Pentecost 18, September 27, 2015 (full size gallery)
We are at the end of the month and we had two services today, 9am (Rite I) and 11am (Morning Prayer). We had only 6 at 9am but 37 at 11am. Weather was overcast and it has rained giving much needed relief from a recent drought. More leaves continue to fall as we are at the beginning of the season. Surprisingly, some Resurrection lilies popped up on the lawn in back.
We celebrated Helmut and Susan’s 55th wedding anniversary. Marion’s birthday is this week – Joe and Mary Ann were going on Sunday to Maryland to visit her.
Brad surprised Catherine (and the congregation) with a special prelude – Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B major at 11am. Great job! He also brought a pan of chocolate chip cookies that the choir and "Weaving God’s Promises" class enjoyed. We had 8 at that class looking at the Genesis story on the "Tower of Babel".
The sermon was devoted to the Book of James. (The readings are here). While James did not specifically identify himself as to which “James” he was (James 1:1), the author is widely thought to be James the half-brother of Jesus. James was not a follower of Jesus during the Savior’s time on earth (Mark 3:21–35; John 7:5) but eventually became an apostle in the vein of Paul. He was one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem
James wrote from that city prior to the meeting of the Jerusalem Council, which Luke recorded in Acts 15. At that council, James, along with Peter and Paul, affirmed the decision to take the gospel message to the Gentiles. This council met in AD 49, meaning James likely wrote his letter in AD 45–48. Such a significant event as the Jerusalem Council warranted comment from James, as he was writing to a Jewish Christian audience. But James made no mention of Gentile Christians at all, making an early date for the letter most likely. In fact, it was likely the first New Testament book written. It is a book somewhat like Proverbs insisting that God’s people act like God’s people
Key points from the sermon:
1. "In today’s passage, James talks about how the community is to deal with the sick people among them. "
".. I think that this passage is worth talking about today as a reminder of what we need to continue to be doing for one another and to consider ways in which we can help one another along, especially when it comes to those in our midst who are not well.
2. "In the ancient world, and we see examples of this in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, sick people were sent away from the community… Sick people, especially people with what was known as leprosy, were feared and avoided."
3. "In fact, all of us suffer from one form of sin or another, even when we don’t know that we are sick. I’m thinking of sinsickness in the broadest of terms—like that laundry list of things that we find in the Ash Wednesday Litany of Penance in our Prayer Book—“the pride, hypocrisy and impatience of our lives, our self-indulgent appetites and ways, our exploitation of other people, our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves” and the list goes on– all of these things are just as death dealing and as contagious as Ebola."
4. "James says, “Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over then, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.I like this idea, because James is asking people who are sick to be proactive and turn to their community for help.
5. "And that help takes two forms—prayer and the anointing of oil."
6. "Sometimes, asking for prayer can be hard, because asking for prayer requires the willingness to be vulnerable. You have to admit that you’ve got an illness that you can’t possibly deal with on your own and that you not only want help but that you also are willing to ask for help from your Christian brothers and sisters.
7. "Asking for prayer from others also requires trust. "
8. "Being proactive and calling on “the elders of the church” also requires at least a modicum of faith on your part" "So when we ask for prayer for one another, we come together in vulnerability and mutual trust, we take one another seriously, and we remember that God is the One who is the great healer, and whose healing love is available to all. "And in praying for one another, we draw closer together as a community."
9. "The second part of this verse about prayer is that the elders will anoint the sick with oil. “The oil gains its power from the human hands that apply it and that, by reaching across pain and loneliness, re-establishes the solidarity of the community….But beyond my little bottle of oil, let’s think of this anointing of oil as something we can all do, through the healing power of human touch.
10. "I heard this story on the radio the other day about a sixty-three year old man named David Reid who stands blindfolded on Charlottesville’s downtown mall and gives out hugs."
He sums up his ministry. “We need to have a lot more compassion, recognition of the validity of others as human beings in our culture. Right now, we’re suffering terribly, because we don’t have a lot of those things. This is, I guess, my tiny little part that I’ve been handed to do with or about that.”
Here are some links of David Reid giving free hugs in Charlottesville – Story used in the sermon was from WVTF – here . Here is the same story with a video from newsplex.
Next week is the Feast of St. Francis and the animals are invited to the service for a blessing.
Lectionary commentary by Canon Lance Ousley, Diocese of Olympia
Jealousy, deception, discontentment, exclusion and selfishness are all rooted in a worldview of scarcity. Haman is jealous of Mordecai because he believes there is not enough of the king’s favor to go around. Deception was de rigueur for Haman to try to get his own way. It even could be argued that Haman hung himself with his actions. Discontentment ran through the Israelites as they camped in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land forgetting the blessings of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. James reminds us of God’s providence and the abundance of life we have been given and that this abundant life is to be shared. Jesus points to the vastness of God’s love having room for all people, especially those outside the social norm for love and acceptance.
Cultural temptations based on scarcity worldview are pervasive in our lives and even in the church. These worldly "virtues" can be and are stumbling blocks to our receiving the liberating truth of God’s love, grace and providence that gives life. Our faith is counter-cultural and we shouldn’t pretend it is not. This is what Jesus means when he urges us not to lose our saltiness. Western prosperity clouds what is essential to living abundant life, distorting what is truly valuable. The temptations of scarcity cause us to question or even be suspicious of our sisters and brothers who also are trying to proclaim the Gospel, as if there were not enough of Jesus’ love to go around.
I bring this up not for a discussion on ecumenism or church unity, but to point to the insidious destructive power of a scarcity mindset. It can be like rust slowly invading the hinges of our hearts closing them off from receiving the fullness God’s blessings (that we have been called to share with the world). Think about the global financial scandals of the first decade of this millennium. I do not think these people awoke one day to devise an evil plan to rob investors of their money, but rather they acted on a saturation of cultural "virtues" of scarcity that raised up a grab-all-you-can-at-all-costs attitude.
When we live and lead in our churches from a scarcity mindset instead of a mission mindset we construct stumbling blocks for our people through the disintegration of the counter-cultural message of the Gospel with our actions based on a scarcity worldview. The result we see most often of leading from scarcity is found in anemic annual giving. Another result of this is being unwelcoming to any who come through our doors. The truth is good stewardship is the result of transformation. This is transformation from faith in the things of this world to faith and life lived in the abundance of God’s loving providence.
What is your worldview? Which culture will you and your church proclaim? Be careful with your answer. Millstones are heavy and you wouldn’t want to stub your toe.