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| 4 Lent 26 March, 2006 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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My sermon, today, isn’t actually much of a Lenten sermon, I guess, but I’m going to
ask you to excuse it on the grounds that an old English traditions is that this Sunday –
the Fourth Sunday in Lent – was considered a kind of “break” from the rigors of the
season. It has been called, variously, Mothering Sunday, Simnel Sunday, Rose Sunday
(for the use of rose vestments in those parishes that can afford a set)and
Refreshment Sunday – all indicating variations on the practice of relaxing the old
Lenten Rules, a bit. So if what I have to say, today, doesn’t sound very “Lenten,”
chalk it up to tradition!
A few days ago, as I was beginning to prepare for this sermon, I was, in fact feeling a
bit down – not because of Lent, but because of apprehension about what might
happen at yesterday’s Special Convention, and I was feeling in need of a lift! And as I
read these lessons, it came, as I was just suddenly struck by the wonder, the
absolute majesty of our tradition and of the legacy it embodies – and particularly our
written tradition. It was the kind of thing that happens, sometime – when something
you know well, but haven’t really thought of for years, suddenly comes back with
force and just grabs you anew! And it occurred to me that sometimes it’s good for us
to just sort of step back and look – just look at our whole tradition – beginning with
our scripture! And Refreshsment Sunday, I think, is as good a time as any!
This all comes from the sudden realization of the variety represented by our lessons,
today – how they comprise three separate and distinct types of literature; and how
they really only represent a small part of the richness of the tradition.
With our brothers and sisters, the Jewish people, we stand in the present moment of
a tradition that reaches back into the earliest stages of history to a time about which
very little is really known – a time when OUR OWN TRADITION is often the only light
there is.
It all starts back around 3500 to 4000 years ago -- think of that: 4000 years ago! We
were barely out of the caves when an obscure sheepherder from a small town in Asia
Minor, left home to strike out on his own!
We actually know very little about the life of this man whose story came down to us
across CENTURIES of oral tradition before so much as a word of it was written down.
But he comes down to us as an example of great faith – a man who set out in the
belief that, of the many gods his family and his people worshipped, he had been
chosen by ONE, particular God, to devote his life to that God, alone.
And as Abraham struck out with his wife and his servants and his sheep, from the city
of Ur, in the Chaldees, there was born a tradition that would become the three, great,
monotheistic religions, of Judaism, Christianity and Islam!
The stories that have come down to us about Abraham are obscure, jumbled,
repetitious. But through it all they speak to us of a man possessed of a faith profound
enough to inspire him to establish a new nation of people that would transform the
world.
And centuries after THAT man of faith, came another man, a descendant, called like
his ancestor to be a leader, and, now, to settle his people for good, in the land the
God of his people had promised. In the story of THIS man, words attributed to his
sister come down to us as the very first bit of actual written material in our tradition –
a fragment of poetry, presented as the core of the song Miriam sang as her brother,
Moses, led the people through the Sea of Reeds to begin their long trek home
(Exodus 15:19-21).
More centuries pass, and now another leader arises – another descendent – to
transform the people of the land – the am haaretz – into a real nation, a country, with
him as the king. And here – three thousand years ago – in the records of our
tradition, we have the very first, eye-witness “history” written in all the world, as the
one who has been called the “court reporter” of King David writes of what he,
himself, sees, beginning in about 1000BC – three thousand years ago.
And as the centuries pass, the writings continue. Nations rise and fall, kings and holy
men and prophets come and go, and the writings continue – until slowly, over time, a
WONDERFUL body of work develops. A body of work that describes nearly two
thousand years in the life of the people, and that was nearly one thousand years in
the writing: and a body of work that encompasses most of the literary forms ever
developed – many of them appearing for the first time in this very body: poetry and
song, history, reporting, essay, short story, fantasy, adventure, myth, fable, comedy
and drama, exhortation, propaganda, and prophecy.
And it was all devoted to one thing: to telling the story of a people; but not just the
story of a people – rather, the story of a people in its relationship to its God. The
story of the people’s growing and maturing understanding of who and what their God
really was, and their struggle to discover what their proper response should be – and
who and what they were called to become in response.
And then, nearly two thousand years from the time when our Father Abraham left the
city of Ur in the Chaldees, and a full thousand years from the time the first word was
actually written, the Book that writing had become brought forth another leader – a
Son of the Book, itself, his life and his personality and his mission formed by the
book, and a worthy heir to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to the prophets. And his life,
his death, and what came after gave rise to a new round of writing – this one our very
own, not shared by the Jews or the Muslims: another eyewitness history, letters of
teaching, instruction, and exhortation, speculative theology, more fantasy in the form
of dream messages, and a brand new form of writing called the Evangellion – or
“good news”— telling from the point of view of faith the life of the man who gave rise
to the new writing.
And the time from the very first writing – that bit of poetry forming the core of the
Song of Miriam in the book we call Exodus first written down in about the 12th
Century BC – to the last of the “letters”, written at around 150 AD -- was an
astounding period of about 13-1/2 centuries, resulting in a collection of writings in
ONE BOOK that is unlike anything else in the world – a book that has changed
countless lives in the 18 1/2 centuries since it was completed; a book that has
directed and guided – determined! -- the history of the world as we know it!
A book unlike anything the world has ever known – an amazing book.
I know I’ve told this little story in another context, but many years ago, when I was
teaching the Bible at Texas Tech University, I used to begin the semester with a little
quiz – not for a grade, but to help me determine where my students were starting
from – how much they knew about the Bible, coming in.
And I recall one coed who, to the question, “what is the Bible?”, answered, “my
preacher told us the Bible is God’s love letter to Christians.” Well, it’s nothing like
that. What it is, is God’s SELF-REVELATION to us, made to ALL OF his people through
the centuries, through history, and slowly, only very slowly, grasped and understood
by us. Not a love letter to us – but a revelation made from love.
This all started when I looked at today’s lessons: A lesson from Second Chronicles – a
part of the history contained in the Bible; at Psalm 122, a part of the marvelous
collection of some of the world’s most important and powerful poetry; the Letter of St.
Paul to the Ephesians, a theological rumination, exposition, and an exhortation to the
followers of the Lord; and the Gospel according to St. John – the Gospel, the
Evangellion – the “Good News” of God in Christ.
Four selections; four different types of literature. And SUCH writings! Such a great
and wonderful gift!
It’s a gift that few of us really appreciate. A gift that few of us understand HOW to
appreciate.
Christians need – a need that arises again, and again through our history – need
once more to learn to prize the Scriptures. We need to come to understand, again,
what an incredible gift we have in our sacred writings. We need to learn, again to
read the Scriptures. To LEARN the Scriptures. And, by the way, ff you’re still looking
for something meaningful to do for Lent – try reading the Bible!
It is such a great gift! And with a gift like that, a gift of God’s love like that, how can
we do any less?
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
ask you to excuse it on the grounds that an old English traditions is that this Sunday –
the Fourth Sunday in Lent – was considered a kind of “break” from the rigors of the
season. It has been called, variously, Mothering Sunday, Simnel Sunday, Rose Sunday
(for the use of rose vestments in those parishes that can afford a set)and
Refreshment Sunday – all indicating variations on the practice of relaxing the old
Lenten Rules, a bit. So if what I have to say, today, doesn’t sound very “Lenten,”
chalk it up to tradition!
A few days ago, as I was beginning to prepare for this sermon, I was, in fact feeling a
bit down – not because of Lent, but because of apprehension about what might
happen at yesterday’s Special Convention, and I was feeling in need of a lift! And as I
read these lessons, it came, as I was just suddenly struck by the wonder, the
absolute majesty of our tradition and of the legacy it embodies – and particularly our
written tradition. It was the kind of thing that happens, sometime – when something
you know well, but haven’t really thought of for years, suddenly comes back with
force and just grabs you anew! And it occurred to me that sometimes it’s good for us
to just sort of step back and look – just look at our whole tradition – beginning with
our scripture! And Refreshsment Sunday, I think, is as good a time as any!
This all comes from the sudden realization of the variety represented by our lessons,
today – how they comprise three separate and distinct types of literature; and how
they really only represent a small part of the richness of the tradition.
With our brothers and sisters, the Jewish people, we stand in the present moment of
a tradition that reaches back into the earliest stages of history to a time about which
very little is really known – a time when OUR OWN TRADITION is often the only light
there is.
It all starts back around 3500 to 4000 years ago -- think of that: 4000 years ago! We
were barely out of the caves when an obscure sheepherder from a small town in Asia
Minor, left home to strike out on his own!
We actually know very little about the life of this man whose story came down to us
across CENTURIES of oral tradition before so much as a word of it was written down.
But he comes down to us as an example of great faith – a man who set out in the
belief that, of the many gods his family and his people worshipped, he had been
chosen by ONE, particular God, to devote his life to that God, alone.
And as Abraham struck out with his wife and his servants and his sheep, from the city
of Ur, in the Chaldees, there was born a tradition that would become the three, great,
monotheistic religions, of Judaism, Christianity and Islam!
The stories that have come down to us about Abraham are obscure, jumbled,
repetitious. But through it all they speak to us of a man possessed of a faith profound
enough to inspire him to establish a new nation of people that would transform the
world.
And centuries after THAT man of faith, came another man, a descendant, called like
his ancestor to be a leader, and, now, to settle his people for good, in the land the
God of his people had promised. In the story of THIS man, words attributed to his
sister come down to us as the very first bit of actual written material in our tradition –
a fragment of poetry, presented as the core of the song Miriam sang as her brother,
Moses, led the people through the Sea of Reeds to begin their long trek home
(Exodus 15:19-21).
More centuries pass, and now another leader arises – another descendent – to
transform the people of the land – the am haaretz – into a real nation, a country, with
him as the king. And here – three thousand years ago – in the records of our
tradition, we have the very first, eye-witness “history” written in all the world, as the
one who has been called the “court reporter” of King David writes of what he,
himself, sees, beginning in about 1000BC – three thousand years ago.
And as the centuries pass, the writings continue. Nations rise and fall, kings and holy
men and prophets come and go, and the writings continue – until slowly, over time, a
WONDERFUL body of work develops. A body of work that describes nearly two
thousand years in the life of the people, and that was nearly one thousand years in
the writing: and a body of work that encompasses most of the literary forms ever
developed – many of them appearing for the first time in this very body: poetry and
song, history, reporting, essay, short story, fantasy, adventure, myth, fable, comedy
and drama, exhortation, propaganda, and prophecy.
And it was all devoted to one thing: to telling the story of a people; but not just the
story of a people – rather, the story of a people in its relationship to its God. The
story of the people’s growing and maturing understanding of who and what their God
really was, and their struggle to discover what their proper response should be – and
who and what they were called to become in response.
And then, nearly two thousand years from the time when our Father Abraham left the
city of Ur in the Chaldees, and a full thousand years from the time the first word was
actually written, the Book that writing had become brought forth another leader – a
Son of the Book, itself, his life and his personality and his mission formed by the
book, and a worthy heir to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to the prophets. And his life,
his death, and what came after gave rise to a new round of writing – this one our very
own, not shared by the Jews or the Muslims: another eyewitness history, letters of
teaching, instruction, and exhortation, speculative theology, more fantasy in the form
of dream messages, and a brand new form of writing called the Evangellion – or
“good news”— telling from the point of view of faith the life of the man who gave rise
to the new writing.
And the time from the very first writing – that bit of poetry forming the core of the
Song of Miriam in the book we call Exodus first written down in about the 12th
Century BC – to the last of the “letters”, written at around 150 AD -- was an
astounding period of about 13-1/2 centuries, resulting in a collection of writings in
ONE BOOK that is unlike anything else in the world – a book that has changed
countless lives in the 18 1/2 centuries since it was completed; a book that has
directed and guided – determined! -- the history of the world as we know it!
A book unlike anything the world has ever known – an amazing book.
I know I’ve told this little story in another context, but many years ago, when I was
teaching the Bible at Texas Tech University, I used to begin the semester with a little
quiz – not for a grade, but to help me determine where my students were starting
from – how much they knew about the Bible, coming in.
And I recall one coed who, to the question, “what is the Bible?”, answered, “my
preacher told us the Bible is God’s love letter to Christians.” Well, it’s nothing like
that. What it is, is God’s SELF-REVELATION to us, made to ALL OF his people through
the centuries, through history, and slowly, only very slowly, grasped and understood
by us. Not a love letter to us – but a revelation made from love.
This all started when I looked at today’s lessons: A lesson from Second Chronicles – a
part of the history contained in the Bible; at Psalm 122, a part of the marvelous
collection of some of the world’s most important and powerful poetry; the Letter of St.
Paul to the Ephesians, a theological rumination, exposition, and an exhortation to the
followers of the Lord; and the Gospel according to St. John – the Gospel, the
Evangellion – the “Good News” of God in Christ.
Four selections; four different types of literature. And SUCH writings! Such a great
and wonderful gift!
It’s a gift that few of us really appreciate. A gift that few of us understand HOW to
appreciate.
Christians need – a need that arises again, and again through our history – need
once more to learn to prize the Scriptures. We need to come to understand, again,
what an incredible gift we have in our sacred writings. We need to learn, again to
read the Scriptures. To LEARN the Scriptures. And, by the way, ff you’re still looking
for something meaningful to do for Lent – try reading the Bible!
It is such a great gift! And with a gift like that, a gift of God’s love like that, how can
we do any less?
In Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
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| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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