August 23, 2009
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Fargo
Ephesians 43.15-22; John 6.56-69
About a week and half ago, on August 13, I celebrated the seventeenth anniversary of my oblation as an Oblate of St. Benedict. An Oblate is a person who has made a decision to following the Rule of St. Benedict while associating with a monastery.
When I made oblation on that day in 1992, I promised to “offer myself to Almighty God as a Benedictine Oblate and I promised to serve God and all people according to the Rule of St. Benedict.”
That day in 1992 was a very important day to me. In some many ways my identity as a Christian was formed, hand-in-hand, with my identity as a Benedictine. And I think this was St. Benedict’s intention all along. The Rule of St. Benedict, that all Benedictines, whether professed members of religious communities or those of us “out here” in the world, strive to follow is essentially a down-to-earth, structured way of living out the Gospel. I have been amazed many times over these last seventeen years by how many times the Rule of Benedict has surprised me and delighted me in new and innovative ways—even after I thought I knew for sure everything there was to know about the Rule and how to apply it in my own life.
One of the best Benedictine practices I have been able to apply to my life is a practice common among most monastic communities called Lectio Divina. Lectio is nothing more than a prayerful reading of Scripture. As one monk I heard once described it, “Lectio is the prayerful reading of Scripture, meditating on the message, and asking how it can be applied to my own life at this time.”[i]
Lectio allows God to speak to us, though the Word. It allows the Word to guide us and direct us where we are at this moment in our journey. It is a powerful prayer experience and once that has yielded countless joys and surprises in my own life.
For Jesus’ followers, as they lived with him, they had their own form of lectio to some extent. They too lived and mediated on his Word. And in doing so, they recognized what that Word meant to them. These were words not of just any teacher, any wise counselor. These words carried something more, something substantial to them. This Word they heard coming from Jesus’ mouth was not the voice of an ordinary man, but of God.
In our Gospel reading for today, we find Simon Peter answering that question of Jesus, “Do you wish to go away?” with strangely poetic and vibrant words.
Peter asks, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
For all Christians, the Word (which we find contained in scripture) is essential. It not only directs our lives, it sustains us, and feeds us and keeps us buoyant in the floods and tempests that rage about us. The Word is the place to which go when we need direction, when we need comfort, when we need hope. The Word is essential to us because through it, God speaks to us. The Word is essential to us because it is there that we hear Christ directing us and leading us forward.
This past week, that Word was affirmed in a glorious way, I think, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. What happened this past week in Minneapolis was truly a step forward toward being followers of Christ and making yet another more wonderful attempt at helping the Kingdom of God break through into our midst. Many of us Episcopalians, who have been making our own attempts to just what the ELCA has just done, are very proud and maybe a bit envious, of what has occurred in the ELCA. And many of us hope this will help all of us as Christians to make yet another step forward in affirming all people in Christ.
The irony for me, however, is most poignant when I listen to those detractors who use the Word in such cutting ways. I have always warned parishioners and students to be careful of using Scripture as a sword, because it is a two-edged sword. If you use the Word to cut others, it will come back and cut you.
However, if we use the Word to affirm, to build up the Kingdom of God, if we allow the Word to be, in our lives, the voice of Christ, then we in turn are affirmed. As Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians that we heard this morning: “take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” That sword of the Spirit is an amazing weapon. It is a powerful device that carries more strength and influence than any of probably fully realize. And because it is so powerful, we need to use carefully. We need to use not in anger, not in hatred, not in oppression, but in love. When we wield this sword in love, we find love. When we wield this sword in compassion, we spread compassion. When we wield this sword to shatter injustice and oppression, we find justice and freedom instead. When we wield this sword as a way to clear the way for the Kingdom of God, we find that we too become a part of that building up of the Kingdom.
We too are able to clearly hear Christ’s voice in our lives. Those words of eternal life that Christ speaks to us again and again in scripture truly do break down barriers, build up those marginalized and shunned and, in doing so, we find the Kingdom of God in our midst. I think, in the aftermath of Minneapolis, we, today, find the Kingdom of God in our midst.
ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, a person I have come to admire greatly, shared some beautiful thoughts in the moments leading up to this momentous vote. At one point he wrote these words, which speaks not only to Lutherans, but to all Christians.
“You are called to clothe yourselves with love,’ he wrote. “But we're all called to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, remembering again and again that we are called in the one body.”
Finally, he concluded with these words: "We meet one another finally, not in our agreements or our disagreements, but at the foot of the cross, where God is faithful, where Christ is present with us, and where, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are one in Christ."
This morning, we are here, at the foot of the cross, one in Christ, and we have glimpsed the Kingdom of God in our midst. We have heard the Word of eternal life spoken to us and we have responded. And we have seen justice and mercy once again.
When a Benedictine makes a profession of vows they pray a wonderful prayer. Their prayer is: “Accept me, Lord, according to your word, and I shall live. Do not disappoint me in my expectation.”
This was the prayer many of us have prayed for the Church for years. We too have prayed to be accepted according to God’s Word. This past week I think we have not been disappointed. The sword of the Spirit has swiped the veil of separation from us and has made us one. And in this place, beneath the cross of Christ, where we are all truly one, we are listening. We are listening as we do when we engage the scriptures in Lectio Divina. We are listening so God can speak to us—so the Word can speak to us and through us. And we are praying,
When God speaks to us, we respond. When the Word comes to us, we then engage it. This is what prayer is—holy conversation. And as the Word is spoken to us, as we hear it and feel it, our response is the same as those who heard the Word spoken to them by Jesus.
“Yes, Lord, you have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
[i] McGinnis, Mark W. The Wisdom of the Benedictine Elders
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Fargo
Ephesians 43.15-22; John 6.56-69
About a week and half ago, on August 13, I celebrated the seventeenth anniversary of my oblation as an Oblate of St. Benedict. An Oblate is a person who has made a decision to following the Rule of St. Benedict while associating with a monastery.
When I made oblation on that day in 1992, I promised to “offer myself to Almighty God as a Benedictine Oblate and I promised to serve God and all people according to the Rule of St. Benedict.”
That day in 1992 was a very important day to me. In some many ways my identity as a Christian was formed, hand-in-hand, with my identity as a Benedictine. And I think this was St. Benedict’s intention all along. The Rule of St. Benedict, that all Benedictines, whether professed members of religious communities or those of us “out here” in the world, strive to follow is essentially a down-to-earth, structured way of living out the Gospel. I have been amazed many times over these last seventeen years by how many times the Rule of Benedict has surprised me and delighted me in new and innovative ways—even after I thought I knew for sure everything there was to know about the Rule and how to apply it in my own life.
One of the best Benedictine practices I have been able to apply to my life is a practice common among most monastic communities called Lectio Divina. Lectio is nothing more than a prayerful reading of Scripture. As one monk I heard once described it, “Lectio is the prayerful reading of Scripture, meditating on the message, and asking how it can be applied to my own life at this time.”[i]
Lectio allows God to speak to us, though the Word. It allows the Word to guide us and direct us where we are at this moment in our journey. It is a powerful prayer experience and once that has yielded countless joys and surprises in my own life.
For Jesus’ followers, as they lived with him, they had their own form of lectio to some extent. They too lived and mediated on his Word. And in doing so, they recognized what that Word meant to them. These were words not of just any teacher, any wise counselor. These words carried something more, something substantial to them. This Word they heard coming from Jesus’ mouth was not the voice of an ordinary man, but of God.
In our Gospel reading for today, we find Simon Peter answering that question of Jesus, “Do you wish to go away?” with strangely poetic and vibrant words.
Peter asks, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
For all Christians, the Word (which we find contained in scripture) is essential. It not only directs our lives, it sustains us, and feeds us and keeps us buoyant in the floods and tempests that rage about us. The Word is the place to which go when we need direction, when we need comfort, when we need hope. The Word is essential to us because through it, God speaks to us. The Word is essential to us because it is there that we hear Christ directing us and leading us forward.
This past week, that Word was affirmed in a glorious way, I think, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. What happened this past week in Minneapolis was truly a step forward toward being followers of Christ and making yet another more wonderful attempt at helping the Kingdom of God break through into our midst. Many of us Episcopalians, who have been making our own attempts to just what the ELCA has just done, are very proud and maybe a bit envious, of what has occurred in the ELCA. And many of us hope this will help all of us as Christians to make yet another step forward in affirming all people in Christ.
The irony for me, however, is most poignant when I listen to those detractors who use the Word in such cutting ways. I have always warned parishioners and students to be careful of using Scripture as a sword, because it is a two-edged sword. If you use the Word to cut others, it will come back and cut you.
However, if we use the Word to affirm, to build up the Kingdom of God, if we allow the Word to be, in our lives, the voice of Christ, then we in turn are affirmed. As Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians that we heard this morning: “take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” That sword of the Spirit is an amazing weapon. It is a powerful device that carries more strength and influence than any of probably fully realize. And because it is so powerful, we need to use carefully. We need to use not in anger, not in hatred, not in oppression, but in love. When we wield this sword in love, we find love. When we wield this sword in compassion, we spread compassion. When we wield this sword to shatter injustice and oppression, we find justice and freedom instead. When we wield this sword as a way to clear the way for the Kingdom of God, we find that we too become a part of that building up of the Kingdom.
We too are able to clearly hear Christ’s voice in our lives. Those words of eternal life that Christ speaks to us again and again in scripture truly do break down barriers, build up those marginalized and shunned and, in doing so, we find the Kingdom of God in our midst. I think, in the aftermath of Minneapolis, we, today, find the Kingdom of God in our midst.
ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, a person I have come to admire greatly, shared some beautiful thoughts in the moments leading up to this momentous vote. At one point he wrote these words, which speaks not only to Lutherans, but to all Christians.
“You are called to clothe yourselves with love,’ he wrote. “But we're all called to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, remembering again and again that we are called in the one body.”
Finally, he concluded with these words: "We meet one another finally, not in our agreements or our disagreements, but at the foot of the cross, where God is faithful, where Christ is present with us, and where, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are one in Christ."
This morning, we are here, at the foot of the cross, one in Christ, and we have glimpsed the Kingdom of God in our midst. We have heard the Word of eternal life spoken to us and we have responded. And we have seen justice and mercy once again.
When a Benedictine makes a profession of vows they pray a wonderful prayer. Their prayer is: “Accept me, Lord, according to your word, and I shall live. Do not disappoint me in my expectation.”
This was the prayer many of us have prayed for the Church for years. We too have prayed to be accepted according to God’s Word. This past week I think we have not been disappointed. The sword of the Spirit has swiped the veil of separation from us and has made us one. And in this place, beneath the cross of Christ, where we are all truly one, we are listening. We are listening as we do when we engage the scriptures in Lectio Divina. We are listening so God can speak to us—so the Word can speak to us and through us. And we are praying,
When God speaks to us, we respond. When the Word comes to us, we then engage it. This is what prayer is—holy conversation. And as the Word is spoken to us, as we hear it and feel it, our response is the same as those who heard the Word spoken to them by Jesus.
“Yes, Lord, you have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
[i] McGinnis, Mark W. The Wisdom of the Benedictine Elders
1 comment:
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Jenifer
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