The Reverend Charleston David Wilson
In the Name of the Living God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The gospel appointed for today comes from the eleventh chapter of the gospel according to St. Matthew. Last week we were way back in chapter three. Much has happened in the eight chapters in between where we were and where we are.
Last week St. John the Baptist, the camel hair wearing, locust eating preacher, was baptizing people in the River Jordan, but, this week, we fast-forward and find him nearing the end of his life in prison.
And from prison, John has sent his followers on a mission to find Jesus and ask Him if He is indeed the Messiah or whether or not they should wait for someone else.
Jesus has been busy. In just eight short chapters:
• He’s been tempted by Satan in the wilderness
• He’s preached the Sermon on the Mount
• He’s given His followers a way to pray – the Our Father (or Lord’s Prayer)
• He’s pontificated on a number of subjects, including: money, adultery and prayer
• He’s told some memorable parables
• He’s healed a leaper, two paralytics, St. Peter’s mother-in-law, someone possessed by a demon, the woman with the flow of blood, and two blind men.
• And, finally, He’s attracted twelve men, the Twelve Disciples, and He’s sent them out to teach and preach.
Jesus Himself sums up what He’s been up to when he tells John’s inquisitors:
Go and tell John: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.
And I tell you all of this so that I may ask you a question. And the question is this: Do you believe that any of this stuff still happens today?
Okay, never mind all the other stuff Jesus did from chapter three to chapter eleven. That may be too much to consider right now (just bracket all that), so, if it’s helpful, just consider His own summary of His own work. Blind people see, lame folks get up and walk, dirty people are cleaned up, death turns into life and the poor finally hear some good news.
In a few moments we will conclude the 2017 annual operating campaign, “Because THIS is Redeemer!” And as you and I commit not only our prayers to the year ahead, but also our resources, let me ask you yet another question.
Do you believe that your parish, Church of the Redeemer, is a place where the miracles Jesus talks about can and do happen?
And even if you don’t think these things literally happen here – or anywhere, for that matter – don’t you at least want them to happen in some small way in your own life – if not literally, at least spiritually?
Come on, who among us isn’t here seeking relief from at least one or two spiritual infirmities – say, spiritual blindness or spiritual deafness, just to name a couple?
But Jesus said:
Go and tell John: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.
Let me let you in on a little inside baseball. Not only can these things happen, but they do happen.
Jesus is alive. The Holy Spirit is real. The sacraments have power. Reconciliation is possible. God is at work!
But sometimes it’s just hard to see it. And it’s hard to see it, because we’re so easily distracted.
I wish – I truly wish – I could piously stand here and say that I spent most of my time thinking about the miraculous power of Christ. Actually, I’ve discovered, vis-à-vis a little reflection, that my most repetitive pastime is to lie in bed at 2:00 a.m. and worry: worry about crazy things like my where kids are going to college, or whether or not I can pay the mortgage in Alabama, or what would happen if I got sick, or if Malacy finally gets tired of me and throws in the towel. And on and on.
You know, it’s hard to focus on the miraculous power of grace, when we spend most our time making idols out of and focusing on our fears and distractions!
And there are other, smaller ways to miss the miraculous, too. Let me give you a little comedic relief about how easy it is to focus on distractions – right in the midst of the miraculous.
The day Malacy and I were married (which certainly was miraculous for her to say yes), and just before the groomsmen and I were supposed to meet the priest and altar party in the back of the church, we were instructed to pass by a box of boutonnieres, and we were supposed to pin them on as we entered the nave.
The groomsmen had very nice, very simple, white orchids. And, since I was last to go out, the only thing left in the box was, to my great surprise, this huge, obnoxious corsage – the size of a pie plate – with frilly ribbons and roses and all sorts of stuff.
It turns out the corsage was supposed to be for one of the sweet ladies who helped my parents raise me, but she accidentally picked up my simple boutonniere. I looked in the box, and I wasn’t going to wear it, but my Dad, in typical dad fashion, said, “Son, this is Malacy’s big day, and if she put it out for you to wear, you need to shut up and wear it.” So, I pinned on the corsage and walked down the aisle.
When Malacy came down the aisle, in the midst of the miracle, she had this look of shock and horror on her face, and she was kind of moving her head in an effort to tell me to take off the corsage. Her first words to me at the altar were, and I quote, “Why are you wearing that thing?” Despite the miracle all around us – God joining together two people in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony – all we remember about the day is my corsage! And we have pictures to prove it.
Friends, it would be all too easy for us to become distracted by this or that this busy time of year and completely forget about the miraculous power of Jesus that is manifest and every day in this parish. And it’s just as easy to forget about giving to the parish altogether.
But today is a day not to forget, but to remember. To remember that precisely, “Because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Romans 5:5) miracles happen to you and miracles happen to me.
And in remembering this, let us respond, because THIS is Redeemer!
Sermon preached by the Rev. Charleston D. Wilson
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
3rd Sunday of Advent
11 December, 2016