8 November 2020
Sermon preached by The Rev. Richard Burden
Below is a DRAFT text of the homily. It may vary considerably from the recorded version. Please excuse typos and grammatical errors, and do not cite without permission.
“People get ready. There’s a train a comin’. Don’t need no baggage, you just get on board. All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin’. You don’t need no ticket; you just thank the Lord.”
The great Curtis Mayfield wrote than in 1965 as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was preparing for the Chicago Freedom Movement, designed to open up housing opportunities for blacks in metro Chicago.
It could have been the sequence hymn introducing our Gospel. People get ready…the bridegroom is coming…but it’s going to take longer than we expected…a LOT longer…and if there is one thing the past week—the past 8 months—the past fifty-five or 400 years…have made clear, it’s that this is all going to take a LOT longer than any of us would like…AND one of the big take home lesson’s from this past week is that there is still a LOT of work to be done…
I admit, I entered this week with a mix of hope and trepidation. Like all of you I sat in the discomfort of having election results trickle s-lo-w-l-y in. I tried to focus on other things, especially my gratitude that there was no violence and that the state election commissions continue to do their jobs carefully, and with integrity…I spent time wondering, “where do we go from here…”. I spent a lot of time refreshing the fivethirtyeight tab on my browser. I did all the things you do while you’re waiting…and waiting…
And eventually, I began to wonder…if the bridegroom came back now…would I have enough oil in my lamp? What wisdom does this parable have for us…as we wait…and I had to take a step back, because it can’t be that Jesus expects us to stock up on absolutely everything we need because elsewhere he says, “don’t take anything with you…” Like everything this parable doesn’t exist by itself…the context is key.
Last week we heard the most famous part of the Sermon on the Mount…the beatitudes…This parable actually comes in in the middle of another sermon on another mount…the Mount of Olives…this sermon is directed not to the crowds but only to the disciples…to us…to the ones who are tasked with caring on the work…after Jesus is gone. The first sermon comes at the beginning of his ministry…this one is just two days before he is arrested, and crucified. And this whole second sermon on the mount (Matthew 24 and 25) is a crystallization of how Jesus expects his followers to operate while they wait for his return.
It starts off with one of those sections of the scriptures that most of us don’t like…but that sound all too familiar these days…he starts by telling them: ”you will hear of wars and rumors of wars…nation will rise against nation…there will be famines and earthquakes…and false messiahs will rise…and the sun will be darkened”…He’s getting us ready for the fact that the work ahead is not going to be easy…that it will have to be…in a word…sacrificial. Much is going to be required of us. And it’s likely to be a very long road.
How long? Well, like…waiting for a bridegroom…who is delayed…We don’t know for how long…just get it in your head that it’s going to take a long time…get some sleep…take care of yourselves…and…and while you’re waiting…here are some things to do…
Spoiler alert—you’re going to hear this part of the sermon next week—the parable of the talents…you get one and you get two and you get five, and the one who has five puts them to use and gets more, and the one who has two puts them to use and gets more, but one is afraid and buries his talent is thrown into outer darkness…While we’re here…waiting, there will be opportunities to use many of the gifts we have been given…to take some faithful risks…to give away the talents and the treasures we have…
Now all through this sermon there’s a running theme that “some will be taken and some left,” “some will be let in and others will have the door shut on them,” some will be given more, and some will have things taken away, and that makes us uncomfortable…but…
Jesus wraps up the whole sermon with the great parable of the sheep and the goats at the end of the age… “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, or sick or in prison?” Which actually brings us back—full circle—to the Beatitudes…right? Because those who do the will of God…those who are prepared to endure, who bless and love and risk and care…those are the ones welcomed in to the banquet…
but it’s not up to us to decide who those people are…it’s only up to us to follow Jesus open-hearted into whatever the future holds. To risk our own comfort and our own certainties for the sake of the Gospel. To be prepared for this all to get a lot harder before it gets easier, and for it to take a long, long time.
“The mission of the church is to restore ALL people to God and one another in Christ.” (BCP, p. 855) The mission of each Christian is to to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world” (BCP p. 856)…to be the living, breathing, loving, risk-taking embodiment of the beatitudes. What was made clear (again) this week, is that there is plenty for each of us to do…
Our mission…the work we are called to do…the work of reconciliation…requires that we set aside our comfort…in order to have some messy, scary, brave conversations with one another about our hopes…and our fears…about how we can better care for one another. The work we are called to requires us to give of ourselves and our talents…and it requires that we take care of one another, and ourselves…to make sure that there are ample supplies in our spiritual and emotional tank for the long road ahead. It requires that we live everyday in expectation that the bridegroom could arrive at any time, and in any form…especially unexpected ones…as a prisoner…an immigrant…a unhoused person…a neighbor.
Every time we’ve had a major jolt…something shocking happens…I always hear refrains of “we’re not up for this…we’re not equipped for this,” (sometimes I even say them). But I think today’s parable is reminding us that we are equipped for this. We do know how to have difficult conversations…we do know how to love people who are different than we are…we know how to forgive and we know how to ask for forgiveness ourselves when we make mistakes…we know how to give, how to sacrifice, how to sustain one another over the long haul. We have ample reserves of spiritual oil.
“So people get ready. There’a a train to Jordan. Picking up passengers. Coast to coast. Faith is the key, Open the doors and board them. There’s hope for all. Among those loved and lost.” Amen. [Curtis Mayfield’s original lyrics read “Among those loved the most,” other artists have adapted them. Eva Cassidy’s version changed it to “There’s hope for all among the loved and lost.”
Amen