Fifth
Sunday of Lent
I’d like to share with
you a little bit about my journey of faith.
I’m sure that some of you will be able to relate with the trajectory and say that was me—others of you might say –
looks like my young adult child or
grandchild is on right now.
I grew up in the Roman
Catholic Church—I went to mass quite frequently—I remember it being every
weekend –but even thirty years ago— I know that sports interfered with my
church attendance— there were many a Sunday where I was off at a swim meet. My life in the Catholic Church continued
until I was 15 or 16—it was then that I was confirmed and I began to make adult
decisions about my faith.
My adult decision was to
not attend church. As I grew into
adulthood I gave very little thought to my faith or the church. During college
the only time I gave God or the church a second thought was when I took a
philosophy class and we talk about silly things like if God is all powerful can
God create a rock that God cannot lift.
After college I moved to
Pennsylvania- where Chrishelle was going to graduate school. At some point around the age of 23—I began to
have this desire to reconnect with the Church— One Sunday I drove around the
town we lived and looked at church
signs-- When I came across the Episcopal Church I remembered my mom saying that
the Episcopal Church was like the Catholic Church—so I decided to start there.
Up to that point in my
life—I thought of God this way—God was up there—somewhere in some corner of the
universe—he had spun the universe off on it trajectory and had little to do
with it. But I did think that God wanted us to be good- if we were good
enough while we walked this earth if we did the right things we would gain
enough credit to get to enter the pearly gates.
But that began to change
when I landed at St. Thomas in Lancaster Pennsylvania—I was now 26 or 27 we had bounced around Pennsylvania following jobs and had finally
landed in Lancaster.
Our first Sunday out, when we walked through
the doors of St. Thomas— there was something different –there was a palpable
presence coming through the people at St. Thomas and I came to realize that it
was God’s love--they didn’t care that we weren’t married at that point but
living together—they didn’t care that we didn’t look like them—that we didn’t
have kids or gray hair at that point—they just loved us—my understanding of a
God who distant and only cared whether I behaved melted away as I experienced
God’s love for the first time and began to see that faith was a journey—and that
faith grew and changed that you needed to get your hands dirty – that faith was
to be worked on until that moment when take our last breath and our hearts stop
beating.
This morning we hear Paul
talking about his relationship with God and the thing that really struck me is
that throughout this passage is that Paul speaks about a faith not based in who
he is- it’s not related to his pedigree in the tribe of Benjamin a Pharisee of all Pharisees, it’s not that he behaves a zealous keeper of
the law—in some way he says that doesn’t matter when it comes to God—it doesn’t
matter if you go to church every week or you wear a piece of plastic around
your neck or say the daily office religiously.
But Paul speaks about a
fluid faith— grows and changes as he journeys with Jesus-- he uses words like I press on toward the goal
or I want to know Christ and
the power of his resurrection.
Paul alludes that there
is always more to our faith-that there is always a chance to deepen our faith
to know Christ more intimately—he alludes that we don’t graduate from faith or
church when the bishop lays his hands on our heads --but that our faith journey
continues on into eternity.
My life is different
today–it’s better because I’ve discovered this gift of a God who journeys with
us loves and cares about me and this world.
Over these last 16 or 17
years I’ve discovered so many wonderful things on this journey with God—I’ve discovered what the Psalmist says in
the 23rd Psalm—that even though we walk in the valley of the shadow
of death God goes with us—that we never walk this road alone.
I’ve discovered God’s
nourishment in words that pop into my life just as I need them in the right
situations—sometimes it’s Holy Scripture that speaks directly something going
on in my life—sometimes it’s a song on the car radio-or the words spoken from a
dear friend.
I’ve discovered holy
excitement—where the spirit blows into my ministry and says here is where we
are going- buckle up and let’s go. I’ve discovered a God who enables me to do
things I could never do on my own- like standing here in a pulpit.
I’ve discovered purpose that God invites us to
be co-creators of his kingdom here on earth—that thy kingdom come means that
that kingdom breaks in and we get to be a part of it.
I tell you all this not
to boast, to stick out my chest and say look at me-- but I say these to say
here are the wonderful gifts I’ve been given here are the heavenly prizes that I’ve experience
on my journey of faith —I am sure each of us could testify to our own list.
Of course, I haven’t
arrived-I’m not even close my faith looks an awful lot like swiss cheese—there
are holes big enough to sail the titanic through-- —I have lots to learn the
gifts of forgiveness—to embrace being a person who is forgiven ---to be able to
let go of my imperfection, and also to embrace the gift of forgiving others
folks who have deeply wounded me. I’ve a
lots to learn about the joy of generosity of letting go of some of the things I
try to hold with white knuckles.
As you know the journey
with God doesn’t just happen—we press on—we work to make it our own as Paul
says—we put ourselves in the cross-hairs of God’s grace and open our lives to receive God’s grace again and again and
again.
How do you press on? How do you walk with God?
Worship, prayer, reading Holy
Scripture, acts of mercy and service? In lent, we press on by letting go of
something and opening our lives more fully to God’s grace?
Sometime we think coming
to worship or saying our prayers as goals to be completed— boxes to be checked—but
aren’t they opportunities to open our lives
to the grace of God so that God can fill us up, to give us just what we
need, just what the world needs?
Press on my friends—we
are on the journey and there is a heavenly prize waiting for us all, but the
heavenly prize are not just for us at the end of this life, but they drop into
our lives all along the way. AMEN
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