{"id":650,"date":"2011-11-22T02:14:04","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T06:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/?p=650"},"modified":"2011-11-22T02:14:04","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T06:14:04","slug":"kara-slade-a-sermon-for-the-nineteenth-sunday-after-pentecost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/?p=650","title":{"rendered":"[Kara Slade] A Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were several sermons contributed to the festschrift for Dr. Hall, one of which was by me (Kara Slade). \u00a0It was preached at Church of the Nativity, Raleigh, NC, and at Durham Resurrection Community on October 23, 2011.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Matthew 22:34-46<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,\u00a0and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.\u00a0\u2018Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?\u2019\u00a0He said to him, \u2018\u00a0\u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.\u201d\u00a0This is the greatest and first commandment.\u00a0And a second is like it: \u201cYou shall love your neighbour as yourself.\u201d\u00a0On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question:\u00a0\u2018What do you think of the Messiah?\u00a0Whose son is he?\u2019 They said to him, \u2018The son of David.\u2019\u00a0He said to them, \u2018How is it then that David by the Spirit\u00a0calls him Lord, saying,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord said to my Lord,
\n\u2018Sit at my right hand,
\nuntil I put your enemies under your feet\u2019\u00a0\u201d?
\nIf David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?\u2019\u00a0No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 O Thou far off and here, whole and broken,<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Who in necessity and in bounty wait,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Whose truth is light and dark, mute though spoken,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By thy wide grace show me thy narrow gate.[1]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to begin this morning by letting you in on a secret.\u00a0 There is a lot of unhelpful scholarship that goes on at the intersection of faith and science.\u00a0 I say this as someone trying to get funding to do my own unhelpful scholarship on faith and science, so a little suspicion may be in order.\u00a0 A prime example of the current unhelpful trend is the scientific study of love, which is a hot topic right now.\u00a0 I\u2019ll let one of the key researchers describe his love project: \u201cIndividuals who express loving actions consistently develop the kind of virtues that characterize what we call saints, sages, or mentors.\u00a0 We should imitate these individuals. Communities and societies that in varying ways support this love should be supported and replicated.\u00a0 In many and diverse ways, we must study how we might express love.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that right there is a helpful summary of everything wrong with the trends in my\u00a0 field.\u00a0 It is also a reminder of why we need to tread with caution with today\u2019s reading from Matthew\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n

There is a story about love that says the story doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 We can define \u201clove\u201d as a merely human emotion, study it, and replicate it in the name of progress and social improvement.\u00a0 And there is a story about Christianity that says we can distill it down into a useful moral concept, one that fits on a bumper sticker and won\u2019t frighten anyone off.\u00a0 Love your neighbor as yourself.\u00a0 Where \u2018love\u2019 is probably something like altruism plus a reluctance to do harm.\u00a0 But this is what one of the characters in Flannery O\u2019Connor\u2019s Wise Blood<\/em> called the Church of Christ Without Christ.\u00a0 And in the Church of Christ Without Christ, \u201cthe blind don\u2019t see and the lame don\u2019t walk and what\u2019s dead stays that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in our church, the second half of today\u2019s text points us to the source of authority for the first half, and it starts us in the direction of Christian love in all its particularity and all its complications.\u00a0 At first, these verses seem like a riddle.\u00a0 The messiah is the son of David.\u00a0 But David calls him Lord, because the spirit tells him to.\u00a0 So whose son is he?\u00a0 And why on earth does the text launch into all that right after Jesus talks about love?<\/p>\n

Matthew\u2019s gospel begins with the genealogy showing Jesus as part of the house of David, tied to the history of Israel.\u00a0 But Jesus is the son of God, the Word made flesh.\u00a0 He is not a teacher of the Law, he is the fulfilling of the Law.\u00a0 He does not explain love.\u00a0 He is Love.\u00a0 And that is a shock and an offense – then and now.\u00a0 Jesus is an offense in his loftiness, an offense in his lowliness, and an offense to reason in his existence.\u00a0 The Sadducees and the Pharisees fall silent \u2013 from that day no one dared to ask him any more questions.\u00a0 And I do not dare ask any either.\u00a0 I am the one who is questioned, not the one who questions.<\/p>\n

Have I loved my neighbor?\u00a0 I am tempted to say yes!<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0I gave people rides to the airport, donated to Episcopal Relief and Development.\u00a0 I helped run a conference against torture.\u00a0 I\u2019m usually nice.\u00a0<\/em> But the question comes again.\u00a0 Have I loved my neighbor?\u00a0 Have I loved the beloved ones closest to me?\u00a0 And\u00a0 . . . I remember.\u00a0 The casual cruelties and the petty betrayals, the little daily jealousies, the evaluations and comparisons of neighbors I said I loved.\u00a0 The Sadducees and the Pharisees are silenced, offended by this man who looks like any other man, but speaks as God.\u00a0 I am silenced, because I am known by him.<\/p>\n

What is Christian love?\u00a0 Well, Soren Kierkegaard answers this question with \u201cLove is the fulfilling of the Law.\u201d\u00a0 Christ himself, in his person, is the particular standard for love.\u00a0 The definition of love won\u2019t fit on a bumper sticker; the definition of Love hangs on a cross.\u00a0 In Christ we see God\u2019s infinite love for us, and we see God\u2019s longing for relationship with us.\u00a0 In the perfection of his work on the cross we see the imperfection of our fumbling attempts to love either our neighbor or God.\u00a0 And in his faithfulness, we see that Christian love and Christian life can never be reduced to a collection of good deeds.\u00a0 It all depends on God\u2019s grace, on God\u2019s mercy, on God\u2019s promise.\u00a0 It all depends on trust, on loving God with all our heart and soul and mind.<\/p>\n

But that can be tricky.\u00a0 It might be easy to believe an argument that God is all mighty and has the power to do everything.\u00a0\u00a0 We might assent to the proposition that God is all wisdom and knows how to do everything.\u00a0 But to trust that God is all love and willing to do everything \u2013 there we stop.\u00a0 And we find that the more we try to think our way into faith or work our way into love, the more we just confuse ourselves.\u00a0 I know \u2013 I\u2019ve tried it.<\/p>\n

In my extensive experience as a nominal Episcopalian, I went to church, usually to critique the liturgy.\u00a0 I had two modes of prayer: perfunctory or terrified.\u00a0 I assented to the idea of God.\u00a0 I never could figure out the love part.\u00a0 Thankfully,\u00a0 I\u2019m not the only one to have had this problem.<\/p>\n

We find this story of Abba Lot in the writings of the Desert Fathers: \u201cAbba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, \u2018Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?\u2019\u00a0 Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, \u2018If you will, you can become all flame<\/em>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One of our fellow Anglicans had a similar experience, in a way. \u00a0As a student, he tried to will himself into holiness through relentless self-discipline.\u00a0 As a young priest, he struggled with his faith, got himself in trouble overseas, and returned to England without much sense of direction.\u00a0 But when it seemed he was destined for mediocrity, through the work of the Spirit, John Wesley became all flame.<\/em><\/p>\n

Later on, he would say this in a sermon:\u00a0 \u201cWe must love God, before we can be holy at all.\u00a0 Now we cannot love God, till we know he loves us.\u00a0 And we cannot know his pardoning love to us, till his Spirit witnesses it to our spirit.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 It may disappoint the love researchers, but no amount of study or rational analysis can explain a heart transformed by God.\u00a0 And no laboratory can produce and package a saint who is all flame.<\/p>\n

God loves and forgives you and me in an implausible abundance of grace, in \u201cstreams of mercy never ceasing.\u201d\u00a0 As fallen and fragile creatures, we are all liable to stray from our creator and doubt that love.\u00a0 But I can\u2019t reason anyone into assurance of God\u2019s love, and I can\u2019t talk anyone into holiness.\u00a0 Neither can you.\u00a0 It is an intimate and mostly indescribable act of God that transforms us one by one, in our inward selves, in our hearts.\u00a0 It is this same act of God that sends us out on fire with a love that looks irresponsible, reckless, and naive to the world.<\/p>\n

Do we dare invite the Holy Spirit to light us aflame ?\u00a0 Do we dare ask to be drawn ever closer to the Triune God who takes everything in order to give everything, who makes us as nothing?\u00a0 It is an intimidating prospect at any time; it\u2019s terrifying in a culture of cynicism and uncertainty.\u00a0 But this isn\u2019t the Church of Christ Without Christ, it\u2019s just the church.\u00a0 And here, the lame do walk, the blind do see, and the dead do rise . . . even if it offends reason to hear of it.\u00a0 Even if we are the ones who are lame, blind, and dead.\u00a0 Do you dare?\u00a0 Do I?<\/em><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/a> Wendell Berry, \u201cTo the Holy Spirit,\u201d from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry<\/em>, http:\/\/friartucksfleetingthoughts.blogspot.com\/2009\/02\/to-holy-spirit-poem-by-wendell-berry.html.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2]<\/a> Randy Maddox, \u201cA Change of Affections: The Development, Dynamics, and Dethronement of John Wesley\u2019s \u2018Heart Religion.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 http:\/\/divinity.duke.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/faculty-maddox\/03_Change_of_Affections.pdf<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were several sermons contributed to the festschrift for Dr. Hall, one of which was by me (Kara Slade). \u00a0It was preached at Church of the Nativity, Raleigh, NC, and at Durham Resurrection Community on October 23, 2011. Matthew 22:34-46 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,\u00a0and one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,24,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-festschrift","category-guestposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EotM-au","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":652,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}