Sermon on August 23, 2009
Sermon for the Episcopal Church of St John the Baptist, Capitola,
given by Rev. Stu Fitch
The Episcopal Church of Saint John the Baptist welcomes all to worship God and to share Christ's love in the world. We are a parish family committed to provide liturgy, Bible study, music, counseling, and Christian education for children, youth, and adults, and to equip all our members for life and for service to others.
Sermon
Life is about choice. Joshua challenges .us---Who is your God? We would probably say without thinking---why The God of course. Yet our lives are filled with many gods, seen in our own lives and the lives of others. Money, power, control, reputation, pleasure, sex. You name it. All of us are at times and to a degree smitten by one of these gods.
But more subtle are other gods . Family for one. It is so easy to focus on family and shape our lives around those members. And moving out of that circle to friends, employers, employees, clergy, parish volunteers--- trying to meet all demands and expectations and make ourselves acceptable. Of course we do love family and bidden to love all others, but not to make them our gods.
Even deeper and more personal are the gods that run our lives-like. fear. Fear of the other who is different from us. And the gods we make of our judgments, perceptions, and the opinions of how people and situations ought to be. These gods were given birth in us by our early conditioning by family dynamics and patterns, so come naturally and are hard to recognize or to change. They just surface out as familiar givens.
Attitude is important here. Some of us have been conditioned to see things negatively---seeing all the things we feel should be different or done differently. We focus on the mistakes, misjudgments and decisions of others. It seems a natural attitude to have. Then there are those who were conditioned with a positive attitude--seeing opportunities, possibilities and challenges and acceptance of what is. Since the opposites are true there is truth in both attitudes and we carry both within us, one more dominate than the other. We need to be aware of these opposites which are usually revealed to us by our out of proportion reactions. We are wise to be more balanced. But as you might guess, when we are not aware, the positive thinker and the negative thinker clash, both considering their point of view to be right.
What this all boils down to is the ego, each of our egos being our personal god. These gods then agree or clash with one another, each being right or as one of my teachers said “dead right.” There is another way. instead of being dead right, die to being right!!!
Jesus tells us to surrender our egos to God, who is abundant life. This life opens us to discover the harmony of our being, our potential for growth and our wholeness. To attain this fullness Jesus tells us that we must die in order to live. He’s not talking about the end of life, but right now, with what is. Jesus sets in place the rhythm of death and resurrection, daily dying to the False Self and rising to our True Self, We can joyfully choose to live in this rhythm and we must be aware of what and how we are perceiving. Ask “Am I in the Now, or am I living out my past conditioning?” There is that Fair Witness part of us which can look at ourselves without judgment or investment. Stop and reflect to yourself ” Hmm, look at my attitude---look at what my mind is saying.” Our Fair Witness asks us to consider which god is speaking--- our ego or one of our lesser gods or The God we say we choose. Then to ask ourselves “What do I need to die to? What do I need to surrender in order to have abundant life? Am I run by my my opinions and judgments, be they positive or negative? Do I have tunnel vision? Do I feel I am always right? Can I recognize the ego is not my True Self?”
Life is our gift and that life is God. God is born in all persons and all things, --and opens us to see there really is no separation but unity, the oneness of all things. That union is God’s continuing presence, the Spirit essence in all things, which is the real person. in the image and likeness of God. That’s what the Baptismal instruction means--to seek that essence in all persons and call forth that True Self. Each person is a reflection of God despite outward behavior or appearance. We need to recognize that presence is within--ourselves and all others.
As an example a young friend of ours Tony was dying of Aids Our son Bob and other former high school friends chose to be caregivers for Tony. He came to that point in his illness when he lashed out at them in anger. He said all kinds of unkind things and showed no appreciation for their love and concern for him. It was easy to take his nastiness personally, but his friends knew that was not Tony---his true essence was always there. They chose to see the essence of Tony, the Spirit presence within.
Holy Communion, the Eucharist which is the Greek for thanksgiving, affirms that essence within each of us every Sunday. and is the living symbolic and supportive Ritual, reminding us that we already have within us the Life (Blood) and Strength (Body) of the Christ. who is one with God. Each time we ingest that Life and Strength it inhances our true essence. We are the Body, we are the Blood. The Strength and Life of God is in us as a Real Presence. It is with that reasuring knowledge that we make our choices as we live our lives. Do we as Joshua’s people affirm that The God is our God knowing that God is the life within each one of us? Can we and believe that it is in God that we live and move and have our being? .Live that mystery?
To get in touch with our lives, this is an exercise I have often used and invite you to ponder the things I will suggest: If you only had a year left to live how would you choose to live your life? Would you make changes? What unfinished business needs to be handled? From whom do you need to ask forgiveness? Who do you need to forgive? Who do you want to to thank and to whom do you want to express appreciation? To whom do you need to say I love you?”
Then instead of leaving your insights as thoughts and words, do them!! Write that letter. Make that change. Tell that
person “I love you.” This is the last year of your life.