Sermon

Be a Part of Something Big

by The Rev. Carol Sanford

Good morning! These days, I am only at the Cathedral from time to time, but it is obvious to me that there is a lot going here, especially for what is traditionally a fairly quiet part of our year. Some of you are no doubt resting up from playing in the Dean’s Cup or attending the related festivities, and there is more fun to come with Haitian music and special foods at coffee hour. As if all this weren't enough for a lazy summer weekend, this morning we are also consecrating new vestments.

This may not seem like a big or exciting event, but I can verify that new vestments are not only a major addition to the cathedral but are most needed and welcome. I’ll never forget the Christmas Eve service when a column of gold braid partially detached from the very old cope (it was actually Bishop Spencer’s cope) that I was wearing. The braid threatened to trail majestically down the aisle behind me and I had to stifle a giggle as the processional hymn began.

So, I am most grateful for the items we are dedicating to the glory of God today. They are green, the color of our current liturgical season. I think it is wonderful that we use green for the time following Pentecost, a season that is often referred to as “Ordinary Time.” For us, fresh new life is the expected, the usual, the ‘ordinary’ state of life in God.

New life is showing up today as we continue to celebrate our part in restoring Holy Trinity Cathedral in Haiti. We will have a presentation on the famous cathedral murals and coffee hour will be a time of special rejoicing and thanksgiving.

Silly Episcopalians! We are always finding ways to celebrate with wonderful music and something lovely to eat, even when the topic is disaster. Some people might find this unseemly, but we routinely come together in joy and insist that God is present even when awful things are happening around us. A parishioner at St. Philip’s in Joplin gave me this wristband in memory of victims of the tornado there. It reads, “God is with us, we will rebuild.”

The blurb on our website that invites us to donate to the Haiti restoration fund says in large letters, “Be a Part of Something Big.” The “Something Big” directly referred to is the rebuilding of Holy Trinity. But there is a much bigger something underlying even that great endeavor, a much greater cathedral under construction everyday and everywhere on earth.

Our word 'cathedral' comes from the Latin word 'cathedra' which means 'chair.' In the ancient world, the most important person at any gathering was often the only one who had a seat or, at the very least, occupied a special seat of some sort. Envision Queen Elizabeth on a throne or a judge in a courtroom or a teacher in the classroom and you’ll see that the basic idea is still with us today. Here at Grace and Holy Trinity we have the primary, representative chair of our Bishop, his 'cathedra,' where he sits as pastor, leader and teacher, guardian of faith, and symbol of God’s care for us. Because his cathedra is here, we are the Cathedral and vice versa.

Okay, enough school. The point is that Grace and Holy Trinity in the Diocese of West Missouri and Holy Trinity in the Diocese of Haiti ought rightly to serve, along with our Bishops, as centers and symbols of every sort of ministry and teaching in Christ’s name. We work hard at this around here and occasionally, as today, pause to take note of our efforts and to celebrate.

I’m going to bounce over to Paul’s letter to the Romans for a minute, because I think that the passage we heard earlier about sin and grace and ‘presenting our members as slaves to impurity’ is relevant to our celebrations this weekend St. Paul uses the institution of slavery, a given in his world, to talk about sin and righteousness and why all of that is important. Thanks be to God, literally, slavery is no longer an accepted norm in our part of the world, and we may have trouble deciphering Paul’s message because we rightfully resist identifying ourselves as slaves of any kind, including as slaves to God. Sometimes even the softer term ‘servant’ is harsh to our ears.

If we look past his metaphor, we can easily catch what I think is Paul’s basic point. Using modern language and understanding, we might say simply that living against God’s saving Grace is destructive and restrictive and always ends badly, while living into God’s saving Grace is constructive and freeing and ultimately always ends well.

This idea isn’t new with St. Paul. The simple equation, “life for God: good life; life against God; bad life” is a strong theme in every part of the Bible. Prophets proclaim it, Psalmists sing it, and wisdom teaches it. St. Paul, however, is proclaiming this most basic equation within a new context; the context of the resurrection of Jesus, and of the mandate to carry the good news of salvation in Christ to all people. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, we observe a primary builder of the early church sending out some important, new, green information by the best means at his disposal.

You probably know what’s coming next. I’m going to talk about how we can do the same; how we can lean our lives into the life of God, and how we can carry the good news of hope to others. I am not personally comfortable thinking of us as slaves to God, but I am very happy to understand God as the One who moves, sustains and empowers us into the best possible lives for ourselves and for others. I believe that God does not violate our will, so we must allow God to work within and among us, and this generally means some sort of action on our part.

Most of us can understand Paul’s idea of slavery to sin when we encounter the more obvious things around us which pull people away from the joy of God and cause visible damage in God’s world; things such as drug trafficking, violence in our streets and homes, and the grosser forms of internet pornography.

Equally corrosive are the more hidden forms of enslavement like resentment, desire for revenge, and fear. I once heard someone say that the people we hate or fear own us, and I believe that to be true. A vicious cycle of pain and destruction can continue throughout generations of families and communities, even of countries. The good news is that there is a way out.

As children of God’s creation our lives are bound up together in God. Part of what this means is that we cannot harm ourselves without harming others, and we cannot harm others without harming ourselves. But it also means that the reverse is true: we cannot help others without benefit to ourselves and it is even true that when we help ourselves on a spiritual level, the benefit extends to others.

God has freed us from enslavement to sin, but we must take up this freedom ourselves and enable it to take hold in us. We do this through prayer and worship and repentance and forgiveness, through joining committees and attending fundraisers, through being kind and lending a hand, and through just having some fun and celebrating life and God together.

In our gospel today, Jesus emphasizes the idea that human and divine life are intertwined. We are a part of something very big, indeed; the biggest thing there is. We are charged to be green centers and symbols of God’s love in the world, building cathedrals of stone but only insofar as these stones represent the building up of one another and all the world in Christ. We can be proud of what we do here. Let’s keep it up and let’s continue the celebrations.

Amen.

© Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral