When Jesus's followers returned from their first missionary journey, he decided they needed a day off and led them to a deserted place. But those who needed to be healed and saved got there first. And so their work continued, and the Church's work continues still. Its heart (the Episcopal Church's, especially, as demonstrated in its recent General Convention in Anaheim) is for the marginalized instead of the majority, the worker instead of management, the Palestinian instead of the Israeli. But when it comes to person-to-person ministry, do we work as hard as Jesus's disciples did? What if we always led with our pastoral selves instead of our own needs? Nurtured by the rich texture of incarnational relationship, our families, workplaces, and churches would be foretastes of St. Paul's new humanity -- households that survive and thrive even if someone happens to drive an Oscar Meyer Wienermobile into our living room. My Sunday sermon is here.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
"A House Collided": Sermon for 7 Pentecost
When Jesus's followers returned from their first missionary journey, he decided they needed a day off and led them to a deserted place. But those who needed to be healed and saved got there first. And so their work continued, and the Church's work continues still. Its heart (the Episcopal Church's, especially, as demonstrated in its recent General Convention in Anaheim) is for the marginalized instead of the majority, the worker instead of management, the Palestinian instead of the Israeli. But when it comes to person-to-person ministry, do we work as hard as Jesus's disciples did? What if we always led with our pastoral selves instead of our own needs? Nurtured by the rich texture of incarnational relationship, our families, workplaces, and churches would be foretastes of St. Paul's new humanity -- households that survive and thrive even if someone happens to drive an Oscar Meyer Wienermobile into our living room. My Sunday sermon is here.
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