February 14, 2021 Sermon from The Rt. Rev. Susan Goff

 

Sunday, February 14, 2021
Last Sunday After Epiphany
The Rt. Rev. Susan Goff, Bishop Suffragan and Ecclesiastical Authority

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus, every day, the news is full of twists and turns, surprises and changes. While the continuing pandemic shifted our patterns of daily living and seemed to slow us for a time, changes keep coming at breakneck speed. I record this sermon six days before you are seeing and hearing it, wondering what changes will come in the interim. We are learning to expect the unexpected, and to see our expectations turned on their heads.

That learning is training ground for all that we heard in the Gospel today. Because this narrative and, in fact, the whole of Jesus’ life, tell a story of expectations turned around as God does new and surprising things.

One of my favorite hymns, The Canticle of Turning, is all about God turning things around.

My soul cries out with a joyful shout
that the God of my heart is great,
And my spirit sings of the wondrous things
that you bring to the one who waits.
You fixed your sight on the servant's plight,
and my weakness you did not spurn,
So from east to west shall my name be blest.
Could the world be about to turn?

The turning of the world began when the angel declared to Mary that she would bear the Son of God. Mary shared the news with her relative Elizabeth, then sang words of praise that we call the Magnificat, words that are paraphrased in The Canticle of Turning.

The turning of the world continued when Mary’s boy child was born, and when he grew up and began to teach. God is coming, Jesus proclaimed. “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Those were the first words Jesus preached. God’s world of perfect justice is coming. And when perfect justice is established on earth, everything will be turned on its head. The world as we’ve known it, this beautiful but broken and divided world, will be perfected. And a perfected world, will be so different from what we experience now that it will be as if the world has come to an end, and a marvelous new age will have begun.

My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears,
For the dawn draws near,
And the world is about to turn.

Jesus’ starting place for fulfilling that promise was the heart-turning love of God. Jesus had deep compassion, God’s compassion, for all people. In love, he healed the sick. He gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. He made the lame to walk. He forgave sinners.

Jesus began with love, and he multiplied love when he invited others into community with him. Jesus didn't try to go it alone. He never thought that, because he was the Son of God, he didn't need anyone else. He rejected the sin of rugged individualism and established a community, a beloved community of friends from all walks of life.

Though I am small, my God, my all,
you work great things in me.
And your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame,
and to those who would for you yearn,
You will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn.

Jesus sent his followers into the world in love. He empowered them to do the very work he himself was doing. The healing of the world, Jesus showed them, is not only about healing physical and mental illnesses in individuals, but about healing broken relationships and broken communities. The healing of the world requires the healing of corrupt systems.

And so Jesus would go to the halls of power. He would go to Jerusalem, the center of religious leadership, the center of economic power, the center of political authority in his day. And in Jerusalem, he would confront the powerful for the sake of the poor and marginalized and dispossessed.

From the halls of power to the fortress tower,
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware for your justice tears
every tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more,
for the food they can never earn;
There are tables spread, every mouth be fed,
for the world is about to turn.

Jesus would confront and challenge the powerful with God's truth. He knew there would be a terrible price to pay, the price of his own life. Jesus knew because he’d read in scripture what happened to the prophets who spoke God’s truth to those who didn’t want to hear it. And he knew because he could read the present.

So on the day we remember today, the day of the transfiguration, Jesus took his friends with him to pray for strength to face the ordeal ahead. Just days before, Jesus had told his friends that the Son of Man would be handed over and be killed. Jesus needed time apart from the press of daily life pray his way into that coming reality.

And there on the mountain, as he prayed, he was infused with God’s presence and God’s power. He was filled so fully that God’s blinding light blazed through him. He was filled so fully that all could hear a voice proclaim, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.” Empowered by the light and the voice, Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem.

My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears,
For the dawn draws near,
And the world is about to turn.

In Jerusalem, everything did turn. The political, religious, and economic leaders conspired to have Jesus executed - brutally, unmercifully. The turning of the world, it seemed, halted abruptly. Jesus’ mission, it seemed, failed miserably.

But of course we know and celebrate that Jesus’ death on the cross was not the end of the story. On third day, God raised him to new life. Talk about turning things around! God raised Jesus to new life. Jesus lives now. He lives forever. And he will come again.

In the meantime, terror and division and fear still have their way in the world. The divisions between our government leaders are fierce and sharp. Weather patterns on this planet continue to change dramatically, threatening communities and cultures in the most vulnerable parts of the earth. The Coronavirus pandemic continues to rage as we near half a million deaths in this country, face new variants of the virus and experience a slow delivery of the vaccine. And our awareness of racial injustice in our nation grows and we recognize how climate change, the Coronavirus and divisiveness affect persons of color and the poor disproportionately. We know all too well from our own experiences that God's work is not yet complete. God’s kingdom, for which we pray every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, has not yet come.

And Jesus lives. He is with us. He empowers us to be his hands and feet, his eyes and ears, his voice in the world, to do his work. He empowers your congregation to worship and gather in new ways until we can safely come together in person again. He empowers you to keep praying and taking other concrete action for the sake of those you love and the sake of those you may never meet. So we have great reason for hope. In you, the light of God, which blazed in Jesus on the mountaintop, still shines.

Though the nations rage from age to age,
we remember who holds us fast:
God's mercy must deliver us
from the conqueror's crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forbears heard
is the promise that holds us bound,
'Til the spear and rod be crushed by God,
who is turning the world around.

And so, despite the risks, open your heart, open your community to God’s turning. Spurn the sin of individualism and celebrate your deep connectedness with others. Reach across every divide with arms that are wide open in love. Do not be afraid. For Jesus is the firm, solid, still point at the center of all the turning. And Jesus will never let you go.

My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears,
For the dawn draws near,
And the world is about to turn.