The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
August 12, 2007
The Reverend Arnold Taylor
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You heard a reading of the Old Testament, the New Testament, then the Gospel. At the risk of being declared a backward child, I’m going to deal with
the lessons in reverse: the Gospel passage first, the New Testament lesson second and the Old Testament last. It’s a biggy. It puts an emphasis on
the necessity of faith - that is, a vision of things not seen but hoped for, as a system for living a dependable life.
A literal reading of Scripture doesn’t get the job of learning done. Jesus seldom told things straight out. He told stories for us to wrestle with,
and here are some of them. Example: Jesus said: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s pleasure to give you...the kingdom...” Well, what’s
a kingdom - literally? In the Old Testament God promised Abram all the land between Egypt and the Tigris River. Is that the kingdom? Does Jesus
mean Kings? Queens? Dynasties? Wealth? Power? No. This Kingdom of God isn’t a geopolitical entity nor a new Lexus, it’s a realm of loving concern
one for another. We’re to shoot for that kingdom on faith that it’s attainable. Another example: Jesus said: “Sell your possessions and give alms,”
that doesn’t mean that you, too, should be homeless. It’s a colorful way of saying that the Kingdom of God the sharing of love and concern is worth
everything.
Here’s another: It’s about the householder being ready for when the Master comes. One interpretation is that the Master is death; and when death comes,
will you be clean enough to get a good report card and be allowed into heaven. Yuck! Like so many other passages in Scripture it says You’d better be
good - or else! In the Old Testament you’ll be killed or burned in a lake of boiling sulfur; or, in the New Testament you’ll simply go to hell (use
your imagination)
It’s a “Look out for Number One” concept, being a sweetheart out of fear, instead of the self-emptying love that Jesus exemplified. Can it!
Nor is this passage about housekeeping - dusting and cleaning and having the biscuits baked when the Master comes home. Lilian does that for me,
but that’s another story!
This is a picture story, a colorful way of saying that if you gear up to be a sweetheart, a caring individual, then, when the opportunity to be a
caring person comes along, you won’t have any barriers to prevent you from doing it. That is, when the master knocks (make that read: opportunity)
you’re already at the door and things open up in a welcoming way, and that which isn’t seen becomes real: good human relations.
It doesn’t always happen that way. I daresay every one of us can recall how our best efforts at harmony get rejected, or even spit on. However, Thomas
Edison had it right when he said, “Whenever an experiment fails, it’s not that the idea won’t work; it’s just that it won’t work that particular way.”
Try again. Jesus foreshadowed that attitude when he said, “Turn the other cheek.” That isn’t an invitation to take abuse. It’s a call to hang in there
and try new ways.
Now, if anyone wants to buy into this life-style of preparation and expectation - hoping for that Kingdom to come - it takes faith, things “hoped for
but not seen until opportunity knocks. The secular way of saying that is: you’ve gotta have vision, and a readiness to seize the opportunity.
Example: Centuries ago there were men like Michelangelo who thought human beings could fly. They had a vision and worked on it, and it came through
centuries later. That which was not seen became a reality and now we even can fly to the moon! There’s a rocket in space even as I speak.
Two weeks ago I boarded an airplane and flew to Rhode Island to visit my seriously ill sister-in-law. Thank you, Michelangelo, and Orville. Thank
you Rickenbacker, Boeing and US Airways, and on and on. Vision alone doesn’t get the job done, but it sets up the possibility for when the Master
knocks - opportunity!
Another example: Fr. Edmonson, in his last sermon here weeks ago, told of a woodcarver who was commissioned by his king to carve something special
for him. The king had faith in the carver, but depended upon the carver to have the vision of what would please the king. To produce that vision,
the carver isolated himself from all other concerns. He fasted, kept apart from everybody, contemplated in solitude, focusing on something that was
not yet seen. At that point in the sermon I thought to myself, that dude isn’t married, has no kids, and no e-mail!
However, once he got the vision he was all set for the reality; and while walking through the woods one day, still meditating, he spied an oddly
shaped tree, and saw within that tree the carving that he’d envisioned, what he’d hoped for in faith. If he’d had no vision of what he proposed to
create, he might have walked right on by the tree and thought, “What an odd looking tree!” and let it go at that. He had vision and the faith that
it could become a reality.
Our calling in that regard? It’s to be a sweetheart, no matter what the cost, no matter how distant the goal, and in spite of the barriers that dim
our vision. That takes commercial strength faith; and when I look at what is happening in our world today, it makes that call an imperative. Hang in
there, no matter what!
Now, to the Old Testament lesson. Abram didn’t have a grandiose vision of his importance until he concluded that the word of God wanted him to
organize the believers in one God - Yahweh - into a new nation, conceived in travail, and dedicated to the proposition that all others are unequal.
The Bible implies that the man heard a voice from on high; but I prefer to think that Arbam contemplated, wondered, hoped and genuinely thought
that destiny was calling him. (I have a feeling something like that when I’m writing a sermon!). Abram cried out, “How am I to create this dynasty
to populate the entire world as I know it?? My wife, Sara, is barren!” (He knew it was Sara’s fault that they had no sons because he sired a son
with Sara’s slave, Hagar. So much for traditional family values)
Here’s the kicker, though: God says to Abram (according to Abram) “Go forth and multiply and there will be born to you descendants as many as the
stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” How’s that for vision!!! That seems to say, “Have large families - you and
your progeny.” But the significance of this command from God (according to Abram) was to make fatherhood an imperative. SCORE! Often! Don’t waste
those seeds! Make ‘em count! It’s no wonder that their primitive understanding of biological realities would lead Abram and his descendants to
conclude that any wasting of those seeds to be a sin! I mean, God said to Score!
The Bible has all sorts of derogatory things to say about those who spend seeds that aren’t meant for procreation. They had no view of the consequences
of overpopulation, a reality that calls for the wasting of seeds by one means or another. Amen!
God said to score! The women caught on to that, too. Recall the story about Lot and his wife and daughters fleeing Sodom. The wife looked back and
turned into a pillar of salt. The daughters, afraid that they wouldn’t find a man in the new land, got their father drunk and got some seeds planted!
Bless their hearts! They were doing God’s will!
Reality says Pope Benedict is doing damage to our world by insisting upon large families (well, Roman Catholic families) Reality says that wasting
the seed is responsible behavior! How that is done is a rather personal matter, but it can no longer be considered a sin.
If our vision is of a world where everybody has three square meals a day and a place to sleep indoors, we have to assert that God (according to Abram)
overstated things in favor of circumstances that no longer exist. Really! If we populated this earth with as many bodies as there are stars in the sky,
or grains of sand along the seashore, we’d be cheek to jowl all around the globe with no room to grow corn for our cars to run on.
Abram had no vision of that possibility. His vision dealt with circumstances in his day 5,000 years ago. Nor did anybody else fear overpopulation until
recent times; but reality is a powerful teacher that calls every soul to think about the Word of God written in a 5,000 year-old culture, and test
its sayings against our realities in this day.
Faith says that Jesus laid out room for responsible behavior that depends upon compassionate understanding of our circumstances and calls upon us to
live each day in such a way that whenever the opportunity presents itself His love and caring nature can find responsible expression through each of
us in this day.
Others can do the preparation for that expression of love in whatever way they find meaningful. For us, receiving the bread and wine in community with
one another, taking within our hearts and souls and bodies the bread and wine, the body and blood, the essence, if not the Presence, of Jesus Christ,
sets us up to deal with the tough spots in life, on the basis of that Presence within - the vision of being a sweetheart, that calls upon you and me
to work to carry out that vision to the glory of God the Creator, Christ the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit that enables us to be ready to faithfully
show love and concern when, figuratively speaking, the Master knocks at our door. Amen
