Sermon for Proper 11B
Judy
Dear Friends,
This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” or “A Polluted Temple!” and deals with all the lessons. Here it is:
This morning in the Old Testament lesson (2nd Samuel 7: 1-14a), we heard God tell King David that he didn’t need a fancy temple. He wanted to live among his people. Later in the New Testament, Paul reminded the Corinthians (1st Corinthians 6:19a): “You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives.” We know this is a true statement. God is inside us, as near to us as the air we breathe. In fact, after we receive Holy Communion this morning, holy God will literally be in every cell of our bodies. Does anyone remember the old song- “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.” I think we sang it once in our St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church (Detroit) choir. Have you ever felt like this? Alone? Empty? Frightened? Facing an evil world and wondering if you will make it to the next day? How is this possible, after all of God’s promises to us? Today’s Psalm (23rd) reminds us that the Lord is our shepherd, and the God will provide peace and satisfy all our needs. Why are we so often nervous wrecks, frustrated, and stressed out, yelling at those we love the most, tossing and turning at night, using pills or alcohol to calm our nerves and put us to sleep and then more pills, caffeine, or whatever to wake us up? Been there? I think the Bible truth that our bodies are God’s temple holds the key to letting us be enveloped in God’s peace.
You know what one of our problems might be? The temple of our body is so polluted that God is waiting for us to clean it out a bit. Did you hear the story of the bachelor who was always complaining about restaurant food? His friend finally asked why he didn’t cook some of his meals at home. “Surely you can cook simple things;” his friend commented, “and if you can’t- just get an easy recipe book.” “It won’t work,” replied the bachelor. “Every single recipe starts with, ‘Take out a clean pot.......’” Maybe that’s how the temple of our lives is to God- POLLUTED! He can’t find a clean or uncluttered place to start. What’s crowding God out?
The Psalm points out one possible source of temple pollution: “The LORD is my shepherd. Maybe Jesus isn’t number one in your life. Maybe he’s just the last-minute resource your run to when you’re desperate. Maybe most of the focus in your life is your money or your bills or your love life or your children or your house or job or your addiction. If you’re not starting and ending each day with prayer, if you’re not reading some devotional material each day, if you’re not thanking God for every bite of food you put in your mouth, in other words- if you’re not putting God first- you’re your own worst enemy. You’re truly like a “sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34a) because you’ve squeezed the Lord right out of his temple, so don’t be surprised when you find yourself running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off. Step one: make the Lord your shepherd. Try Jesus.
The epistle points out another possible source of temple pollution: our attitudes- specifically our feelings of inferiority. (In the old days, we’d be talking about an “inferiority complex.”) How do I get this from the Ephesians (2: 11-22) lesson? If you’re getting to be a bit of a Bible scholar, you know that Jews hated Gentiles- considered them inferior to Jews. As you know, every Jewish baby boy was circumcised when he was about eight days old; Gentiles were not. Jews thought uncircumcised people were filthy- they scrubbed down if even the shadow of a Gentile fell on them. Should it surprise us that many Gentiles felt inferior to Jews? They weren’t, obviously, but they felt inferior and the way Jews treated them surely didn’t help! Now we’ll add the last significant fact- Paul’s church at Ephesus was a mostly Gentile church. In today’s lesson, we hear Paul teaching that we are all one and unified in Christ. No one is inferior or superior to anyone. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. What about you? Is there something about yourself that makes you feel not as acceptable as you might be? If you’re a man- maybe you are short; if you’re a woman- perhaps you’re tall. It might be your color- you’ve been told you’re too dark or too light. It might be some physical feature- for years I was ashamed of my high forehead- how silly, but how true! Perhaps you consider yourself too fat or too thin. Maybe you have a handicapping condition or trouble learning a specific subject in school. If so, stop thumbing your nose at your Creator. Give your concerns to God, love and accept yourself, and make room for Jesus in the temple of your body.
Maybe the pollution in your temple, your heart, is your attitude toward other people. In the Gospel, we heard how the disciples had just come back from a missionary trip. They were excited, but exhausted. When Jesus tried to take them to a private place to get some rest, people found them. Their lives were one interruption after another, yet- instead of sending the crowds away, time after time Jesus ministered to them. How do you treat people when they interrupt you with their needs? I don’t mean just the first interruption- what about the fourth or fifth or tenth interruption? Yet Jesus reminds us in Matthew 25 that “Whatever you’ve done for the least of these my brothers or sisters, you’ve done for me?” If you’ve turned needy people away, you’ve sent Jesus away from his very own temple in your heart.
My brothers and sisters- we can wish for peace; we can desperately pray for calmness and security, but until we clean out the pollution of false gods, inferiority, and self-centeredness from our hearts- there’s no room for Jesus, and therefore there’s no room for God’s peace. Let me finish by retelling a story I told in February, 2014, about wishes. Do you remember the story of the Oscar Meyer wiener? It reminds us that wishing isn’t the answer. Before we start, does anyone know that old-time commercial “I Wish I Was an Oscar Mayer Weiner?” How does it go? (Get responses.) Well, here’s the story. A man was walking along the beach when he came across this very old oil lamp. The man started to rub it to remove all the ocean crud when "poof" a genie appeared. This genie, like all genies, was so happy to be freed of the lamp that he granted the man three wishes... "I wish to be the richest man in the world,” the man said. "Man," the genie replied, "It has already happened.” The man’s wallet would hardly fit in his pocket because of all the hundred dollar bills. “Wait until you get your bank statement!” said the genie. You won’t know what to do with all that money!” What's your second wish?" "Genie”, said the man, “I want a CAR! In fact, I want the most expensive Porsche convertible made: Fire engine red, on board GPS and the finest audio system ever installed in an automobile." "That’ll work," said the genie. He waved his hand and the finest car anybody had ever seen popped out of the lamp. The genie then asked the man for his third wish. He thought and thought, since he really wanted to choose wisely. After all, this was his last wish, so it had to be a good one. Finally he said, “Genie, I can't think of anything now. May I save the third wish for later?" "My, that’s unusual,” responded the genie, “but of course you may wait. Just call me when you're ready.” With that, whoosh, the genie disappeared. The man leapt into his fire engine red Porsche convertible, turned on the radio with the great audio system and pulled onto the highway. He had the top down, so the wind was whistling through his hair, the sun was shining, not another car was on the road, and he was HAPPY- in fact so happy that he began to sing along with the great music on his great radio. Up came a commercial, and he continued to sing the old familiar tune: “Oh, I wish I was an Oscar-Mayer Wiener...." Whoosh- what a wish!
Stop wishing and get rid of the heart-Temple pollution. When you come to the altar today, come with a plan. It’s late for spring-cleaning, but it’s never too late for life-cleaning; where there’s life, there’s time. What pollution are you cleaning from your heart-Temple today by God’s grace?
For anyone who is interested, this sermon and updated African-American wisdom statements are posted on our parish’s web site under “Sermons & Stuff”. The address is: http://www.stpaulsepisag.org .
Blessed preaching,
Judy Boli
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Saginaw, Michigan