Sermons
Father's Day Gospel Reflections
The Rev. Eric K. Hinds
Rector, St. Matthew's Episcopal Church
Sermon preached by The Reverend Eric Kimball Hinds at The Episcopal Church of Saint Matthew on 15 June 2008, The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 6), Year A. Lessons: Genesis 18:1-15; (21:1-7); Psalm 116:1, 10-17; Romans 5:1-8, Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23).
During my time with you I have already been impressed by the passion for baseball in the Bay area. Growing up in New York state and playing little league, my formational year for Baseball was 1969, where my entire class rallied around the unlikely New York Mets, who demonstrated that there is such a thing a modern miracle. Over the years the hard thing about being a Met fan was that other team in New York. For most of my life the Yankees always managed to outspend my Met’s and in effect compile an all-star team of players. I usually do not root against teams, but the Yankees are an exception, and I wonder if I can assign at least a portion of my Yankee resentment upon the gospel.
You see what strikes me about Jesus calling of the disciples and the rest of his followers is that he decidedly did not set out by recruiting an all-star team. In many ways Jesus called forth a group of very ordinary people from the ranks of commonplace occupations. Regular folk called by Jesus for an extraordinary mission--an uncertain and untested group of followers who marked the beginning of a movement that transforms the world still. The thing that strikes me about baseball is that there is a way in which it is a very individual sport. Specific positions and tasks in the field matched by individual at bats at the plate. But we have all seen that sometimes even the most amazing collection of talent on the field can falter, not complement one another, and lose to a group who play as a team, and who are greater than the sum of their parts. And so as Christians, an intrinsic part of our call is to begin a journey that calls forth gifts and talents for the building of God’s Kingdom beyond which we are even aware or imagine.
Poker, with its emphasis on bluffing, determined deception and risk at high stakes would seem a game wholly at odds with a Christian message. Especially if one thinks of a scene from a western movie with a poker game at the saloon, where one is amazed that a game of cards could be the sustained focal point in a place where there are so many opportunities to sin. And yet perhaps it is that salon image of moral decadence that gives extra meaning to the passage from this morning’s gospel Be as wise as serpents and yet as innocent as doves. It is one of those short phrases to which attaches great depth of meaning.
There is much about the way of the world that is not attractive, that does not match the gospel’s call for honesty of speech, integrity of action, and compassion of the heart. Jesus acknowledges that there is much about the world that will be self promoting and self serving. Shallow and facile people promoting causes of questionable worth--fraud and deceit found woven into the fabric of the social structure, and yet Jesus asserts that the role of a follower is to be aware of all that, to understand the way of much of the world, and yet to rise above it. To choose not to contribute to those things that serve to diminish humanity, but rather to be a part of what rises above. In this context to be as innocent as a dove is not to succumb to be some type of hapless, naive goodie two shoes; rather it is to be a person with a firm grounding of the some of the harsh insights and realities of human nature--while at the same time being ever open to the redeeming quality of the way that Jesus engaged the world and called forth more--not less from those with whom he encountered.
One of the early heresies of the church was to only consider the divinity of Jesus. To view him as a kind of divine superhero removed from most of the concerns of everyday earthly life. At first glance the accounts of any of our modern comic book superheroes with their fantastic powers would seem to have little in common with the ministry and cause of Jesus. And yet if take a character like Superman, and look beyond his superpowers, we might see a hero who often struggles to bridge the distance between extraordinary powers and being able to fit in to everyday life. In fact there is a way that the extreme powers of a superhero cast a light upon their limitations: the inability to be everywhere all the time, the magnitude of suffering that one is unable to attend to, and the realization that despite the nobility of one’s cause there are those who will oppose one’s action regardless of intention and purpose. Strangely in this morning’s gospel Jesus seems to be warning his followers that there is a way in which a dedicated follower, despite their best efforts, could end up isolated and disenchanted.
This morning’s Gospel speaks at least in part about our journey to follow Jesus. And while it may be a stretch to tie images from Father’s Day to that journey; baseball reminds me that we are each selected to be team player where our talents become known and valued in community. Poker brings to mind that we are not to be conformed to the world or to let our cynicism consume our passion for justice. And finally we are put in mind this morning that the gospel is nothing less that a super heroic quest, where each encounter is an opportunity to reveal more fully our unique qualities--the gifts that Jesus calls forth from each of us, that we might with passion reach out to one another, that the love that Jesus shared and set before his disciples becomes our true identity as Christians with the power to change and shape the whole world.
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