Sermon of Ms. Roberta K. Schnoor
All Saints Parish
Brookline, Massachusetts
Twenty Second Sunday after Pentecost
October 24, 2010
Audio - Download mp3 (length: 10:10) |
Sermon for The Twenty Second Sunday after Pentecost, by Roberta K. Schnoor, Junior Warden, October 24, 2010 |
The Gospel story today speaks directly to those of us who are getting ready to make our annual pledge to All Saints Parish on this Stewardship Gift Weekend. In the passage from Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector, both of whom went to temple to pray, but with very different frames of mind. The Pharisee, we are told, showed many obvious, external signs of piety: he fasted twice a week and – yes! – he gave a tenth of all his income (a tithe) to the temple. While I am sure that the temple vestry planning the next year's budget, if there was such a thing, would have welcomed his financial generosity, yet it is clear that these external signs aren't enough to justify him. His inward self is smug and closed to those around him: "God," he prays, "I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues , adulterers, or even like that tax collector."
Deep inside – and probably it was very clear to those around him – the Pharisee lacked two things:
We live in a time when individualism is prized and the self is celebrated. No more perfect example of this exists than the proliferation of "I" products: Ipods, Ipads, ITunes, ITouches. The " I" or "the me" seems to be paramount everywhere – and sometimes this attitude can permeate our perspective on religion as well.
Without question, an individual's personal relationship with God is an essential part of one's spiritual life and when weighing stewardship decisions, the quality of this relationship matters. But, if you decide that your response to God's graciousness in your life is going to be a financial gift, there is still the question of who to give the gift to? And beyond money, there are the gifts of your time and talent. If you look around, there are many good and worthy causes in this world. Why get involved with a church? Why get involved with All Saints Parish? The answer for me, at least, lies in the relevance, both biblically and personally, of Christian community.
Throughout the Bible, it is clear that God's purposes go far beyond saving isolated individuals and establishing personal relationships with them independent of other people. God chooses to act through communities of people: In the Old Testament, the chosen people are initially the family of Abraham and ultimately the entire nation of Israel. In the New Testament, God chooses to work through the Church – the company of those who have embraced the Gospel and become followers of Jesus.
The Gospel invitation, though it is addressed to individuals, is an invitation to join this community and the Christian faith is a corporate faith. "I am the vine and you are the branches," Jesus said. John 15:5. And to be reconciled to God means to work at becoming reconciled to other people. As Jesus prepared to leave the disciples he laid down an important new rule: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." John 15:12.
Following Jesus' death, the letters that Paul writes to the early churches are filled with instructions as to their common life to encourage and nurture community. The emphasis is on interdependence and mutual care: To the church at Corinth, Paul enumerates the variety of spiritual gifts and stresses that "indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many," and all members are integral and indispensible to the body. First Corinthians 12:12.
So our church community is quite different from other worthy non-profit enterprises because our charge is to establish a community that models God's love for us. We are called to nurture and care for one another and, strengthened by our community, to extend welcome and care to those around us – near and far. We are to build the Blessed Community.
This is a tall order. To achieve authentic Christian community is at least as challenging a goal as achieving an authentic personal relationship with God. Yet this is a significant part of what it means to be a Christian and it is a dimension of spirituality that I have come to understand and appreciate here at All Saints.
One piece of working towards real Christian community is to recognize and value the diverse gifts of the church members. A setting where I have definitely experienced spiritual growth in this regard is in the All Saints Church School. I think last fall was the first year in more than 15 years that I haven't taught church school. You'd think that with my vast teaching experience, I'd be a real expert , but the truth is that I always depended pretty heavily on the teacher's guide to educate me and most days felt just about a half step ahead of my students – no matter what age or grade they were. At the same time, I'm a lawyer by training – I'm pretty organized and I think I can convey information fairly clearly. So I generally felt like I was not going to fail the kids altogether. Yet for all that I usually went in with a very clear idea of my lesson plan and the expected take-away for that day, sometimes the class took an unexpected turn. I'd be hunkered down in my delivery, when a child – often one you weren't sure was listening – would chime in with an amazing, insightful comment that lifted the discussion to a different level. Or one of the children would create a drawing or piece of art that just went straight to the point. And sometimes another adult in the class as a co-teacher would contribute something I'd never thought of – and suddenly, we'd all be on a different and better page than the one I'd planned.
And over time I came to feel that this wonderful serendipity was really part of God's plan. I was learning that all of us, children and adults alike, had something to contribute and that together we were able to achieve something that was greater than the sum of our parts. I would guess that is a feeling that many of us also have during the worship service – what we create together vastly exceeds our individual abilities – but I've experienced that same feeling two floors below here as well.
Another place at All Saints where I feel a growing a sense of Christian community that is broadening my spiritual identity is on the Vestry. I've been on the All Saints Vestry since 2005, for the last three years as the Junior Warden, and it has been a different experience from any committee or board I've ever served on. Much of what we do involves overseeing the church's ordinary business. Yet, we also engage in Bible study and read and discuss materials about various aspects of spirituality. In fact, one of the books we read last year entitled "Good News People" by Harold Percy* helped to crystallize for me this notion of corporate spirituality that I'm discussing today. Percy's book also got us thinking about the importance of talking honestly with each other about our "faith stories" – what each of believes : what really brought us to church and why we stay here. Many of us Episcopalians are very uncomfortable talking about our faith. But real conversations are the foundation of authentic community and so we've been brave on the Vestry – and tried to be honest with each other – and the result is that we've been achieving a deeper connection and openness with each other that enhances our experience of working together and, I would hope, improves our decision-making. So while you might think that serving on the Vestry is something akin to doing one's duty, I actually have found it to have some surprisingly grace-filled moments.
I believe that many of us here today can think of a connection we have here at All Saints with a group of people (all it takes is two or three, as Jesus said) which has deepened our sense of connection to God. As we make our financial Stewardship pledges here today, let's also make a commitment to do what each of us can to nurture that sense of community so that we can become to each other and to other people the embodiment of God's love for us.
Several years ago, the parish endorsed a mission statement which I think puts perfectly this goal of becoming an authentic church:
The mission of All Saints Parish is to be a community – searching to know and accept God's purpose for us. Uplifted by worship together, sustained by a sense of Christ being in our midst , and inspired by the Holy Spirit to become more than we are, here, and in the world.
And to that I say AMEN.
* Harold Percy, Good News People: an introduction to evangelism for tongue-tied Christians (Anglican Book Centre, Toronto CANADA, 1996).