We've Got the Power
What a fabulous Saturday morning we had here yesterday! We were rich in spirit and generosity– it took a village to make yesterday happen. It took a much larger village than all those it has taken to keep my deacon's stole on me this past year. There was choir rehearsal on Thursday night, additional individual rehearsals, washing and waxing the Parish Hall floor, preparing the altar with the spectacular Pentecost frontal, hanging joyous banners high on the walls, picking up the flowers early so they would be at their freshest, preparing the altar with the needed chalices, patens, and linens, making sure the bishop's chair and credence table were properly placed ….. (big breath) creating the program and – really – proofreading it ever so carefully; making sure the holy water and lavender were available for sprinkling; having the symbols of priesthood in the right places at the right times – stole, chasuble, bible, anointing oil; – practicing readings, studying the ordination service in the Book of Common Prayer to contribute smoothly to movement and rhythms of the service …. planning the reception, welcoming our visitors warmly, providing hospitality with a bounty of food and lots of effort, making music, moving furniture, the hard and thankless work of cleaning up afterward, flying into California, taking a train, driving a distance, or bringing loved ones we have missed seeing back into our community, all to be part of our Spirit-filled celebration. So many were bound together in prayer and the Spirit, giving freely your gifts of time, treasure, and talent, and it was a glorious day, wasn't it?
We were the Body of Christ in action. We were the hands, and feet hurrying to complete our work. We were the heart and the soul, we were the a community living in the covenant of our Baptisms. We were a solution in our little corner of a world full of problems. We had the power.
Musical Card: I've Got the Power
By contrast, two of our readings tell us about the problems of
living.
This teacher, this sage in Ecclesiastes has missed the point of his own life.
He has amassed wealth. He has lived by reason; he has tried to strike down folly.
He has lived by planning and considering, dismissing laughter. He is not a human
being, he is surely a human doing.
Something has made him think about his death. He realizes that what he thought was a full life is crumbling into dust. What if he turns it over to someone and they squander it? "So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun." It makes me just heartsick to hear this. How empty a life he leads.
Most of us know troubled lives when we see them, and this man has made decisions that build up his reputation, but have left him with ash. He has fed the yearning in his heart with stuff, and stuff does not feed him. His connection with God, his higher power, is what feeds him. That connection with God and among ourselves is we saw yesterday morning.
In the reading from Luke, Jesus tells about a man who wants Jesus to act as a judge so he can force his brother to settle an estate in the way he thinks it ought to be. Jesus doesn't bite and instead tells the story of another man who also amassed a great fortune. The man in Ecclesiastes seems to have been well intended – trying to extend his wisdom and defeat folly – but the goal of the man in the parable is simply to grow his wealth. He succeeds and with great self-satisfaction he sets out to enjoy himself.
Like so many folks today, this man too has attempted to fill the yearning in his soul and heart with stuff, flexing his business muscles but leaving his spiritual muscles untouched to atrophy. How many people do we know who fill that void with busy-ness, guilt, feelings of inadequacy and failure, alcohol, drugs, more. These "solutions" become greater problems of their own.
How much simpler and more fulfilling it is to take another look at the reading from Paul to the Colossians. He creates a recipe for joy. He gives a blueprint to follow in building the body of Christ in joy and love. It isn't wimpy. It requires our energy and our commitment in all ways just as it did yesterday. With rewards that great, what do we have to lose?
Musical Card: I've Got the Power