Hi, Here is a draft of yesterday's sermon.
Readings: Genesis 22: 1-14; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42
Pentecost
III
I think
sometimes God tests his clergy with these lessons. I know that God
was testing Abraham with his order to sacrifice his son. In this day
and age we are very skeptical of people who hear the voice of God,
especially people whom God tells to go out and kill others. I have
no memory of the voice of God nudging me to do anything so violent.
Biblical
scholars tell us that the stories in the old testament were not
designed for their accuracy but they were a vehicle used to teach a
lesson. In this case I believe this story was telling us to have
faith in God and trust in him. Abraham made a choice. He chose to
follow God's will. In this story God is testing his faith and I am
so grateful that it has a good ending.
However,
any way I turn it, it seems like kind of a creepy story.
In the
reading from Paul, he continues his message that was read last week.
He talks about sin. He tells these early Christians, “But thanks
be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become
obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were
entrusted, and that you , having been set free from sin, have become
slaves of righteousness.”
Paul is
telling them they had a choice. They could have been slaves to sin
but they chose to be free from sin and be slaves to God.
In the
gospel reading Jesus to some extent is talking about choices too. If
you insert the word choose to the sentence it fits very well. For
instance, Whoever chooses to welcome you, welcomes me and whoever
chooses to welcome me has chosen to welcome the Father. And, in the
end he says none of these will lose their reward. I have taken some
liberties with this but I believe I have remained true to the
theme of this passage.
I can't
close this without saying that I believe Jesus is talking about acts
of kindness, even the smallest acts of kindness like giving a cup of
cold water to a little one. That ladies and gentlemen, boys and
girls is what we are called to do. Choose to be kind to others and
do it without selfish intent.
There
is the old saying, 'no good deed goes unpunished'. So many times I
have done something thinking who could possible disagree with this.
And then, somebody finds fault with it. An example would be when I
was on the city council in Glenrock, Wyoming. We made a decision to
restore a pidgeon infested boarded up building that was at the heart
of our business district. I was very involved in the project and
thought everyone was behind us.
One day
the mayor and I were giving a tour to a person from the state
historical society and as we were crossing the street, I saw a well
known person in the community and greeted him and explained to him
what we were doing. He responded by saying, “I could help you out.
I could give you a gallon of gas and we can burn it to the ground.”
And, there you go.
Sometimes its not easy to feel kindly toward people and that can be a major challenge for us as Christians. Nobody said it was going to be easy.
Eventually
we completed the building and it is now something most people in the
town are proud of .
I guess what I am trying say is do what in your heart seems like the right thing to do.
There was an Episcopalian who finally decided to read the bible. One day after the Sunday service the priest asked him how he was coming along in his reading. He said, “just fine Father, Ya know I've decided it is a pretty good read. There are a lot of parts in it from the Book of Common Prayer.”
Amen
.
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