Well, here I am, giving my first sermon at St. James. Francie asked me if I would be interested some time ago, and I have been waiting for my opportunity with excitement. And this is the Sunday that I got. If you ask what I mean by that, I’ll ask you one question. Did you really listen to those Bible passages from the lectionary this morning? I ask this in all seriousness, for I need your help in coming up with a topic.
First there was the New Testament epistle lesson. As a dramatically underemployed person, I listened intently to the Pauline attack upon the lazy, shiftless people without jobs in the Thessalonian community, busybodies who were living in idleness. Well, that didn’t strike me so good, so it’s out as a sermon topic.
Then there was the gospel lesson from Luke. And I’m sorry to say that things didn’t take a better turn there. For the days will come when you will see this temple, this place reserved for the sincere worship of the one true God, and it will be destroyed. Not one single stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down. Clearly that’s not a sermon text for this congregation. We’ve heard much too much about things like that in recent times. Besides, this time it could be Crissey Farms, God forbid.
But as if that wasn’t enough, things in Luke really begin to go down hill after that. You will hear about wars and insurrections, but don’t let that bother you. Nation will rise against nation, there will be earthquakes, famines and plagues, but don’t worry, that’s ok. And then, it appears that the powers that be will blame you for all of this, because you will get arrested, dragged into court, put in prison, and perhaps executed. This is the good news. Thanks be to God. I don’t think that I’m going in that direction either. So I still need your good thoughts and ideas.
Well, thanks be to God indeed because we also heard from the book of the prophet Isaiah this morning too. And here things begin to take a better turn. For out of a time of exile and captivity, Isaiah speaks of dramatically better days to come for God’s people. For God is at work in their midst creating a new heavens and a new earth that will usher in a new time of great prosperity and joy for the people. And he goes on to give images and symbols of the kind of life that that will bring. People will live long, good lives. They will have good homes and fruitful crops. They will have wonderful families and healthy children. But perhaps best of all, they will be blessed with a time of nonviolence and true peace.
Now that’s more like it. A Bible passage with a positive, upbeat message that you can really sink your teeth into if you’re trying to write a sermon to inspire people. And in truth, although it is harder to find, our reading from Luke is in fact also more positive than it seems. It has its tragedy and doom and gloom as we have seen. But its focus is elsewhere. For, what is “the time” that is coming near? And what is “the end” that is expected? It is not disaster, but the return of Christ and the coming of salvation, and the dawn of the kingdom of God.
Isaiah’s is in fact a grand and glorious vision, with a vast and indeed cosmic scope. Behold, I am creating a new heavens and a new earth after all. But there’s part of the problem. It’s a wonderful vision of health, prosperity and goodness, but in the world and life we live in, I think that it is somewhat hard to relate to in some ways. Because to say the least, in the economic and international situation that we are in right now, that vision has hardly come true in its fullness as yet at this point in human history. So we may still be looking for the heart of meaning that today’s scripture reading has for our lives.
Well, looking around and not seeing anyone, even the esteemed John Cheek, leaping up to save me and share their wisdom, I look elsewhere to find my clue and inspiration. And luckily for me, I found at least one little hint in another sermon of all places. Lately I’ve been reading a little bit of the famous theologian Paul Tillich for a comparative study I’m doing with the Hindu faith. He was for sure one of the very most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century. His first collection of sermons from the 1940s was called The Shaking of the Foundations, and in it there is a sermon called “Behold, I Am Doing A New Thing”. And although it is not a sermon on our text from Isaiah, it certainly could be. In it he remarks that the God of the Bible is first and foremost a God who does new things, who creates the new. And imaging the destructive aspects of our reading from Luke’s gospel, he says that the old has to die and disappear and pass away before the new that God is creating can come.
And that is exactly what we see in our Bible passages for today. In Isaiah the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. In Luke’s vision the end of all things comes through cataclysmic disasters. Both show the passing and death of the old in order that the new life and world that God is creating can come to be just like Tillich said. And I think that it is in this passage from the old to the new seen as the movement from a past that is dying away and disappearing to a future that is a new creation that is new life, is exactly the image that we need in order to see the personal meaning that there is in these passages for us in our lives.
For the stories we have been wondering about this morning I think are symbols that touch and tap into the very deepest and fundamental truths about faith, and the spiritual life, and God. For they tap into the pattern of true religious faith and spiritual life, namely the themes of death and resurrection. For that is the movement and meaning of Christ’s life as savior. But as Christian people that is intended to be the rhythm and nature of our lives of faith as well. For we are to participate in the very life of Christ.
There is an old prayer that shows this movement from Christ’s life to ours that you might know. It goes like this. “Pour your grace into our hearts O Lord that we who have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ the announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought to the glory of his resurrection.” By his cross and passion may we be brought to the glory of his resurrection. By participating in the pattern of Christ’s life, we find new life ourselves. Our fundamental problem as human beings from the very beginning of creation in Genesis down to our own day has been our turning away from God’s life giving presence and focusing our lives just on ourselves in hurtful and destructive ways. Faith calls on us to die to that old self-centered person that is passing away, and turn in our hearts and lives to center them anew in a loving and saving God who is bringing new life.
The central symbols of our faith even proclaim this dynamic and movement from passion to resurrection, and from death to new life. Take the sacrament of baptism for example. My wife Nancy, who some of you know is an art teacher and painter, is also an accomplished potter and made this bowl that is our symbol of baptism. And what is it that happens when we are baptized? The Bible and our service says that in it, we what? We die and are raised with Christ. That in baptism we die to our old lives and rise again in new life participating in Christ’s resurrected life. And that then becomes the beginning and pattern of our faith that we are living out and witnessing to this very morning. It sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
And then there is the central Christian symbol, the cross. Nancy is coming out the hero this morning, because she made this beautiful cross too for me for my ordination several decades ago now. And I don’t really have to tell you in detail how the symbol of the cross proclaims the message we are talking about today, because you know it. But let’s just say that obviously, just like baptism, it has its reality in the life of Christ and the outside world of history. But it also has this personal meaning for our lives that our faith intends for us to get and live out. For it is the same one as baptism really. That we are called to participate in Christ’s cross and passion so that we can share in his new life of resurrection. Again, by turning from ourselves and life just focused on us, crucifying it if you will, and finding new life and love and salvation in God.
Finally, we come back around to our worship this morning and our very purpose in being here today. And we see that our communion (our communion with Christ) and our eucharist, our great thanksgiving, is itself a symbol of this great spiritual truth and pattern that is our theme for the day. For in our coming to worship, in our confession, we acknowledge our need of new life. In it we turn from life lived away from this place and from God, focused just on ourselves, and we die to that and come here to seek new life and healing and restoration through the presence and communion and nourishment we receive from the saving presence of Christ’s life that we find in this bread and in this wine.
So what we celebrate today is the new life that God gives us, the new creation that is made, when we turn our lives around and receive that into our hearts. You know, returning to the framework of today’s Bible lessons, I don’t know about our nation’s future in this post-election time. Which way will it go? Also in its conflict and troubles and violence, I have little clue as to where history is going on the international scene. And for sure, the destiny of the earth and our cosmos is not something I’ve been given any insight about. But I do know that in our lives and in our church, if we turn each and every day away from our solitary self absorption and let that die and pass away, and turn to God in prayer and thanksgiving and wonder, living out the love that God is creating, it will be possible for us to sing a new song of a new life and a new creation that comes to us from our savior.
Then we too will be able to sing with Isaiah
Surely it is God who saves me; I will trust and not be afraid.
For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense,
and will be my Savior.
Therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing,
from the springs of salvation.
And on that day you shall say,
Give thanks to the Lord and call upon God’s name.
Make God’s deeds known among the peoples,
see that they remember that the Lord’s name is exhaled.
Sing the praises of the Lord, for God have done great things,
and this is known in all the world.
Cry aloud inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy,
for the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.
Amen.
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