Christopher Thomas
Sermon for the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, Year A – 2/2/2020
Malachi 3:1-4
Psalm 84
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40
“At This Table”
by Idina Menzel & Jonas Myrin, 2019
At This Table:
Everyone is Welcome
Everyone is Seen
Everybody Matters
No One Falls Between
At This Table:
You Can Say Whatever
You Can Speak Your Mind
Everything Is Forgiven
There’s Enough for Everyone
At This Table:
There Will Be No Judgement
Mercy Has A Seat
We’re All Sons and Daughters
There’s No Place I Would Rather Be
At This Table:
Everyone Is Welcome
Everybody Cares
Everybody Matters
Come, Pull Up A Chair
Come As You Are
Remember That the Door is Always Open
Come As You Are
The Perfect Gift That You Can Bring Is Your Heart
Come, Come As You Are
I can’t believe we’re actually here, that this day, this moment, this split second in time that I have dreamed of for oh so very long, is finally, achingly, here. I have to be honest, I wondered if it would ever come. Did you feel that way? The longing of promise, of hope, of endings that you and I and we hope and pray lead to new beginnings. Sometimes they do; sometimes they don’t.
Journeys, and journey stories, the things of holy, sacred ground. You and I, we’ve been working out very different journey stories that have put us squarely onto this trajectory toward each other, toward this moment in time, from such unlikely places. Who knew our paths would cross, that we would present ourselves to each other, an offering and a sacrifice to God, today, of all days, this day of presentation, Jesus’ presentation, in the temple?
Your journey story began 70 years, and 23 years, and 5 years, and now 1 year ago, your journey toward today’s presentation, each of these milestones serving as holy markers of who you are as faithful and faith-filled people of God. Presenting yourself today, with all that’s written into and upon your holy story, before this very altar, where ALL are truly welcome.
For me it’s been 54 years, and 10 years, and 1 year, and now 6 months. I feel sure my path is equally marked with milestones and guideposts, fragments of my holy story you’ll hear and learn more about the longer we spend in relationship. Each of those milestones and guideposts helped birth the person who stands presented, before you, today.
And so, when this newly minted and “cured” priest, searching for his first rectorship, came across your congregation’s profile, something deep within, maybe the Holy Spirit, urged me forward toward you. That profile so elegantly and eloquently communicated St. Thomas’s deep-seated urging to be simultaneously committed to the beauty of your heritage, to your space and place in time, Chronos, this human time we live in, and yet always determined to being open to witnessing to the ever-changing culture of the world around it, and what God expects of St. Thomas within that world, God’s time, Kairos.
Those intersections of Chronos and Kairos, of God’s time and our time, are exciting to me, and so what could I do, that August 11, 2019, but dash off a cover letter and materials to your faithful search committee, those destined with discerning God’s vision for St. Thomas, with making today happen, to tell them of my own trajectory? In my excitement over you, each of you, please hear how I ended my cover letter to your committee:
“I say this with complete humility. I am NOT looking for a job. I am searching for a congregation that I can fall in love with, and that will fall in love with me, and that we can spend a lifetime exploring the heart of God and doing God’s work in the world together.”
More than resumes, or catchy answers to convoluted questions, or who-knew-who in a long pedigree, that, that notion of a love affair, seemed to, seems to resonate with everyone, more than even I could have imagined.
I think the reason why that language, why the metaphor resonates is because we can all identify with the hope that lies out in front of what a love affair represents. We’ve all felt that way at some point in our lives. There’s so much potential energy for creativity, and for new life that springs forth from love. So, what if we could fall in love, you and I, presented, here today? That’s a pretty exciting starting point, don’t you think?
Love affairs, if they are going to be anything, if they are to have any true substance, or depth, are going to require commitment. Ah, commitment! Well, isn’t it awfully early to be talking about commitment? We don’t really even know if we like you yet. We still have our date-faces on!
Real relationship, relationship that endures the tests of time, the slings and arrows of life, a love affair that lives on well past the honeymoon phase that we know we’re going to have, involves commitment, commitment to covenant. And covenant ALWAYS involves sacrifice, sacrifice for someone, or for some other’s good over and above ones’ self. There, my friends, is where the love affair literally either gets its traction or is over.
Sacrifice. What are we, you and I, we willing to sacrifice, to do this thing called covenant, to be in a life-long love affair? What am I willing to give up? What are you willing to give up? And how will we be able to do something completely new and different through that willingness?
Mary and Joseph must have been just about at the end of their sacrificial rope by the time 40 days had passed from Jesus’ circumcision. “You know, Joseph, we’ve done everything else that the law, Jewish law, God’s covenant, requires of us. Could we just skip this part and sleep in this morning?”
It could have just as easily been Joseph who knew who was on deck to preach that morning and thought, “Gosh, the Cowboys game looks a lot more attractive today than what’s going on at St. Thomas. Let’s skip, just today.”
What if Mary and Joseph hadn’t been diligent in the keeping of God’s covenant that day? Would God have held it against them? Well, there’s always mercy and grace and forgiveness. True. God probably would’ve found other ways to work God’s purposes out. God’s fairly creative in getting around our humanness.
But think about this. What might have happened to Simeon and to Anna that day, so long ago, had they not encountered Mary and Joseph and Jesus, the light, in their faithful, sacrificial diligence, that day in the temple? And what would Mary and Joseph have missed out on in that covenant?
Presentation, being present, is a vital part of covenant, of relationship. It’s impossible to be in relationship if you, me, we don’t show up, with our whole, complete self, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, warts and misgivings and all. Because every time we show up, God shows up too, and the light is with us, beckoning us forward! The light is literally and figuratively on. Chronos and Kairos come together in these holy moment intersections that I do not want you to miss!
There’s another reason that presentation, being present is so important to me, to you, to we, today, and that’s the effect that Chronos, human time, will have on our love affair, the time that you and I will spend together in this place called St. Thomas. I have lived enough years to know that this is true, and if you have, then you already know it as well. As I said before, I am 54 years old. The Episcopal Church mandates that clergy retirement must occur at 72. That means that our time together will be no longer than 18 years.
Now, 18 years may seem like an eternity to some of you, particularly after you get to know me! I’m willing to acknowledge I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. But you all have longevity with your clergy in your DNA.
And I want to tell you this. I want you to know this. As we stand here today, at the beginning of this love affair, if we do truly covenant to be in relationship, and if we live through the ups-and-downs that being committed to each other will definitely and ultimately bring, through all the shared experiences, and marriages and funerals, through all the Vestry meetings and committees and budgets and cuts and growth, through all the marches and services and, well, life, if we survive all of that, I promise you, we will be standing here, 18 years from today, presenting ourselves and asking God for one more day, for one more bit of Chronos, and that will be the one “No” that we get in all of the “Yes’s” that God has for us.
And so, as we, you and I, step off into this love affair, I urge us, you and me, not to take one moment of this thing for granted, because it WILL be over in the blink of an eye.
Remember that at this table, everyone is welcome, everyone cares, everyone matters.
Come as you are. The very and most perfect and present gift that you can bring and offer up is your heart.
Here is mine.
Amen.
