down in the Old Testament, laws established for the Hebrew
people. I’d like to share with you
a description of the traditional way Hebrew rabbis themselves examined and
interpreted their laws down through the ages, as explained by priest and
theologian Richard Rohr: “The best Jewish
approach to scripture study was called midrash; they struggled with the
text, unraveled it, looked at its various possible meanings, and offered a
number of interpretations that often balanced and complemented one another.
There was never just one meaning, or one certain meaning that eliminated all
others. If only Christianity had imitated our Jewish forebears in this regard
our history would have been so much more peaceful and life giving.”
Frankly,
for our faith to survive for generations to come into this new millennium, for
today’s young people to embrace the “peaceful and life giving” nature of Christianity,
we must truly follow Jesus and stop arguing over the interpretation of
scripture. Such arguments leave no
room for each individual to discern how scripture is speaking to him or her on
that given day. Such arguments lead to closed doors, not open ones. Such
arguments often result in judging others to be unworthy of inclusion in
Christ’s church.
We
know this kind of judging of others is NOT what Jesus asks us to do. In how
many ways did Jesus say, “Judge not or you will be judged”? Most succinctly, he illustrates this
point in the wonderful parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in
the temple. You know the one, where the Pharisee is off to one side, praying, “God,
I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or
even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I
get.” Meanwhile the tax collector
looks up to heaven and prays, “God have mercy on me a sinner.” Jesus states emphatically, “I tell you,
this man [the tax collector] and not the other went home justified before God.
For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves
will be exalted.”
Isn’t
the point Jesus makes that we humans cannot and should not presume to know the
mind of God because we think we abide by God’s laws? God’s heart for love is a mystery beyond human
comprehension, as dear old Jonah really did know. Today’s lesson from Jonah
actually comes from the middle section of the story. At this point he has
already been swallowed by the whale and spat up on shore. Why? The first time
God told Jonah to go to Nineveh
and proclaim the impending doom of the city, he ran the other way. Jonah’s time inside the belly of the
whale convinced him he really should obey God, as we see in this section of the
story. But if you know the story,
what happens next is very interesting.
Here we learn that God, who is ever merciful (even to trifling prophets)
decides to spare the city after the people of Nineveh repent and change their
ways.
Then, what does
Jonah do? Does he rejoice that all
of these poor people have been saved?
Of course not! He gets really angry, pouts, and says the most amazing
thing: “O Lord, is not this
what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish;
for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and
abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now,
O Lord, please take
my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Do you think he reacts in this way
because he feels his status as a prophet has been undermined by God? After all, he predicted the doom of the
city of Nineveh, but God let the people of the city off the hook.
Like
Jonah and the Pharisee in the temple, we Christians can sometimes decide what
we think OUGHT to happen to other people, based on our ideas of justice and our
interpretation of scripture. Lucky for us and for Jonah, God is much larger
than any limit we might want to confine GOD within. Even though Jonah does not
reflect God’s love in his own behavior, he acknowledges that God’s steadfast love
and mercy are infinite. This is the good news we are called to proclaim.
In
the church calendar, on this past Monday the Confession of St. Peter was
observed. Tomorrow is the day the Conversion of St. Paul is celebrated. This intervening week is recognized as
Christian Unity Week. Isn’t that
perfect? These two giants of our faith, Peter and Paul, did not always get
things right and were, at times, at odds with one another. Ultimately, however,
they overcame their differences and followed the Lord’s call with courage.
Their love for Jesus Christ and their desire to spread the faith resulted in
the foundation of the Church.
We
can follow no better examples. As Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians, “Put
away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander,
together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
May
Christian unity, love, and tenderhearted kindness always be our mission.
Amen.
