LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Pentecost III + Proper 7 + June 25, 2006

“Homecoming Sunday” – St. Paul’s Church, Lake James

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Collect for today says that God “never fails to help and govern those He has set on the sure foundation of His loving kindness.” That sounds like good, traditional church language, doesn’t it! The trouble is that, every so often, we seem to get anything but God’s help when we need it. Our first Bible reading this morning is a good example where one tragedy after another strikes Job, a virtuous man, a good man, a devout man.
 

Someone decided to collect letters written to God by young children who, in their honesty, expressed their minds clearly, even bluntly, and published them in a series of small books. Let me share three of those letters with you. The first reads “Dear God: if you know so much, how come you didn’t make the river big enough to hold all the water? Our house got flooded and now we have to move! (signed) Victor.” Another youngster sent this letter: “Dear God: Charles, (my cat) got run over. If you made it happen, you have to tell me why! (signed) Harvey” The third letter was even shorter, but to the point. It read “Dear God: I got left back. Thanks a lot!” (signed) Sally.”

I doubt there is anyone here this morning who would find it hard to come up with the memory of a time when we felt frightened, angry, or depressed at some event in life which left us wondering where God might possibly be – perhaps a time when injustice prevailed, or a loved one died.
 

One memory which stands out for me is of learning that a dear friend, a bishop of our church, had been killed in the crash of the small airplane in which he was traveling. He was only 61, certainly by my way of looking at things, far too young to die! Of Jewish background, he had been born in Germany and, although he had lived in this country for years, never completely lost his accent. He and I had many things in common, we enjoyed talking with each other, even friendly arguments over some of the finer points of theology. He was so many things: a devoted husband and the father of five, an author and highly respected church leader. Then, suddenly, he was gone! It wasn’t so much that he died, but that the way he died – taking a sightseeing flight over the Grand Canyon - seemed so senseless! It made me want to shout “God, are you really there? Are you awake? Are you paying any attention to what’s going on here? Don’t you care?”

Have you ever felt that way?
 

The Gospel for today asks that very same question. The disciples were terrified as a storm seemed about to capsize their boat so they woke the sleeping Jesus to cry out “Master, we’re sinking! Don’t you care?”

The question put before us this morning is about trying to rely on God when our eyes and ears suggest that such trust may be misplaced, that whatever the terrible reality facing us may be, it is not going to be abruptly, wonderfully whisked away by God and replaced by a pat on the shoulder or comforting words boomed by a voice out of heaven telling us that “everything will be all right.”

Do you remember the movie “Fantasia” with the music “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice?” In it, Mickey Mouse is supposed to clean the Sorcerer’s castle but, being lazy, he tries to find an easy way to accomplish the task. Resorting to magic about which he knows too little, he creates bucket-carrying mops to do all the work, but the mops multiply and multiply again, the room begins to fill with water from their pails, and Mickey has no idea how to stop what he so rashly began. As the water level rises, and it appears he may drown, the sorcerer returns, sees the mess, speaks a word of power, the water meekly subsides and drains away. That’s what so many would like God to do, taking away pain, illness, even death, making God a sort of “World’s Most Powerful Magician!” In other words, we need to pray to God who can fix anything with a word of power, if he wants to! The reverse side of that coin would be that God won’t fix things He doesn’t want to! So, if we pray for health for a sick person, and that health is not forthcoming, for one reason or another God just didn’t choose to heal that person. If you love the one who is sick, how can you understand, love, or even accept that kind of God?
 

There are many kinds of calendars in use today. There is the Church Kalendar, spelled with a “k,” replete with religious seasons, festivals and holy days. There is a national calendar with its civic holidays such as Memorial Day, the 4^th of July, and so on. There are calendars published by athletic teams showing their game schedules, and, of course, there is that ever-present contribution of merchants and greeting card manufacturers whose features include such opportunities to spend money as last Sunday, “Fathers’ Day.” Oddly enough, it is that calendar which I think offers us a helpful insight into the question we are considering in this sermon. I am thinking of the two holidays, Fathers’ Day and Mothers’ Day. This morning, in the reading from the Book of Job, we heard God pictured as a father who was present when the sea “burst from the womb and wrapped it in clouds for swaddling clothes.” If we apply that image to today’s Gospel account of Jesus stilling the great sea storm, we can see Our Lord bringing calm to the waves the way a loving parent calms a squalling child.

We all know one can’t soothe a screaming infant by uttering words of power. We’ve seen (or even been) parents or child-care givers trying to do just that, acting like the sorcerer, taking command by issuing powerful commands to a baby such as “Ssh!” “Be quiet!” “Pipe down!” or maybe even an exasperated “shut up!” trying by use of greater size, show of anger or whatever awesome power we may have (at least in the eyes of the child) to bring about some blessed silence. Contrast that with one who soothes the baby with love, establishing a connection, holding the infant in a reassuring embrace. As one of our loveliest hymns puts it so well: “Father-like, he tends and spares us, well our feeble frame he knows. In his hand he gently bears us, rescues us from all our foes.”

The power of God in creation, and in our sometimes turbulent or pain-filled lives, is not a force exerted on events by a whimsical and unpredictable super-magician, capriciously deciding when it suits his mood to intervene on behalf of this person or that, or, conversely, not doing so if not in the mood to help anyone, or just too busy doing the heavenly equivalent of the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle.

The good news, the Christian Gospel, is that God created the world as an act of love, and continues to express that same love through an unbreakable connection with all of creation, especially with the part he created in his own image, namely humanity. In that connectedness with us, God’s involvement in things such as the crash of an airplane, a flood, painful sickness, or even the death of a family pet is the connectedness of the celestial lover who suffers along with us. The message we saw in Our Lord’s response to the disciples symbolized by his calming of the storm, is the message of the Christian Faith through the centuries: God cares!

This year, Saint Paul’s Church celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of its founding and a century of service to God and this community. During those hundred years, the parish has been a faith community in which God has been worshiped, through whose ministry many men, women and children have experienced God’s love in their lives and reflected that love to others in theirs. The holy sacraments have been celebrated, the Word of God preached, the sick cared for and the dead given Christian burial. The wider community in this area has been, and is, truly blessed because of the existence of St. Paul’s. But the church has also known adversity and pain. The old church building burned, active membership has grown but also shrunk, and, as in any group of human beings, disagreements have sometimes led to painful separations.

Anyone familiar with Church history throughout the past 20 centuries cannot help but see the same pattern there, one which has been dramatically brought home to us in the American Episcopal Church in the ups and downs of the General Convention whose meeting ended just this last week. As we seek to make sense of it all, let me suggest two simple but foundational realities which, as Anglican Christians, we should keep in our minds. (1) God IS. And (2) God CARES! The wonderful things which have been and can be accomplished when Christians are faithful to the call to serve God and humanity are all around us to see. They shine in the 100 years of the history of this parish and, God willing, will continue to shine in the years to come! Aided by God’s grace, on this “Homecoming Sunday” at St. Paul’s, may we rededicate ourselves to that wonderful calling through this parish, or whatever parish may be your home now. That’s what our common calling is and that’s what we need to be doing. It’s our way of affirming the awesome message of the Christian Faith expressed so well in today’s Gospel: GOD CARES!

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
 

The Reverend Alfred T. K. Zadig, Sr.

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