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To: UPCHAT
From: Jim Kelsey
I have been asked to post to UPCHAT my sermon from this morning (Aug
10th) which I gave at St Jude's Church in Curtis. It's not that it's
the be all and end all - but it does share some of what I'm thinking and
feeling about the General Convention just completed, in light of today's
gospel (John 6:37-51). (My words about General Convention are
towards the end.)
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James A. Kelsey
Sermon, 9 Pentecost (14-B)
August 10,
2003
St. Jude's Church, Curtis, MI
I'll never forget the first time I saw bread dough rise. I was
just a little tyke, just old enough to have grasped the basic tenets of
snitching a snack from the kitchen (a basic life skill I'm afraid I
mastered a little bit too
well).
On this particular
day, I happened into the kitchen to discover a big brown bowl, pushed into
the corner of the counter, covered with a wet dish cloth. With a great
sense of adventure and mouth a-watering, I pushed a chair over to the
counter, climbed up, reached across & pulled off the wet towel only to
discover a small tan lump of very uninteresting & unappetizing
substance in the bottom of a bowl which, by the way, seemed much too big
for the lump inside. Hoping beyond hope that the dull brown wad might turn
out to be some tasty cookie or cake dough, I pushed at it with my
finger. It bounced back - without leaving so much as a trace of the
customary gooey glop on my fingertip. In utter disgust, I re-covered
the bowl with the dish rag and raided the refrigerator. But later that
afternoon when I wandered back into the kitchen I discovered, to my
amazement, that that tiny wad of dough had been transformed into a huge
mound enough, in fact, to cook into two piping hot loaves of bread. And
that was my first experience with the miracle of yeast.
My appreciation of the wonder ingredient was only slightly diminished
when some time later I discovered that the substance is, in fact, teeming
with live bacteria. I have to admit it did take me a while after learning
that to swallow a mouthful of bread without thinking about all those busy
little creatures running back & forth down my throat and
through my digestive system.
In any case, it's not so much a mystery to me why bread is such an
important symbol in scripture and in the tradition of our faith. It was,
of course, in the breaking and eating of bread that the Risen Jesus was
first known to those disciples on the Road to Emmaus. Just as, a few
nights before, we are told, he had broken bread with his closest friends
and said, "Do this in remembrance of me". "This is my Body," he had
said. Even earlier in his ministry, as the gospel lesson this
morning reminds us, bread was an important sign & symbol for Jesus.
With it, he had fed the multitude, and now the people were saying, "It's
just like when Moses caused manna to come down from heaven". To which, we
are told, Jesus replied, "No, it's more than that. Because what I
bring is a true Bread from heaven; if you eat of this bread, you will live
forever". "I am the bread of life", he said. And thinking back to that
miracle on the kitchen counter I think I understand what he was talking
about.
It is no coincidence that the words "Easter" and "yeast" sound so
much alike. Both have to do with rising; both deal with leavening, a
bonding together, a rising up, a new life & a new identity. Easter
people - like you and me who are friends & followers of Jesus - are
yeasty people. And just as yeast goes into the bread dough, spreading its
bacteria around and causing bonding & rising, so, in our world, we are
like yeast, or leaven, going out from here into our daily lives, spreading
around our influence as God's people in the world as Easter people -
filled with Christ's yeast of Love. And by spreading around the influence
of Jesus you and I actually bring about a transformation.
Could that be possible? That people you and I come into contact with
have God's yeast spread into their hearts? Not because we are especially
good or holy people - but, just because the yeast spreads from us to them
- because we are like carriers. And the people we come into contact with
are touched & transformed by that same power of love which has touched
& transformed our own hearts.
That's why it makes a difference how we each leave here and go out
into the world as God's people - because you and I actually affect our
environment with our attitudes and behavior. Think about it. If you and I
go out from here and take out into the world a spirit of malice &
evil, - if we spread mistrust & suspicion & fear & prejudice
we will be causing that kind of leaven to infiltrate and transform our
society. But if, instead, we take out a simplicity of sincerity &
truth a simple love & hope, we will be causing a very different
leavening to take place.
And so, these questions become important: What kind of a people are
we? What kind of a community do we - as a family of faith - represent to
our neighbors? Do they know us by our love?
One of the oldest Christian books we have (other than the Bible)was
written around the year 150 A.D.. It's called the "Didache", and it was
written to teach the basics of the faith to new converts. There is
one passage which has always stuck in my mind and touched my soul. As a
matter of fact, it may be a familiar passage to you as well, since it
appears in an old hymn (#303 in the 1982 Hymnal). (It has as its
first line: "Father, we thank thee who hast planted". The
verse I'm thinking of goes like this:
As grain, once scattered on
the hillsides,
Was in this
broken bread made one,
So
from all lands thy Church be
gathered
Into thy kingdom by
thy Son.
Mary and I have just returned from the 74th General Convention of the
Episcopal Church held over the past two weeks in Minneapolis. I suspect
everyone here has heard about one particular decision which was made
there: the Consent to the election of Gene Robinson to become the next
bishop of New Hampshire. I am personally delighted with the result of the
votes, because I have been a close personal friend of Gene's for almost 30
years and I am well aware of the tremendous faith and gifts he brings to
the office of bishop in our Church. I am also pleased because I
think this gives the Episcopal Church the opportunity to affirm what we
believe about justice and full inclusion in our Church and in our world
and how we respect the dignity of every human being (as our baptismal
covenant says).
I am also aware that there are some in our Church who do not share my
joy in this decision (maybe some of you). It's hard when good &
faithful people disagree about such matters. Somehow, in Minneapolis these
past two weeks, we had to discover ways of staying together within the
embrace of God's Love even while we disagreed - sometimes significantly
about some very important things.
For me, all of this brings to life our scripture readings this
morning and that old hymn from the Didache. As grain once scattered on the
hillsides was in this broken bread made one. So from all lands thy Church
be gathered... and from all perspectives - about human sexuality &
other potentially divisive issues - ...may thy Church be gathered into Thy
Kingdom by Thy Son".
You know, each generation before us has had to deal with change and
the crossing of new thresholds regarding human slavery and race relations
and women's issues, and so on. And now, for this generation, it seems to
be issues around human sexuality which is tying us up into knots. But
somehow, when we remember how the Love of God holds us all together as we
move ahead into new social insights even as we seek to honor those who
disagree with us around one of these issues or another; somehow, when we
remember how God's love is bigger & greater than any of our preciously
held convictions, we have the chance to show the rest of the world how
Unity in the Spirit really works. It does not mean unanimity. It does mean
learning to live together even when we disagree. And, for me, it has to do
with how we are the Body of Christ, how we are gathered together from
throughout the world (as we certainly were in Minneapolis these past two
weeks), how we are gathered together from so many different perspectives
and made into one loaf - filled with the living & teeming yeast of
Christ's love; then broken, (as sometimes we are in our disagreements);
then blessed (as God always does, even in our brokenness); then shared
with the world as the very presence of God's love in the midst of all that
threatens to divide us.
"I am the Bread of Life," Jesus said. And today, we are still
fed from the one loaf and together we go forth into the world to be a
witness to his love. AMEN.
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