EPIPHANY 4-C, January 28, 2007

Today’s readings, on this the day of our Annual Meeting, strike me as somehow quite providential. I say this as a preface to what I want to say. Jeremiah was a reluctant prophet. He did not want to go to the people to speak God’s word to them because he knew they would not want to hear what he had to say. He knew they would not want to hear the truth. In the Gospel when Jesus spoke the truth to his family and friends, they were so incensed, so angry, the wanted to kill him. I trust you will not have that same desire by the time I have finished. For what I am about to say, I say it reluctantly but I say it in love.

I don't know where the expression "out of the clear blue sky" originated, but I do know that it is only an expression – and an incorrect one at that. Nothing ever happens out of the clear blue sky. There is always reason. There is also no such thing as fate. There is dumb luck; there are accidents; there is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But nothing happens out of the clear blue sky. When something happens, it happens because it is the result of something else, which was the result of something before that, ad infinitum.

The opposite is just as true. Good luck, safe outcomes, being in the right place at the right time – none of that happens out of the clear blue sky either. The good as well as the bad that takes place in our lives are the result of that which came before. If we don't want to get wet, we have to get in out of the rain, or at least raise an umbrella over our head. We can curse the rain that fell on our parade (which was the result of atmospheric conditions); we can lament our fate; or we can do something positive.

What are we going to do now that it rained? What are we going to do now that a problem has arisen, a problem that was the result of something else, which was the result of something else before that? We may be upset that we are the unfortunate inheritors of the problem because we were in the wrong place at the wrong time; but the problem did not happen out of the clear blue sky and it will not be resolved by some gift or miracle from heaven. We have to resolve it.

As human beings we are faced with such situations every day. When we arose from bed this morning, we were faced with a set of problems, large and small, personal and worldwide that were the results of what happened yesterday and they yesterdays before. Poverty, the War in Iraq, personal illness, family or job issues: the list is endless. We could have stayed in bed, buried our heads under the covers and hoped they would go away – that a miracle from heaven solved the problems for us.

We could ignore the problems today for another day knowing full well that the problems will only be worse tomorrow. We could even protest that some of the problems are not our problems. We would be foolish to ignore and wrong to protest. Every problem becomes our problem when we notice the problem. When Jesus encountered a problem, that problem became his problem. It became his business. He had a responsibility to respond.

We, too, have a responsibility and we have, like Jesus, a respond-ability. We must respond to the problems we encounter because they are now our problem. But we also have the ability to respond. In faith we know that God will give us all that we need to make the correct response. God will give us, not give someone else, and not do it for us. In fact, whether we realize it or not, whether we believe it or not, we already have in hand, in our person, all that we need to respond. The reason why we have been given the grace to recognize the problem, whatever the problem, is that we have in us the ability to help solve the problem.

What Robert Capon says about happiness, so, I think, we can say about anything that happens to us in this life. Happiness, says Capon, is the ability to accept whatever happens to us gratefully or to reconcile it patiently. We are grateful for the good things that happen to us, the blessing given to us; or we, with God’s help and the help of one another, patiently reconcile the situation.

Neither Jesus nor Jeremiah may ever have accepted what happened to them gratefully. I mean, who would? What sane person would gratefully accept persecution, resentment, and ridicule? No one. And, I dare say, neither did they. But what Jesus and Jeremiah did do was reconcile everything that happened to them; and they reconciled it patiently, because that was the only way. And each was able to do so because God gave them everything they needed to do whatever needed to be done.

We are here this morning not because of fate but simply because of everything that happened in our lives up to that date. I remember years ago complaining to a Senior Warden because things weren't what I expected. And as only Roger, that Senior Warden could do, he simply smiled and asked, "Well, now that you're here, what are you going to do about it?" If I was looking for sympathy, I needed to look elsewhere. And I have never forgotten that conversation.

Roger's point was that what I needed to do was patiently reconcile the situation – make the best and the most of it. What he did not say because he knew I knew what he was thinking was that if I truly wanted to make the best of the situation, I had at hand all that I needed to reconcile it, to make the most of it.

All of this brings me to my main point. For the past several years we have had a financial problem here at Christ Church. My suspicion is that no matter how many letters you received from me stating that we had a problem, not many really believed me. In order to balance our budget, we have had to use monies willed to us by those who have died. That was never the intent of those gifts. Those monies were given mainly to insure the continued upkeep of these facilities and not for the day to day expenses.

This morning another deficit budget will be presented because, at the moment, we do not have enough financial commitment to present a balanced budget. In other words we have a problem. That problem is our problem, yours and mine. It did not occur out of the clear blue sky. And it was not fate that brought us here, you and I, to become the victims, if you will, of this problem. The solution to this problem will not come out of the clear blue sky either.

Again, the reason that Jeremiah and Jesus were able to respond to God's call even though each did not really like the situation they were called to address was that both deeply believed that everything they needed to address and reconcile the problems was within themselves. God had given each one of them the gifts that each would need to do what needed to be done. Whatever it would take, they already had.

The same is true for you and for me. I deeply believe that whatever it takes for us to respond to this financial problem, whatever it takes, we already have the means to respond. As my friend Roger would say, now that we see the problem, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to reconcile it?

There is nothing we cannot do when confronted with a problem, especially this one. God has already given us what we need to reconcile the situation, whether we realize it or not, whether we believe it or not. We have the needed financial resources. I believe that. I trust that you believe it as well and that you will willingly respond to remedy and reconcile the problem.