[Propertalk] Proper 25 a

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

Here's what I drafted this afternoon.

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY                          THE 
TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
DEUTERONOMY 34:1-12				                                   	 
PROPER 25 (A)
1 THESSALONIANS 2:1-8				                        	 
12th OCTOBER, 2014	
MATTHEW 22:34-46		 
PSALM 90:1-6, 13-17

	I think this this morning’s story about Moses must be, at one and the 
same time, extremely frustrating and also exceptionally peace-filled. It 
tells us so much about Moses, yes, of course. But it also speaks volumes 
about God, about how promises are kept and love is fulfilled. It says 
that everything doesn’t depend on us, no matter how we may have heard 
Gods call, nor how much we may like to think it does.

	The good news – for Moses, for the up-and-coming Joshua, for us – the 
good news is that we all have a view of the goal God has set, in one way 
or another.

	We’ve been walking with Moses for a few weeks now, eavesdropping on his 
conversations with God and with his Hebrew sisters and brothers. We’ve 
been watching his struggles to get his life priorities in order and a 
sense of maturity to develop.

	Moses’ struggles may have been much like our own. He had to find a 
sense of identity. He had to deal with difficulties, cruelty, impossible 
behaviour and a deep sense of doubt – and we’re only talking of Moses 
himself here, not those with whom he came into contact. But behind and 
through it all he kept a tight hold on the fact that God loved him 
enough to speak to him, to make requests of him AND to let him into the 
plans God had for the emerging Hebrew nation.

	It’s always reassuring to know where we’re going. Even if we don’t have 
a detailed trip map, listing all the interesting things along the way, 
it’s really good to know that our goal is to reach a certain point, and 
that at least some of the arrangements have been made.

	Moses had moments like these all along his pilgrimage. Even after the 
disastrous bull session while he was up talking to God, Moses was able 
to deal with God one-on-one and to return to the people with an 
assurance that God hadn’t walked away. So it was in this spirit that 
Moses was able to see where everyone’s journey was leading, where his 
own God-inspired leadership had brought the people. It was in this 
spirit that Moses fully learned that he could trust God to let the 
people flourish without the prophet’s company.

	Some time ago, in an article in “The Atlantic”, an author wrote, 
“There's More to Life Than Being Happy: Meaning comes from the pursuit 
of more complex things than happiness” 1

	I’m sure Moses found this out. Not right away, of course. He must have 
been tremendously disappointed not to be able to walk into the new home 
God was providing. Think what it’s like to plan, to imagine what makes a 
home, to picture everything that will make life comfortable, and, if one 
has been without roots for a while, to be able to settle and establish 
everything one wishes, on one’s own terms. It’s exciting; it’s filled 
with hope; it’s stimulating to the imagination. And if one has friends 
who’ll be settling down near us, that makes it all the more enjoyable. 
But this was not to be for Moses. His vocation, as God outlined it, was 
to take the people within striking distance before relinquishing control 
to Joshua.

  	Some, he found satisfaction in knowing that he was fulfilling the 
potential with which God had entrusted him. Somehow he was not simply 
able to set aside what might be considered personal ambitions, he was 
able to feel good about it. Stepping aside became an integral part of 
life for him, and he relished this, once the first shock had worn off, 
knowing that God’s goal would be achieved and that he himself would be 
perfectly safe.

That article in “The Atlantic” contained the challenging words, “By 
putting aside our selfish interests to serve someone or something larger 
than ourselves – by devoting our lives to ‘giving’ rather than ‘taking’ 
-- we are not only expressing our fundamental humanity, but are also 
acknowledging that that there is more to the good life than the pursuit 
of simple happiness.” This suggests that we may need to redefine our 
lives, our purposes, our hopes, our dreams.

	That this can happen is good enough news in and of itself, but to know 
that this happens with the promise of God’s gentle company and of God’s 
loving eternal embrace is good news indeed. Good news for us in the here 
and now. Good news whoever and wherever we may be. It tells us that we 
can trust in God, no matter what.

	I was knocked back on my heels this past week by the statement from The 
American Cancer Society that every twenty seconds someone hears, “It’s 
cancer”. Help them. Give Hope, pleaded the ACS. 2

	That’s being taken to the top of a mountain with a vengeance. It’s a 
tremendously frightening statistic. It makes us wonder how people can 
cope. How do you get up in the morning when you don’t know if you’ll get 
a phone call to come back in to your healthcare giver’s office after a 
series of tests? You do it by remembering God’s promise, repeated by 
Jesus, that we will never be alone, to the ages of ages, no matter what 
happens.

	It comes down to hanging on to our faith, whether it seems like a 
slender thread, our faith that’s based on the fact that God has been 
with our ancestors all along their journey, whether they were eating 
quail and manna, and taking each day’s journey one step at a time; or 
whether they were melting down jewelery to form some object of false 
security. No matter where they or we were, God was present, teasing, 
coaxing, playing, encouraging so that we’d never give up, despite any 
overcast days.

	I’m haunted by the wall-writing of a Jewish girl locked in a small cell 
in Poland by the Gestapo. “18-year-old Helena Wanda Błażusiakówna (was) 
incarcerated on 25 September 1944. (On the wall of her cell she wrote) 
…. ‘Oh Mamma do not cry — Immaculate Queen of Heaven support me always’.

	“In prison, (said the contemporary Polish composer Henryk Górecki) the 
whole wall was covered with inscriptions screaming out loud: ‘I’m 
innocent’, ‘Murderers’, ‘Executioners’, ‘Free me’, ‘You have to save me’ 
— it was all so loud, so banal. Adults were writing this, while here it 
is an eighteen-year-old girl, almost a child. And she is so different. 
She does not despair, does not cry, does not scream for revenge. She 
does not think about herself; whether she deserves her fate or not. 
Instead, she only thinks about her mother: because it is her mother who 
will experience true despair. This inscription was something 
extraordinary. And it really fascinated me.

	When a CD was released in 1991, although there had been other versions 
available prior to that, it became an overnight success. “Górecki was as 
surprised as any one else at the recording's success, and later 
speculated that ‘perhaps people find something they need in this piece 
of music…. Somehow I hit the right note, something they were missing. 
Something, somewhere had been lost to them. I feel that I instinctively 
knew what they needed.’” 3

	Somehow, no matter what emotions with which Helena may have been 
living, she was able to hang on to the hope that God, and all God’s 
saints were not simply interested in what was happening, they were 
present with her. It was just as I imagine Moses felt.

	Was he disappointed in not being able to take that final few mile trek? 
I’m sure he was. Was he annoyed? Quite possibly. Was he discouraged? Did 
he feel that God had taken him thus far and had told him he was on his 
own from that point on? Had he been looking forward to some sort of 
stone monument in the valley below that mountain, a monument that would 
tell everyone for millennia afterwards that it was through the genius, 
and perseverance, and wonderfully charismatic gifts that the Hebrew 
people were established in that land?

	No! Although we have nothing direct to give conclusive proof, it seems 
that the Hebrew people as a whole were not the only ones who learned 
from their pilgrimage. Moses, too, had learned. He’d learned to trust. 
He’d learned never to give up on hope. He’d discovered that God’s love 
can and will overcome everything, and that that is, quite simply, enough 
on which to build one’s life.

	“Which commandment is the greatest?” Jesus was asked. To put one’s 
whole self into the loving care of God, to honour God and to honour 
God’s love by respecting, encouraging, dignifying, reaching out to help 
our sisters and brothers in God without reserve.

	Moses had learned, and he teaches us, as does Jesus, the putting the 
self to the side doesn’t leave us defenceless, or friendless; doesn’t 
open us up to a life without love.

As the author of the essay in “The Atlantic” put it, “By putting aside 
our selfish interests to serve someone or something larger than 
ourselves – by devoting our lives to ‘giving’ rather than ‘taking’ -- we 
are not only expressing our fundamental humanity, but are also 
acknowledging that that there is more to the good life than the pursuit 
of simple happiness.”

	Moses – and Jesus also, for that matter – Moses learned to focus not on 
himself, but first on God and God’s conversational guidance, and from 
that on the care of everyone else around him, no matter how whiny, or 
cantankerous, or high-maintenance those people may be. Whatever he did, 
the last thing that he did, the last thing that he learned to want, was 
to get people to look at him, to praise him, to put him on the 
spotlight. He had a vocation to fulfil, no matter how small or large 
each day’s assignment turned out to be. He put all of himself in it, but 
he did it without drawing any attention to himself, save to offer a word 
of correction and encouragement. He did this because he knew that God 
would never forget him He knew that God would bless him, yes, but he 
trusted also that he didn’t always have to do everything himself, that 
others would step in.

	The British conductor, Colin Davis, who died at aged righty-six a year 
ago last April, was asked by an interviewer a question we may all face. 
“So where does the energy come from? (We might also say the 
perseverance, the courage, the ability to put self aside in the service 
of others. Colin Davis returned) to the idea of a journey that can never 
be completed (a thought that pacifies him) and (to) the search for 
order. …understanding what (the meaning of music) is – getting there – 
does involve an endless quest.” 4

	That’s the realisation of Moses, as he shielded his eyes from the glare 
of the sun as he looked off into the distance. That’s the realisation to 
which Jesus hoped the lawyer of the Pharasaic party would come. This is 
where Jesus hopes every last one of us will come – that when our focus 
is on God and everyone around us then we can let slip away from us any 
concern to put ourselves in the spotlight, or at the head of any queue. 
Regardless of whether or not it seems that others are trying to push and 
shove past us, or to shout louder and more often, our task is to be 
faithful, and only to be faithful in following our vocation.

	We needn’t worry. We WILL be shown God’s plan. After all, we’re already 
part of God’s realm. And THAT gives us the confidence, the energy, the 
ability we may need whenever we get one of those “every twenty-second” 
calls. It’s God’s promise!

NOTES:

  1	“There's More to Life Than Being Happy: Meaning comes from the 
pursuit of more complex things than happiness” Emily Esfahani Smith in 
“The Atlantic”, Jan. 9 2013, 8:06 AM ET
 
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/theres-more-to-life-than-being-happy/266805/

2	http://bit.ly/1nl0sHW

3	“The Symphony: A Listener's Guide” Michael Steinberg, (1998). New 
York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512665-3.  p. 171.  Quoted 
at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._3_(G%C3%B3recki)

4	“Sir Colin Davis”, an interview in BBC Music Magazine, June 2011. Page 
39	

Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20141024/5ab381dc/attachment.htm>