[Propertalk] Proper 15 c - part 2

[Robert P Morrison]

	 One of the really aggravating things about Jesus is that,
apparently, He lost His temper so seldom. We DO know that He DID lose
it on a number of occasions. But I, at least, wish that He’d been
much more belligerent. If only Jesus had been more sarcastic; if only
He’d been more cynical; if only the Gospel writers had whole
sections in their work, whole chapters of one-liners which we could
use to shut up a family member, or our pew-companion, or our car pool
member.

	 If only Jesus were a little more down and dirty, we think that life
would be that much more simple.

	 Yet all that He did was to warn us about some of the upcoming verbal
battles and emotional roller coaster experiences among the people we
might expect never to trouble us. All that Jesus did and said was that
we had to be ready, at all times and in all places, to keep our own
faith firm while being open to the possibility that something said by
someone in anger may actually have more than a grain of truth in it.

	 So, if we’re not to evade such confrontations AND we’re not to
be afraid when they DO occur, what are we to do?

	 Well, let me be blunt. There’s nothing like coming to participate
in the life of a church congregation. This isn’t to say that no one
ever fights in church. Far from it. But congregational life is
supposed to be constructed around the fact that no one has a corner on
the truth. Questions and debates are the bread and butter of any
congregation. Just look at the New Testament Letters! But with each
new question, with every debate, there is the possibility of growth,
of understanding, of building up of practical compassion. Yes, all of
that can, and does, happen outside these four walls here. But, in a
congregation’s corporate life together in worship, in being fed in
body, mind and spirit, sometimes there’s the possibility that our
eyes, our hearts, our minds will be blown wide open, possibly because
we may least expect to be challenged - or sheltered – in such a way
here.

	 Some of you may remember the Carol Burnett show.

	 “Now, Mama,” said Carol Burnett’s character on her TV show,
“you don’t have to go to church to go to heaven.”

	 “Well,” replied Carol’s mother, played by Vicki Lawrence,
“you don’t have to wear a parachute to jump out of an airplane,
but it certainly helps.”

	 Then there’s what happens outside just because we’ve been here;
because we’ve heard difficult words; because we’ve been brought to
some wonderful moment of experiencing God. Away from here, we take the
message of love, and the understanding about MIS-understanding, and
the confidence of God’s Presence being with us, as we go to engage
others.

	 I’m sure you remember some of the words of the hymn “I sing a
song of the saints of God”, and the description of where we see
these saints – on boats, on trains, over a cup of tea.

	 Last week, my friend Anne LeVeque wrote about what she experienced.
She began, “Lesbia Scott nailed it: ‘You can meet them in school,
or in lanes, or at sea, in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at
tea.’
 “She neglected to mention hotels off the interstate, but had she
known of their existence, I'm sure she might have included it in an
additional verse.
 “As you all know, this has been one of the most difficult weeks of
my life. My younger sister died on Monday, and I immediately drove to
Akron, Ohio to be with her young daughter and help with arrangements.
I checked into the Quality Inn in Fairlawn, Ohio on Monday evening. On
Tuesday, Zoë [1] and I were stopping at the hotel for some faxing or
printing of the endless stream of forms that needed signing. A
housekeeper was just coming out of my room - a tall, slender, striking
looking African-American woman named Victoria - and from the parking
lot below the second-story balcony where she was I said, ‘Oh hi!
that's my room.’ She said, ‘This is your room? When I came into
this room, I fell on my knees and prayed!’

	 “I was, to say the least, stunned. She said, ‘I saw your Bible
(it was really a Book of Common Prayer, friends, but I didn't correct
her), and I knew there was a spiritual woman staying here, so I prayed
for you.’ I thanked her, and we all

	continued with the endless business at hand.
 “The next day, Wednesday, I saw her again and stopped to say,
‘You have no idea how much that meant to me yesterday. My sister
died on Monday, and that's why I'm here, and I was so thankful for
your prayers.’ She gave me a big hug and assured me of her continued
prayers. 
 “On Thursday morning, I checked out, and went to stay my last night
in Ohio with Rebecca Wilson [2] (who is being AMAZING helping Zoë [3]
with one thing and another). Victoria saw me checking out and gave me
a big hug.
 “Not your usual hotel experience.” 2

	 Now THAT’S family!

	 Brother David Vryhof wrote, “What a gift it is when we can inspire
others to have courage and to hope, when we can raise another’s
confidence, when we can instill in them life and energy and vigor. How
important it is for us to express care for one another regularly and
explicitly, to commend and cherish one another, to work actively to
build up the Body of Christ by our words and actions, and not to
undermine its health by bitterness and complaining.” 3

	 Let’s remember how EVERYone, without exception, those we like and
those we dislike, and those from whom we may run a mile; EVERYONE is
charged with the responsibility of speaking and being the Gospel, no
matter HOW hard it is.

	 That’s family!

	NOTES:

	[1] _“Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes”_ by Kenneth E. Bailey.
InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill. © 2008. Page 194.

	2 Anne LeVeque https://www.facebook.com/maleveque?fref=nf [4]

	3 Br. David Vryhof Society of Saint John the Evangelist [5]
_“Brother, Give us Word”,_ SSJE.org/WORD/ 7th August, 2016

	 

Links:
------
[1] https://www.facebook.com/zoeharrison138
[2] https://www.facebook.com/rebeccascottwilson
[3] https://www.facebook.com/zoeharrison138
[4] https://www.facebook.com/maleveque?fref=nf
[5]
http://ssje.us4.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=344ed142b391b2b520df4080c&id=860d333092&e=d3bff814a3

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20160812/14ec7f7f/attachment.htm>