LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Proper 7A June 19,  2005 St. Paul's Church

            On Father’s Day we celebrate the love of fathers. Those of whose fathers are alive celebrate with them. Those of us whose fathers have died celebrate their memory. Today’s scriptures refer to death, and today I preach about death and resurrection. In the Epistle St. Paul says, “For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.” In the Gospel we hear Jesus’ words, ” Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

            I was 11 years old when Tommy Vernus died. We lived near the divinity school in west Philadelphia and I was in 6^th grade at St. Peter’s Choir School at 3^rd and Pine streets in the old part of the city. Tommy was a natural leader, the person we all looked to when we chose up sides to play ball. He was one of the soloists in the choir, always at the top of the class. He lived out in the suburbs, in Springfield, and came to school on the interurban trolley. My grandmother lived farther out on the same line and sometimes we’d ride out from school together. Tommy was very proud of his new bike and one day after school his mother sent him on his bike to the corner grocery for a loaf of bread. On the way back a drunk driver ran a stop sign and killed Tommy. Tommy’s death was my first real experience with death, and the first experience most of the school had had. His funeral was at St. Peter’s, and the boy choir sang.  I don’t remember what we sang, but the hymns were Easter hymns.

            Our faith is an Easter faith, faith that “death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory!” Life is dangerous; life has risks, accidents happen, good people die. We mourn at death, particularly when a young person dies. We mourn a life cut short, and in our mourning it is difficult for us to hold on to the truth of God’s providence, God’s rule in the world he has created.

            St. Paul reminds us that the wages of sin is death. We will all someday die, unless Jesus comes again before we do, but when that happens, as in death, we will all be changed. We will all appear for the final judgment, the finally righteous judgment of the good and loving God who made us, who sustained us, who called us to die to sin and live to righteousness, who tells us in Jesus’ words, “So do not be afraid . . . Everyone . . .who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.” 

            The “act of righteousness” of Jesus Christ, dying on the cross for you and for me and for all people, living and dead, “leads to justification and life for all.” By Jesus’ “obedience” to God’s call, we all have been “made righteous . . . children of God, inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.” When we  live according to God’s will and God’s plan we will be fulfilled and we will be satisfied. We won’t necessarily be happy, but we will be fulfilled and satisfied.

Our first lesson today was from Jeremiah. Jeremiah was called by God to preach to the people of Judah a message they didn’t want to hear, a message that the people had so far departed from God’s plan and God’s will that if they did not repent they would be defeated in battle and sent into exile. That was not a popular message, and Jeremiah suffered because he proclaimed it. He reports, “you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.  For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.” 

But Jeremiah lived and preached according to God’s will and God’s plan, and he was fulfilled and satisfied. He wrote, “If I say, “I will not mention God, or speak any more in his name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” In one of the prayers for the sick before an operation we pray, “Strengthen your servant, O God, to do what he has to do and bear what he has to bear.” Jeremiah let out that burning fire in his bones. Part of our call is to feel what we feel – shock, sorrow, fear, anger, grief – the God who made us and who loves us calls us to experience the feeling and to let God use it and us in his service. The prayer is, “Strengthen your servant O God, to do what he has to do and bear what he has to bear that, accepting your healing gifts through the skill of surgeons and nurses, he may be restored to usefulness in your world with a thankful heart; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

            Jeremiah continued, “O LORD of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.  Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.” The righteous are tested in this life, tested with unexpected and tragic death of those we love, tested in many ways, but in the testing we know the presence of God who sustains us by his Holy Spirit.

            Jesus knew his bible. He knew the fate of the prophets; he could see his own stark and ultimate choice of life and death. And he knew that death would claim many of his disciples and their disciples before he came again to judge the living and the dead. So he warned the disciples of trouble to come, and he gave them the charge: “Have no fear” of those who mistreat you and even kill you. My truth will prevail in the end. I am with you to that end. “So do not be afraid. . . everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”

Our faith is an Easter faith, faith that “death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory!” Life is dangerous; life has risks, accidents happen, good people die.

On Father’s Day we celebrate the love of fathers. Those of whose fathers are alive celebrate with them. Those of us whose fathers have died celebrate their memory. And we continue to proclaim the truth of God’s providence, God’s rule in the world he has created, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.

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