proper 17 B Sept. 1, 2024

     “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you.” These words from today’s psalm are powerful. Each of us—-you, you, you—-has been chosen, selected, anointed by God.
    Don’t think this means you? Think again. Today’s readings reflect God’s longing for us—in the Song of Solomon—a book we rarely read from on Sunday morning—we have a love poem. Scholars have fought over the subject of this book for generations—maybe it’s simply a series of erotic love poems or perhaps a series of love letters meant to reflect the love and longing God has for creation. I don’t claim to know the intent of the author but I do know how much I love the imagery suggested throughout today’s excerpt…
 most especially this:
“Look, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.”
    The Bishop of Wisconsin, Matt Gunter, in a reflection on this line writes:
“I love the image of Jesus peering through the lattice of the biblical text and calling us to go away with him saying, “Hey, come out and play.” Or “Ready for an adventure?” Or “Let’s bust this joint you are trapped in.”
God so loves us, Jesus so longs for us that they peer through the window, not in a creepy stalker way, but in, as Bishop Matt says, in the “hey please come out and play” way.
    God is waiting. Jesus is waiting…just beyond the window, just around the corner, just beyond our temporal vision….waiting for us—the anointed ones— to say yes.
    I am preparing a couple of teenagers to be baptized and the main thing I want to get across to them is that while baptism is the ritualistic entrance into the Christian faith, our saying yes to renouncing Satan and all spiritual forces that rebel against God, our renouncing evil, declaring to resist the temptations of all things that are not of God and our full acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior, putting all our trust in his grace and love…is not a one and done proposition. It is a daily, hourly, minute by minute decision-making-process that we go through. Until our last breath.
Someone on the street is asking for money, should I give them some?
The clerk at Tops seems to be having a bad time with a customer who is berating  him, should I step in to offer support?
I am angry at my spouse, child, neighbor, co-worker, fellow parishioner. Should I gossip about them to others or should I speak directly to them, expressing my frustration and concern constructively and faithfully?
    These examples and many more offer us a choice….follow the path of the anointed or veer off the track of the Holy?
Indeed, this week I began the practice of reciting this prayer at the beginning of each day (adapted from the examination of the candidates in the BCP page 302):
Gracious and always reaching toward us God: help me to turn from the ways of selfishness, reactivity, anger, and judgement; turning instead toward the grace and trust given to me through you and your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. As I walk through this day may I never forget that you are always reaching out, always ready to receive me, just as I am. May I turn toward you, always. Amen.
    There they are, just around the corner, waiting for us to come near, God’s anointed ones. Let’s go to them. Always.
Amen.