Loading...Sermon November 6, 2016
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
All Saints Day Observance Year C
Do to others as you would have them do to you." Luke 6:31
Please be seated.
The church I attended when I lived in Topeka, Kansas, over 30 years ago, had a nursery for the children who were deemed too young to be in the church service. (I love having children in our church service, by the way.) A woman named Marlene took care of the children.
Marlene was just a little taller than me, probably in her mid-40s. She had medium brown skin. She was from a Caribbean island, but I can’t remember which one now…maybe Jamaica. She always spoke in a calm, measured way.
At one point, I learned that Marlene’s son was murdered. I don’t recall all of the circumstances now, but I believe he was in his early 20s. I learned Marlene was attending the trial, which was certainly stressful. The man who killed Marlene’s son was trying to say he did so in self defense. This was distressing for Marlene and she said, she hoped this man who killed her son would tell the truth about what really happened.
She also said something that I’ve remembered to this very day. She said she wanted this man who killed her son to live the best life he was capable of living. She wanted him to tell the truth and she wanted him to live to his best potential! She explained that nothing would bring back her son and the best thing the killer could do as a result, was live the best life possible…be the best person possible.
I was astonished. I knew she really meant this. I’d heard about restorative justice, and often it seemed like a nice thing, but not really something people truly believed or lived by. Here was this woman, who truly lived by and believed in restorative justice or reconciliation. It wasn’t that she thought the man shouldn’t go to prison for his crime, but in the long run, she wanted for him, what she had wanted for her own son.
Do to others as you would have them do to you. Marlene really go that. I wasn’t sure I could say I’d embody that if I had been in her circumstances. I think it’d take a lot for me to get to that place emotionally.
Over and over again, Jesus calls us to this simple and challenging sentence. Do to others as you would have them do to you. The things we want for ourselves in this world, we must also want for others. So, we all need appropriate shelter and we should want others to have appropriate shelter. We all need food, clothing, health care, education and we are to want that for others.
This is helpful to think about in our upcoming election on Tuesday. We are to want for others what we want for ourselves. This can be one way to look at the candidates and decide who we will choose for our elected leaders.
Today, we also renew our Baptismal vows, which again provide more information for us to use, not only in understanding what is meant by wanting for others what we hope for ourselves, but also in evaluating the candidates.
Here are the promises we will once again affirm, beginning on page 292 in the Book of Common Prayer:
Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?
Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
To each of these, we respond, “I will with God’s help.”
How do our candidates for public office measure up? Will they help us continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship? Will they help us persevere in resisting evil and when we fall short, will they help us repent and return to God? Will they be examples and proclaim in words the Good News of God in Christ? Will they look for and serve Christ that is in all persons and help us love our neighbor as ourselves? Will they help us strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
No candidate will perfectly help us, I’m sure. They, like we, all fall short of these promises. We need to be thoughtful and prayerful about what we’ve seen and what we’ve heard from those on our election ballots. We need to check out the best information. We need to ask questions about why certain demographic groups don’t support a candidate.
For instance, there in differences regarding the choice for president based upon gender, ethnicity and educational attainment. Why is that? I think we need to acknowledge those differences and seek to understand them. It might not change our vote, but here’s the thing…
After Tuesday, comes Wednesday. We need to understand these differences between various groups of people, because on Wednesday, there will be very important work to do. You see, these differences between us, are based upon strongly held beliefs and understandings. Behind those beliefs and understandings, I believe, are the desires each and every one of us have… for love…for security…for meaningful work…for freedom of religion…for safety…for the basic necessities of life.
Somehow on Wednesday, we must listen to each other…to our fears about whoever wins and whoever loses. We must listen to our grief that emanates from whether our candidate wins or loses. We must listen. As I heard a person say this past week, we must listen and be willing to admit we might be wrong.
Because don’t we want that for ourselves? Don’t we want to be seen? Don’t we want our fears, griefs and losses to be acknowledged? Don’t we want to have others hear how we live out our Baptismal Covenant and our baptismal promises? If we want that for ourselves, then we must do it for others.
So, let us pray. Let us look at the choice before us in terms of our followship of Jesus Christ and in keeping with our Baptismal covenant.
Today would have been my father’s 84th birthday. One time when I was about 15, we were snowed in and couldn’t get to church. We worshipped at home and my father chose the text of the hymn, “Once to Every Man and Nation” as a meditation. He wanted my brothers and I to know that choices were going to be laid before us throughout our lives…that we’d have many moments of decision. He wanted us to know that even when truth and justice were not popular, God would always be on the side of truth and justice.
Let’s sing this hymn, with words from over 170 years ago, and ponder the choice before us in our time….
(See Bulletin) /digital_faith/documents/3229437
