Online Sermons
Proper 24-A: October 19, The Rev. Dr. Bill Pugliese
As you know, this morning I am going to ordain Addison, Dusty and William as priests. Oh, you didn’t know that, did you? In fact you are probably wondering how I can ordain anyone since I am not a bishop. That is true, yet it is also true that I am going to ordain these three to the priesthood. I will do that by baptizing them. For in and through or baptism we become priests.
Remember what we will say once Addison, Dusty and William are baptized? I will say, “Let us welcome the newly baptized.” You will respond “We welcome you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection and join with us in his eternal priesthood.” “Join with us in his eternal priesthood.” You and I are priests by virtue of our baptism.
The question that might be asked, of course and quite naturally, is, “Then what’s the difference between our priesthood, the one that comes from our baptism and yours and Barbara’s priesthood, the one that came from your ordination through the laying on of the hands of your bishop? Even more, if we are all priest, why do we need you two?” Well, I won’t go there.
What I will say is this: the philosophers and theologians among us would say that there is an ontological difference between the priesthood of all believers that is ours through our baptism and the priesthood that Barbara and I share. This does not mean that we are better. It simply means that we are different. There is a difference in being just as there is a difference in being between someone who is baptized and someone who is not.
If I stood next to you in a lineup wearing street clothes, someone who did not know us could not tell which one of us was a priest who wears a collar and which one was a priest through baptism. Of course, I do remember being on a beach years ago and someone coming up to me and asking me if I were a priest. All I was wearing was a swimsuit. Nevertheless, it is still true that our baptism makes us different, not better, than those who are not baptized.
The truth is, however, that we are called to be better. We are asked to be different. And we know it. But what does that mean? What does it mean in practical terms, this being different? Well, I think today’s three readings speak precisely to that issue. They tell us who we are and what we are to be about, how we are to live our lives, how we fulfill our baptismal and priestly responsibilities.
In the reading from Exodus we hear about Moses’ conversation with God. Throughout the Exodus story, from Moses’ call beside the burning bush, through the march through the desert, up to the entrance of the Hebrew people into the Promised Land, Moses was God’s messenger. He spoke God’s word to the people. He spoke God’s word of love, compassion, forgiveness, rebuke, mercy and justice.
That is what we are called to be as well. We are to speak God’s word of love, compassion, forgiveness, rebuke, mercy and justice to everyone we meet, wherever we meet them. That is not always easy, of course, as we all have learned over the years as we have tried to live out our baptismal responsibilities. We fail perhaps as often as we succeed, but this responsibility to speak God’s word, to indeed speak for God, never goes away. Never.
Like Moses we are to speak God’s word. We are also supposed to be like the people of Thessalonica to whom Paul is writing in today’ second lesson. Pau wrote to them because he had some issue he needed to deal with. But he begins his letter by praising them for the good example in bring others to the fail. These Thessalonians were living example, living reminders, to everyone they encountered of their faith in Jesus.
We, too, are supposed to be living reminders to everyone we meet each day of our lives of our faith in Jesus. We are t teach by example. Again, as with being God’s messenger, that is not easy. In fact, it is often very difficult. Given our human inclination to be selfish, there are many occasions when we would rather do what we know we should not do and thus be a wrong example of our faith, than to be strong, abstain from those selfish inclinations, and be a living reminder, or in a word, be a priest of God.
As baptized people, as part of the priesthood of all believers, we are God’s messengers, speaking God’s word, living examples, living reminders of our faith. We do all we can to respect the dignity of every human being as we seek to see and see and serve the Jesus we meet in every person who comes into our lives.
That is where today’s Gospel story comes in. It is not so much Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees and Herodians about offering tribute to the emperor as it is what these very people say about Jesus. First of all, they say that he is sincere. Do you know what that word means? It comes from two Latin words, sine and cera. It means “without wax,” Years ago I purchased a piece of furniture. When it was delivered, I spotted a sling scratch and pointed it to the deliveryman. He looked at it, put his hand in his pocket, pulled out a brown wax crayon and covered up the scratch.
What people saw in Jesus is what they got. What people see in us is what they should see: our good and our bad. We don’t try to cover up or hide our imperfections but we do not allow them to deter us in speaking God’s word or living out our lives as best we can. WE admit our mistakes and try to be better the next time.
Not only was Jesus sincere, he also, according to the Pharisees and Herodians, taught “the way of God in accordance with truth.” Jesus was honest at all times everywhere. He did not manipulate the scriptures to prove a point of have it his way as did the Pharisees all too often. The truth is the truth and the truth is that sometimes the truth hurts. But living truthfully also keeps us from hurting others as well as hurting ourselves.
And finally, Jesus showed “deference to no one.” Everyone was equal in Jesus’ eyes and everyone is to be equal in our eyes as well. Again, we, too, are to respect the dignity of every human being just as Jesus did, Jesus, with whom we share in his eternal priesthood. And so we are about to baptize Addison, Dusty and William thereby making them priests of God, messengers of God’s word, living examples of their faith, sincere, truthful and loving everyone.
None of this will come naturally for them. That is why they are here and why we are here. We are about to promise them that we will support them in their life of faith, that we will do all we can to uphold them. And we will do it by being God’s messengers to them, praising them when we should, correcting them we necessary, loving them, always, just as others did for us. We will show them by the example of our lives what it means to be a priest of God, just as others did for us. We will be sincere, truthful and never play favorites, just as others were for us.
We can and we will because we have the love and support of one another and because we are fed in and through the Eucharist. May God continue to bless them in their priesthood and continue to bless us in ours.
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