Sermon, Pentecost V
05/07/09 10:00 Filed in: Sermon
SERMON
at
Christ Church, Watertown, Connecticut
Pentecost V
July 5, 2009
by
The Rev. Stanley C. Kemmerer, AHC
What’s it like to be an ambassador of the living God? What does it take?
This morning we find out.
We look at the stories of three biblical figures: the Prophet Ezekiel, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus and the disciples.
The Ezekiel passage tells us the ambassador doesn’t necessarily have a choice---either about serving or about those to whom he is sent:
“Son of man, stand up, I am going to speak to you.” As he said
these words the spirit came into me and made me stand up,
and I heard him speaking to me. He said, “Son of man, I am
sending you to the Israelites, to the rebels who have turned
against me….The sons are defiant and obstinate; I am sending
you to them to say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says this.’ Whether
they listen or not, this set of rebels shall know there is a
prophet among them….”
Notice there are three parts to this appointment as ambassador:
- The formal appointment: I am sending you.
- The message: The formula The Lord Yahweh says this. In those days the use of those words would signal to the people Ezekiel’s credentials, his official status as a prophet.
- That it will be felt at least. this set of rebels shall know there is a prophet among them.
It is not, however, a given that they will respond appropriately. Note the words whether they listen (=take it in, “get it”). But that doesn’t seem to matter; the ambassador’s responsibility is to bring the message, whether the hearers listen or not, even if they attack it and the messenger.
Keep that in mind when the thought crosses your mind, “I didn’t like that sermon.” or I didn’t like what he/she (=that preacher) said.” One of the roles of the clergy is that of the prophet. Now, so that we understand our terms correctly, prophecy, properly understood, is not foretelling (=prediction); it is forthtelling (editorial comment). It is “telling it like it is.”
The responsible preacher/prophet seeks to speak not necessarily what hearers may want to hear as what, based on the best discernment that preacher can bring to the task, it appears the hearers need to hear. It has been wisely said it is the preacher/prophet’s task to “comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.”
I was speaking with a brother priest earlier this week, one who has had a long and very effective ministry. Describing his present situation he said, “and I’m irritating just enough people that I think I’m getting something done.” I’m sure he wouldn’t want the majority annoyed. But what I think he was saying is the kind of thing a therapist or a dentist might say. In a clinical setting one often is starting to surface material that needs to be addressed when a client begins to display some discomfort. A dentist or other medical treatment specialist may be closer to a diagnosis when, probing, and asking, “Does this hurt?” the patient offers some form of “Yes!”
To be an ambassador is often not the most pleasant task: Jesus goes to his home town and he’s far from the conquering hero. The folk there remember him “when.”
With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue
and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been
granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This
is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and
Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here
with us?” And they would not accept him.
That’s going to happen. And ambassadors must accept not all will receive them. But that fact has nothing to do with the responsibility to represent. To be an ambassador is to be involved in the act of selling: an idea, an approach, a mission, a change. Anyone who’s ever sold will tell you never do all buy and some won’t even listen.
But Jesus, the quintessential sales manager, gives the disciples an ambassadorship model:
He sent them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean
spirits. Pairs. For mutual support. At least at first.
And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff---
no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were
to wear sandals but, he added, “Do not take a spare tunic.” They
were to be dependent on those to whom they went for their needs.
Good strategy. They needed to have faith those needs would be
met.
Experiencing one’s needs being met when one knows he
can’t meet them himself instils faith. To be an effective salesperson
requires the medium being the message; the representative must
have experienced that the product works, the service delivers, the
message is worth hearing. And the sales effort is positively
influenced if the salesperson is a little “hungry.”
The idea is to get the job done efficiently. No ambassador is going
to get the job done if he fritters away his time with those who absolutely
won’t hear. He needs to understand where the line is between
persistence and stupidity. Jesus helps: “If you enter a house
anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any
place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you,
as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a
sign to them.” The responsibility to communicate the message
is discharged through the attempt.
St. Paul makes the obstacles can actually be a benefit. He says to stop me from getting too proud I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to beat me and stop me from getting too proud! About this thing I have pleaded with the Lord three times for it to leave me, but he has said, “My grace is enough for you; my power is at its best in weakness.” So I shall be very happy to make my weaknesses my special boast so that the power of Christ may stay over me…For it is when I am weak that I am strong.”
My friend Ray would endorse this: I met Ray a few years ago when he was about to leave his responsibilities as general counsel for a major New England utility. Before that, Ray had been a senior attorney in Washington, D.C., dealing with several government agencies that relate to the power industry. I was concerned about his future job prospects. You see, Ray is blind. He’s been blind almost from birth. Yet he’d had all these very responsible positions, including the one he was now leaving. His disability apparently hadn’t prevented him travelling on public transportation all over a major city. This fascinated me.
So I asked: “Has this been a problem for you?” He smiled, chuckled, then surprised me with his gentle answer: He said he actually regarded his blindness as a gift and no, it hadn’t been a problem at all. In fact, it had probably saved him from a life in the gutter. First, since he’d been blind almost from birth, he’d never known any other condition. He’d resolved very early on that he wasn’t going to let his blindness get in his way; he’d pay attention to what abilities he did have. The disability, in a way, protected him, he said, from some of the distractions that took his peers off the path to achieving what otherwise they might have achieved.
Similarly, Mary suggested to us Tuesday evening the challenge we now face appears to have made us stronger, revealed to us some very positive things about ourselves we might otherwise have missed, and could well take us to some successes that otherwise would have been longer in coming, if they came at all.
Finally, salespeople/ambassadors will tell you that expending the effort, trying one strategy, then another, to get people to hear, even the rejections that precede the sale, when the sales comes make it an especially exhilarating experience. The disciples found that out: So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.
We have the task of ambassador before us. We may not, entirely, have asked for it. We may not have chosen those to whom we are sent. We may not relish such obstacles as we confront. May God, even our God, grant us the grace, the strength, and the courage to do it well. And the exhilaration that comes from doing so!