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November 29, 2005
Anne Jensen - Nov. 27
No transcript available for this sermon.
The audio file is here. Recorded at the 10:00 am Choral Eucharist service.
This is the first week of Advent.
Readings are...
Isaiah 64:1-9
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Mark 13:24-37
November 13, 2005
Anne Jensen - Nov. 13
This is a day of Thanksgiving. Don’t panic! The national holiday of that name is still 11 days away. It is a day of Thanksgiving in the same way that every Sunday is a day of Thanksgiving…Eucharist means “Thanksgiving.” It is the great Thanksgiving for all that God has given us, especially the Gift of God’s son, Jesus. Through him we receive redemption, grace, and the hope of glory.
It is also a day of Thanksgiving as we bring forward our pledge cards, pledges made in gratitude for all that God has given us and for this community of faith. Trinity Parish is a very special place, more importantly it is a community in which God’s love is known and shared, a truth that has been expressed in our listening meetings this past week. We are doing something a little different this year. We are asking you to come forward to make your offering. If you need a pledge card, the ushers have extras. We also have time and talent cards. Everyone can offer something. No gift is too small. Could you offer to pray for the mission of this congregation everyday? Could you make a few phone calls? Could you help host a special event?
Once all the cards are collected, we will bring them to the altar for a prayer of dedication and thanksgiving…and we will leave them on the altar as a sign of offering of our lives, along with the bread and the wine, elements from everyday life, and with our weekly offering.
Some people might feel like the money doesn’t belong on the altar, but I believe it does, because it IS a symbol of our lives and our work. Jesus didn’t shy away from speaking about money, as today’s gospel demonstrates.
Before we delve into the gospel I want to explain why our inserts look different today. The readings appointed for the day were all about judgment, and I believe we need to take God’s judgment seriously. I believe God’s judgment is intended to get our attention and to motivate us to get back into relationship with God, but that’s a sermon for another day. However for the 1st and 2nd lessons and the psalm, I chose to use the readings appointed for Thanksgiving, readings which speak to us as we draw this season of our stewardship effort to its conclusion. These passages remind us of all that God has given us and how we are to live as Christians.
And now to this very familiar parable of the talents: First, a little background—this parable is set in the middle of several which point to what will happen when the kingdom comes. We cannot avoid the element of judgment of this parable. Throughout scripture we hear God’s instructions on how to live; sometime there will be an accounting. This parable points to a time when Christ will come again.
Also, let’s remember the definition of a parable: “At its simplest, the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.”(C. H. Dodd, Parable of the Kingdom, p. 5) This story, like other parable of this season, leaves us unsettled.
In modern English the word “talent” has come to mean a mental endowment, skill, aptitude or physical ability that a person might have. Our understanding of the word is based on this parable. This English usage, which first began in the 15th century, has become important in the interpretation of the parable in modern times. We talk about discovering and using our talents for the glory of God.
However, a talent in this story is not what we think of as a talent now. A talent was the largest denomination of money in the Greco-Roman world, equal to about 20 years’ worth of wages for a day-laborer. Five talents would be about a 100 years’ worth of wages. It’s winning-the-lottery type money. This amount would stagger any recipient and send him into utterly uncharted territory.
I suspect that we identify with the first two slaves—the ones who used the enormous amount of money to make more money. That’s very American and entrepreneurial. It reflects our culture. And of course, we take pleasure in the approval of the master. At some level we all seek approval.
But consider for a moment two other options, one that speaks to the church and the other that speaks to our personal spiritual lives.
Jesus used this huge amount of money, an outrageous hyperbole, to symbolize the gospel. What value would Jesus attach to the gospel? It is the pearl of great price, it is like the Torah of old, “more precious than gold;” you sell all you have and don’t notice the door slamming behind you as you sprint after this Jesus. The gospel that Jesus proclaimed and that we share is that in Jesus we experience the love and forgiveness of God. Through Jesus we are redeemed from a life of sin, from the burden of guilt, and from fear of death. That’s the Good News we’re talking about.
First option: What if the servants are not individual believers, but represent the church, a corporate body to whom the gospel has been entrusted? And what if the rewards are not neat progress reports after 90 days, but the joy of the messianic banquet? Some communities, like the first two slaves, embrace the gospel and take risks for it. The gospel spreads; lives are changed, and there is a lot of joy on earth and hope in eternal life.
This would be true for the first two examples, but what about the slave who buried the money for safe-keeping and received a verbal thrashing from the master. This is the church that keeps the status quo and takes no risks. It is a fearful church. It takes a stance that does not please the master and which produces nothing—no joy, no hope, no changed lives. The gift from the master just stays buried. The gospel that is not used and is not shared, dies. It disappears, as does the community. All will be taken away.
The question to take away is, “How are we like the slaves in this story?” Established churches tend to be like the slave who buried the talent for fear of losing it. Do we have the faintest idea of how to embrace such huge and overwhelming gifts as forgiveness, grace, and new life? If we admitted to being overwhelmed, would God smile on us, and say, “Let me show you the way.”?
The second option is very much like the first, only it has to do with our personal spiritual lives. Again, we like to think we would be like the first two servants and receive approbation for receiving the gospel and living it, being not only believers, but doers of the word.
Step back for a moment. Using the metaphor of the talent, the huge gift from the owner, imagine it in the form of a Bible, and the first servant was entrusted with a beautiful Bible, with copious footnotes, scholarly articles and devotional writings, and beautiful illustrations. That person read and believed, and experienced the grace that followed. Her personal relationship to God deepened. She reached out to many others, and through her they knew God’s love. The owner, when he returned, was pleased.
Another servant also entrusted with a Bible, this one with a good serviceable binding, a good introduction to scripture, some footnotes and some attractive illustrations. This servant began to read and was moved to read more carefully and reflectively. And his personal relationship with God grew. He shared his growing faith with others in his small group at church, and they all benefited. When the owner returned, he was pleased to see faith taking root in this servant.
The third servant was also entrusted with a Bible. This Bible was written in simple sentences. It had a good glossary and some maps to help the reader. The print was large and easy to read. This person was afraid to use this book because she didn’t want anything to happen to it, so she put it on a shelf for safe keeping, and went on about her life, just as she had before. When the owner came to see how she had used it, she said she had kept it safe. The owner was not pleased and took it back to give to someone who would read it.
Over the last four weeks we have talked about stewardship of our money, of our skills, and of our time. Today I ask you to consider how we are going to be stewards of the gospel. It is a good question to consider for the interim period.
This past week we had two of the three listening sessions. It has been a great experience to hear the love and affection that people have for this community. It was good that people felt safe enough to say what is on their minds. It was wonderful to see people really listening to each other. It was exciting to hear people wanting to take risks for the sake of the gospel. (Parenthetically, there will be a third listening opportunity this coming Wednesday, and if you haven’t yet attended a listening group, I hope you will try to come to this one.)
Spiritual growth, both on the congregational level and the personal level requires that we put aside our personal security in the status quo and open ourselves to the gospel and the movement of the Holy Spirit. As Christians we are thankful people; we are thankful for the goodness of creation and for the gift of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The gospel entrusted to us has taken root here. It is here and alive among us. How shall we be stewards of this enormous gift?
November 06, 2005
Rev. Frannie Kieschnick - The Sunday after All Saints Day
The Sunday after All Saints Day - November 6, 2005
Trinity Parish - The Rev. Frannie Hall Kieschnick
After a long and painful illness, a young mother died leaving her husband and a 6 year old son. His own grief notwithstanding, the young father tried to comfort and support his son but felt utterly helpless. The Memorial Service came and went and father and son found themselves at home alone. There was nothing to do but go to bed but sleep eluded both of them. Unable to bear the sound of his boy beginning to cry again, the young father slipped under the covers with him wrapping his weeping child in his arms.
Finally, the tears stopped and then out of the silence the boy asked- "Daddy, is your face turned toward me?" "Yes, my little, one it is." "Then I think I can sleep."
In the darkness of our lives, in the despair, the pain and suffering of our grief and loss, we too arrive at that place where there is no sleep, no comfort, only tears and we too cry, "God is your face turned toward me?" We long for comfort not only for ourselves, but for our loved ones, for the victims of wars, of natural disasters, of disease.
How blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
That particular Beatitude stands out today for not only do we stand in the midst of a grieving world (we just marked the death of the 2000th Americn soldier in Iraq, not to mention the injured or the Iraqis lost) but we celebrate the Sunday after All Saints Day. One of the things the Church invites us to do on this major feast day is to mourn. I have to say, this year, it seems like especially good timing, for there is much to mourn far and near. Later we will read the necrology-the list of those who have died and for whom we have prayed during the last 12 months of our life together. And we will mourn their loss.
I remember as a child growing up in the church, hearing the words "in the multitude of thy saints thou hast compassed us about with so great a cloud a witnesses that we, rejoicing in their fellowship, may run with endurance the race that is set before us." Of course I didn't understand all those words, I just loved the image of the great cloud of witnesses- in my imagination I saw billowing white clouds filled with angelic faces smiling down at the whole world.
God if your face is turned toward me, then maybe then I can survive, I can move on, I can run the race set before me. God if your face is turned toward us, then maybe your world can survive maybe we can move toward shalom, justice and peace for all your children.
There is a deep and universal truth about pain, suffering and loss. That truth has found expression from the prophets to Jesus to Elizabeth Kubler Ross (God rest her soul) to the experts on post traumatic stress. The truth is- if pain suffering and loss are not grieved, one cannot move forward. Without grief there is no newness of life.
Joan Didion has written a moving memoir called The Year of Magical Thinking. It is about the first year after her first husband's death then five months later her daughter's death. I commend it to you all-Keplers has 70 more copies on order! At one point in the book, Joan Didion quotes an English anthropoligist describing in his 1965 book on grief the contemporary rejection of public mourning as a result of the increasing pressure of a new ethical duty to enjoy oneself. He observed that the trend was to treat mourning as a morbid self-indulgence, and to give social admiration to the bereaved who hide their grief so fully that no one would guess anything had happened.
At her best, the Church has not listened to the trends of the time! And so we gather and we do grieve. I want to point out here that churches are very good places to weep as well- and let's remember that tears of joy are welcome too.
The pupil comes to the rebbe and asks, "Why does Torah tell us to place the words upon your hearts and not in your hearts? The rebbe answers, "It is because, as we are, our hearts are closed and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until one day, the heart breaks and the holy words fall in."
A poet once wrote, A great pain has humanized my soul. Those who are not numb in the face of their own grief or the grief in the world are those who are more fully human and humane. Those who have been comforted are those who seek to comfort others.
Today on All Saints, we place our grief in the context of that great cloud of witnesses known as the communion of saints-the community of saints. As Christians we believe that the community of faith in this life is united with the community of those who have died, have passed through death and now live in the greater life where they see God face to face in the light of eternity. Although our relationship with them is different from our relationship with one another in this life, we are not separated from them. Thomas Merton said, our relationship is not over, it is changed. They surround us like a cloud. We hold hands with them across eternity. We believe that when we experience our mourning in the context of the communion or community of the saints, then we can be comforted for in and through them we know that God's face is turned toward us. and so we sing, "We feebly struggle, they in glory shine, yet all are one in thee, for all are thine- Alleluia."
Those of you who have known me for a while have heard me talk about the balcony people in our lives. I believe in balcony people. People who cheer us on both in this life and from the life to come. They are the ones who lean over and yell from the balcony of hearts, "Go for it. You can do it. I believe in you." They remind us of true happiness not what the world defines as happiness. They proclaim, "Great is the joy in heaven when we work to be true to who GOD made us to be- workers for healing reconciliation justice peace." They sing our song when we forget the words. We may never have met them. They aren't necessarily even aware of us nor that they are present in our balcony but they are part of the communion of saints who encompass each of us with grace. They are the ones in the darkness whose faces we see turned toward us challenging us, comforting us, calling us into our fullest self, into the full stature of Christ.
Let me tell you some stories of this communion of saints linking us in this life and across eternity with a grace that sets us free to participate in the coming of God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaking at the funeral of Rosa Parks, this week Hillary Clinton said, "We all need to remember that we can all have Rosa Parks moments. Every time we stand up for someone who is being mistreated, every time we turn away from prejudice and bigotry, every time we support those who are on the front lines fighting for our rights, we are part of Rosa Parks and her legacy." The communion of saints links us to a grace that sets us free.
If you think you have to be wealthy and powerful to be a philanthropist or have a building named after you think again. Last year, the Community Foundation of Silicon Valley honored Bill Gates for his philanthropic reach. This year it honored a 16 year old boy known as JW who lost his fight to cancer this summer. A foundation spokesperson said about their choice of someone who wasn't an executive, On the local level we haven't seen anyone else who's been able to give back like this. His dream was to build a home away from home for families of gravely ill patients and it is about to come true. Although the volunteers say that it has been different with him gone, they look down at the blue wristbands children sold for the project and remember his little sense of humor, how he was telling everyone it would be OK and never give up and they say, "let's get this house built!" The communion of saints links us to grace.
How can I stand in this pulpit, where I stood when I could still hold my children in my arms, and not remember Trinity's saints who have gone before us- Melanie, who inspired more people to come to church than any ad campaign ever -Sam, who was the one who really ran the parish-Wilma, whose flower arrangements Martha couldn't rival.
Each of us today holds in our hearts those who have gone before whom we mourn and yet who live on in our hearts and through our lives, who lean over the balconies of our hearts and call us into our true selves as individuals and as faith community.
One more thing about this God whose face is turned toward us. It is about God's heart and It is what I believe in the deepest places of my soul. Preaching at his son Alex's memorial service, Bill said,
"A dear soul brought me a casserole a few nights ago and said to me she couldn't understand the will of God. I took her by the shoulders, and I told her that it was not my God's will that Alex should die. When Alex's car sank beneath the waves in Boston Harbor, my God's heart was the first to break."
It doesn't matter what our wound or pain or suffering may be. It may be cancer. It may be a dying spouse. It may be doubt, anger, shame or depression or addiction or disappointment or anxiety. It may be the loss of someone dear to us. It may be the pain of the world's suffering or horror at the world's hatred. It may be oppression and injustice. Whatever it is, through Christ, we know that God's face is turned toward us, guiding us into the circle the community of saints, inviting us to be healed and to move forward into the newness that is God's desire for each of us, calling us to listen to our balcony people who believe in us and call to us to turn our faces toward God!
How blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.
Thanks be to God.
Recent Sermons
- Anne Jensen - Nov. 27
- Anne Jensen - Nov. 13
- Rev. Frannie Kieschnick - The Sunday after All Saints Day
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