Epiphany VIII

The Rev. Rob Fisher

St. Dunstan’s, Carmel Valley

Texts: Isaiah 49:8-16a; Psalm 131; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Churches are well intentioned, but I don’t know of any church that isn’t made up of human beings.  Likewise they are all imperfect institutions.

One of the funny emails I received recently included a collection of real goofs, or at least bad editing, that have appeared in actual church bulletins:

“The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind.  They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.”

“The Fasting and Prayer Conference includes meals”

“Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale.  It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house.  Bring your husbands.

“Remember in prayer the many who are sick in our community.  Smile at someone who is hard to love.  Say “Hell” to someone who doesn’t care much about you.”

And my favorite:

“The Associate Minister unveiled the church’s new campaign slogan last Sunday: ‘I Upped My Pledge – Up Yours!’”

These excerpts are not very slick, and some are pretty embarrassing.

Many individuals and institutions these days strive for perfection, but perfection is not to be grasped.

We think that being great is the goal.  But greatness is all about us.

And I suspect that God wants us not so much to be great, as to be good.

Paul uses a beautiful phrase in his letter to the early church in Corinth.  He says “Think of us … as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.”

That seems very Episcopalian of Paul, that we as a church ought to be “Stewards of God’s Mysteries.”

Listen to the words of this morning’s psalm one more time:

O Lord, I am not proud;

I have no haughty looks.

I do not occupy myself with great matters,

Or with things that are too hard for me.

But I still my soul and make it quiet,

like a child upon its mother’s breast;

Striving for greatness carries with it the danger of leading us out of the present moment and into worry for what we may or may not become.

It is dangerous because anything that leads us out of the present moment will run the risk of putting distance between us and God—because God is met in the present moment and nowhere else.

***

Churches today are far from perfect, and lest we romanticize the past, the same was true even in the earliest days of Christianity.

Paul himself was in a tough position when he wrote to the church in Corinth.

If you read carefully between the lines, it becomes clear that Paul is writing to people who have been judging him.  He says:

“With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.  I do not even judge myself.  I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.  It is the Lord who judges me.

“Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.”

Scripture tells us over and over: We are to be humble.

For what, then, shall we strive?

Jesus spoke to this.  And he takes it farther than anybody else.

Jesus says:

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?

“[So do not worry about tomorrow…] But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Notice that Jesus does not say to not strive.

He says take care what you strive for!

Strive for the Kingdom of God.

***

“The Kingdom of God” is a mysterious phrase, and it means different things to different people.

Some see it simply to mean getting into heaven when you die.

But Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is near us, and even within us.

I believe that the Kingdom of God is all about living in sync with the life of God.

When our lives are aligned with God’s life—when we allow the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and when we let ourselves be instruments of God’s peace—that is to strive for the Kingdom of God.  When we do, we taste the Kingdom here in this world.

The Kingdom of God is all about living amidst a profound openness to God’s presence, and acknowledging God in our midst, in every moment.

***

A friend of mine, a priest in New York named Bill Tully, recently wrote a meditation about religion that is about Jesus versus the religion of Jesus.

He writes:

On the whole, today’s usual definition of religion carries the sense of something insistent on its own prerogatives and rules, something brittle and judgmental.

Jesus, at the very core of his teaching, stood against a piety that was for show…. He modeled a way of living that at the gut level was unashamedly in awe of God, at the human level was not afraid to struggle for understanding, and at a practical level was about a maturity that makes giving, commitment and love possible.

So clothe yourself in faith.

Strive to bring the Kingdom into your life.

Know that the present moment is what we have to work with.

Do not worry about tomorrow, because today we already have all that we need.

We have the presence of the Lord, who loves us like a mother does her precious child.

Listen one more time to this morning’s opening collect.  This is the prayer we opened the service with today, which is printed on your scripture insert.  Save it and tape it to your mirror if you feel so inspired, because these words go beyond a religion that is about Jesus, but to the beauty and truth of the religion of Jesus himself.

Most loving Father,

Whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things,

To fear nothing but the loss of you,

And to cast all our care on you who care for us:

Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties,

That no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light

Of that love which is immortal,

And which you have manifested to us in your Son.

—Amen.