Saturday, October 25, 2014

Learning from Philip

Learning from Philip
Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
October 26, 2014; 20 Pentecost, Proper 24, Year A, Track 2
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

Matthew 22:34-46 – When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "`You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
                 `The Lord said to my Lord,
"Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet"'?
 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

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"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And, love your neighbor as yourself."

It was a cold morning. I was driving toward my church in Fort Smith to open up for the early service. There was no traffic at that hour. Back then I drove a 1937 Chevy street rod. Kathy called that car my mid-life crisis. It was a pretty toy that ended up becoming a pretty expensive toy. But that morning, driving down an empty street, the light turned red on me. I stopped, and a small, cold looking fellow in Army fatigues wobbled a bit unsteadily across the street, his breath visible in the chill. Instead of staying in the crosswalk in front of my car, he headed right toward me. My first reaction was an anxious one, but then he grinned a big wide smile, exaggerated by his missing two-front-teeth. He signaled for me to roll down my window. I rolled down my window. "Hey Father, how much would you take for that car? I wanna buy your car?"

"I think my wife would give it to you, but I'm pretty attached to it," I said.

"I like that car, Father," he chuckled, his blood-shot eyes glistening. I caught a whiff of what he must have been drinking that night to keep himself warm. "I'm gonna buy that car from you," he laughed as he walked on, crossing in front of me.

It was weeks, maybe months later, when I got a call from one of our local recovery programs. They said a fellow named Philip had checked in to their 30-day detox and rehab center. When they asked him about his income, he told them he was on disability. When they asked who his payee was, he said, "The Father down at the Episcopal Church." "Are you the Father down at the Episcopal Church?" "Yes," I said. "But what's a payee?"

So they explained the system to me. When someone is placed on disability for addiction, the government requires a payee to serve as the party responsible for administering the funds for the disabled person. The rehab center needed a payee to cover the costs of Philip's stay with them.

"Well," I said, "the name Philip doesn't ring a bell with me, but if he says I'm his payee, I'll be glad to come down and see what the situation is." It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

It seems Philip's payee had been fleecing money from him, and Philip liked my car. So when they asked him who his payee was, he just made it up and said I was. We talked a while. I learned about the responsibilities of a payee. And we made a deal. I'd be his payee and take care of his living costs as long as he was sober. If he started drinking though, I'd put his money in the bank for him. I wasn't going to pay for his drinking. Until he was sober again, he was on his own. Philip grinned that big, toothless grin and we shook on it.

We got him set up in a pretty spare furnished apartment. I didn't know what I was doing and made some mistakes at first. I wrote up a budget and schedule for him for rent and food and essentials. A couple of days later he came back. "Father, don't be mad at me. I gave away the money to a poor family with two children." "Okay," I said, admiring his generosity but anxious about his own slim margins. "How much did you give them?" "Oh, all of it, Father," "What? Nearly $400? That was everything you had to live on for the whole month." (It was the first week of the month.) "Oh, Father. They need it more than I do. They have children to take care of. I got one of them a little Teddy Bear," he grinned. "Philip…!" I moaned. "No wait, Father. Don't be upset with me. They really need it, for those children. I can get by just fine. Why I could go down on Garrison Avenue right now and panhandle, and I could get ten dollars, twenty in half an hour. Maybe even more. One time a guy gave me a fifty dollar bill. Can you imagine that? Fifty bucks! Wow. I felt rich. He must have been rich."

I  learned something fascinating. Philip felt absolutely secure. Philip knew he could take care of himself. He didn't have to have income in order to get by. He didn't have to have a home to be just fine. More than once he said to me, "The good Lord will take care of me. He's never failed me. I believe that. You believe that too, don't you, Father?" And he looked at me in a way that made me wonder about my own level of trust.

Philip's sense of security and unattachment to money made him free in a way that I am not free. Free enough to give all of his money to a family poorer then he was simply because they had children. Often Philip acted with spontaneous, radical generosity that just amazed me. Philip needed to plan in order to keep enough money for his rent and utilities. I had to adjust my plan for him as his payee to account for his radical generosity.

Now, I'm not built like Philip. I'm not spontaneous and radically generous as he. I'm also not that secure or that free. I need to plan in order to be generous, in order to give money to good things before I rationalize my wants into exaggerated needs.

You see I find it is easy for me to exaggerate my needs and to get very attached to my wants. I can rationalize buying a 1937 Chevy street rod. I needed that car. Actually, it is my appetites need some discipline.

Unlike Philip, I need to plan in order to be generous. I like making a plan to give away a known percentage of my income as an act of gratitude to God for all that I enjoy, and as an act of generosity toward some things I believe in and want to support. I think tithing is a satisfying and fulfilling act that generates in us some of the joy that Philip experienced whenever he gave to children.

I encourage you to make a plan in order to be generous. Give away a known percentage of your income. Give it to St. Paul's, and to KUAF and 7hills or to whatever you believe in. Give spontaneously whenever we have our Community Kids Closet drive to get winter coats for kids or when we help John Agana ship a container to his home in Ghana.

Give because you need to. Give because you are so happy to be able to give. Give because you've got a home and electricity and water. Give because it feels good. Give because you can do better things with your money than buy whatever your version of a 1937 Chevy street rod might be.

And be glad. Giving is a way of loving. Give to God because you love God. Give as a way of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Give to St. Paul's because you love God, and because everything we do is about Jesus' liberating commandment of love – Love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And, love your neighbor as yourself. That's what we're trying to do – as spontaneously and generously as we can.
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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance and love.

For information about St. Paul's Episcopal Church and its life and mission, please contact us at
P.O. Box 1190, Fayetteville, AR 72702, or call 479/442-7373
More sermon texts are posted on our web site: www.stpaulsfay.org
Click the “Video Online” button to watch full services and sermons live-streamed or archived.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Whose Eikōn is this?

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
October 18, 2014; 19 Pentecost, Proper 23, Year A, Track 2
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

Matthew 22:15-22 – The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
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Jesus takes the coin, a Roman coin, and asks, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" The Greek word translated here as "head" is the word eikōn. It is often translated "image" or "likeness." Jesus holds the coin and asks, "Whose image or likeness is this?"

Caesar's eikōn is on the coin. Then, give it to Caesar. But give to God the things that are God's.

Let's go back into the recesses of time, before money or Caesar. In the first chapter of the Bible, as God finishes the days of creation, God declares, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… So God created humankind in God's image; …male and female… [And] God blessed them." (Gen. 1:26f)

Now just hold that for a few moments. We’ll get back to it.

I want to tell you about an essay I read last week that really grabbed me. It was an essay about "devotion." Now that's not a word I use very often – "devotion." It's got a sweet and syrupy tone that I tend to shy away from. But listen to this description:  "Devotion is extremely dedicated, unwavering love that is selflessly oriented toward the good of another – who may be God, a cause, a profession, a work – really anything, which indicates the great fluidity of devotion that, when entered, opens and fills the interior soul life." [i]

Devotion is extremely dedicated, unwavering love that is selflessly oriented toward the good of another. Now that's something I can get excited about. I want to live a life like that. I want to live a life full of devotion, full of dedicated, unwavering love… selflessly oriented toward the good of another. I can see devotion in my life. I'll be you can see devotion in your life too.

I've got "dedicated, unwavering love" toward my family, and it is sometimes "selflessly oriented toward (their) good." I find it easy to be devoted to my work and to this church. To friends. And, when I think about it, I find I have a considerable degree of devotion to some things that might be considered of less significance – to sports, to the Razorbacks and the Rebels. You might not be exaggerating if you described my attention to some football games at times as being "extremely dedicated, unwavering love that is selflessly oriented toward the good of" my team. As I put it that way, I don't think I'm particularly proud of that.

It makes me wonder whether it's really love, or is my sports obsession more like an addiction? What is the difference between love and addiction? I think that's where the second half of that definition comes in. An addiction is all about me and getting my needs met. Devotion is "selflessly oriented toward the good of another."

What are you dedicated to? To what do you give unwavering love, selflessly oriented toward the good of another?

If we are fortunate, we can all count some devotions in our life. People, relationships; jobs if we are lucky; certain causes or special interests. To who or what do you give yourself for good?

The writer of the essay about devotion was writing particularly about contemplation and contemplative prayer. As I read, he stoked a fire and passion that is inside me – a desire to be passionately dedicated to God, and a desire to enter prayer with an "extremely dedicated, unwavering love that is selflessly oriented toward" God, the goodness and wholeness at the center of all.

Yet when I do orient myself toward God with deep devotion, I find it is I who becomes the subject of a "dedicated, unwavering love that is selflessly oriented toward my good." I discover it is God who is dedicated to me with unqualified love. Sometimes the experience of that love is so profound that I even feel myself to be created in the image of God. Which takes us back to the story of the coin.

One reason I can believe in a God of unqualified love is because I was so fortunate to have a grandfather who loved me in a way that approached unqualified love. I realize how fortunate I am, for not everyone receives such divine love from another human being.

Sometimes when I am especially fragile, I will use the image of my grandfather as an eikōn of God, and I can approach the infinite and holy with intimacy and warmth.

The radical truth is -- we all are eikōns of God. We are all created in the image of God. And that makes our interactions with each other not unlike the loving relationship of the Holy Trinity – one person of the Holy Trinity pouring unwavering love, selflessly oriented toward the goodness of the other, and the other receiving and returning that love in equal measure. All of creation is breathed into being by this living, loving dynamic. We are invited to live and move and have our being in that relationship of infinite loving devotion.

It seems to me that there are two transformations that we must allow our imaginations to embrace. One is humbly to accept that we are created in the image of God. You carries the imprint of God's spirit. You are capable of loving dedication. The other transformation of the imagination is for us to be willing to see every other human being as created in the image of God.

Wally Odum is a non-denominational pastor who was serving outside Baltimore a number of years ago. He read about an assignment a local college professor gave to his class. The professor asked the students to go into the economically impoverished communities to get case histories of 200 young boys. As part of the case history, the students were asked to write an evaluation of each boy's future. In every case the students wrote something like, "He hasn't got a chance."

Twenty-five years later a sociology professor came across the earlier study, and he decided to have his class follow up to see what had happened to those boys. Twenty of the boys had moved away or died, but the students were able to interview 180 of them. 176 of those 180 remaining boys had achieved more than ordinary success as lawyers, doctors, and businessmen.

The professor was astounded at the results and decided to pursue the matter further. He had the class return to the 176 and ask each of them the question, "How do you account for your success?" In each case the reply came with feeling, "There was a teacher…"

Investigating, the professor learned that the teacher was still alive. He went to speak with her personally. He asked her what magic formula she had used to pull these boys out of the slums into successful achievement. The teacher looked at him, broke into a smile, and said, "It's really very simple. I loved those boys." [ii]

She seems like an image of devotion, doesn't she? While some people looked at those boys and said, "They haven't got a chance," she looked at them with extremely dedicated, unwavering love, selflessly oriented toward their goodness, and they were transformed. She saw the image of God in them and treated them as children of God. I believe, when those boys experienced her devotion toward them, they looked back at her and saw the image of God in her. In that exchange of vision, those boys were transformed. They began to live out of their true image, the image their teacher saw, not the false image the world tried to give them. They became the persons God created them to be.

God takes you into God's divine hand, and asks, "Whose image or likeness is upon this person?" The whole creation looks at you and answers, "God's image." God asks you to look upon your neighbor, whoever that might be, and God asks, "Whose image or likeness is upon this person?" And we must answer, "God's image."

Then give to God the things that are God's.

But don't merely give to God those things made in the image of God. Give also your devotion. Give your devotion to the image of God, in yourself and in others. Offer your extremely dedicated, unwavering love, selflessly oriented toward the goodness of others, and be fully alive, an eikōn of God.



[i] Robert Sardello, The Contemplative Action of Devotion, published in Oneing: The Perennial Tradition, Franciscan Media, 2014.
[ii] http://wallyodum.blogspot.com/2008_02_23_archive.html

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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance and love.

For information about St. Paul's Episcopal Church and its life and mission, please contact us at
P.O. Box 1190, Fayetteville, AR 72702, or call 479/442-7373
More sermon texts are posted on our web site: www.stpaulsfay.org
Click the “Video Online” button to watch full services and sermons live-streamed or archived.