Why? Why Jesus? Why serve?
Delivered on the First Sunday of Christmas, 2019 at the Church of the Advent, Louisville, KY
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer.
If you’ve been around children or raised your own, you know the following scenario. I was on my way out of the door when my 4 year old daughter asked me where I was going. I replied that I was going out to mow the lawn. She asked “Why?” I replied “Because the grass is growing and needs to be cut.”
Pregnant pause.
“Why does the grass grow?”
“Because the sun shines on it, and the rain waters it, and it just grows.”
Another pause.
“Why does the sun shine?” and so on, and the questions keep coming until you throw your hands in the air and say “Just because.”
At that point, you know you’ve lost the conversation.
But that question “Why?” has an underestimated power to cut through all of the hows and whats and wherefores and lay open the central belief, or reason for something. In the hands of an adult in the corporate world, it can take the form of asking the question “Why?” five times, leading you eventually to the central question, or the central issue, if someone hasn’t already thrown something at you in frustration.
The opening of John’s Gospel that we just heard is a welcome reading at this time of year. We've just celebrated the feast of Jesus' birth, and welcome him into our hearts as we welcome him into the world. The references to light in a dark world make today, among the shortest days of the year, more tolerable. And in a few weeks, the days will be noticeably longer, bearing witness in God’s Creation to the light that has come into the world. The reading is a theologically dense prologue to a Gospel that tells us who Jesus is. And from that identity, we come to understand why he did what he did. John makes it clear in the prologue that Jesus’ identity was demonstrated by why Jesus did; the two are inseparable. The other three Gospels tell us what Jesus said and did, and how he did it, but we don’t hear about the why from them so much. John provides the why, or perhaps one of several whys at the very beginning of his Gospel: “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people”.
John continues, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Why didn’t the darkness overcome the light? John answers that question two chapters later in verse 16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” It is through faith in God’s Son that we live in the light of eternal life, and not perish in the darkness that is kept away from us. Or put another way, we believe in the light of eternal life and not in the darkness, so that the darkness does not overcome the light. This contrast (literally) between light and dark has been a part of my life for a long time. When my wife Kim and I were raising our two children, I saw the darkness of the world in the news reports of crimes, wars, the Twin Towers falling in New York City. But that couldn’t be all that was happening in the world because of the love I felt for my family. That love became a diffuse light, coming from somewhere that I couldn’t see. As my children grew and could take care of themselves, that light became stronger and the darkness of the brokenness and evil in the world became less. The more I searched for God in the world, the better I was able to see where it was coming from. Acolyting, leading prayers, bringing the Eucharist to those who couldn’t make it to services, EfM and the School of Ministry all made the light brighter and more focused. The darkness receded and became something manageable. It wasn’t until I came Advent that I saw that the light was shining from scripture, through the Holy Spirit to shine on people, people I am called to serve, people who find themselves in the darkness of life situations or darkness in the world. My why, my reason for serving is because I believe in the light, and I am lit by the light inside me. I give that light to others by serving their needs so that the darkness of their lives does not overcome them. How I do that, and what I do, or with what I use becomes secondary to my belief in the light. If I were to instead concentrate on what my ministry will look like, and how I will perform it, I risk letting the darkness creep into my ministry through opinions, bias, and justifying the ends with the means.
The Gospel reading says, “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.” Why didn’t the world know Jesus, God incarnate? We can jump to John 9:16, where the blind man who was given sight by Jesus is questioned by the Jewish authorities about how he regained his sight. The man testifies to Jesus, but the authorities don’t believe him because they believe instead that Jesus is a sinner and acting unlawfully. They didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God performing signs, and so they didn’t know Jesus. They couldn’t know Jesus, and couldn’t enter the world that Jesus was inviting them into: one of life, light, love, and enlightenment. It was a world that was being formed as Jesus spoke about it, the Word uttering words that defined and began to build God’s world, God’s kingdom on earth. I heard those words spoken here at the Advent and St. Andrews pantry event a couple of weeks ago. They were in the opening blessing that is read at the beginning of every event. They were in the voices of the volunteers as they helped the clients with their choices and moving their groceries to cars or to the bus stop. They were in the exchange of season’s greetings between clients and volunteers. For two hours, the Kingdom of God was here in the parish hall, built by the words of all who were present. The clients were not blind to the work of God around them, and the volunteers were not blind to the darkness that surrounded the lives of the clients. The pantry is a sign to the community that we do know Christ, we do know the Kingdom of God, and we do know that we are to carry the light further into the world. We believe in who Jesus was, we have faith in what he did, and we can see the Kingdom of God.
The pantry, like a number of other ways in which congregations serve the needs of others takes a lot of planning and coordination. They are part of a call from God to serve, so we naturally look around to see how we can serve, and what we need to do it. It’s natural for us to debate what we can offer the neighborhood or community, and do we need to focus our children’s program further? It’s natural to study, measure, plan, and execute the work we do in God’s name, for God’s people, to fill the need that God calls us to address. It’s natural and needed, and an important part of doing God’s work in the kingdom. But at some point, a line may be crossed where the activity becomes the why, and the true why, the belief that inspired the actions is lost. What we do, and how we do it becomes tradition over time, but our focus can shift from the reason to what and how we do things. “We’ve always do it this way” is a sign that the how and why of activities have eclipsed the reason, the “why” of doing them.
This eclipse of the reason for our what and how we do things was illustrated many years ago at St. Paul’s, Louisville. Father Mark Feather, our new Rector, was starting to set the altar for his first Eucharist at St. Paul’s, and helping him was Deacon Barbara Merrick, who was a server acolyte at the time. Four ushers with offering plates approached the altar and stopped in front of it, waiting for...something to happen. Father Mark leaned over to Barbara and asked her why the ushers were standing in front of the altar; were they waiting for him to do something? Barbara whispered back that they always did that, and they would eventually turn around and begin collecting money. The why of a tradition had been lost, leaving behind a habitual action that created an odd moment in the service, every Sunday. It wasn’t abandoned until Father Mark called attention to it, asking “Why?”
The danger of serving tradition, or what we habitually do and how we do it, instead of serving God is always present unless we have the wisdom and courage to ask “Why are we doing this?” As with God incarnate in Jesus, our Word is the incarnation of the Holy Spirit in our actions and words. And like Jesus, when we speak or act in the Holy Spirit, we too build the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit provides an intentional response to the question “Why?” that tradition can never provide. When we embrace that intention, the why of our actions become visible to others, and like John the Baptist we see light shining on the presence of the Holy Spirit all around us.
When we hear about what other parishes are doing, we can look beyond the what and the how to find that their why is the same as ours. When we debate what programs we can offer, and do we need to focus our children’s program further, we can look back to the reason for the programs for an answer. Because it is from the why that our intentions flow, our purpose is defined, and our actions understood. When we start to look at our spiritual and parish life this way, it completely inverts how we are used to thinking about what drives our intentions and purpose. Instead of responding to a need by figuring out what we can do and how to do it, we can start by expressing our beliefs and most important values, and then see how and with what we can express our faith and beliefs. We can avoid letting the darkness creep into our ministry and God’s Kingdom by rooting it in our faith in the light.
So what does this look like?
We believe that by feeding the hungry, we are feeding Jesus himself. Advent gives away food in a monthly food pantry in the basement. So we say to the world, come, let us feed you. We believe that there are no longer distinctions between us as children of God. Advent welcomes everyone into this holy space, and we invite others to join us as part of the body of Christ. We believe that our children are part of the Kingdom of God.They are an important part of this parish’s life. We follow our children as they come to Christ. We believe in the Word made flesh who brought light into the world. We love God with all our might, and we love our neighbors. We invite others to bring their light to the world. We believe that God is. We know this through faith in God’s son. Let us hear God’s voice in this place. This is Advent’s prologue. This is ultimately why Advent does what it does, not responding to need, but by responding with faith. And it makes me wonder how many other whys are there in this parish, full of faithful believers in the light. How many other reasons for what we do, individually, and collectively are there that the community sees?
People will see our faith in action and notice our reasons for what we say or do. They will be attracted to a new tradition as the presence of the Holy Spirit within them is awakened by us doing the will of God in the world. They will want to join us, not because we are serving God in the world, but because they are driven by the same beliefs, the same faith that drives us. They will want to serve God in the world inspired by the same reason, the same purpose, the same “Why?” that drives us. They will bring Jesus’ light into the world as we do, and together we will light up the world so that others will see the Kingdom of God right here, right now. Addressing the needs of the world takes on a deeper meaning when our activities are a reflection of why we want to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked, and befriend the forgotten. We can change our own lives, the lives of others, and eventually the wider community by testifying to the light of God as John did. We can glorify God by testifying to the Word of God. Our testimony to the light, to the Word of God is in our actions, and our actions are answers to the questions “Why? Why Jesus? Why serve?”
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer.
If you’ve been around children or raised your own, you know the following scenario. I was on my way out of the door when my 4 year old daughter asked me where I was going. I replied that I was going out to mow the lawn. She asked “Why?” I replied “Because the grass is growing and needs to be cut.”
Pregnant pause.
“Why does the grass grow?”
“Because the sun shines on it, and the rain waters it, and it just grows.”
Another pause.
“Why does the sun shine?” and so on, and the questions keep coming until you throw your hands in the air and say “Just because.”
At that point, you know you’ve lost the conversation.
But that question “Why?” has an underestimated power to cut through all of the hows and whats and wherefores and lay open the central belief, or reason for something. In the hands of an adult in the corporate world, it can take the form of asking the question “Why?” five times, leading you eventually to the central question, or the central issue, if someone hasn’t already thrown something at you in frustration.
The opening of John’s Gospel that we just heard is a welcome reading at this time of year. We've just celebrated the feast of Jesus' birth, and welcome him into our hearts as we welcome him into the world. The references to light in a dark world make today, among the shortest days of the year, more tolerable. And in a few weeks, the days will be noticeably longer, bearing witness in God’s Creation to the light that has come into the world. The reading is a theologically dense prologue to a Gospel that tells us who Jesus is. And from that identity, we come to understand why he did what he did. John makes it clear in the prologue that Jesus’ identity was demonstrated by why Jesus did; the two are inseparable. The other three Gospels tell us what Jesus said and did, and how he did it, but we don’t hear about the why from them so much. John provides the why, or perhaps one of several whys at the very beginning of his Gospel: “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people”.
John continues, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Why didn’t the darkness overcome the light? John answers that question two chapters later in verse 16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” It is through faith in God’s Son that we live in the light of eternal life, and not perish in the darkness that is kept away from us. Or put another way, we believe in the light of eternal life and not in the darkness, so that the darkness does not overcome the light. This contrast (literally) between light and dark has been a part of my life for a long time. When my wife Kim and I were raising our two children, I saw the darkness of the world in the news reports of crimes, wars, the Twin Towers falling in New York City. But that couldn’t be all that was happening in the world because of the love I felt for my family. That love became a diffuse light, coming from somewhere that I couldn’t see. As my children grew and could take care of themselves, that light became stronger and the darkness of the brokenness and evil in the world became less. The more I searched for God in the world, the better I was able to see where it was coming from. Acolyting, leading prayers, bringing the Eucharist to those who couldn’t make it to services, EfM and the School of Ministry all made the light brighter and more focused. The darkness receded and became something manageable. It wasn’t until I came Advent that I saw that the light was shining from scripture, through the Holy Spirit to shine on people, people I am called to serve, people who find themselves in the darkness of life situations or darkness in the world. My why, my reason for serving is because I believe in the light, and I am lit by the light inside me. I give that light to others by serving their needs so that the darkness of their lives does not overcome them. How I do that, and what I do, or with what I use becomes secondary to my belief in the light. If I were to instead concentrate on what my ministry will look like, and how I will perform it, I risk letting the darkness creep into my ministry through opinions, bias, and justifying the ends with the means.
The Gospel reading says, “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.” Why didn’t the world know Jesus, God incarnate? We can jump to John 9:16, where the blind man who was given sight by Jesus is questioned by the Jewish authorities about how he regained his sight. The man testifies to Jesus, but the authorities don’t believe him because they believe instead that Jesus is a sinner and acting unlawfully. They didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God performing signs, and so they didn’t know Jesus. They couldn’t know Jesus, and couldn’t enter the world that Jesus was inviting them into: one of life, light, love, and enlightenment. It was a world that was being formed as Jesus spoke about it, the Word uttering words that defined and began to build God’s world, God’s kingdom on earth. I heard those words spoken here at the Advent and St. Andrews pantry event a couple of weeks ago. They were in the opening blessing that is read at the beginning of every event. They were in the voices of the volunteers as they helped the clients with their choices and moving their groceries to cars or to the bus stop. They were in the exchange of season’s greetings between clients and volunteers. For two hours, the Kingdom of God was here in the parish hall, built by the words of all who were present. The clients were not blind to the work of God around them, and the volunteers were not blind to the darkness that surrounded the lives of the clients. The pantry is a sign to the community that we do know Christ, we do know the Kingdom of God, and we do know that we are to carry the light further into the world. We believe in who Jesus was, we have faith in what he did, and we can see the Kingdom of God.
The pantry, like a number of other ways in which congregations serve the needs of others takes a lot of planning and coordination. They are part of a call from God to serve, so we naturally look around to see how we can serve, and what we need to do it. It’s natural for us to debate what we can offer the neighborhood or community, and do we need to focus our children’s program further? It’s natural to study, measure, plan, and execute the work we do in God’s name, for God’s people, to fill the need that God calls us to address. It’s natural and needed, and an important part of doing God’s work in the kingdom. But at some point, a line may be crossed where the activity becomes the why, and the true why, the belief that inspired the actions is lost. What we do, and how we do it becomes tradition over time, but our focus can shift from the reason to what and how we do things. “We’ve always do it this way” is a sign that the how and why of activities have eclipsed the reason, the “why” of doing them.
This eclipse of the reason for our what and how we do things was illustrated many years ago at St. Paul’s, Louisville. Father Mark Feather, our new Rector, was starting to set the altar for his first Eucharist at St. Paul’s, and helping him was Deacon Barbara Merrick, who was a server acolyte at the time. Four ushers with offering plates approached the altar and stopped in front of it, waiting for...something to happen. Father Mark leaned over to Barbara and asked her why the ushers were standing in front of the altar; were they waiting for him to do something? Barbara whispered back that they always did that, and they would eventually turn around and begin collecting money. The why of a tradition had been lost, leaving behind a habitual action that created an odd moment in the service, every Sunday. It wasn’t abandoned until Father Mark called attention to it, asking “Why?”
The danger of serving tradition, or what we habitually do and how we do it, instead of serving God is always present unless we have the wisdom and courage to ask “Why are we doing this?” As with God incarnate in Jesus, our Word is the incarnation of the Holy Spirit in our actions and words. And like Jesus, when we speak or act in the Holy Spirit, we too build the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit provides an intentional response to the question “Why?” that tradition can never provide. When we embrace that intention, the why of our actions become visible to others, and like John the Baptist we see light shining on the presence of the Holy Spirit all around us.
When we hear about what other parishes are doing, we can look beyond the what and the how to find that their why is the same as ours. When we debate what programs we can offer, and do we need to focus our children’s program further, we can look back to the reason for the programs for an answer. Because it is from the why that our intentions flow, our purpose is defined, and our actions understood. When we start to look at our spiritual and parish life this way, it completely inverts how we are used to thinking about what drives our intentions and purpose. Instead of responding to a need by figuring out what we can do and how to do it, we can start by expressing our beliefs and most important values, and then see how and with what we can express our faith and beliefs. We can avoid letting the darkness creep into our ministry and God’s Kingdom by rooting it in our faith in the light.
So what does this look like?
We believe that by feeding the hungry, we are feeding Jesus himself. Advent gives away food in a monthly food pantry in the basement. So we say to the world, come, let us feed you. We believe that there are no longer distinctions between us as children of God. Advent welcomes everyone into this holy space, and we invite others to join us as part of the body of Christ. We believe that our children are part of the Kingdom of God.They are an important part of this parish’s life. We follow our children as they come to Christ. We believe in the Word made flesh who brought light into the world. We love God with all our might, and we love our neighbors. We invite others to bring their light to the world. We believe that God is. We know this through faith in God’s son. Let us hear God’s voice in this place. This is Advent’s prologue. This is ultimately why Advent does what it does, not responding to need, but by responding with faith. And it makes me wonder how many other whys are there in this parish, full of faithful believers in the light. How many other reasons for what we do, individually, and collectively are there that the community sees?
People will see our faith in action and notice our reasons for what we say or do. They will be attracted to a new tradition as the presence of the Holy Spirit within them is awakened by us doing the will of God in the world. They will want to join us, not because we are serving God in the world, but because they are driven by the same beliefs, the same faith that drives us. They will want to serve God in the world inspired by the same reason, the same purpose, the same “Why?” that drives us. They will bring Jesus’ light into the world as we do, and together we will light up the world so that others will see the Kingdom of God right here, right now. Addressing the needs of the world takes on a deeper meaning when our activities are a reflection of why we want to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked, and befriend the forgotten. We can change our own lives, the lives of others, and eventually the wider community by testifying to the light of God as John did. We can glorify God by testifying to the Word of God. Our testimony to the light, to the Word of God is in our actions, and our actions are answers to the questions “Why? Why Jesus? Why serve?”
Comments
Post a Comment