Online Sermons
4th Sunday in Easter: April May 3, Leslee Sandberg
Welcome to our website. You are here: The Word --> Online SermonsGracious God, bless us and guide us to listen and hear, to understand and share your Word with each other. Amen.
I’d like to say at the beginning of this homily that I respect and admire those who are called to preach – especially weekend after weekend. There is a significant amount of time that goes in to creating a 10 minute message. In fact, it could nearly be said that the ratio is one hour of prep to one minute of speaking!
I have always admired and appreciated the writings of Henri Nouwen. They are brief, to the point and very inspirational. Here is a stack from my library. I once had a goal of reading everything that Henri Nouwen ever wrote.
Henri was born in the Netherlands where he was ordained to the priesthood. He was a teacher and university professor, having taught in Utrecht Holland, Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard. He left academia to live with persons with developmental disabilities at the L’Arche Community of Daybreak in Toronto Canada. Henri died after a sudden heart attack on September 21, 1996. There are L’Arche Communities all over the United States, the closest one to us is in Clinton.
Henri Nouwen was a spiritual thinker, and one of the first of our time to consciously develop a "theology of the heart" and to lay this down as a template for both clergy and lay persons. His writings read so naturally, his words feel like words you have had in your head somewhere just waiting to be organized into logical thoughts!
Henri showed, and continues to show,” how one's gifts are to be placed at the service of those whom God places in our path.” He gives us a model for building the kinds of relationships and communities that will allow each person to find his or her personal mission.Henri always stressed the relational. He writes very directly about our contemporary longings for meaning, belonging, and intimacy and, at the same time, integrates this with a powerful vision of service and social justice. Fr. Nouwen often used the three core themes of solitude, community, and compassion (ministry) to help people enter into a fresh vision of the spiritual life.
"I believe you can look at solitude, community, and ministry (compassion) as three disciplines by which we create space for God. If we create space in which God can act and speak, something surprising will happen. You and I are called to these disciplines if we want to be disciples." --Henri J. M. Nouwen
My definitions:
Solitude – taking the time to be alone with ourselves and with God; to enter into prayer, to meditate, to be quiet; to find that place – in your home, outdoors, or in the quiet of this sanctuary; to contemplate; discern; to listen. Being in solitude is not something that I do very well. So, for me it was the 33 days of radiation treatments in Dec and January of this year where I was unable to DO anything for three minutes a session – to lie there and listen and simply receive what was there to receive – the whirring of the machine as it crossed over my chest in the midst of otherwise silence. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want…. How do you find moments of solitude?Community – to be in relationship with others; to care for others, to serve and be served; to know how to get along even though there may be differences of opinion at times; to appreciate the similarities and the differences in the community – to be welcoming – to be steeped in the ministry of hospitality.
Again, for me, it is this church community of Christ Episcopal Church. “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.” (Ps 133). This verse became our Tenth Anniversary theme. As I look back on our time as a merged church – we have grown to know each other, to love each other – and to love this church – not only Christ Church but the Episcopal Church. Our church’s hospitality has been shown over and over again as we invited others to be part of this community.
Most recently in March and April we hosted two different groups of people. The first was the Diocesan Jubilee Officer Gathering. Thirty five people from Maine to California and from Minnesota to Texas, from Barbados to Haiti to Puerto Rico were here planning for the future of Jubilee Ministry in the Episcopal Church. Christ Church provided meeting space and meals. The DJOs were blown away by the care that was provided to them – strangers who were welcomed to our community, who were fed by people who truly were happy to receive them into the community of Christ Church.
There are many holy moments that happen in community. One happened when the DJO group heard Dr. Paula Sanchini – on a Friday night, give an impassioned talk about the unsafe drinking water of Swaziland and the use of the chlorinator to create safer water. When Paula finished, several hands went up in the air to express excitement at this simple invention. All eyes were on the Rev. Kesner Ajax from the Diocese of Haiti who said “Yes, a chlorinator would help to being safer drinking water to the people of Haiti.” The next morning, Dan Rockwell came to the parish hall kitchen and taught Kesner how to use the chlorinator. The DJOs raised enough money among themselves to send a chlorinator to Haiti and the Jubilee Ministries at CEC purchased two more. One week later we received an email and photos from Kesner as he was teaching HIS students how to use the chlorinators.
Here is another example of hospitality. From April 19 to 25, we hosted a group of 9 youth and 4 adults from the diocese of Massachusetts, from Christ Episcopal Church in Needham. They slept on cots right here in our Sunday School rooms, had breakfast in the parish hall, packed their lunches and went to work in flood recovery and rebuilding. They returned each evening after showering at the YMCA and were fed their evening meal (on all nights except one when they went as a group to The LoneStar – where it was reported one young man ate a 20 ounce porterhouse steak and half of another one’s steak!). Here are a few comments from the journal written by our mission group from Needham, Mass:
“To everyone at Christ Church,
This was my first mission trip with our youth group. What an amazing experience. Thank you so much. Your hospitality, organization, how you welcomed and cared for us. The food was amazing. I have grown because of this experience. The people of your parish and community were so thankful, but so am I.”“Dear Christ Church:
Your hospitality and devotion is truly a blessing and a beautiful witness to God’s love. We have been honored and privileged to share this week with you and your city. Please know that Cedar Rapids and Iowa will be in my prayers in the weeks to come.”Finally, Compassion – Wikipedia defines it as profound human emotion prompted by the pain of others. More vigorous than empathy, the feeling commonly gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another's suffering.
Webster’s definition: sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate itActive desire to alleviate another’s suffering. The 23rd Psalm, our psalm for today, is often read at funerals – a time of suffering and grief by those who have lost a loved one. The “darkest valley is an image for terrible distress or suffering or the nearness of death. Yet the Psalmist declares no fear of evil because the Lord is with them, comforting them and protecting them.; alleviating their suffering. The Israelites as the flock were comforted by the image of the Lord as shepherd – as they wandered in the wilderness, they lacked nothing. I find the 23rd Psalm to provide a feeling of security and comfort even when there is NOT a time of distress or suffering. How wonderful it is to know that the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. God’s compassion is evident in the psalm.
Today’s gospel has another compassionate shepherd theme: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away-and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. The shepherd is in it for the long haul and is willing to risk life for the beloved sheep.
So how might we take this image of the shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep? We look to Jesus for the model for our own behavior. Our reading from 1 John tells us:
“We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us - and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Let us love, not in words or speech, but in truth and action.”
Let us love in truth and in action. Laying down a life for someone else is about the last action a person could take! But let us look at it as a metaphor for compassion.
Compassion – a desire to eliminate others’ distress. It is in the people who serve at Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry. It is in the people who visit the sick, shut in, the dying. It is in those who regularly go into the prisons to teach, pray and be in God’s presence together with those who are incarcerated. It is in those who advocate for justice for those who are oppressed. It is love in truth and in action
Henri Nouwen used these three core themes of solitude, community, and compassion to help people enter into a fresh vision of the spiritual life. I will leave us with a set of questions for each of us to ponder in the next minutes or week or lifetime! How do we each seek the solitude that allows us to listen to God? How do we live in community? What are the communities that give each of us that sense of belonging and meaning? Who else could we invite to be part of our community at Christ Church? Where do we each find the compassion that gives us a desire to help someone in distress? How do we each find ways to love in truth and in action?
Let us pray:
Most loving God, As your desire for mercy for the poor is unrelenting, may we be unrelenting in our pursuit of mercy for all; As your compassion for the suffering of the poor knows no limit, may our hearts overflow with compassion for all; As you long for justice for the poor, may we strive for justice for all. Forgive us our meager faith that doubts your providence and bounty, and our abiding neglect of your Son in the poor and needy of the world; Open our eyes to the structures of oppression from which we benefit, and give us courage to accept our responsibility, wisdom to chart a sound course amid complexity, and perseverance to continue our work until it is thoroughly finished. Breathe your life-giving Spirit afresh into your Church to free us from apathy and indifference, and so bless and direct our endeavors that we may be agents of your mercy, compassion, and justice, to the end that new life and hope may abound and your Name be praised in every place; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.