Sermon Dec. 24 2017-Father Cunningham

         Sometimes we get readings from the lectionary where the sole purpose of that reading is really just to get to one particular sentence, even though the actual reading may be many verses.  Today’s lesson from 2nd Samuel is just such a reading.  We go through the whole thing just to get to the money line which is when God says of David, “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”  That is, of course, a big deal today on Advent IV because we are about to get to the Christmas story where we will learn among other things that Joseph was from the line of David and if Jesus will reign forever we have the promise of that eternal reign right here in 2nd Samuel.  The previous 11 about the cedar houses and all that seem to be there to give the lector something to do or perhaps give some context, but I thought since no one was really going to be here anyway that we would focus on these seemingly superfluous lines. 

         In case you were not listening the first time let’s review what the reading from 2nd Samuel was all about.  David is taking stock of his life and realizes that he has accomplished much – he has stabilized Israel and now peace reigns.  He even now has a pretty nice house, made of cedar no less.  And so he has a thought, which seems rather altruistic – he wants to build a nice place for the Ark of the Covenant to reside.  On the surface it would seem to be one of David’s more beneficent acts, at least when compared to the whole Bathsheba fiasco.  Nathan, who was David’s go to guy for spiritual matters concurs and tells David to go and launch this building project.  But then something rather strange happens.  The word of the Lord comes to Nathan and he is basically told to tell David that he has no need of a house and so thanks, but no thanks.  The story then ends with the promise that God will build David a house and that David’s throne will last forever. 

         And so the question is why did God shoot down David’s idea?  What was so wrong with building a nice place for the Ark of the Covenant?  Well, I think the rather obvious answer is that God did not ask for a house.  And honestly, that is about all we can answer from the text.  God does not explain his decision but simply let’s David know that he is not interested.  And while that is sort of interesting it all of this points to an issue that we can have as well.  And that is the fact that even with the most altruistic sounding of things may not be that altruistic at all and may actually be us asserting our will over another person.  In this case, David is telling God what he needs and what it will be like.  In our case, we may give gifts or do things that are not what the other person desires but are rather something that we desire.  In David’s case he thinks that he has a nice house and so God must want one too.  But I think there is a larger lesson in all of this, not just in terms of gifts.  And that lesson has to do with submitting our wills to God’s perfect will.  And believe it or not there is actually a take home from this that relates to Advent IV – or at least I hope there is.  So first let’s start by talking about our will.

         You have probably heard my theory that I have on my more cynical days which is that people do not actually grow up they just get better at masking their selfish motivations.  So if a child eats the last cookie they will tell you they did so because they wanted the last cookie, whereas an adult will tell you that they didn’t realize you wanted the last cookie or they were trying to help you with your diet or they had not realized that you had any claim on this particular cookie and so on.  This same sort of masking of motivation is also ever present in the church.  In fact, it is often worse in the church because people get to mix God in with things.  Let me see if I can explain.  At my last Parish on one Labor Day, we sang the hymn, “Come labor On.”  I thought it seemed appropriate it being Labor Day and all that.  Anyway after the service a woman came up to me and told me that by selecting this hymn I had completely destroyed her Sunday worship experience – the show had simply not been to her liking.  Now do you see the subtle thing that she did?  She did not say, “I hate that hymn and I would not like it sung again.”  Rather by my selecting the hymn I had destroyed her ability to draw closer to God.  I was now personally responsible for putting her soul in peril.  She did not need to figure out a way to survive a hymn she did not like.  Rather, it was all up to me.  If I was really going to be a shepherd of souls then I needed to make sure that I only chose hymns that accorded with her personal taste.  For by describing it as such it was not her will, but God’s will that I was thwarting, because as we all know God wants us to draw closer to him and by my callous hymn selection I had thwarted God’s will.  At least that is how she saw it. 

         Now let’s bring all of this back to Advent IV.  As you are probably sick of hearing me say, Advent is a season of preparation.  A season where we take time to reflect and see what in us is not living in accordance with God’s will.  This morning David had a great idea about building a house for the Lord, but he soon discovered that his will was not the will of God and so he shifted his plan.  His plan even sounded fairly reasonable, but it turned out that his desires and God’s will were not in sync.  And so he changed things.  And the question for us, as we search our actions and motivations is how do we know if we are doing the will of God?  Not all of us have Nathan like David did who could come in and tell him that what he was thinking was not what God was thinking.  But most of us have friends and hopefully we have friends that will be honest with us.  The other thing, though, is that we have to be honest with ourselves.  We have to reflect and see what are the real motivations for our actions and ask if we are we trying to dress up selfish motivations in altruistic clothing.  Searching ourselves and our motivations can be a very hard thing to do, because it may reveal some parts to our personality that are not terribly impressive.  We may find things in ourselves that need to change.  And as we all know change can be rather hard. 

         Certainly, we all know the basics of what God wants us to do.  If you don’t let me just give you the big one that Jesus offers in both Luke’s and Matthew’s Gospel.  It states, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”  When we interact with others or with God we need to ask if what we are doing is loving towards the other person or is it just something we really feel like doing.  The more pure and Godlike our motivations the more we will be prepared to welcome Jesus as he comes into the world.  Advent wraps up here very shortly and we move into Christmas Eve and so it may be time to cram for the final examination so that our hearts and minds are truly ready to welcome the Messiah when he comes so that we may be his both now and forevermore.

Sermon Dec. 17 2017-Father Cunningham

          There is an old saying that communists are people who love the masses, one million at a time.  What this saying points to is that communists tend to be interested in big programs for big groups, but not terribly interested in individuals and the unique problems that they have.  And as much as I like to make fun of communists, it is not just them that suffer from this temptation.  I think that there is a desire in all of us to want to solve the problems of the world with a more magical wand approach – we want to believe the politicians who promise that the fix to every problem is just a government program away.  It is so tempting because that way we don’t have to individually deal with those actual people whose problems we want to fix.  We identify a problem, tell someone else to fix it, and then we are morally off the hook.

         In a similar way we want God to fix big things; like restoring civility or establishing peace on earth, but we forget that such things are made up hundreds of millions of decisions by hundreds of millions of individuals, who all need to be dealt with individually.  World peace or the restoration of civility are not a divine nob turn away, but rather require a change in the actions and thought processes of millions of people.  Yes God could turn us all into a cyborg army whose will he could control, but he loves us too much for that, and has given us free will.  And as a result of giving us free will, God has to deal with us not with a magic wand or the flipping of a switch, but on a personal level.  And because of this on Christmas Day we will see God coming in a very personal and individual way.  There will be no magic wand, only individual relationships and the changing of hearts and minds. 

         But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  Today we are talking about John the Baptist, who in many ways foreshadows the ministry of Jesus.  And interestingly, while the priests and Levites often get some bad press in the New Testament, today, I think that they get things exactly right.  They understand the individual nature of the coming Messiah. And why I say that is because of what confuses them about John the Baptist.  After they ask and John states that he is neither the Messiah, nor a prophet nor Elijah they ask, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”  It is interesting that the action that makes them suspect that John the Baptist may be the Messiah or at least one of the prophets is the action of baptism.  And while there are some historical things that may have made the priests and Levites focus on baptism as being an indicator of Messiah-ship, what I really want to focus on is the individual nature of it.  John was not reigning down thunder from the sky or anything terribly grandiose but rather he was baptizing people, one person at a time.  Which probably sounds a little obvious, but in such an action he was required to deal with people on an individual basis.  He did not line up two thousand people in the Jordan and ask them to baptize themselves, but rather he touched and baptized each person individually.

         Much of my thought as of late has been occupied by the division and distrust in our country, how it has happened and by how we can fix it.  I recently read a former Facebook executive say that social media has, “created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.”  Adding that with social media there is, “no civil discourse, no cooperation; [only] misinformation, mistruth.”  I think that he is on to something because in many ways social media allows us to deal with individuals in the million person chunks that the Communists so like.  And while it would suit me just fine to lay all the blame of our current acrimony on the doorstep of social media, I don’t think it is quite that simple.  If we woke up in the morning and found that there was no Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, we would still try and avoid dealing with people in the way that John the Baptist does today, that is one on one.  For we tend not to like doing what John is doing today because it is really not safe – people do not always act the way we want them to.  When we can deal with people from a distance we are not as vulnerable and open to hurt and disappointment.

         I remember years ago when Amy and I were first married the church we were attending did one of those Christmas outreach programs to some underprivileged families.  What this meant was that a group of people at the church purchased a number of presents and food items to take to a family just before Christmas.  In this outreach Amy and I got the job of delivering the presents.  In the car ride over to do this, I was full of Christmas cheer.  My head was filled with visions of how things were going to take place.  I expected to blush slightly when this grateful family told me that I must be an angel sent from heaven – I mean that’s what they always do on TV and TV can never be wrong.  Well, that didn’t happen, it was in fact one of the most disappointing events of my life.  The house were they lived was dirty and unkempt and smelled of something I could not quite identify.  When we brought the presents they were not carefully placed under a tree instead the children greedily ripped them open and then asked if there were anymore.  When this happened I looked pleadingly at the mother hoping she would give me some backup, but she repeated the question.  When we told them there was not anything else, they signaled that they were through with us and we were shown the door.  Now I am not saying that all people act like this, but some do.  Some of humanity will not be appreciative or polite and will only care about us only for as long as we are giving them free stuff.  And I have struggled over the years with what this experience was to teach me.  And I think the best I can up with relates to what Jesus said in Luke 14 where he stated, “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”  We take care of the ungrateful because it is the right thing to do and because it allows us to act like God acts towards us.  For in our ungratefulness, God still loves us and waits patiently for us to return to him.

         What we see in the life of John the Baptist and in the life of Jesus – they dealt with us.  We don’t have a record of how the people that John baptized behaved, but I am guessing that some were real jerks.  I mean we know that Jesus got yelled at for healing people, so why would we expect any different.  And here is the thing for us, if John the Baptist and Jesus dealt with us and God continues to deal with us on an individual basis, who are we to opt out of that model.  Certainly there will be times were interacting with others will be incredibly disappointing.  There will be times where we are mistreated but restoration of our relationships with our fellow man will not happen without such interaction.

         So here is my rather simple lesson for Advent 3 let’s try and go a week where we follow Jesus’ command to love one another.  This means even the people who we don’t like and those people who are annoying.  Yes this is not easy and much in us may fight against it, but most things in life that are worthwhile are not easy.  If God deals with us and all of our issues, we need to do the same for others, so that we may be his both now and forevermore.

Sermon Dec. 10 2017-Father Cunningham

         I was listening to someone the other day saying that they could recall a time when the world was more unstable.  I might quibble a little bit with that assessment, but with much of what is going on currently, it does feel that things are spiraling out of control – the falcon cannot hear the falconer and all that.  North Korea is acting even crazier than usual (which was a pretty high bar already), Russia seems to be pining for the old Soviet days, China is building islands and then claiming them as sovereign territory, the Middle East seems even more Middle Easty than usual and in the United States the people who are not involved in sexual harassment seem to make up for that by just hating each other.  The only good news that I have heard in a while is that George Clooney says that he is going to be taking a break from acting.  And the question that this inspires in many of us is when will it change?  When will there be peace on earth and goodwill towards men?  And further, I think the question asked by those of us who are religious and even by many of the non-religious is why is God allowing this to happen?  Shouldn’t God intervene?  What is the point of being God if you let us humans make a dog’s breakfast out of everything?  Well, there is an interesting line that we have from 2 Peter today, that while not answering that question in its totality does offer some thoughts.  It states, “Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” 

         This passage addresses two things.  The first is the seeming slowness of everything.  That is if Jesus came to save mankind why are things still so messed up?  It’s initial answer has to do with the timing, that is it will happen, but not quite yet.  That is what it means by saying that a day to God is like a thousand years.  So while it may seem like God is not doing much we need to see things from God’s perspective, where it has only been two days since Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  And that may be interesting but I really want to focus on the second piece of information which has to with why God allows for the world to be in such turmoil.  The answer according to Peter is that this allowing for poor behavior is in actuality a gift.  We may not like that the world is in its current state, but in order for God to save as many as possible, which is his will, he needs to be patient.  

         In the small scale you can think of it like when you are doing something wrong.  Do any of us want God to come back at the moment when we are egregiously sinning or would we like God to wait a few minutes until we have calmed down and put our house in order?  The idea that Peter seems to be expressing is that, if God would like everyone to repent and return to him, it is going to take time.  So if God came at this moment and separated the sheep from the goats lot of people would be on the goat side of the fence.  But since God wants everyone to return to him he is patient, he is waiting for things to change.  And of course with anything involving humanity such a hands off aproach will have its good side and its bad side.  Giving us time to get better also gives us time to make things worse. 

         We are in the season of Advent, which contrary to popular belief is not a divinely sanctioned shopping trip, but rather a time of preparation.  A time in which we look at ourselves and ask what in us is not ready for the Messiah to come.  A way to think about it is like the parable we heard a few weeks back about the wise and foolish bridesmaids.  If you recall half of them brought extra oil and half did not and so when the bridegroom finally arrived those that had not brought enough oil were not ready for him.  And so the question for us is are we ready for Christ to come, or put in the terms of our reading from today, what in us is God being patient about because he does not want us to perish?

         I was having a discussion with a friend the other day about the fact that many Christians can be a real pain and do not behave in very Christian ways.  The friend asked me why this was.  I said that there is always the issue of original sin, but I said that I think there is another issue, that while not entirely Martin Luther’s fault, comes from a sort of over-eager reading of his doctrine of sola fide, that is by faith alone.  This doctrine came out of the Reformation and was basically meant to show that we cannot earn our way into heaven.  In other words, I cannot do enough good things to make God have no choice but to let me in.  It said, instead, that it was really only through faith in the power of God that we can be saved.  Salvation is the work of God and not through our own works, abilities or actions.  And I do not disagree with this as a theological understanding, but in practicality it can become a sort of the hammock of salvation.  In other words you can claim that you have faith and then just sot of lie back and do whatever you want, because if works do not have anything to do with salvation then why bother to do anything?  Why try and make the world a better place or for that matter make yourself a better person?  Now I don’t think this is what Luther was getting at, but a misreading of that idea has lead to a sort of stagnation among some.  However when properly understood, faith is not just an ascent to a certain belief, but rather is something which should infiltrate every part of our being.  If I have faith in gravity I am not going to try and walk off a cliff like the Wile E. Coyote did in the old Looney Tunes cartoons.  Instead I am going to act in ways that accord with my faith in gravity.  Similarly, if I have faith in God I am going to live in ways that are in accord with my faith in him.  And if there are parts of my life that prevent this from happening, those areas need to be examined and changed. 

         And this is much the idea of not only what Peter is getting at but with Advent in general.  We are to look at ourselves and ask what in us is not glorifying to God and needs to be changed.  There should be something different about us because we are Christians.  Yes, I certainly know that none of us will be perfect, but that is what we are striving towards.  God is very patient with us, God does not want us to perish, but this requires some cooperation on our part.  It requires us to try and be a little better today then we were yesterday.  It requires a little more of us to be conformed to the will of God.  In the great Christmas Hymn Joy to World, which we will sing in a few weeks, we hear the line, “Let every heart, prepare him room.”  And that is the question for us: are we preparing room for Jesus’ coming, or is God going to have to be patient with us for another year?  The goal of course is to make ourselves conform to God and his perfect will so that we may be his both now and forevermore.