lenten sermon: Quittez, Pasteurs!
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring us with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth ~ of your Word Jesus Christ your Son, whose New Commandment is that we love one another as he has loved us. (You may be seated)
Quittez, Pasteurs!
Now quit your care and anxious fear and worry.
For schemes are vain, and fretting brings no gain
To bow the head in sackcloth and ashes, or
rend the soul, such grief is not Lent’s goal.
Lent calls to prayer, to trust and dedication.
God brings new beauty nigh. Reply, reply,
Reply with love to Love Most High.
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When the Reverend John Claypool was overcome with grief, and struggling with near-suicidal despair at the death of his daughter, a pastor friend told him, John,
“For every Loss there is a Gain”
you have to be willing to find it, to see it.
And although John was enraged that someone would speak to him of gain after losing his daughter, over time John made himself see it, that it was true; and gradually he let it be so - -
For every Loss there’s a Gain.
But you have to look for it, you have to be willing to see it - -
even if, as with John Claypool,
it’s a desperate act of self-preservation.
You would never have chosen the loss, it's
beyond your control, unbearably painful,
but (though it not compensate) there’s a gain of some sort. Being willing to find it, to see it, to own it may give you something to cling to, may save your sanity, may even save your life.
2018
No Way would we have chosen Spring, Summer, Fall 2018, family disaster and Hurricane Michael, but we found a Gain in that Loss. We had been contemplating selling our daughter’s house and investing the proceeds in a house more suitable for her loving family who came home to live with her and care for her after her ruptured cranial aneurysm,
three brain surgeries and a stroke,
but the market value of her house was discouraging. Then,
Hurricane Michael left her house unlivable,
declared a total loss, and
replacement-cost insurance paid nearly double its market value; and she and her family are now in a much more livable house. Almost as if life itself tried somehow to assure us, and we noticed, and are grateful.
No Way would we choose Hurricane Michael, and never, never a daughter’s brain damage, but here we are. For every Loss, a Gain if you let yourself see it and claim it.
covid
No Way would any of us here choose the covid-19 pandemic that threatens human life on Earth. But, have you noticed? - - more news about conquering disease and less news about waging war. After the pandemic, we humans will get back to killing each other for no good reason, but for now,
a Gain in the midst of Loss.
It depends on perspective,
how you let yourself see life itself.
church
There’s lots more, of course. You can find your own personal gain and loss experiences, but I’ll share some of mine as a priest:
The pandemic has made bishops tell us
+ cut down on time gathered in worship on Sunday mornings, because Time together is risk of exposure to covid. So we are leaving out most of the wonderful Bible readings, a loss.
+ avoid standing to pray or recite or sing because breath expels vapor droplets that can spread covid. So we no longer sing hymns, a loss -
creed
But (and I’m not being irreverent or facetious) we no longer stand to say the Nicene Creed, and to me that loss is a Gain, because I know the history of the Nicene Creed, I know the reasons and theology of every phrase in the Nicene Creed.
Like the Athanasian Creed, the Nicene Creed is a noble antiquity to file in the back of the Prayer Book among “Historical Documents”; but we do not need to stand and solemnly recite assertions of faith beyond human knowing, reason, and understanding that, 18-hundred years ago, flat-earth, firmament-bound bishops fought over, and deposed each other, and banished each other, and killed each other about, and voted to decide what is true and what is false, what will be held up as doctrine and what will be condemned as heresy; that Roman Empire Caesar Constantine then approved: the 4th century mandating what 21st century Christians are to stand and say “We believe”.
Granted, liturgical worship needs a creed: with its covenantal promises, the Apostles & Baptismal Creed of The Great Vigil of Easter is a far more scriptural and faith-driven commitment: IT should be our Sunday creed, the creed of the Eucharist. A loss and a greater gain.
chalice
For Holy Communion during covid, we’ve lost the chalice, wine given as the Blood of Christ. But in recent years, more and more people have been declining the chalice for fear of contagion, and the Church is aware of this. Losing the chalice is a Gain that makes everyone’s bread-only host-only Communion outward-and-visibly the same, which inward-and-spiritually it always has been anyway.
lent
Lent is a Penitential Season for self-examination, but not for compiling a taxonomy of sins and offenses that you bring guilt-ridden in shame to liturgical Confession of Sin every Sunday. Granted, by Christian doctrine you’re a sinner, and the pre-Reformation Church played fear of Hell to the Max for power and control - - but stand outside at night and look up into God’s vast universe of trillions of galaxies, each the incomprehensible size and space and distance of our own Milky Way Galaxy, and realize that Creation and Creator are not about your sins, but about a God of love,
God’s immeasurable gift of Love.
For every Loss there’s a Gain if only you see it. Lent is time to lose your sins and gain your freedom. In fact,
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who repent and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive you all your offenses; and by his authority committed to me, I absolve you from all your sins: In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord has put away your sins, you are free! Rejoice and give thanks, Hallelujah!
Quittez, Pasteurs!
Now quit your care and anxious fear and worry.
For schemes are vain, and fretting brings no gain
To bow the head in sackcloth and ashes, or
rend the soul, such grief is not Lent’s goal.
Lent calls to prayer, to trust and dedication.
God brings new beauty nigh. Reply, reply,
Reply with love to love most high.
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Sermon on 28 Feb 2021, 2nd Sunday in Lent, Year B, Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida, the Rev Tom Weller (Retired), Priest Associate of the Parish. Texts: Collect for the Day, Sequence Hymn, and Life Itself.
Universe and Man. Yes, I used this illumination once or twice during our recent study of the Gospel according to Mark! It fits again: a human daring to rip through the Firmament and peer into the dwelling place of God.