[Propertalk] Proper 17 b

[Robert P Morrison]

part 1 of 4 of tomorrow's sermon

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY   THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY
AFTER PENTECOST 

	SONG OF SOLOMON 2:8-13   PROPER 17 b 

	JAMES 1:17-27      PSALM 45:1-2, 6-9 

	MARK 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23      30th AUGUST, 2015 

	 When despair for the world grows in me  

	 and I wake in the night at the least sound  

	 in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,  

	 I go and lie down where the wood drake  

	 rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.  

	 I come into the peace of wild things  

	 who do not tax their lives with forethought  

	 of grief. I come into the presence of still water.  

	 And I feel above me the day-blind stars  

	 waiting with their light. For a time  

	 I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. 1 

	 “I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.” 

	 Finding rest, being wrapped in grace, feeling within the joy of
being made free – these are what everyone seeks. These are what we
all need. Without one of them, perhaps we can get along for a while,
but not for long. Our physical, mental and spiritual health depend on
finding the amazing affirmation of knowing that one is loved, and
appreciated, and respected. 

	 This is not to say that we don’t need correctives every now and
again. Of course we do. We ALL need that! Perhaps what we think, or
do, or say contributes to the despair that people experience, and we
need to be told that. If we get in the way of the development of
someone’s health, or well-being, we need to be told – AND we need
to correct it. This isn’t something we can shrug off. After all,
we’re all connected in ways that we can never possibly imagine.
It’s part and parcel of being a human being. It’s a gift from God
to be treasured and to be used. 

	 From time to time, one of my many quirks surfaces. If something
happens, if I’m blessed by a gift, especially if it’s something
tangible, I may set it where I can see it, but there are times when I
don’t want to use it.  

	 Am I afraid I may break it, or tarnish it, somehow take away the
lustre I see in it? There can be several reasons for not using it. But
the gift is given so that I can benefit from it. The gift is given
through the care taken in selecting it and making sure that I receive
it in good condition, precisely so that I can benefit from it. 

	 Just so with the grace of God. I’m given skills and I’m invited
to use them, to follow where they may lead, no matter what changes
they may require. We’re all given such gifts, but sometimes the
gifts may not be apparent to us; sometimes we may set them aside as
not being useful for our lives at that point in time; sometimes we may
not want to engage them because we don’t understand them. 

	 I wonder if this was part of the problem which confronted the
Pharisees and Scribes with whom Jesus was talking that day. They knew
the standard rules. They even kept them as best they could. But they
couldn’t see behind the gifts with which God had blessed them.
Somehow, they’d rather deprive themselves of what was necessary for
their own lives as well as others in order to comply with what they
perceived as the letter of the law.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20150829/d5be7cb7/attachment.htm>