A Sermon Preached June 26, 2011 at Crissey Farm

by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector
Proper 8 A 2011 - Romans 6:12-23

When Paul wrote this letter in the mid 50s CE, a strong Christian community was already established at Rome, but not by Paul. So he writes this letter from Corinth because he’s hoping to visit Rome on his way to an important mission in Spain. Although he’s never met them, Paul acknowledges the faithfulness of the Roman Christians, “You have become obedient from the heart…and have become slaves of righteousness.” So his words to them, which explain his theology, are not so much meant to teach or correct, as other letters did, as to help them see they’re all on the same page. As allies in Christ, Paul wants their prayers and support for his upcoming mission trip to Spain.

Now part of their common faith in Jesus is the fact that they live in constant spiritual peril. Although they’ve been baptized into Christ (Both his death: They’re dead to sin and his resurrection: They’re alive in Christ) it is still possible for sin to reign in their lives (And in our lives). Although by baptism we have indeed been transferred from the powers of the world to the lordship of Christ, we still have the spiritual limitations and selfish desires and behaviors that all human beings have. Paul says we must resist these, and he says we have a choice: We can present ourselves to Sin, or we can present ourselves to God.

He gives us courage when he says the power of sin will have no dominion over us because we are under grace not law! So as Christians our way of life purely relies upon the Grace of God. That’s it!

Frederick Buechner says about Grace,

          “It is something you can never get but only be given. . . There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do. The grace of God means something like: Here’s your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love You . . . There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it. . . (Buechner muses) Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.”

Paul says because we’re under grace, not law, the power of sin will have no dominion over us. But I wonder how is it really possible for us that sin would not have dominion, because there are certainly daily instances of sin making inroads into our lives…Just read the Bible, or the lives of the saints, or think of our own daily lives. We all sin! Yet Paul says we ultimately share the destiny of the resurrected Christ. We can rely on it! Paul promises sin will not be Lord. The Law will not be Lord. Christ is Lord, and the one who is in Christ is “under grace”. So we’ve been transferred from the old era of sin and death into the new era of righteousness and life. At the same time, we’re still beset by the power of the old age. Somehow we actually belong to Christ and his resurrected destiny, but we also live in the old world of sin and death, which is still present. And the old world still thwarts our life of righteousness. Paul says the old world must be overcome.

Those who have died through baptism are no longer under the power of sin, for they are under grace and share the destiny of the risen Christ. So if we’re baptized, we cannot be slaves to sin, because we have become slaves to righteousness…and we seek to please God. So when we use ourselves— our souls and bodies—for righteousness, when we live out our baptismal covenants—remaining faithful in worship, renouncing evil, proclaiming the Good News, loving our neighbors, striving for justice and peace, and respecting the dignity of all others—when we do this, we become sanctified. We become holy.

But does that mean we ourselves become pure and spotless? (Don’t know about you, but I personally have not gotten to that point!)  If not pure and spotless, then what does it mean that we are “set free from sin” and “sanctified”? It seems Paul is saying if we are “set free” then we’re no longer under sin’s power, so we don’t have to fall into it without defense. And if we’re out from under its power, we can fight against it.

Paul reminds us we are “slaves” to whatever we obey…We have a choice: We can obey sin, which leads to death or we can obey God, which leads to righteousness and sanctification. So the struggle against sin must go on. Paul urges us to persevere in faith and obedience. We can do this because the Spirit empowers us, because we are under Grace, and because we ultimately share in Christ’s resurrected destiny.

One way to think about this comes from 12-step Recovery Programs. We human beings have a great capacity to become addicted to almost anything: Drugs, work, sex, porn, abusive relationships, money, status, gambling, electronics, you name it. But because we are baptized and under Grace and freed from sin, we are not compelled to be enslaved to our addictive passions. We have a choice, but frequently we enslave ourselves anyway. Sometimes we remain enslaved— even when we know how to resist, where to get help, and how to break free.  It’s a terrible thing to be in that place. And how many times we have gone there or seen someone we love go there? We will hang on to our addictions, be their slaves, for what?

So we don’t have to become God’s slaves? So we don’t have to admit we are powerless and that our lives are unmanageable? So we don’t have to say we need God’s grace? So we don’t have to come to believe that God and God alone can restore us to sanity? So we don’t have to admit, “I can’t. God can.”? So we don’t have to decide to give our will and lives over to God’s care?

But why would we not want to give ourselves to God? Are we afraid of how powerful God’s Grace can be? Why wouldn’t we want just to reach out and take Grace by the hand? Remember we’re enslaved to anything we obey, including our addictions, and the end of enslavement to anyone or anything but God is death. The end of enslavement to God is freedom, sanctification, and eternal life.

“Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be ours only if we’ll reach out and take it…Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.”

(Paraphrase of Buechner)

O God, give us the gift to choose the grace that’s already ours, so we can share in your resurrection destiny both now and always. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Parts of this sermon came from:

Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Commentary by Arland J. Hultgren. Erdmans 2011.

Wishful Thinking, A Theological ABC by Frederick Buechner, as quoted in Synthesis, June 26, 2011.

Some of the thoughts on addiction from “Promise and Rewards are Gifts: Wages are Earnings” a sermon by the Rev. Marc Lawrence Britt, June 26, 2011.  

As part of the Partnership for Missional Church process, members of St. James imagined our congregation's location and activities five years in the future by taking an imaginary hot-air balloon ride around the Great Barrington area. Each person then reported what s/he saw on the journey. All of the notes were put into the wordle-maker and this is what came out.
Future Vision

Pentecost at Trinity Saint Louis

This is actually my 3d visit to this church. I had intended to visit others, but something kept pulling me back here. I guess it felt like home.

It was a sea of red when I entered the Sanctuary. There were red shirts ties, hats, shoes, dresses, the works. These folks were into Pentecost in a big way.

The celebrant this morning was the Very Rev Ronald Clingenpeel , retired dean of the Cathedral here who is a member of the parish. He is also a clergy deputy to General Convention and I am familiar with his writing on our list serv. This was his last official Sunday as he is moving away.

The opening hymn was #225 Hail thee festival day in the shorter pentecostal version, only 4 verses. Organist Jeffery Nall introduced it with a fanfare and played it with great spirit.

The thurifer was working hard this morning and the Church was filled with heavenly scents. The Gospel procession featured Deacon Leip only however. When he reached the words "He breathed on them and said to them Receive the Holy Spirit" I became aware of murmurs all around me in the congregation. I am not sure how many languages there were, but the effect was stunning.

There followed a most memorable sermon, not so much for the content or delivery though they were both excellent but for the opening. The Dean said "lets get right to it" and proceeded to light a small torch from the candle and SWALLOWED IT SEVERAL TIMES finally putting it out. He then told us (alluding to the Gospel) that he was not drunk. The essence of Christ is in our hearts. The list serv of GC Deputies has been having a discussion about titles. What do you call a priest, father, mother, pastor, reverend etc? The first Christians had no titles but preached urgently from their hearts as we should do. God has touched you he said, or you would not be here today taking in the music of our liturgy and the prayers of the people. Preach the Gospel, use words if necessary. Share our story, evangelism is not crazy TV preachers or people yelling in the street. Ask someone to come to church with you. You have the power to show God's face with a simple loving honest invitation. He repeated his fire swallowing trick one more time and said Amen. The people loudly echoed this.

The prayers of the people featured an intercessor dressed in a red skirt wearing a red hat, matching shoes and reading from a red folder. After the prayers of the people and the peace, the Dean was given some farewell gifts that included a very nice guitar strap, so I guess he plays one.

The choir sang Everett Titcomb's lovely setting of I will not leave you comfortless which our choir has done several times.. They began somewhat timidly but grew in confidence and tone as the anthem progressed. The rising lines in the latter part reminded me of incense rising and indeed it was also.

The Dean began Eucharistic prayer B. He is one of the best chanters I have heard, his pitch was rock steady, words clear and sung with rich well supported tone.

I noticed in the creed and in the words of the Eucharist that some were using She for He as the God pronoun.

As i customary here, two hymns were sung during communion. One I was not familiar with was #505 O spirit of life O spirit of God. Look it up, very interesting words. The other was the well loved Come down O love divine.

The Thurifer showed off in the recessional with several triple front and back 360s.

The last hymn was Ye Holy Angels bright. The organist made this an event, it also danced with joy!

After the recessional, I introduced myself to Dean Clingenpeel who I will see at General Convention in Indianapolis in 2012. When I told him that I was a deputy from Western Mass, he told me that he was friends with Sarah Shoftstall as they grew up together in Nebraska, and roommate at seminary (or was it college) with Bill Coyne. The Episcopal world is small.

Coffee hour was full of people and featured very nice croissant sandwiches, shrimp, fresh fruit, and cakes. People were as always here, very friendly and I had a number of nice conversations. Several people have seen or will see the opera. I met Martha Baker a writer and editor who is on the Standing Committee for Liturgy and Music. It turns out we have been at two meetings together, one in Concord, NH and one in Atlanta. More small world. She writes frequently for Episcopal Life. Here is a link to one of her stories.

I will miss this friendly little church. Today's service had such energy and spirit that I felt greatly uplifted as I left.

A Sermon Preached at the Feast of the Ascension June 5, 2011: How Love Got Through

by Lee Cheek, Lay Preacher

And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy –Luke 24:52

I was so glad when Francie asked me to preach this Sunday and gave me the option of using the Ascension propers this morning, because unless you attended services in Pittsfield on Thursday, when David Pott was received into The Episcopal Church, you may have missed the Feast of the Ascension this year.

Unlike Christmas and Easter, there is no cultural holiday or ado made of this feast which celebrates the end of the forty days that Jesus spent with his disciples in those paradigm-shattering experiences of a dead man who comes back not to haunt them, but to forgive them.

Interestingly, most Christian churches don’t make a big to-do about the Ascension either. That’s too bad, because the moment of the Ascension is the moment of joyful recognition of the disciple’s HUGE discovery that they—even THEY!—had been loved into being a part of God’s true purposes, a part of God’s dream for the world that was much, much bigger than they had ever been able to imagine before.

Just to recap prior events, let us recall that the young rabbi Jesus had been going back and forth for three years between Galilee and Jerusalem inviting everyone without exception to God’s project of love: the complete elimination of violence which requires giving up the idea of retribution and vengeance.[i] This was not popular with the powers that be, then as now, who were politically skilled at using resentments and revenge for their own purposes. So sensing an uprising during Passover they chose to channel the energies of various conflicts in one direction, executing the one person they could agree to hate.

Jesus’ commandment to love was too demanding for his disciples to follow at that point … for they might be killed, too, hated and reviled by association with him. They betrayed him, lied about knowing him, and abandoned him to suffer alone what they saw was a degrading, humiliating end.

What they could not see then was that Jesus shared God’s eye-view of the world which was, of course, Love’s eye-view of them and thus was much more interested in expanding their ideas about love than their goodness or badness.

So when confronted with the risen Jesus, they came to gradually discover and trust that indeed, they had been entirely wrong about who and how God loves. For forty days they were saturated with the wisdom and knowledge that comes from the forgiving nature of love.

And according to the accounts we heard this morning, it ended for them in the scene depicted on our bulletin covers.[ii] I like that the woodcutters captured the sense of joy, not only for the disciples whose imaginations had been cut loose, blasted apart from the old paradigm about who can be loved, but for Jesus, too, at the sight of it all. He is doing some happy dance on that cloud!

And we see not only Jesus’ joy, but choirs of angels most likely singing Alleluias at the top of their lungs that Love had finally been able to free these people. Maybe that would be the original praise music! I think a crazy mix of East 17’s “House of Love” (you know, the song on the T-Mobile Royal Wedding spoof) and Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus would fit the occasion.

Since that day, one person at a time, Love has been blowing apart earth-bound imaginations about who is lovable—or as we might say in the Christian language, who is in on God’s dream for the world. I would like to tell you one of those stories about how Love got through.

I was 15 years old in early June 1964 when I was caught pulling a long face during lunch at the Egyptian Music Camp in DuQuoin, Illinois. My piano ensemble teacher asked me why I was sad. With no sense of irony about being north of the Mason-Dixon line, this culturally blinded daughter of the Old South told her that I heard on the radio that the end of segregation was near.[iii]

To this day, I remember her deeply compassionate eyes as she asked me sweetly, without reproach, what that meant for me. I said that my school would be integrated, as if that were the most unheard of thing in the world.

But something in me was put off-kilter by the kindness of her unblaming gaze which signaled regard for me and who, from that moment, I would be on my way to becoming.

I like to think that looking at me just so, she knew that one day I would come to know the joy and delight of being in the company of people whose skin was darker than mine. In that most promising moment when she did not point the finger back at me for being a teenage bigot, her reproach-free imagination gave birth to my gradual discovery of mercy.

This mercy would enable me to begin forging a new story for myself that did not involve making someone else wrong or bad or dirty or stupid so that my place in society behind the Cotton Curtain, or anywhere else, would be secure.

Another way of saying this is that my teacher’s unconcern for my goodness or badness gave me room to eventually see that yes, I was wrong to transfer my anxiety and conflicts on to a repugnant, reviled other who would bear the blame.

And after some time, I came to be very happy indeed to be wrong, for I was able to share in some measure God’s eye-view of the world, where no person is to be called profane or impure[iv], not even me!

No wonder the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy. They were happy to discover that their hope of redemption and reception of mercy did not depend on their goodness or badness, or on the whims of a rescuing or avenging god, but solely on Jesus’ commandment of love that teaches us to pay no heed to the judgment the world makes concerning precarious, marginal people.

There is so much to say about what it’s like to be on the path of Love—the courage needed, the empowerment of the Spirit of Truth, the Love that got us here this morning, the Love that planted Gideon’s Garden yesterday morning, the Love palpably present at the celebration of Ruth Ide’s life yesterday afternoon, the Love that the world is still aching for, that we are aching for. But we can offer all that up in prayer in our petitions and thanksgivings.

So for now let us tarry here just a moment longer on the under-celebrated Feast of Christ’s Ascension which I like to believe that the Anglican priest and poet George Herbert had in mind when he wrote “Love (3)” which appeared the year of his death, 1633.

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,

Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

If I lacked anything.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:

Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,

I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame

Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

My dear then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

So I did sit and eat.

AMEN.[v]

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[i] Matthew 5:38-40.

[ii] Free access and non-commercial use of over 31,000 woodcuts from The Digital Archives of Pitts Theological Library of Emory University, Atlanta, are available online: http://www.pitts.emory.edu/dia/woodcuts.htm; this image from Antwerp, 1646, by Christoffel van Sichem II and his son

[iii] The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed the Senate on June 11 and was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson June 19.

[iv] Acts 10:28

[v] The inspiration for this sermon was from Catholic priest and theologian James Alison, especially his Raising Abel (New York: Crossroad, 1996).