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The Third Sunday after Epiphany “I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short…..for the present form of this world is passing away.” There were many things about President Obama’s inaugural speech this past week that stir the heart and elevate the mind. There are many ways his words have lit the torch for a new generation. But in the midst of these hard times, perhaps the most impressive thing about the leadership he embodies and responsibility he inspires is that he and his words are rooted in the wisdom of the ages. For more than anything else, Barack Obama is a reader of history. In facing the darkness of the present, he has searched for the light of the past. From John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, he has charted his own profile in courage. From FDR, he has gleaned the hope to face the specter of our own impending Depression. From Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, he has marshaled the strength to pull together the divisions that threaten to undo us. And, at least for me, what is most compelling of all is that he has turned to the Apostle Paul to shed light on the path that leads us back to hope and peace. In case you missed it, it was right there in his speech this past Tuesday, right there in his reference to the Book of Corinthians from which we read today. “In the words of scripture,” he said, “it is time to set aside childish things.” Many of you will recognize these words as those from the Thirteenth Chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Christians in Corinth. Most of us know this as the Love Chapter. President Obama was challenging this generation to a new era of accountability and maturity. But his reference to Paul’s own challenge to his generations of believers made me wonder again: what was it about Paul that sparked in his time his generation of believers? How might we turn ourselves to the wisdom St. Paul offers, his clarion call to be one body, one spirit in Christ, first proclaimed 2000 years ago? What do we have to learn about the kind of leadership the Apostle Paul exemplified and that our own new President aspires to? How do we begin, right here, right now, at St. Mary’s in Barnstable, in the words of our collect today, to answer readily the call of Jesus Christ, to proclaim the good news of salvation, and to bring greater light and life into the darkness of this world? For make no mistake. As dark as the times may seem to us now, they were that much darker in the time of Paul. Here is what the op-ed writer for the Wall St. Journal wrote recently about the world Paul inhabited 2000 years ago: “There was persecution of men who dared to think differently, who heard strange noises or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, and disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life.” It was amidst the degradation, and slavery, and brutality, and utter hopelessness for the great masses of humanity in Rome’s Empire that Paul preached about the light and liberty he had experienced in his relationship with Jesus Christ. Throughout the Empire, he journeyed, to Thessonolica and Ephesus, to Galatia and Phillipi and Collosia. Wherever he went, he found desperate people, people with dreams differed, people broken and lost, people who yearned for a saviour, who ached for a better life and a brighter world. In the Christ Paul proclaimed, they found one who defied Caeser, and who offered “ a kingdom in which each person could upright and bow to none but his/her God.” This was especially true in Corinth, the great metropolis and trading center of Asia Minor that linked East and West. For here, was every sort and condition of humanity, Greeks and Jews, Orientals and Occidentals, Egyptians and Nubians. It was here, in this great melting pot of culture and religion, in the shadow of the grand temples of the supreme gods of Hera and Venus and Fortuna and Heracles and Poseidon, that the tiny Jewish sect of the Christians took its foothold. And this little Corinthian church grew like wildfire. “Consider your own call,” Paul wrote to his flock, “not many of you were wise by human standards, not many of you were powerful, not many of your were of noble birth. For God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong: God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no might boast in the presence of God. For God is the source of your life in Christ Jesus!” Over against those who would argue for power and privilege in this world, Paul argued that the strength of God is made manifest in human weakness. Over against intolerance to those who are different, he argued for a radical equality, where all are equal in God’s sight. He admonished those who claimed spiritual superiority over others and embraced the poverty of spirit Jesus of Nazareth himself had embraced. He told the Corinthians they are one body with many members, and each and every member is indispensable, each member is endowed with a gift whose purpose is to keep the body healthy and strong. He told them that in this world that only thing that will survive is the love we show ourselves and others. He told them time was of the essence, for this present form of this world is passing away. And so, it is time, as his distant heir Barack would say centuries in the future, it is time to put away childish things. To those who wished to wallow in enmity, cynicism, and gloom, he preached an unflinching confidence in the hope and victory of the risen Christ. To those who resorted blaming others, he counseled taking responsibility for oneself. To those who were distracted by the things that are passing away in this world, he proclaimed to the Corinthians: “We shall not die, but we will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” And friends, although 2000 years separates us from the time of Paul, the human condition has not changed all that much, for us as Americans, for us as Cape Codders, for us as members of St. Mary’s. We are called now, just as in the time of Paul, to a new spirit of responsibility and hope. As the storm clouds gather on the horizon, we are summoned to keep our fires burning. Two weeks from now, we will gather together for our annual meeting to marshal the best in us, the truest spirit in us to face the daunting challenges that may lie in our future in our future as a parish. But we need not be anxious or fearful. For God is for us, who will be against us? So, then, let us take for our inspiration these words of our new President and these words of the Apostle Paul as our guiding star: “So, then, brothers and sisters in Christ, keep alert; stand firm in your faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And let all that you do be done in love.” |
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