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| SERMON September 13, 2009 The Rev. Charles W. Messer |
| 667 Mount Road, Aston, PA 19014 610-459-2013 |
| Small Parish - Big Heart The little church you've been looking for! All are welcome! |
To worship the Lord To serve the community To grow the church |
| Proverbs 1:20-33 Psalm 19 or Wisdom of Solomon 7:26-8:1 or Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 116:1-8 James 3:1-12 Mark 8:27-38 |
To contact us: Calvary Episcopal Church 667 Mount Road Aston, PA 19014 610-459-2013 OFFICE The Rev. Charles Messer, Rector Fr. Chuck: frmesser@calvaryepiscopalrockdale.org Website: mail@calvaryepiscopalrockdale.org Office: calvaryoffice1@verizon.net |
The Christian faith is what some call ‘event oriented.’ The Bible is the story of how
God acts through history. It’s through history, events in time where God works in
and through people doing for them what they couldn’t do for themselves.
Throughout the Old Testament you’ll hear God say, “I am the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob;’ because through these people God created a nation. Better yet,
we’ll hear, “I am the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,” again and
homeless slaves as the vehicle through which God would redeem the world.
History. Like looking back on the battle of Brandywine or going down to
Independence Hall, through the points of history we’re able to see not only our
past but glimpses of who we are as a people. Three days ago we remembered the
8th anniversary of attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in
Shanksburg. Like the attack on Pearl Harbor, that beautiful Tuesday morning 8
years ago is a point in time we’ll never forget.
It was my final year of seminary. I looked outside the window thinking what a
perfect day to play golf. Not a cloud in the sky, it was a picture perfect. I didn’t get
up in time to attend Morning Prayer with the rest of my classmates, so I thought I
would slip in without being noticed. I walk in and I could see a group of my
classmates huddled around a radio and they all turned their heads when I walked
in. So much for going in unnoticed, I thought.
“A plane has crashed into the World Trade Center,” someone said as if anticipating
my question. And for the rest of the day, all of us we’re in front of the television
staring in shock at the images of smoke and destruction. No golf was played. Even
though it was so beautiful outside, none of us could bear to go out in it.
I don’t know about you, but over and over I kept asking myself, ‘Where was God
when those planes drove into glass and steel and killed moms and dads, sons and
daughters; not to mention the countless families destroyed as a result? Where was
God? Wasn’t the last words spoken by the perpetrators invoking God’s name?’
It just didn’t make sense. I think the same sense of disbelief I felt that day, and still
do, mirrors that of the apostle Peter from our gospel lesson. “(Jesus) began to
teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by
the elders, priests, and scribes, and be killed and after three days rise again. And
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning away from Peter and
looking at the disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For
you are setting your mind not on the things of God but on human things.”
Heartbreak. Shock. Disbelief. Peter felt all those things – not so much because
Jesus called him Satan, but because suffering and death. The Messiah, the one for
whom the prophets spoke of, the one who would restore Israel does not suffer and
certainly doesn’t die at the hands of his own. Suffering and death are antithetical to
describe the salvation of God.
“If any want to become one of my followers, let them deny themselves and take up
their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and
those who lost their life for my sake will save it.”
The radical message of Jesus is saying that strength and power isn’t found at the
business end of a gun or the number of zero’s in your checking balance, but in
willingly laying down one’s life for others. However, Jesus is very human, even he
struggles with it. Peter says to Jesus exactly what we can assume Jesus is
thinking: this is crazy. And so in Jesus’ struggle to wrap his mind around the plan
of salvation for the world, Peter’s rebuke is in essence a temptation to deny the self-
sacrificing nature of God. Like those 40 days in the wilderness where Jesus was
tempted by Satan, the choice to deny self and accept suffering and heartbreak –
emotions that everyone of us no matter rich or poor experience - as the way God
saves the world was almost too great a temptation him. “Get behind me, Satan!”
Being just as human as we are, Jesus struggled with the consequences of his
choices. By confirming his commitment to the God of mercy; the God whose
loyalty is always to those who are exploited, the disadvantaged, the lonely, the
poor and the outcast but threatens those in power, Jesus seals his fate.
If you want to follow me; Jesus says, if you want to become my disciple you’re
allegiance will always be to those who struggle and suffer. To find me, look to
those who can’t find a job, look to the poor black kid who cannot escape the cycle
of despair and violence, look to the single mom struggling to make ends meet, look
to the soldier out in the middle of the desert feeling alone and forgotten. Jesus has
taken despair, struggle, suffering, and even death itself to the very heart of God and
through it salvation is brought to the world.
Ellie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor, recalls an account in his semi-autobiographical
book Night about watching a boy being executed in Auschwitz. The entire prison
camp was summoned to watch punishment meted out because of theft. A boy had
stolen bread and was sentenced to hang. On the gallows, guards put the noose
around his neck and opened the door underneath his feet. The boy wasn’t heavy
enough as to quicken suffocation but slowly and painfully he squirmed fighting to
breathe. Surprising himself, Wiesel says aloud in little more than a whisper, “Where
is God?” Somewhere behind him someone answers, “There he is, hanging on the
gallows.”
Where was God then on 9/11? Where was God when the towers fell? Where was
he? God was right there in the middle of it. With those who jumped out of office
windows before the towers collapsed, God was right there with them. With the
firefighters and police charging headlong into death in order to save others, God
was right there. God was there suffering and dying right along with every single
one of them. God mourned alongside grieving widows and children. And as we
huddled around a television on that beautiful Tuesday morning 8 years ago in
shock over what we were seeing, God was there.
We’ve committed that fateful day to history. For years and years to come, we’ll look
back on that day as a sad reminder of the evil we, as humans, do to one another.
And maybe someday, we can look back on 9/11 and see that through such evil and
death love will prevail and bring life to us all.
God acts through history. It’s through history, events in time where God works in
and through people doing for them what they couldn’t do for themselves.
Throughout the Old Testament you’ll hear God say, “I am the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob;’ because through these people God created a nation. Better yet,
we’ll hear, “I am the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,” again and
homeless slaves as the vehicle through which God would redeem the world.
History. Like looking back on the battle of Brandywine or going down to
Independence Hall, through the points of history we’re able to see not only our
past but glimpses of who we are as a people. Three days ago we remembered the
8th anniversary of attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in
Shanksburg. Like the attack on Pearl Harbor, that beautiful Tuesday morning 8
years ago is a point in time we’ll never forget.
It was my final year of seminary. I looked outside the window thinking what a
perfect day to play golf. Not a cloud in the sky, it was a picture perfect. I didn’t get
up in time to attend Morning Prayer with the rest of my classmates, so I thought I
would slip in without being noticed. I walk in and I could see a group of my
classmates huddled around a radio and they all turned their heads when I walked
in. So much for going in unnoticed, I thought.
“A plane has crashed into the World Trade Center,” someone said as if anticipating
my question. And for the rest of the day, all of us we’re in front of the television
staring in shock at the images of smoke and destruction. No golf was played. Even
though it was so beautiful outside, none of us could bear to go out in it.
I don’t know about you, but over and over I kept asking myself, ‘Where was God
when those planes drove into glass and steel and killed moms and dads, sons and
daughters; not to mention the countless families destroyed as a result? Where was
God? Wasn’t the last words spoken by the perpetrators invoking God’s name?’
It just didn’t make sense. I think the same sense of disbelief I felt that day, and still
do, mirrors that of the apostle Peter from our gospel lesson. “(Jesus) began to
teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by
the elders, priests, and scribes, and be killed and after three days rise again. And
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning away from Peter and
looking at the disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For
you are setting your mind not on the things of God but on human things.”
Heartbreak. Shock. Disbelief. Peter felt all those things – not so much because
Jesus called him Satan, but because suffering and death. The Messiah, the one for
whom the prophets spoke of, the one who would restore Israel does not suffer and
certainly doesn’t die at the hands of his own. Suffering and death are antithetical to
describe the salvation of God.
“If any want to become one of my followers, let them deny themselves and take up
their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and
those who lost their life for my sake will save it.”
The radical message of Jesus is saying that strength and power isn’t found at the
business end of a gun or the number of zero’s in your checking balance, but in
willingly laying down one’s life for others. However, Jesus is very human, even he
struggles with it. Peter says to Jesus exactly what we can assume Jesus is
thinking: this is crazy. And so in Jesus’ struggle to wrap his mind around the plan
of salvation for the world, Peter’s rebuke is in essence a temptation to deny the self-
sacrificing nature of God. Like those 40 days in the wilderness where Jesus was
tempted by Satan, the choice to deny self and accept suffering and heartbreak –
emotions that everyone of us no matter rich or poor experience - as the way God
saves the world was almost too great a temptation him. “Get behind me, Satan!”
Being just as human as we are, Jesus struggled with the consequences of his
choices. By confirming his commitment to the God of mercy; the God whose
loyalty is always to those who are exploited, the disadvantaged, the lonely, the
poor and the outcast but threatens those in power, Jesus seals his fate.
If you want to follow me; Jesus says, if you want to become my disciple you’re
allegiance will always be to those who struggle and suffer. To find me, look to
those who can’t find a job, look to the poor black kid who cannot escape the cycle
of despair and violence, look to the single mom struggling to make ends meet, look
to the soldier out in the middle of the desert feeling alone and forgotten. Jesus has
taken despair, struggle, suffering, and even death itself to the very heart of God and
through it salvation is brought to the world.
Ellie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor, recalls an account in his semi-autobiographical
book Night about watching a boy being executed in Auschwitz. The entire prison
camp was summoned to watch punishment meted out because of theft. A boy had
stolen bread and was sentenced to hang. On the gallows, guards put the noose
around his neck and opened the door underneath his feet. The boy wasn’t heavy
enough as to quicken suffocation but slowly and painfully he squirmed fighting to
breathe. Surprising himself, Wiesel says aloud in little more than a whisper, “Where
is God?” Somewhere behind him someone answers, “There he is, hanging on the
gallows.”
Where was God then on 9/11? Where was God when the towers fell? Where was
he? God was right there in the middle of it. With those who jumped out of office
windows before the towers collapsed, God was right there with them. With the
firefighters and police charging headlong into death in order to save others, God
was right there. God was there suffering and dying right along with every single
one of them. God mourned alongside grieving widows and children. And as we
huddled around a television on that beautiful Tuesday morning 8 years ago in
shock over what we were seeing, God was there.
We’ve committed that fateful day to history. For years and years to come, we’ll look
back on that day as a sad reminder of the evil we, as humans, do to one another.
And maybe someday, we can look back on 9/11 and see that through such evil and
death love will prevail and bring life to us all.
