Some Changes are In Order
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Some changes seem to be in order.
{The normal line is to please be seated,
{But it seems that even here,
{Some change is in order,
{So allow me a moment to catch my breath}
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Though we may be inappropriately warping the themes
Of today’s narratives,
To fit a narrative, your preacher wishes to deliver.
Let’s take that chance, for now.
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Our Old Testament Lesson starts with a change of king
God has made it very clear to Samuel,
That He has grown weary of Saul,
The first king of Israel,
Because Saul is not executing God’s will
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The very first thing we hear today is a question from God
“How long will you grieve over Saul?
“I have rejected him from being King over Israel.
“Fill your horn with oil and set out.”
Continuing with Not God’s words, but mine,
It seems God is saying,
‘I am about to make a change,
‘And I expect you to get on board with it.’
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Our second very short reading
Could also be seen within a spectrum of change.
“Once you were in darkness,”
Says Paul to the Ephesians,
“But now in the Lord,” continues Paul,
‘A change has arrived,’ my words
“You are the light,” continues Paul,
‘Embrace that change and get on board,’ me,
“And live as children of light,” continues Paul.
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The similarities with the first reading are quite striking
If you walk into today’s lessons
With a paradigm of change.
Indeed, in both cases, God has acted,
He has overturned the current situation
‘The earthly King Saul’
‘The period of darkness’
And has instituted something new
‘A new earthly King: David’
‘A period of light’
And God now expects his servants to get on board
‘Stop grieving the old King’
‘Start “living as children of light.”’
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Our Gospel Lesson can also be seen
In a paradigm of change,
If we desire to look at it in this manner.
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The very first change is a change in attitude
Regarding cause-al relationships about sin.
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Upon seeing a man blind from birth.
Christ’s disciples ask,
“Who sinned, the man or his parents”
“That he was born blind?”
Jesus, of course answers that
“Neither the man nor his parents sinned,
“He was born blind so that God’s works
“Might be revealed in him.”
It would be ridiculous to assume here that
“The blind man never sinned,
“Nor that the blind man’s parents never sinned,”
What is being changed here, or maybe highlighted
Is the age old adage from the Book of Job,
That the situation that one is in
Is not ALWAYS in direct relationship
To the level of one’s sins or righteousness,
In short that in Christ and in the Old Testament
The prosperity Gospel is completely dead!
We do not get good things because we are good
We do not get bad things because we are evil
What happens in our life happens
For the glory of God.
And attempting to use cause-al morality
To examine a man’s blindness from birth
Or to examine a pandemic now facing the earth
Is pure and utter POPPYCOCK!
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Sin has entered the world,
So, there is an element of causality to all calamities,
Due to the original sin of Adam and Eve,
The earth does grow thorns against us,
But attempting to fix some individual calamity
On the specific event of one or more people
Is dangerous at best.
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We cannot of course here say that all things that happen
Cannot be fixed to some causal event,
If one picks up a pencil and gouges one’s eye out,
The reason that person is then blind,
Is because they stupidly gouged out their eye
If we fail to obey the lawful orders of our Governor
And of our President,
And fail to adequately quarantine ourselves
We are likely to get sick or
To get others around us sick.
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You might note a bit of a change of tone
From your own pastor here.
Hopefully everyone hears this change of tone,
Because the change is quite real.
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Thank you to a few brave parishioners
Who have pointed out a couple things about my actions,
In the last week or two.
1. That some of my constant messaging might be seen as desperate, NOT calming, and as a need for you to minister to me.
2. That coming up with schemes to circumvent the message to stay at home, might be counter-productive.
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Hopefully there might be a moment to change
My own attitude about this crisis which is before us all
“To stop grieving Saul” or the life we once had,
“To stop attempting to live by the old way,”
By finding loopholes to open the church more often
There IS still need for prayer,
Yet we must accept the new opportunity
To live as a light within our new reality
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A reality where we might very well be locked down
For a quite some time;
A reality where some things will probably change,
Even dramatically;
A reality where, even in the shock of not being able
To employ our usual tactic of cause and effect
To order our world in our so-called
Knowledge of Good and Evil,
The strange things that we see and hear,
Are still firmly within the providence of Almighty God
The things that are happening today
Which will happen tomorrow,
And will happen next week,
Are still occurring so that God’s works
May be revealed in us.
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We are the church, not this building,
We are the Children of Light
Who through Christ & through our obedience
Are called: “Rise from the dead”
“So, Christ will shine on us!”
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We must continue to pray and pray hard.
There are now a number of tools on our website to help.
There are also tools on the diocesan website to help.
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This sermon, and the posting of our Eucharist Service
Is another humble attempt to help.
Yet to be a real help,
We (probably mostly I) need to take a less anxious approach.
This is an area of difficulty for your preacher,
Some, fingers pointing toward myself,
Equate action with success
Some have been very well rewarded in my life
By ignoring caution & running toward danger
Some have been rewarded by gulping another cup of coffee
And running into various Disaster Control Centers
To get a quick handle on a situation,
Come up with a viable solution,
Articulate that vision, and doggedly pursue it.
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In short, this parish has brought into the flock
A flawed human being
Who just like everyone else here,
Does not always get things right,
Who needs, through the love of all of you
And the love of the Holy Spirit,
To occasionally be chastised.
To be reminded that the old way of doing things,
Of rendering allegiance to King Saul
Might be flawed thinking,
And to get behind the new reality. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
The new reality seems to be this,
There is a pandemic happening now.
It is not a ‘so-called pandemic’
It is a real national and world crisis.
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As a result of this real national and world crisis,
We are being called for a little while to hunker down
In our homes and our houses.
There are few who like this situation,
But the sooner we get over our grieving of the old way
And anoint the new,
The quicker we will be obeying God’s will.
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Some to best react, need to put down the coffee mug
Continue in prayer,
Continue to minister to the community around us,
Yet do these things in a less urgent manner
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Your pastor desires to continue to let you know
That he is still here for you,
He will visit you if you ask him.
He will tend (perhaps less fervently),
(He is still the person God made him to be…)
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But he will attempt to tend a little less fervently our website
Trying as he can to bring you tools
To assist us in your prayers
Prayers are vitally important!
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Your Priest will, for as long as he is able,
Try to bring you a Eucharist service each week,
But next week, the service will look a little different.
In keeping with is being seen on television,
And in keeping with our new reality,
Our next Sunday Eucharist will likely occur
From my home, or even better in my yard!
(Please do get outside, we really need it!)
I am also going to stop asking others to join me in Eucharist
This no longer seems helpful
If you want Eucharist, or if you need help or counsel
I trust that you will be willing to call
Because you know that I want to be there for you!
If you don’t call or email, I will assume (for now) you are OK,
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Please take a look at our website every now and again
We will attempt to post additional worship helps to this site
But on a less frequent basis
To keep from wearing us ragged
Let’s spend a little bit more time with wives, husbands,
Sons, daughters, parents or whomever is in your home
Since it seems that God is giving us
A bunch of extra time to enjoy our families
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Let’s find ways to participate not virtually, but Spiritually,
In the Body and Blood of Christ.
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A bunch of our worship will move to my home for now
Vestments, and Priest Hosts, and the Parish Worship Register
As well as a few other Priestly Items
Will moved to my home
So I can worship on your behalf from my there
As you are worshiping now!
Let’s rejoice in whatever opportunities we might have
To spend additional time with family,
Perhaps playing some Monopoly, Apples to Apples,
Or other family games
And just getting just a little more time together.
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It interesting that on this first Sunday in some time
That the Church of the Cross has had to close its doors
For likely an extended period,
God has seen fit to reassure us
In the words of the 23rd Psalm.
This is a solemn reminder
That even in what seems uncontrollable to us
God is in fact sovereign and God is in fact in control
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Though we may be guided
Through the valley of the shadow of death
We shall fear no evil; for God is sovereign
God is in control; God is with us.
His rod and his staff, they shall comfort us.
Our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd
Will spread a table before us
Even in the presence of those who trouble us.
Our cups truly do runneth over.
And goodness and mercy shall follow us
All the days of our lives
For we will dwell in the house of our Lord
Regardless of trials and tribulations—forever.
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Let us embrace the changes which God appears to be making;
Let us get on board with His will;
Let us understand that even in the presence of trouble;
Our cups overfloweth.
Let us rejoice that for all our lives
We shall dwell in the house of our Lord
FOREVER!
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In the name of the Father,
And of the Son,
And of the Holy Spirit. Amen