The Red Letter Gospel of God the Father

Do you know why we stand for the Gospel? NOT to stretch our legs! It is our theology that Christ himself comes personally present IN AND AS the Gospel, as the Gospel is read and heard. We stand in the presence of the Holy One. You may now be seated.

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In his sermon last week, Father Steve shared a column from “Sean of the South,” Sean Dietrich, whose humanity knows no bounds. If Steve had not done that, my sermon this morning would be to read Sean’s column for yesterday, in which he responds like an Old Testament prophet, to an email challenging his Christianity:

“Dear Sean, are you a Christian? Sometimes I can’t tell. There is only one way to heaven, and your ‘tolerance for all,’ and ‘just be a good person’ philosophy sounds fine, but it leads to hell.

“...Hell is real, Sean. I read about your affinity for alcohol, and how you condone flagrant sinners. …As a Christian, I find your feel-good writing to be misleading and disgusting to Believers. There is only one way to heaven… and I believe you know this. I am not saying any of this in judgment, I am only saying this as your brother. Repent, friend. The time is at hand.”

In response, Sean lets his correspondent have it with both barrels that could have been an Oracle of God from the Prophet Isaiah. I’ll not read Sean’s column, you can read it yourself, but I will talk about Isaiah, and at the end of my sermon transcript that I always post online because a dear friend asked me to, I’ll paste a print of Sean’s column in case you missed it.

Like Sean of the South, with Isaiah’s most elegant sarcasm, God is scathing this morning, God the Father, scolding, chiding, chastising, chastening, fiery.

The Isaiah reading is an Oracle: “red letter words” of God himself personally speaking; God speaking pellucidly - ! - superabundantly more than clear, as clear as a clap of thunder - - far more clear than anything Saint Paul ever wrote - -

except 1 Corinthians 13, “If I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. … So abide Faith, Hope, and Love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.”

Christianity is love and sacrifice - - not religious rules, not a faith statement. Yet, for many people, rules, belief, faith is greater than love. To that, in oracle today, God speaks divine corrective, sharp and powerful through Isaiah.

Jesus “did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets,” and Isaiah is not liturgical tradition that we pass through on our way to the Gospel; rather, God’s oracle through Isaiah is The Red Letter Gospel of God the Father.

We stand up for the Gospel reading because it is our theology that Christ Himself comes present in and as the reading as we read and hear; but we well might already have been standing fearfully in awe, because God Almighty Father is personally present and speaking in and as the Oracle,

> as fully present and speaking as God in the burning bush with Moses.

> As fully present and speaking as God on the mountaintop with Moses and Elijah, declaring of Jesus, “This is my Beloved Son, listen to him.”

So, listen to the Oracle of God the Father:

"Day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways - -

as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the laws of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgments,
they delight to draw near - -."

“Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why should we humble ourselves, when you pay no attention?”

"Look, you serve your own interests,
you oppress other people.

Look, you quarrel and fight
and strike with a wicked fist.

Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.

Is SUCH the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?

Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call THIS a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not THIS the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?

to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house.

When you see the naked, to cover them … ?

THEN your light shall break forth like the dawn.

If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

THEN your light shall rise in the darkness."

After so sharp a Bible message, my practice might be for us to stand and renew our Baptismal Covenant, which expresses the entirety of the Christian Faith: Do You Believe, and therefore, WILL You? - - climaxing with its life challenge,

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

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

I do not ask that we renew our Covenant this morning, lest it give us a sense of relief, of having put out God’s fire and made everything right; because everything is NOT right. Human decency collapses in certainty, prejudice, hatred, war, contempt, obsession with personal rights.

We degrade each other with contemptuous epithets: LibTard, Socialist, Communist, Right Wing Extremist, Nazi, White Supremacist (not that we are bold about it, we slam other people anonymously, on social media, as courageously as road rage drivers).

We let populist leaders exacerbate political, social, religious, and personal differences to separate and divide us, to isolate voting blocs, like hate-mongers, rabble-rousers who stir up angry mobs.

Into our age, speaking again through the prophet Isaiah, The Red Letter Gospel of God the Father says "You are so worshipful of me, but look how you treat other people."

Your call, Christian, is NOT to die having believed your way into Heaven, but to live into the sacrament of Baptism, in your daily life, all your days OF life. To live kindly and generously in God’s Creation, mindful of God chiding you - -

From Isaiah this morning - - - the Red Letter Gospel of God the Father is NOT - - good news!

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Homiletic endeavor of the Rev Tom Weller, Episcopal priest (retired), in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida on the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, 5 February 2023.

Text: the first reading, Isaiah 58:1-12.

Art pinched on line: Ed Ruscha, Miracle #64. 1975. The National Galleries of Scotland.

+++++++++++ reprinted sans consent, I will take down if asked:

Sean of the South

February 4, 2023

Dear Friend. Gosh. First of all, your concern for my soul humbles me. I am honored. You sound like someone I could be friends with.

Thank you for taking time to write such a stirring and unsolicited email.

It’s funny, I used to know an elderly retired preacher who said that someone’s eternal soul was like their groin region. To just walk up and start talking about someone’s groinal region is rude and downright uncalled for. But congratulations to you. You just jumped right in there.

The writer in me needs to tell you that your letter was extremely well written. Not one grammatical error. I am verry empressed. I actually counted your total words. There were 912. It takes me hours to write 900 error-free words.

Ergo, you spent at least an hour out of your day writing to me. How unselfish.

I’ll bet you spend the same amount of time worrying about children who are born to crack-addicted parents. I’ll bet, each day, you visit those drug-addicted babies in their lowly states.

I’ll bet you are also a frequent volunteer in the NICU, holding motherless and fatherless babies, so they don’t die of neglect. Kudos to you, sir. I wish I could be like you.

You probably also visit the homeless shelters and hand out quilts to those suffering from frostbite. Those same homeless persons with mental illness, who cuss too much, drink too much and snort illegal substances. Those “flagrant sinners” you mentioned.

And yet, you took time out of your schedule to write little old me. Amazing.

You could have been making a visit to the pediatric oncology ward and providing joy and gladness to children who won’t see tomorrow’s sunrise.

You could have been visiting a local animal shelter and taking abused dogs on walks. Dogs like Pirate, the pitbull who was dragged behind a car for a mile, suffering road rash and a fractured skull. Or Macy, who was beaten so hard by her previous owner she went blind.

Instead of writing to me, you could have been visiting foster homes in your area. You could have been hanging out with Sánja, the young man who found his mother after she shot herself in the kitchen.

Sánja has PTSD pretty bad, and a host of other mental issues. And do you know what his doctor recommended? Laughter. So sometimes people visit him just to make him laugh. Because his doctor says laughter is more healing than meds.

Just think, friend, you could have been visiting Sánja, but you emailed me instead. I am flattered you think so highly of me.

Or you could have been going to the nursing home. Did you know that 60 percent of nursing home seniors within the U.S. never receive visitors? Zero visitors. They are America’s forgotten population. Thank you for valuing me more than them.

Moreover, you are right about me, sir. I am not the kind of man I should be. I am not a good person. I am selfish, I am competitive, I have an ego I can’t seem to subdue. I hang out in beer joints, I watch baseball in sports bars, I listen to George Jones on purpose, I rub elbows with people you would despise. I cuss a little.

If I end up in hell, all I can say is: God is justified in sending me there. Because I deserve it. I am irreverent and flawed. A guy with lots of problems. When it comes to faith, I doubt. I falter. I am proud. I am lazy. Truth be told, I don’t have a lot of faith.

Then again. Thankfully, I was once told by a Friend that it doesn’t take much.