Sunday
15 July 2018
The
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
LESSON 2 Samuel 6:1-5,
12b-19
or Amos 7:7-15
CANTICLE Psalm 24
or Psalm 85:8-13
EPISTLE Ephesians
1:3-14
GOSPEL Mark
6:14-29
Homily Preached at Holy Cross; not at St. Stephens
Preaching Text
Ephesians
1:3-14
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just
as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless
before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus
Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his
glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to
the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he
has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up
all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also
obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him
who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who
were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his
glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the
promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption
as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.
In the name of
the Father,
and of the
Son,
and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
There are two words that jump off the page for me in today’s
Epistle: adoption and inheritance. These
words don’t always go so well together. I
remember a parishioner of mine who adopted the young children of his sister who was a single
parent after the sister’s death at an early age. His biological children were furious when at
that time. Their anger only increased
with years as this man consistently made no distinction between his adopted
children and his biological children.
They were all simply his sons and daughters. I well recall the events following this man’s
death. His biological children could not
get their hands on the will fast enough.
They were afraid that in death as in life that their cousins would be
treated as sons and daughters and would get an equal cut. Even before the viewing, they found
confirmation of their fears. The father
of them all had given them an equal inheritance. In life and in death, in adoption and
inheritance, there were no distinctions.
The biological adult children were furious.
I share that story because today’s Epistle reminds us that in
Christ we have been adopted as daughters and sons of God. There is great comfort in this good news that
Jesus has reached out in love to embrace us and claim us, to adopt us and
promise us an inheritance. But
sometimes, dear friends, we need to be reminded that our adoption in the waters
of Baptism and the promise of the inheritance of eternal life are not for us
alone. Hopefully there is nothing shocking
in that statement. And yet we need to
remember that there are some for whom this news can be anything but good. It can easily be shocking and even offensive
to those whose faith and spirituality is best described as “me and Jesus.” And if we, gathered as a community of faith,
are honest, we all know persons who fit that description.
The offense found within a persons and communities of faith to such
shocking news of adoption and inheritance is all about a lack of control or consent. In the story I shared from my first parish,
the father in question did not consult his biological children before expanding
his family. He simply did what he
believed was the right thing and took into his home, his family and his
father’s heart these children who suddenly had no one to parent them. What a beautiful thing he did for them!
Certainly, the Church, however, never has seen such things as
anything other than beautiful, right? Oh,
that this were true! For the last few
years, I have read St. Chrysostom’s Paschal Homily at the Easter Vigil. Let me remind you of a section of that homily
that is rather fitting to this theme of adoption and inheritance:
If any
have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any
have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any
have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in
nowise be deprived thereof. If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him
draw near, fearing nothing. If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour,
let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of
his honor, will accept the last even as the first; he gives rest unto him who
comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first
hour.
This, by the way, is a reference to the parable told by Jesus in
the Gospels of the master who throughout the day sends workers into his
vineyard and pays them all the usual daily wage at the end of the workday.
But what does this have to do with adoption, inheritance and the
Church? Remember that the imagery of
vineyard stands for the world, and we, the baptized who have been clothed in
Christ, are the workers sent into the world as into the vineyard of God, sent
to mirror Christ for the world. Among us
who have been sent into the vineyard, there is, and should be, a mix of young
and old, of persons who have labored long and those who have just begun. And the truth of this vineyard is that some
of us will be in the vineyard for a long time and others for only briefly. And yet the Gospel reminds us that the hope
of our faith is that there is an inheritance awaiting us that is not
conditional on how long or how intensely we have labored by faith in the name
of God. The reward is the same. Those who die in Christ are with Christ, who
holds them in his arms and will never let them go.
That can be a difficult pill to swallow. As a child, I remember observing the
interaction between one of my uncles and his mother, my grandmother, following
the death of her husband, my uncle’s step-father. My grandfather had no interest in faith for
most of his life. From what I saw as a
child and what I heard from the adults around me, my grandfather had mocked
Christians for most of his life for their faith. And yet something had changed in him in the
final year of his life which lead to a conversion and embrace of faith in
Christ very late in life. While others
celebrated this in the wake of my grandfather’s death, this one uncle of mine
was so bold as to tell his own mother that her husband’s conversion was not
authentic and that now that he was dead, he was in hell, and would be forever.
We could spend some time talking about comparable stories that we
have encountered. The common thread in
them all is that at times Christians forget that we are not the ones who decide
who is and who is not worthy of eternal life and all the gifts and blessings of
Jesus. There is one alone who holds that
right; the one who is the only one who is without sin, who has adopted us not
because of who we are but rather because the heart of God is overflowing with
love for everyone without exceptions.
And when we forget that, our actions often become a stumbling block for those
who are loved of Christ and desired by Christ for adoption and inheritance in
the Kingdom of God.
God help us and forgive us for those moments when our words and
our actions stir in the hearts of others’ emotions of hatred towards Christians
and the Church. And in that help and
with that forgiveness, let us remember, dear friends, that above all, we and
they are brothers and sisters loved of God, who has adopted us not in isolation
but in community, and who longs to give us all and equal and abundant
inheritance of eternal life in which our relationships with God and one another
will forever be filled with that love which we have first received as a
priceless and unconditional gift of grace.
In the name of
the Father,
and of the
Son,
and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Rev’d Timothy Alleman
Rector
The Church of the Holy Cross
Priest-in-Charge
St. Stephen’s Pro-Cathedral
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