Loading...Sermon – August 23, 2015
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Pentecost XIII Proper 16, Track 2
“Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68-69
Please be seated.
I haven’t been out of school that long; I graduated from seminary in May, 2013. I still remember the first days of school – choosing which outfit to wear; getting just the right school supplies; wondering what the classes would be like. I especially loved looking at and ordering the books.
Seems like I’ve gone to school most of my life. Yes, there were breaks, but until I received my MSW, it always seemed like there was one more degree I needed to obtain. I do think my Master’s of Divinity is my last degree, though, and a culmination of 26 years of formal education.
When I was in seminary, my grandson, who’d just begun elementary school, asked me why I was still in school. I guess to him I was pretty old looking and why I hadn’t learned all I was supposed to learn by then was pretty scary! I told him there were things I still wanted to learn and how much fun it was to learn these new things. I suggested he might go to school throughout his life. He frowned and vehemently shook his head, “No.”
For the past few weeks, my Facebook feed has been filled with photos of children returning to school. This past week, teachers in the area were getting their rooms ready and attending in-service days. Tomorrow, school begins.
Today we especially pray for all of the students and all of the teachers and others who work in the schools. We know formal education is challenging…fun, hopefully on most days, and challenging. It’s not easy to learn new things and really learning something means doing it over and over again to become proficient. We need to spend time on the subject and help our brain to work in new and different ways.
That thinking and learning in new and different ways is the heart of our readings today. Joshua is about to lead the Israelites into a new land after they’d wandered in the desert for 40 years. All of those who remembered slavery in Egypt, except for Joshua and his wife, were dead. The people had only known a life of wandering in the desert. They were going to need to think differently once they’d settled in this new place. Joshua challenges them to commit to the God who brought them through this time…the God of their ancestors. This God who’d been with them and with their ancestors, would help them to think in new ways so they could adjust to their new circumstances.
In our Gospel, Jesus tells his followers they will need to model their lives on his teachings, which come from God. As we see when we read the Gospels, these teachings upset the social norms of the day and I’d say, our day, too. Jesus ate with and welcomed those who were not welcomed and were shunned, like people who are tax collectors, people who were mentally ill and people who were disabled. Jesus challenged people who were rich and advocated for people living in poverty. Jesus said we should love each other more than we love our possessions. Jesus said we were all God’s creation and all equal in God’s sight. Upon hearing these things, many of the followers leave. They do not choose to follow Jesus. Those who stay do so because they believe like Simon Peter:
“Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68-69
Those who continue to follow Jesus proclaim like the early Israelites:
“Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the people through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” Joshua 24:16-18
Today, we are challenged to proclaim whether or not we will serve God…whether or not we will remain followers of Jesus.
Will we can declare, like Joshua, “…but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord?” (Joshua 24:15) If so, we will be required to think in new and different ways. We will be required to keep learning. We will need to practice and practice. We will make plenty of mistakes until we get it right. And then we’ll learn the next new thing God wants to teach us.
But truly, what choice do we have? “Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68-69
Amen
