[Propertalk] Proper 27 a 2017 - part 2

[Robert P Morrison]

Part two of the draft

 Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the
breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

	 I will, with God's help.

	 Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into
sin, repent and return to the Lord?

	 I will, with God's help.

	 Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in
Christ?

	 I will, with God's help.

	 Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor
as yourself?

	 I will, with God's help.

	 Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect
the dignity of every human being?

	 I will, with God's help.1 

	 O.K. sign here.

	 The promises we took and which we affirm were not only for the times
when it seemed convenient. They were given especially for those times
when it would be difficult, and, without preparation, without keeping
these promises at the forefront of our minds and hearts, it was, is,
and will be then that we may start to run into trouble so easily and
so quickly, and, unfortunately, so quietly and unobtrusively.

	 THAT’S what Joshua was emphasizing. When you and I are among
people we know and like, we don’t really have to think about how to
behave. Well, we DO. Behaviour matters. Behaviour should ALWAYS be
appropriate. Whomever we’re with, it’s NOT O.K. to relax standards
and then try to say, “I was only joking”, or “Can’t you take a
joke?” Most of the time, though, we know how to behave among those
we like … most of the time.

	 It’s among the others that we have to remember our promises.
It’s about the people whom we don’t know so well, for instance,
those who are of an ethnicity, or racial group different that our own;
it’s among those who may have personalities or habits that
distinguish them from us; it’s about people who don’t do the same
things that we do, or value what we do, that we have to learn to
recognize that they too are children of God, and have probably, in
their own way, made the same or similar promises which we have.

	 It‘s for them and with them that we need to practice our promises
most. Besides being how we live in the here and now, how we live out
our promises defines how we’re doing our preparation for God’s
kindom.

	 This can seem such a drag, though. It may seem that we spend all of
our time in preparation, and not much actually enjoying the final
performance. It can be like spending too much time and energy
rehearsing with a choir, but then skipping the actual concert. But
this isn’t what God is into. God wants us to be able to do at least
two things.

	 First, we need to sharpen our vision so that we can have as clear a
picture of our goal as we can. Sometimes we get sloppy with this,
though. Sometimes we treat thinking about where we’re headed in too
casual a way. “God is good,” we say and, of course, we’re
absolutely right. But God isn’t a magician who pulls incredibly
surprising things out of a hat. God knows, like just about everybody
else, that you can only pull out of the hat what’s been put into
that hat in the first place. Rabbits don’t grow on trees!

	 Then, secondly, no matter what we’re planning – a Bazaar, a
family dinner or outing, a concert, eternal life; no matter what
we’re planning, empty hearts, empty minds, empty souls won’t take
us too far. And if we’re talking about eternal life, then we’re
dealing with something pretty important.

	 Of course, there ARE some who think that God always picks up the
slack, and this is true, up to a point. Jesus pointed out that God is
incredibly generous, that’s how God’s love overflows. Yet, in His
interaction with those who seemed to be in charge, or thought
themselves in charge, Jesus also pointed out that in order to be this
generous, God needs at least SOMEthing with which to start.

	 There are also some people who say that every last one of us comes
with some kind of a stamp upon us. There are some who feel that
they’re already registered as “saved”. So this more or less
relieves them of the responsibility of getting their hands dirty by
preparing, by interacting with everyone in creation, by accepting
responsibilities – responsibilities even if WE didn’t create the
crises we see in our faith and social communities both here and around
the world; we have responsibilities for responding to any and every
crises just because – because of what we’re promised.  

	 “O Jesus, I have promised to serve you to the end:” 2 Thank
goodness we’re not singing THAT hymn this morning! 

	 Oh! Wait!! We ARE!!!

	This belief that we’ll have God’s blessing no matter how we
behave ISN’T how we should see things, at least in our Episcopal
tradition. The problem with thinking about our behavior is that if we
DON’T react, to reach out to bring healing, and comfort, and hope to
whomever we see or about whom we hear, then we’re condemning part of
God’s creation as being worthless.

	This makes today’s parable from Jesus so heart wrenching. We LOVE
it when, perhaps in the privacy of our own homes, we talk about
come-uppance, that NOT bringing enough spare oil means that some
people deserve their fate, that it’s not OUR problem, because WE
need all the oil we have; until we remember that oil, for the hearers
of Jesus’ story, would register in their minds immediately. They’d
understand that “oil” means “righteousness”, which equals
“good deeds”.

	So NOW we see what’s going on. We DO have a choice NOT to make
these promises, but we DO make them. We’re affirming that we’ll
use every ounce of our energy until our last breath on behalf of
others, regardless of who they are, how thoughtful, or thoughtless, or
careless, how wealthy or impoverished, how – I don’t need to say
more. It simply doesn’t matter who the other is, how the other
looks, even how the other behaves.

	We prepare for eternal life by being ready.

	And November is just around the corner.

	NOTES:

	[1] _“Holy Baptism, Book of Common Prayer”,_ Church Publishing
Inc., New York. © Pages 302-5 

	2 _“Hymnal 1982”,_ Church Publishing Inc., New York. © 1982 Hymn
number 655


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