This Thursday is the second anniversary of my cancer diagnosis. Last Tuesday, I had my regularly scheduled check up at Roswell—scans and meeting with my oncologist. I received excellent news, as there is no sign of new disease, thanks be to God. I tell you this because a) I’m pretty excited and b) I learned more about the power of prayer the past two years than 50+ years of being a faithful Christian, 3 years of seminary and four years as priest.
Prayer is incredibly powerful. Does it, as James says, heal the sick? Well combined with the work of my team at Roswell, your prayers certainly helped me heal. Because through your prayers I was strengthened and emboldened to do what needed to be done and endure what needed to be endured.
But this sermon isn’t about me.
It’s about us. It’s about our communities---separate and jointly---and what we can do, together, for one another.
It’s about the power of prayer. It’s about the power of community; it’s about the power of God that spreads among us, between us and through us. It’s about what we can do on behalf of God, as a community of faith, as a community of prayer.
In our reading from Numbers, the Israelites are whining, Moses is complaining and God is exasperated. The Israelites are tired of wandering and the lure of the Promised Land has lost it’s luster while the tribulations of captivity in Egypt doesn’t seem so bad anymore. Besides that, they’re really sick and tired of manna, longing for some meat, fish, onions and garlic. They’re fed up. And Moses is overwhelmed saying: “I can’t bear this people on my own. They’re too heavy for me.”
They’re too heavy for me, God. Gimme a hand. But, instead of taking the burden on God’s own Divine shoulders, God asks Moses to bring in 70 elders of the community upon whom God will place the power of prophecy. In other words, God delegates.
God realizes that what makes this whole faith thing work well is community. Especially, a community of faith that’s committed to each other and God through acts of kindness, acts of charity, acts of love.
I think, in our own communities of faith, we can forget this responsibility to and for one another. As members of the Church of the Ascension, as members of the Church of the Good Shepherd, as members of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, as members of the Episcopal Church herself, as members of the Anglican Communion, as members of the one holy catholic and apostolic faith we have responsibilities, we have duties, we have promises to make and promises to keep. First and foremost, of course, is to love our God with all our heart all our mind and all our soul, the second is like unto it: to love your neighbor as yourself.
To give to our neighbors that which we long for ourselves…
What do you long for? What do you dream for? What do you, in the deep recesses of your soul, desire? Because what I know is that when we dig deep, when we get real honest with ourselves and with our God, those material things we want—better finances, a new job, a new car an iPhone 5…..are not the things we really desire. What we desire is so much more intangible—what we desire is heartfelt. Desire fuels longing and for most every person, what we long for is love—unconditional always available, no strings attached love.
Love. The source of all Love is, of course, God. But as God taught Moses in our first reading this morning, God is not interested in being the singular source of Love for everyone. Now hear me clearly---God Loves each and everyone of us utterly. Fully. Without exception…. but what God is teaching us is that God’s Love grows, strengthens expands and intensifies when it is shared. When the singular source of all Love, God, inspires, encourages, enables and emboldens each and every one of God’s children to be a conduit of that Love . To be God’s instrument of Love to all whom we encounter.
It’s a fairly simple formula: we, as humans, desire community, and as recipients of God’s love we desire a community where this Love is understood, accepted, celebrated and sanctified. Within our communities of faith, this Love of God, this Love from God this Love that IS GOD is nurtured and shared and, through this sharing, it is Strengthened.
Obviously, God’s love in and of itself is strong. But what we learn, when we are active members of the Body of Christ is that this Love becomes stronger, this Love becomes more vibrant, this Love becomes MORE when it is embraced, cherished and shared.
God tells us:
Feeling my Love? Share it.
Longing for my Love? Receive it from another.
Can’t feel it? Can’t find it? Trust that someone else is carrying it for you, that someone else is holding it until such a time as you can receive; until such a time you can feel it until such a time you can carry it.
God’s Love needs community to reach it’s full potential.
God’s Love needs us.
And so, my sisters and brothers in Christ, communities of faith with grand traditions alone and with new traditions forming through our covenant, what do we do? How do we strengthen God’s Love?
Feed the hungry? Sure, that’s always a good idea.
Clothe the naked? You betcha.
Stand against injustice and respect the dignity of every single human being? Absolutely.
But….before you do any of those noble and necessary things, before we embark on our collective work toward these goals we must first and foremost:
Pray for each other.
What I began to learn so clearly two years ago and what I believe is fundamental to the health of every community of faith is: Prayer. Intentional prayer for one another is vital, it’s life giving and it’s the work of God.
Last week I asked Good Shepherd’s vestry to pray for each and every member of our parish. I sent out parish lists with a formula for how the list could be split up so that every member is prayed for by each vestry-person every single week.
I encourage all of us to take up a similar practice, because a community of prayer is a community that is tilling the garden of God’s love.
Beginning next week, you’ll notice names of parish families in the bulletin. I ask that you take your bulletins home and pray for those listed there. The names will change each week and then once we are through the parish list we will begin again.
Let us pray
'Gracious God today I pray for our two communities of faith, linked through your love in Covenant. Guide, protect and nourish us, as we share Your Love with each other through our prayers, offered in Jesus’ name. Amen.’
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment