Sermon, Pentecost IV
SERMON
at
Christ Church, Watertown, Connecticut
Pentecost IV
June 28, 2009
by
The Rev. Stanley C. Kemmerer, AHC
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large
crowd gathered around him. Then one of the synagogue officials
(read “heavy hitter”) came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him,
fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “My little
daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on
her to make her better and save her life.”
So Jesus heads out but the going isn’t easy…a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all around him. Great! Here he is already tired. He’s just recrossed the Sea of Galilee after the heavy weather getting over in the first place, done some healings there, and recrossed. It’s hot. And he’s got to travel in the middle of a crowd against the deadline of healing a seriously ill, perhaps dying, child of a powerful church leader. Nice!
It gets worse:
Now there was a woman who had suffered from a hemhorrage for
twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors,
she had spent all she had without being any better for it, in fact she
was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up
behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. “If I can touch
even his clothes,” she had told herself, “I shall be well again.” It works!
…the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself
that she was cured of her complaint.
Fine, but it’s not that simple:
Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned
around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”
Halt scene while the disciples tell Jesus, “Hey, dude, it’s a crowd ferrevinssakes. How do we know??? But the woman comes forward and fesses up, all grateful. Jesus won’t take the credit: “My daughter,” he said, “your faith (that touching my garment would get the job done) has restored you to health…”
The delay, however, has consequences: While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, “Your daughter is dead; why put the Master to any further trouble?” Whoops! Not good poltics---Here Jesus has taken time with this social outcast at the expense of the “quality” people and the daughter has died. There’ll be hell to pay for this!!!
But Jesus is smooth. He overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, “Do not be afraid; only (here we go, again…) have faith.” Jesus dumps the crowd, allowing only Peter, James and John to accompany him and Jairus. They get there and it’s the typical grief scene. He wades into it, saying, “Why all this commotion and crying? (Just as he’d confronted the disciples on the boat crossing the Sea of Galilee with “Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith???”) The child is not dead, but asleep.” They’re not having it. But they laughed at him. So, in a fairly cheeky move, if you consider the circumstances, he threw these mourners out and, with the parents and his own companions, went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, “Talitha, kum!” which means “Little girl, I tell you to get up.” The little girl got up at once and began to walk about.
Again, the issue was faith. The parents had faith Jesus could pull it off!
The lesson is clear: What we, looking back, define as miracles come from faith.
You and I may well be in the middle of one in the making. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again---I am often humbled by the faith I see in you in the pews, as over against what I experience sometimes as my own cynicism and doubt. I suggested last week that we are all writing in our blue composition books, like an exam, what our story as a congregation will be. We wrote another chapter last Tuesday night and that chapter participates in the universe one might define as “miracle in the making.” You clearly have been thinking…
Eighteen of you were present, of all ages and all constituencies. As we began, individually, to talk about our thoughts since the June 14th announcement a consensus rapidly began to emerge around the option of pursuing independent status in alternate space, summarized by one of you in the words, “We’re here. (At the meeting.) We’re voting with our feet.” (To be here.) A scant nine days after the announcement:
- Two alternate spaces had been identified and a commitment secured from one, Walker Hall.
- Research was well along (It should be complete by this Tuesday.) on how much in dollars would be required to pay our bills in alternate space, with preliminary estimates we presently are close.
- Several volunteered they already had given thought to what they personally could do to close the gap, some publicly in the meeting, others privately.
- One of our number stepped forward to develop electronic communications to get the word out we’re anything but dead and, to borrow from the late San Francisco City Supervisor, Harvey Milk’s, signature opening, “We’re Christ Church parish and we’re here to recruit you!”
- It was the consensus even scouting out other parishes is premature and a distraction, until or unless it is discovered we can’t build on what we already have.
- A convenor stepped forward to serve as switchboarder, keeping ourselves current with one another, and several immediately volunteered to pick up specific tasks to help her, were she to request/need help with specific tasks.
- It was resolved congregational meetings would continue each Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. for as many Tuesdays as we need, to get ourselves ready for what it will take to continue in new space.
- As one after another of you witnessed to what this fellowship means to you, how far you’ve come from it being about the building, stately as it is, to it being about one another, it became apparent to me in a new way not only that you have what it will take to go on but that you have what it will take to add to your numbers.
This morning’s Epistle, from Second Corinthians, finds St. Paul reminding the Corinthians You always have the most of everything---of faith, of eloquence, of understanding, of keenness for any cause---so we expect you to put the most into this work of mercy too. He explains As long as the readiness is there, a man is acceptable with whatever he can afford; never mind what is beyond his means. This does not mean that to give relief to others you should make things difficult for yourselves: it is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to supply that will supply your own need. That is how we strike a balance.
There are times in our lives when we have more money than time. There are times in our lives when we have more time than money. There are times in our lives or over the course of a year when we have more disposable time than others. Communities of Faith share not just treasure, though that is never absent. Their members share time and talent as well. Each of us have “in kind” skills we can give. We have energy and commitment we can give. There are skills we can acquire to give, like the skill of interesting people in who we are and what we have to offer others’ spiritual needs.
One example is we will be developing a parish web site which will “bait the hook” to interest outsiders in us and to bond us to one another better. That’s one person’s skill. Our musical offerings are another person’s skills. Wisdom is a skill.
And “presence” is a gift. Ordination invitations typically carry the message “Your prayers and presence requested.” There are those occasions when an ordinand might wish “presence” were spelled with a “t” as in “gifts” rather than with a “c” as in “showing up.” But showing up is a gift we give others as well as how we meet our own needs and it’s one worth thinking of when we make our decision whether to be at worship or another parish event or not. It will be particularly important as we make the decision whether to be at these Tuesday evening congregational meetings, so we assure the broadest possible input and the maximum personal experience with our evolving community.
In addition to my 40+ year relationship with the Order of the Holy Cross one I treasure as well is the one I have with the Anglican Benedictines at Three Rivers Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan, where I made retreats while serving in Iowa. A couple of years ago I read in their quarterly Abbey Letter some words I have treasured ever since. Often they’ve been significant, when I’ve had that choice, to my personal decision whether to be with my faith community or not for a given event. The writer was writing about his life as a monk but I think the words apply to us all. Let me share them with you.
More often than I would like to admit, my mind is not entirely
focussed on prayer. I may be chanting the right tunes and
bowing at all the right moments, but any number of things
could be distracting me from turning my heart towards God.
obviously this is not ideal, and I need to be continually trying
to improve, but when such moments of absentmindedness
do happen, I try to remember one small thing. This is key
for us at Christ Church, especially now. By simply being in
choir, singing the psalms and saying the prayers, I may be
helping someone who is concentrating on prayer. In that
sense even my unfocussed participation may be helping
someone else who is concentrating on prayer. At another
time I might be praying fervently, while others are struggling
even to stay awake, but just by being there, they are
providing encouragement for me to keep striving in prayer.
We are engaged in an act of faith, acting out a miracle. To pull It off we need one another. We’ll have those who say the little girl is dead. We’ll have those who will laugh at us as they did at the Master when he said, she is not dead but sleeping. Our ability, our willingness to throw them out and go into the room with Him, demonstrating our faith, will enable Christ Church Parish to walk, to run again!