Sermon

St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Durham, NC

7/2/06 - PROPER 8

The Rev. Harriette H. Sturges

Today is July 2, 2006.  On July 2, 1776 in Philadelphia the Continental Congress declared independence from Britain and on July 4 adopted the resolution known as the Declaration of Independence.

On some unknown date, about four centuries after the death of Joseph,  the people of Israel followed Moses out of Egypt thus declaring their independence from Pharoah. Both actions began the formation of new nations.

Both actions sprang primarily from economic considerations.  For the colonists it was freedom from taxation without representation perceived as a form of economic slavery and for the Hebrew people it was freedom from slavery for the economy of Egypt.

The Hebrew People wandered 40 years in the wilderness learning to listen to the voice of God instead of the voice of Pharoah as a writer for Weavings expresses it. They learned about trusting God, about sufficiency, of living simply without debt, of gathering enough but not more than their need.  So Paul could quote Exodus to the Corinthians, "As it is written, The one who had much did not have too much and the one who had little did not have too little."

As the now freed slaves gave up their addictions to the enslaving economy of Egypt and moved into the promised land, they divided the land between the 12 tribes, set up means of worship, of caring for the land, of settling disputes and of showing mercy and compassion on the less fortunate.There was the practice of leaving some of the harvest to be gleaned by the poor. There was also the remission of debt every seventh year.

It should come as no surprise as time went out that often that debt was not cancelled; thus the amount to be gleaned was no longer sufficient for the increasing number of poor.

Now relax.  I'm always aware that when the poor are mentionned from the pulpit you expect your wallet or bank account to be emptied if it's not empty already. Nothing could be further from my mind.  It's not your money I want. Besides, if you've tithed for your operational pledge and also made a pledge to the capital campaign we already have your money. St. Philip's has often demonstrated its abundance of joy and wealth of generosity with many of us giving according to our means and even beyond our means. 

It should come as reassurance that Paul speaks of a fair balance between your present abundance and other's needs. 

No, I'm not asking for more money.  I want something else. Scott's ministry among us has provided a solid foundation of programmatic, fiscal and spiritual wealth with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone.  Our congregation has grown and we have proved time and again that we have the leadership and desire to meet the challenges given us. We have a lot of be thankful for.  We are now sending him and his family to the missionary area of Washington, DC.  We have carefully trained and equipped him for this ministry as he has carefully trained and equipped us for ours.

Isaiah says it best:  Enlarge the site of your tent

                                and let the curtain of your habitation be stretched out,

                                do not hold back, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your

                                stakes.

Isaiah had understood his mission to be for the people of Israel. Now he is challenged by God to become a light to the nations.  Jesus tells his disciples to stay in the city until the appointed time when they will be his witnessess in Jerusalem (the city), in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  We too have stayed in the heart of the city, against all odds and all conventional wisdom. And it is here that we have witnessed to the power and love of God.  We must continue to do so.

But notice that now we have more people in leadership positions at the diocesan level than I remember having in the past 11 years, we are sending Scott to Washington, we have member of our congregation who goes to Hebron at least three months a year and we have been on a mission trip to Mississippi.  It appears we are enlarging the site of our tent, the site of our ministry.

But there is more than geography involved in this enlargement. I'm still participating in what Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh describe as the "patronage system."  They define this as and I quote," socially fixed relations of generalized reciprocity between social unequals in which a lower-status person in need (called a client) has his or (her) needs met by having recourse for favors to a higher-status, well situated person (called a patron)."  End of quote. Briefly it means there are have-nots produced by the system that have to beg from the haves in order to live. I want help learning to replace this patronage with solidarity and alliances. Moreover,I see signs of this happening among us and in us. Now I'd like the conversation and conversion to become more intentional.

Our call, our ministry, our vocation is based on the ministry of reconcilation. In chapter five of 2nd Corinthians Paul says, " .....So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconcilation to us."  According to Ched Myers and others," reconciliation orginally referred to an exchange of money in repayment of debt."  The word sin and debt are different in Greek but the same in Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

With most of the countries of the world in debt, with most of the people in the United States in debt of some sort, this can be quite a challenge for the church, quite a ministry for St. Philips. Scott, don't forget you're in charge of Washington. If we forgive everyone who trepasses against us their trespass, does this include their financial debts as well?  Can we really just pray for our daily bread and not for tomorrow's.  Can we proclaim good news to the poor?  Can we take what the Bible says seriously and live out our faith?

Can we indeed as one nation under God be a light like one of our earliest founders claimed. "On board  ship, John Winthrop began to keep a diary, the contents of which are astounding. From the ship, Winthrop laid out the Puritan vision for the New World. America was to become a city on a hill. He wrote (paraphrase, in modern English):

The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and byword throughout the world; we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all believers for God's sake; we shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us, until we are consumed out of the good land to which we are going...

For this end we must be knit together. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to give up our superfluities to supply others' necessities...We must delight in each other; make others' conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together... So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and...make us a praise and a glory, that men shall say of later plantations, "May the Lord make it like that of New England."

On this July 2, 2006 may we continue to realize this vision of Moses', of Paul's of of Winthrop's, of God's and experience the true freedom that is ours through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.                                                              

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