Rev. Cn. Richard Hogue
When I started my writing process with the passages of Scripture that we’ve heard this morning, I was saddened by the content. I thought to myself: “Not only do I have to kick off a pledge campaign where we are asking people to give their money, but now we get a gospel with violence in a week where we see too much of it in the Holy Land, let alone all the other events of the world. Be they in Ukraine, or mass shootings, our border crisis, or a rudderless government here at home, there are so many stressful things to think about.” And so, I’m going to do something I normally wouldn’t, I’m going to ignore the Gospel entirely. I just can’t do it today. And yet the Holy Spirit also gave me confidence that not only would I be given what I need by that same Spirit, but the still small voice also made clear that this quiet confidence was something that I didn’t need just for me, but that all of us could use right now.
Yes, the world is in utter upheaval, and we need to be able to feel the woundedness of it to shape our empathy and response to it. The horrors and atrocities that we witness through our digital rectangles make us feel too close and too far away all at once. There can be a hollow feeling the envelopes us in these moments of catastrophe and crisis. None of us are alone in that feeling. That hollow feeling flows into wondering where God is in these moments of terror, loss, and confusion. I want to assure you that it is ok to wonder, in silence or out loud, what the heck is going on, and it’s ok to ask God: “where are you?”
Just like in our Exodus story from this morning’s readings, it’s so easy in these moments to fall into different types of idolatry: violent resolve, a desire to be distracted and removed from tragedy, whatever shape our golden calves take, it’s often easier to fill the void with a feeling or a desired outcome instead of simply being in that place. Yet, God asks us to be faithful, and instead of putting forth idols to distract or comfort ourselves, faithfulness asks us to remain present to the hurt and pain of the world we are called to serve. But what does that mean for us when the conflicts are on the other side of the world or country, even if very present to us? What is faithfulness in the face of death, destruction, and confusion?
While we didn’t hear it in our readings this morning, I will point us to the Epistle from Philippians on page 7 of your service booklet. Would you read with me from where it says “Rejoice in the Lord always…” Let’s begin:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”
This year’s pledge campaign theme is “Strengthening Faith through Discipleship”, and what we just read is one of the very best ways of thinking about how we can do just that. We can strengthen our faithfulness through doing the things that we have learned and received and heard and seen in the example of Jesus and the saints who’ve gone before and who are among us now. And I encourage you to simply look around you, the people, the stained glass, the architecture of this place, and the blessing that each of you are. The troubles of this world are present to us, AND so is the tangible touch of God’s grace among us. Places like this, communities of people like us, are the very fabric of Christ’s presence in the world. My beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things! Instead of placing idols of hate and despair in our hearts, dwell on the things that give us abundant life, and in turn do those things which give life to the world!
We, St. Paul’s, as a community, rely on the excellence in each other in thought, word, and deed, to continue making beauty and harmony in a world so deeply in need of these excellent things. And as self-interested as it very much is for me to say, we need each of us to do the mission and ministry of God, and that requires the hard-won resource of money from all of us, too. To continue being a place of excellence, the bottom line is that we need each other to make it possible. God is 100% committed to the love of us, so what proportion of your blessings will make us individually feel like we’re loving God and the community by giving back?
Of course, there are things that may prevent us from giving to the church, be they scarcity of resources, inflation, or circumstances beyond our control. Yet at the end of the day, one of the only ways to create more excellence in the world is to combine our resources to create more opportunities for growth and beauty. We need think or look no further than last week’s blessing of the animals to know that God is doing truly excellent things in this community, and that’s to say nothing of our Evangelism ministry, our outreach ministries like Showers of Blessings, or our community partnerships with the likes of Voices of Our City Choir or Humanity Showers, or the joyful noise of our music. Our combined resources create possibilities that the idolatry of greed, hate, violence, despair, or indifference can never, ever, match.
I hope we all join our communal quest to strengthen our faith through discipleship, in giving a proportion or percentage of our blessings to create excellence in the world, in our prayers for the world, in our actions among each other, and in how we reach out to those who need to hear the good news of Jesus’ love the most. Let’s invite everyone to the banquet of God’s love together, and let’s make sure there is plenty of excellence for everyone to enjoy. Amen.
