Tommy Lowndes
Parish Family Weekend
Camp Mikell
09/27/09
Once again I am honored to be given the opportunity to be here with you, share in the worship and reflect with you on the good news and our place in the word.
Thanks to Father Deneke and to all of you for allowing me this chance over these 5 years or so.
I mentioned a couple of years ago that there are so many half composed sermons working in my mind. They're mostly general topics that could be used anytime that, oh say, the planned preacher for the day had minor car trouble or perhaps a minor cold. (Nothing bad of course, just a little tickle in the back of the throat.)
I have a good one working that will be named "The Gospel According to Go Dog, Go," but it is not ready. However, after reading today's Gospel selection in preparation for this morning, I realized that today would be a chance work in one of the partials. So as we consider the good news we heard this morning and I am going to sprinkle in parts of my sermon with the working title of "The Gospel According to the Y's." That's the letter Y. Yoda from Star Wars and Yogi Berra. Both are known for their sayings. One sayings of wisdom and the other for mixed up sayings.
It is good for us to come on these weekends. We get away from our everyday hum drum, our routines and I, even as a born worrier, even get away from my worries.
As normal human beings we need this sort of break. And the fact that we can share it as a family is only all the better. Let's explore for a moment how a weekend like this and going to church on Sunday relates to our calling from God to love and serve the world. Bryant wright, an Atlanta preacher that presents a daily inspirational thought each morning on the radio station that I listen to, recently brought up a Billy Graham quote that applies to our experience this weekend and what we heard today. Billy Graham said, "being in church no more makes you a Christian than being in a garage makes you a car."
It can be easy to fall into the mindset that if we go to church and do things at the church that we are living out our Christian calling. Throughout the Gospel, not just today, we are called over and over to be out in the world spreading the word. Further, over and over we are told that the best way to spread the word is through action.
You may have recognized the sequence hymn that we used today as the one that Father Sandlin introduced to the congregation on Rally Day. This is a call to action song through and through. But, the first stanza really got my attention that morning.
As a fire is meant for burning with a bright and warming flame
So the church is meant for mission Giving glory to God's name.
Not to preach our creeds or customs, but to build a bridge of care
We join hands across the nations, finding neighbors everywhere.
Can you hear the call to action? To imagine joining hands is a much more comforting image than an image of merely talking to, or worse, at one another.
It is important to come here, and to go to church. It is in our gathering together that we gain the strength to go into the world and do the work that Jesus is telling us in today's Gospel passage to go and do.
Up here we have been enjoying each other's company, we have laughed, played, joked and worshiped. In a few minutes we will celebrate the gift of the eucharist with each other. We will dine together one more time, and then,... we go home. I know that often when I leave Camp Mikell, I am almost always recharged in the spirit and ready to go back to the "real world" and try to do the work that I know we are commanded to do. Mainly to love the Lord God with all our hearts, all our souls and all our minds and also love our neighbors as ourselves.
Did you hear the word "try" in my words. The character Yoda from Star Wars has some guidance for us here. He says "do or do not. There is no try."
This morning Jesus didn't say try to proclaim and live in the power of his name. Quite the opposite, he is very graphic about what lengths one should go to in order to not interfere with his work in the world.
If you interfere, he says, "it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.
I've been thinking a lot about a point that Father Deneke made in a sermon about 4 weeks or so ago. He reminded us that evil is not some thing or force that is out there somewhere looking for us. Evil comes from within us. And like Father Deneke, Yoda has a similar thought on the topic for us. "Anger, fear, aggression. The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path forever it will dominate your destiny."
Yoda, and Father Deneke make good points that we must pay attention to. However, there is good news in the Gospel and from ("wait for it")... Yogi Berra. Jesus tells us today that "no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able to soon afterward speak evil of me." Yogi once said, "if you come to a fork in the road, take it."
As I ponder the Yogi quote, I realize that there really should be only one choice when presented with the opportunity to help others. Take it!
The recent floods in our neighborhood, like many other neighborhoods around town demonstrated to me the caring that people tend to have for one another. I experienced, and saw, at house after house, neighbors dropping their own clean up and recovery efforts to help those near them with greater need. I believe that this is the kind of personal charity that we should leave this place or any worship service charged up and seeking to give.
Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to us at baptism, the life of Christ is within us. Again, not some outside thing or force. Good is within us. But it takes effort on our part to bring good into the world. Come to church, fire up your spirit and then cary that spiritual fire inside out and light the world with your actions.
I'd like to close my thoughts with a look at the last verse of today's Gospel reading. (I have to admit that for just this moment I wish was preaching in a Baptist church. It would be so cool to ask everyone to join me in reading and hear all of the floppy bibles opening up out there.)
"For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
Salted with fire! I don't know why exactly but that phrase just gives me tingles. Not just salted, but salted with fire. So if salt is good, salted with fire must be better. But we are warned that the salt may loose its saltiness.
In reality, salt doesn't really ever loose its saltiness. What may look like salt to us may have become contaminated with sand or other minerals reducing the effect of the salt.
Like the contents of the salt shaker, our hearts are born in the spirit of pure salt at baptism. But also from within us the sands of fear, anger, hate, waste and the other forces of the dark side contaminate our salt and reduce our saltiness.
We have to put these contaminates behind us and seek to draw out of ourselves the pure salt.
We come together on weekends like this and then every Sunday to recharge. To give our salt a chance to be purified again. Consider the purification process. The Spirit talks to our heart through the Word. Our hearts are excited (I hope) through song. We receive absolution if we are willing to confess our sins. And then we truly make Jesus one with our bodies and souls. The purification of all of our salt is has been underway this whole weekend and I hope that you feel the crest of the wave of purification rising morning.
We will leave here.
But, as we do, it is my prayer that we will all be able to go back down the mountain and let our salt flavor the world.
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