To St. Peter's in Brenham, TX

Homily

God, help us to follow Jesus' example and glorify you on earth by doing the work you give us to do.

Just before he's about to be arrested in the garden, Jesus prays to God, his Father, "I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do."

We regularly ask God for the grace to follow this example. Today, after we finish sharing communion, we will pray together, "assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in"

And after that, I'll stand at the back of the church and tell you to do exactly that. I'll say "Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord" And, like a team getting ready to run back on the field, you'll all say "Thanks be to God! Alleluia! Alleluia!"
Then you'll charge out the door to go do all those works that God has prepared for us. At least, that's the idea.

Church is where we come for rest, for encouragement and teaching, and for remembering who we belong to and what we're supposed to be about. It's like half-time - we regroup, catch our breath, take some nourishment, and get some focus and direction from our leaders. Then we go back out. That's a very crucial point. We get back in the game - doing the work God has prepared for us.

What is work is that?
Basically two things: Love God and Love your neighbor.

Priests and deacons help the church with both of those tasks, which are closely related. Though it's a huge simplification, you could say priests specialize in helping us love God, and deacons specialize in helping us love our neighbors.

Deacons often talk to the church about questions like "Who are our neighbors?" I'll warn you, if you get a deacon - and I pray that you do - he or she may start raising this question in directions you find uncomfortable. It's the deacon's job to notice people others don't want to see. Deacon's are charged, at our ordination, to "serve all people, particularly the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely." We're also charged to "show Christ's people that in serving the helpless they are serving Christ himself."

If God sends you a deacon - and I pray that he does - you will likely hear the Gospel focused differently through the deacon's preaching because of the deacon's call to focus on the marginalized.
I'll give you some examples from this morning's scripture readings.
In today's Psalm, we addressed God, not as "Our Father" but "Father of orphans," and "defender of widows." In the next verse, we read that "God gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners into freedom."
Just in two verses, already, we have orphans, widows, single people and prisoners. Notice what kinds of work God is doing for them.
God is a father to those without a father. Think about men you know who are mentors, step-fathers, foster parents or adoptive parents. Think about kids you know whose dads aren't around or can't be at home. How are you men at St. Peter's joining God in this work of being a father to the fatherless?
Have you ever thought about the fact that Joseph was essentially Jesus' step-father?

What other work is God doing for people in the Psalm? God is the defender of widows. There are always folks willing to take advantage of someone who seems defenseless - scam artists prey on elderly people and steal their money or property in all kinds of ways. Is there any way you can join God in defending someone who is vulnerable in this way?

What other work can we see God doing in these two verses? "God gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners into freedom." Did you know that in Zimbabwe, members of Anglican churches were illegally arrested this week and put in prison - and that other parts of our Anglican communion helped to bail them out? I learned this by reading an email newsletter from the Anglican Communion News Service. Anglicans in Zimbabwe are facing a lot right now at the hands of a vindictive deposed bishop who is friends with the despotic president. And these are folks in the church.
What about other people in prison who aren't members of the church? What do you know about the prison system in general - about issues such as retributive versus restorative justice? Crimes with unequal punishments, like the difference in penalties for possessing crack cocaine versus powder cocaine? Why does a poor kid's drug have a smaller penalty than a rich kid's drug?
Uh oh - this is starting to sound almost political - it's starting to meddle in issues...

Yep, that's what a deacon's likely to do: push the Church back out into the world where there's work to be done, back in the game, not watching from the stands.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, gave an interview that's posted on YouTube in which he said that as Christians, we should look around to see what God is doing and join in.

When God sends you a deacon - as I pray he soon will - that person will help you to see what kinds of work God's doing out in the world outside these walls - the works he's preparing for you to walk in. And I pray you'll head out these doors and join in.
Thanks be to God!

What is freedom for?

Proper 8, Year C  -  Readings

God, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom. Amen

“It was for freedom that Christ has set us free.” We’re about to celebrate our Independence Day. Freedom is central to American cultural identity and one of the highest – if not the highest – value of our nation’s ideology. Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble… free speech, free market economy – we say this is the “land of the free.”

But what is freedom for?

A popular conception of freedom is the idea I should be able to do whatever I want - sometimes with the qualifying idea ‘so long as it doesn’t violate others’ freedom.’
This sometimes degenerates into a bid for freedom from all responsibility…
nobody telling me what I can and can’t do,
nobody hounding me to take care of them,
nobody getting anything out of me
I do what I want and I keep what’s mine.
This is sometimes a major motivating factor for people who become homeless– It’s a form of freedom. This isn’t true so much for the people who become homeless because of crisis events – but it can definitely be true for some people who choose homelessness as a lifestyle.

Is that freedom? Sort of…

The desire to be free from responsibility and free to indulge yourself can lead to big trouble. When you keep indulging your appetites and desires – for food, alcohol, adrenaline rush, love… and you never tell them no, it’s kind of like always indulging your kids – they become more and more demanding and the dynamic of who’s in control starts to shift. At some point, you begin to realize you’re not in control of your appetites anymore; they’re in control of you. When they call, you answer, sometimes without even thinking. You become a slave to your own body, your own mind - and its sicknesses.

This is not freedom. This is not what freedom is for.

Paul says, “You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence…”

This is an important verse for us. Self-indulgence may be about as central to the American ethos these days as freedom. According to Paul, that shows we’re missing the point. Freedom is a gift, and it’s a gift to be used for the benefit of others, not to indulge our own appetites. Currently, our culture is largely centered around consuming things. We eat more, we buy more junk, we do more drugs than anybody else in the world. We’ve sort of started to decide this is not how we want to live, but we’re discovering it’s hard to stop. The genre of sometimes heart-breaking reality TV shows like “The Biggest Loser,” “Hoarders,” and “Intervention” shows how difficult it is for people to start telling themselves ‘No.’

How do you do it? Paul says, “Live by the Spirit… and do not gratify the desires of the flesh…” Then he gives a whole list of things to stop doing and a whole other list of things to start cultivating in your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

One of the most effective ways to re-orient your exercise of freedom away from self-indulgence is to focus on others. Paul takes this to a pretty shocking level when he says, “do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” That’s pretty extreme-sounding. “become slaves to one another” Isn’t being a slave the opposite of being free?

It depends. Being enslaved against your will is one thing – an evil thing. But electing to serve is different. In the Old Testament, laws allowed for a Hebrew slave who earned his freedom to choose what he wanted to do with it. One option was to continue serving in the same household. If that’s what he decided, somebody would take an awl and pierce his ear against the doorpost. (Ex21:6) Then, he was identified as a slave who had the option to be free and chose, rather, to stay in service to that household. This is the kind of life Jesus chose for himself. He was free and elected to put himself in our service. He willingly sought the lowest position, becoming a servant to everyone, and he taught us we should do the same.

What is freedom for?

It’s so you can choose who you will serve.

You’re a free person. Free to serve anywhere and anyone you choose – BUT you’re not free not to serve... because even if you serve no one else, you’ll be serving yourself. My recommendation – turn right back around to the one who bought your freedom for you, and serve him. As our prayer book says, in his service is perfect freedom. (BCP p. 57 or 99, Morning Prayer... Collect for Peace)

Being a deacon is teaching me some surprising things about service and obedience. Obedience is a type of freedom. I’m free from a lot of responsibilities. Being a deacon is kind of like being a duke instead of being the king – you get a lot of the benefits without the heavy responsibility. It’s not my responsibility, for instance, to lead St. John’s or to decide things about funding or to answer to the Diocese for our parish’s activities. In a way, this limits my freedom, but in another way, it frees me up to be more effective in the responsibilities I do have.

Before I had accepted this specific role, I was free to worry about a wider range of things in the church – it seemed at the time like a conscientious thing to do. I worried about small local things at St. Mark’s and about things in the Episcopal Church as a whole and in the Anglican communion; I worried about things going on in other denominations and about trends in church attendance across all denominations – in the United States and in Europe. I was quite diligent and far-reaching in my concerns. At one point, I was very concerned to decide which church tradition was most correct, among the Episcopal, Catholic and Orthodox traditions – I was having a particularly tough time with that question and read some books and sought out various people to talk it over with. It seemed it might be impossible to determine conclusively. It was hard to know how to weigh different strong points and failings, and there were bound to be at least a few factors I was unaware of. At some point, though, it suddenly occurred to me… no one had asked me to make that decision. I was, in fact, completely unqualified to do so. It was such a helpful realization – it wasn’t my job! Wow, what a relief! That really freed up my time and mental energy to consider questions much more relevant to me – where am I called to serve?

This is always a good question – if you’ve not asked it, today is a good day. As fair warning, though, the most likely task he’ll set you to is serving others. You were called to freedom… don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for self indulgence but through love become slaves to one another… Love your neighbor as yourself

Our freedom is a gift from God; like all the gifts God has given this community, we shouldn’t just keep them to ourselves. Each of us should use our gifts, and our freedom as Henry Ward Beecher suggested (regarding the gift of one’s intellect) …

not as he uses a lamp in the study, only for his own seeing, but as the lighthouse uses its lamp, that those afar off on the sea may see the shining, and learn their way.

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Our father’s God, to thee, author of liberty, to thee we sing;

long may our land be bright with freedom’s holy light;

protect us by thy might, great God our king.


Amen.