the world is
saved through him
Glory to the Holy and Undivided Trinity; God who is Three in
One and One in Three; Who is beyond us, among us, within us; Who was, and is,
and is to come, world without end. Amen.
Good morning. I’m very glad to welcome you to Trinity
Church this morning. In addition to the
fact that today is the 2nd Sunday in Lent, this is also “MemberGuest
Sunday.” This is a Sunday we have
designated especially to welcome visitors to Trinity. You know, maybe I’m telling you something you already know, but
there’s a long-standing joke about Episcopalians who, on the whole, are not
widely known for being very out-going or evangelical. We tend to be less exuberant and expressive in our worship than
some of our Christian relatives. Maybe
our reserved approach to church-going spills over into our reluctance to invite
others to come to church with us. If
you were invited here today by a member, be sure to congratulate them on
pushing themselves and following the gospel message to share the good
news.
Yes, we’re blessed with a
beautiful sanctuary, a wonderful music program and a vibrant Sunday School for
youth. But we don’t want to be the type
to brag. In fact, a lot of us prefer to
keep church and religion all to ourselves.
This makes us less likely to bring a friend to church. I don’t think this is due to a lack of
belief or commitment at all. In fact,
it brings to mind a expression I sometimes hear which says, “still waters run
deep.” Episcopalians are encouraged to
engage questions about God, the Bible, and what we believe. We care deeply about our Christian beliefs
and learning more about them.
Maybe Nicodemus was a
pre-cursor to Episcopalians. He wasn’t
afraid to ask questions about what he was hearing Jesus say. And he was very
under-stated in showing his interest.
Instead of standing up to speak to Jesus as in the synagogues, Nicodemus
sought Jesus out in the middle of the night.
Now that’s really going some to keep things to yourself! At least Episcopalians come to church in
broad daylight! He was trying to
protect himself by keeping his interest under wraps.
One thing most of us like
to keep under wraps is any talk about planning the details of our own or of a
relative’s funeral service. When I
first realized that I was going to be teaching a Sunday School class about
funeral planning on MemberGuest Sunday, I thought, “Darn, Dawn, that’s not very
smart – talking about something which could seem so gloomy.” But then I thought about it and I completely
changed my mind. When you or a family
member dies, where else are you or your family going to want to be but at the
church supported by clergy, surrounded by friends, and upheld by love and
prayer? That’s a time when you
particularly want the church around – to remind you about Christ’s victory over
death and to console you in your loss.
So we acknowledge death as a
time of great sadness for those left behind, but we also understand that this
inevitable human transition in life is one that only people call death. It is not death forever, it is the beginning
of eternal life in the nearer presence of God.
With that knowledge we can be comforted and encouraged. So, welcome to church today Guests and
Members. I hope you [will join
me/joined] me for class today. If you
miss it today, that doesn’t mean you’ve missed your chance to start the
process. Call me and we will sit down and begin to figure it out together. This is an important thing to do.
There are several
little-known notes and rubrics in the Prayer Book. A few of these are contained in a short little service called
“Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child.” This is a service which is supposed to take place as soon as
possible after the birth or adoption to give thanks to God for the child in the
presence of the congregation at a Sunday Service. On page 445, at the end of that service there is an oft
over-looked rubric. It says, “The Minister of the Congregation is
directed to instruct the people, from time to time, about the duty of Christian
parents to make prudent provision for the well-being of their families, and of
all persons to make wills, while they are in health, arranging for the disposal
of their temporal goods, not neglecting, if they are able, to leave bequests for
religious and charitable uses.” If you
think about it, it isn’t very often that you hear your priest reminding you to
write your will. We should talk about
writing wills more often. It is
important to get one written or to get and keep it updated in a timely
manner.
One
of the reasons parishioners are encouraged to make wills is to see that their
families are taken care of. If things
like a last will and testament, a living will or medical power of attorney,
cemetery arrangements and funeral planning are done well in advance of when
they’re needed, it can be one of the most kind things a person can do for their
family. When someone we love dies,
whether it is expected or not, we often find ourselves in a fog of grief where
our emotions are stirred up, it is difficult to think straight, and it might
even feel like we’re functioning underwater.
Surrounded by people, in a state of shock, sadness, grief and
exhaustion, it can be difficult to try to concentrate on attending to details
like making arrangements with the funeral home or planning the service. If we do these things ahead of time, we can
leave our loved ones with less to worry about at such a difficult time. Not to mention, planning your funeral in
advance isn’t morbid, it’s a caring and compassionate thing to do. I finished writing everything down for mine
this weekend. I should have done it
sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t. One
surprising thing about it was that it didn’t turn out to be a sad exercise at
all. In fact, I enjoyed thinking about
which Bible verses and which hymns are the very most meaningful to me and
including them in the service.
I
already have a will. The reason I
decided to plan my funeral service right now is because, as most of you know, I
am leaving for a ten-day trip to the Holy Land on Tuesday. You know, things had been relatively quiet
in Israel for some time. It has only
been within the last month that I’ve begun hearing about some violence on the
border with Gaza again. Still, I’m not
afraid of going to the Holy Land. I
don’t feel that our group will be unsafe.
I am really looking forward to going to these places which heretofore
I’ve only read about in the Bible.
Last
spring, when I went to Turkey, one of the places I visited was called “The Last
Abode of the Virgin Mary” where Jesus’ mother is supposed to have lived out her
last years and where, it is said, she eventually died. It isn’t too far away from Ephesus – where
Paul is said to have lived for three years.
One of the things my itinerary says I will be seeing on Mon., Feb. 25th
is “The Tomb of the Holy Virgin” in Jerusalem.
Now, I don’t know about you, but making sense out of these two claims
about what happened at these distant sites requires me to loosen up on my grip
of knowing how things are and being able to support everything with cool, hard
facts. I see that I’m entering a place
where, perhaps even more than I do here, I need to be willing to hear a variety
of claims and to have an open mind.
Being able to see the underlying message rather than being conflicted by
competing traditions and histories – that’s what’s important. The fact is, we believe that Jesus had a
human mother named Mary. As it will be
with all of us at one time or another, her life in this world ended at a
certain point and in a particular place.
To go to more than one sacred site where her death is traditionally
remembered doesn’t confuse me. More
than anything, I appreciate the power of that which is being revered. In a way, the fact that more than one site
attests to Mary’s power (even after death), makes all sorts of sense – but less
logically.
This
is what Nicodemus needs to learn how to do.
He needs to set logic and exactitude aside in favor of a spiritual
understanding. At some point we all
have to learn to tell the difference between literal and figurative
speech. We learn to separate myth and
legend from factual histories and biographies.
One of the things hearing Nicodemus’ questions show us is that in order
to be complete beings, we are required
to be open minded, to keep on learning and to be willing to change.
There
is always going to be new information, different ways of thinking about things
and a variety of viewpoints. We get
closer to really understanding if we listen openly to what they have to say to
us. Nicodemus wasn’t doing that. Nicodemus heard what Jesus was teaching and
took it all literally. He tried to
understand it all within the framework of what he already knew about childbirth
and the size of adults. The problem is,
when you think you know everything, when you can no longer be receptive, when
you don’t access your spirit of creativity, how are you going to get in touch
with God, with the things in life which transcend language? How will you learn anything about the life
of the spirit if you limit yourself to thinking about the life of the
body?
Let
go of the specifics of words and be open to receive
the testimony of Christ in the gospels. Whoever believes in him is promised
eternal life. Eternal life is something
we’ll never access with the literal application of rules, laws and observations
of the human body. Eternal life is
beyond what we can fully understand, see or touch. The story of Nicodemus says, “Be willing to hear what is being
said. Listen openly and between the words
you can find what is meant by being born from above. It is not something we can put into words.”
“For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the
world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
AMEN