Proper 9b July 4, 2021 Christ Church, Lancaster
Proper-9-2021
4th of July: look beyond the obvious
It's the 4th of July. It only falls on Sunday every once in a while. I remember some years ago when it fell on Sunday, and that day happened to be the day the bishop, Dick Chang, visited my congregation in Hawai'i.
Dick Chang was born and raised in Hawai'i and except for a couple of stints on the mainland he lived his whole life in Hawai'i. Chinese-American. Raised in Hawai'i. I was surprised to learn that weekend that Dick Chang loved hot dogs.
4th of July means such a wealth of things to us in this country. Some of them so important. Some of them trivial -- like hot dogs.
When I lived in Hawai'i it was reported once that the 4th of July fireworks were the 3rd biggest in the country -- after New York and Boston. It's important to note, perhaps, that there were more fireworks in Hawai'i on Chinese New Year than on the 4th of July.
Those are actually the relatively trivial things. Much more important, e.g., is the way in which this day somehow begins to tell the story of who we are as a nation.
American stories
"David Brooks" wrote a piece this last week that was eloquent in identifying the story-like quality that the day speaks to us.
By David Brooks
He began by saying that one of essential elements of a great nation is found in "the knowledge from the stories we tell about ourselves."
This kind of knowledge (he says) isn’t merely factual knowledge. It is a moral framework from which to see the world. Homer taught the ancient Greeks how to perceive their reality. Exodus teaches the Jews how to interpret their struggles and their journey.
I was particularly interested in his words because I have long understood that the stories we tell about ourselves do two things. One is they reveal who we are.
We who live in this country share many secular stories. These might include: Paul Revere and Sojourner Truth, Irving Berlin and Woody Guthrie, Aaron Burr and Cesare Chavez. In truth we are an exceedingly diverse and complex people.
At the same time, the stories we tell about ourselves also help to fashion who we are becoming. If we repeat often enough that we are stingy and poor, we will in time become exactly that. It is important what stories we repeat over and over again.
Christian stories
Gathered here in this place, we are Americans to be sure, but more deeply we are Christians. As Christians we have different stories to tell, revealing who we are and who we are becoming.
As Christians we share different stories. The most basic is Jesus Christ, the crucified and Risen Lord. That's the Easter story. But there are other stories that are about our participation in that basic story of Christ. They are the stories of how our lives have intersected with Jesus' own story. They are stories of the sacred mystery of God that has broken into our lives.
Paul: a mystic vision
On our refrigerator, like lots of refrigerators, there are lots of different kinds of things posted and taped: photos, mementos, that sort of thing. Among them in our kitchen is a little magnet that my wife gave to me. It says: “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away.”
In the excerpt from Paul's letter to the Corinthians that we have heard today, Paul quite explicitly refers to a time that took his breath away.
I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.
This experience to which he refers is at the very border between what is accessible to language and that which is not. So he uses this elliptical language. We might respond to him, "Well, yes, Paul. Might that person be you?" But we don't play with him at that point, because we know he is trying to express the inexpressible.
But Paul also knows that the mystic vision he has had does not come cheap. He knows that he has in no way been a better person, a more capable person, a more learned person to deserve this mystic vision.
… to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh …
Paul was a flawed hero -- and that's why he is a friend of mine. Sometimes I have known glory. Far more often I realize how flawed I am.
Like Paul each of us carries a thorn – a thorn we would gladly not advertise or carry around – but which God in his mercy has let us tote around. It is our undoing as often as not. But in the light of the gospel it is our very strength because it points to God’s very real and awesome power.
Whenever I am weak I am strong, Paul says. We can proclaim that from the rooftops and the world will not reward us. But it will be the truth and it will set us free.
Boast of weakness
Frederich Buechner, an author who has inspired me over the years, said this:
We are all of us more mystics than we believe or choose to believe – life is complicated enough as it is, after all. We have seen more than we let on, even to ourselves. Through some moment of beauty or pain, some sudden turning of our lives, we catch glimmers at least of what the saints are blinded by…
“I know a person in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to heaven…” I have known such a person myself. And my guess is that each of you has also. Perhaps you yourself? Or another? Perhaps your grandmother? I know that each of you has a story to tell. That's why you are here. As Buechner put it, we are all mystics .
Gerard Manley Hopkins: God's Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It's not just Christians who have known this. Paul's experience binds all human beings together with this experience. Paul's entire ministry was aimed at that end: that the gospel was for all people.
Our flaws go right together with our mystic experiences. Our flaws are an essential part of our grandeur -- and God's glory.
Navajo blankets are made with intentional flaws to illustrate this. Persian rugs the same. Native American sand paintings, which are laboriously crafted over many man-hours, are wiped away in a flash, in order to make the same point.
Navaho Rugs
Persian rugs
Sand painting
Mission
More than anything else, Paul is known as a missionary. It is not foremost in people's minds that he was first of all a mystic.
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” ― St. Catherine of Siena
Paul's journey 14 years earlier, up to the 3rd heaven, was what gave him authority to preach the gospel to all nations. His journey to the 3rd heaven and the thorn that would not leave him.
Jesus before him had preached that it is in our weakness that we will find our strength. Paul's authority was grounded in knowing and living that gospel truth.
Jesus was not accepted in his own home town. What an agony that must have felt like to him. But he sent them out anyway, two by two. For he had a mission. God had a mission for him to accomplish and he accepted the commission.
Paul did likewise.
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” ― St. Catherine of Siena
Really, how can we do less.
Your mission?
As a congregation you may at times be most aware of what you lack. You may imagine that if you were just a little bit more of that or a little bit more of this ...
It is a thorn. And its message to you is, "Pay attention to the mystic experiences each of you brings with you. It is all you need."
From before my ordination I have felt called to ministry with small congregations. Where we are weak we are strong .
I believe that. I’m generally not at all sure that the institutional church thinks that.
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” ― St. Catherine of Siena
That is the story we as Christians have to tell and to be. That is your mission.
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