SERMON
at
Christ Church, Watertown, Connecticut
Easter VI
May 17, 2009
by
The Rev. Stanley C. Kemmerer, AHC

“You’ve changed.” Ever had those words spoken to you? Sometimes their meaning is positive. Sometimes it’s not so positive.

Perhaps someone has gone through a stressful time and come out the other side. Sometimes it’s languaged “You’re back! Meaning “You’re your old self again.” And that will be followed by some commentary on what the speaker regards as the defining characteristics of that old self, that better self, that’s now “back.”

Or an experience has changed one. We’ve all heard plenty about experiences that scar: war, child abuse, loss of a loved one, the list goes on. We need to hear of experiences that heal, experiences that redeem, experiences that soften.

I wouldn’t describe myself as an evangelical, yet, for some years I subscribed regularly to a little magazine called Guideposts. It was, and I think still is published by the organization founded by the former pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, Norman Vincent Peale, author of the best selling book, The Power of Positive Thinking. What drew me to it was its witnesses, testimonies by ordinary people about commonplace experiences they had of God in their lives. I would read one short article each day or so as part of my evening reading. I always felt more hopeful after doing so. It was a nice frame of mind in which to go to bed.

Peter, in this morning’s lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, is changed by an experience:
While Peter was still speaking the holy spirit came down on all
the listeners. Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter
were all astonished that the Holy Spirit should be poured out
on the pagans (From the Greek word, pas, pagan, meaning
“other.” So, anything “other,” or, as Mainers would put it,
“from away,” than the present group, in this case, Jews.) too,
since they (These Jewish believers who had accompanied
Peter.) could hear them speaking strange languages and
proclaiming the greatness of God. Peter himself then said,
“Could anyone refuse the water of baptism to these people,
now they have received the Holy Spirit just as much as we
have?”

And this is Peter now, the purist, the defender of the Messiah for the Chosen, the “God bless America and nobody else” guy of the New Testament! It came to him unanticipated. He hadn’t asked for the situation. He found himself in it though. And he was open to its power to change him.

When I began my ministry, like most churches the Episcopal church welcomed at the communion rail only those who had been not only baptized but confirmed, and not just in any church but in the Episcopal Church or one of the two other branches of the Catholic (large “C”) Church, the Western or Roman, branch or the Eastern or Orthodox branch. Congregationalists, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians need not apply.

Much to my surprise, I got myself into a situation that changed me in an unexpected way, much as Peter was changed. And by an unexpected group, just as he was changed by an unexpected group. In his case it was the Jews; in mine (are you ready for this?) it was the Roman Catholics!

I’m an associate of a religious order, as many of you know, the one for which Mary leads a number of retreats. My rule of life requires a silent retreat of at least three days duration once a year. There were no Episcopal monasteries or convents near my parish in Iowa at which I could make my retreat, but there was a Trappist abbey close enough. Now, Trappists are designated by the letters OCSO after their names---Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. These are not monastic softies! Nonetheless, off I went to the Abbey of Our Lady of New Melleray, outside Dubuque, Iowa.

A plus for me on retreat is the liturgical music. I love to chant. I’d become accustomed to joining in with the monks at Holy Cross Monastery in the chanting of the monastic hours so I asked the guestmaster if that would be permitted there. Not only would it be permitted: I was invited to join the community in choir. But here comes the kicker…He added, “And then come up with the brothers for communion.”

“Wha?” I reminded him I was Anglican, not Roman Catholic. Was this not a barrier? Not there, apparently. He continued, “We know. But you are our guest. Our brother. We would be hurt. Please come.” “Well, I thought, ‘OK. That’s nice of them. And religious houses tend to operate with more independence and be a little more open than parish churches, so ‘fine.’”

It wasn’t until the actual moment when, one by one, we filed out of the choir stalls and formed four lines approaching the four corners of the altar at each of which was a chalice and paten that the acceptance, the love, hit me and, as I took the chalice in my hands to receive, tears streaming down my cheeks, I resolved never again would I deny the Sacrament to another Christian at a Eucharist I celebrated!

As a result of this experience our parish was ahead of both our diocese and the National Church in instituting what in those days was known as “open communion.”

It is the message of this morning’s Scriptures that it will not be so much what we say as how we act and who we are that will mark us as Christian, as “the changed.”

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ
has been begotten by God

It isn’t that by saying it we make it happen. Its happening is a gift. Yes, one we can ask for but also one that may come to us unasked for as well.

If you keep my commandments
you will remain in my love
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love

This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.

It has been wisely said that faith is not so much taught as caught. It’s one of the reasons to participate regularly in a worshipping community---to rub shoulders with fellow seekers. We take on the environments in which we function. They “rub off.” It only stands to reason a good way to become “changed” is to associate with those we perceive to be either changed or trying to become changed.

Friends of ours have an exercise they go through when they discover they’re at odds with one another: They will step back and go through this dialogue: “Wait a minute. We’re solid. Who have we just been with?” We need to pay attention to who we’ve just been with, what environment we’ve just been in. Were they, was it, growthful or toxic?

It’s said terminal people don’t want to spend time with negative people. There’s a lesson in that. When we’re “cramming for finals” we focus on the important things.

We also need to look for, or at least embrace, the people and experiences we sense will change us into, or maintain us as, those others will say and sense have been changed by the experience of our God.