This is the first of two Lenten sermons done this year.
Many of you have probably seen or heard of the motivational posters that are often displayed in offices. Most all of them have some pretty photograph taking up most of the poster and then below the photo in large colored print on a black background is a word that exemplifies some attribute or quality that the purchaser of the poster wants to emphasize, like teamwork, character, vision, etc. Under that is some statement, quote, or often humanistic platitude that is designed to engender the appropriate response in the reader. For instance under the large word vision you might find, “If you can conceive it, you can achieve it.” It is interesting that if you search on the internet for motivational posters what you will find up near the top of the list a site which specializes in “demotivators”. One of their posters depicts a coastal scene with a gorgeous sky, a peaceful sea –but out of that sea juts the bow of a ship which has either sunk and is stuck or else is in the final throes of its journey to the deep. Underneath the picture is the title “Mistakes” with the tagline “It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.”
Some days Ezekiel’s life probably felt a bit like that. He would be right. Not that his life was a shipwreck, or a mistake, or that his life would serve as a warning to others because of its disastrous nature, but rather he was called to be a watchman, a warning to his people of eminent danger they faced for their faithlessness. It was he who spotted the enemy coming and put out the call to prepare. Consider his first day on the job of being a prophet…
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.
Our Gospel reading today opens with these words. Hard words these. They leave no room for quarter. No room for vacillating. As sure as the defenders of the Alamo you are challenged to step over the line in the sand. You cannot straddle this fence. In or out.
From the Reformed Episcopal Church website:
The 52nd General Council of the REC concluded on Friday October 24th. One key motion was passed that is most pressing and is, therefore, provided here.
Forasmuch as the Reformed Episcopal Church has affirmed the teaching of God’s Word that abortion is the taking of an unborn human life, and inasmuch as we have recognized the duty of all faithful Christians to work to protect the unborn and restrain the sin of abortion on demand, we hereby move that the General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church direct the clergy and laity of the Reformed Episcopal Church to make a political candidate’s position on the Sanctity of Human Life the highest priority in discerning for whom to vote regardless of political party represented or office being sought.
Being a postulant for Holy Orders in the Reformed Episcopal Church, I am especially thankful for the Synod and our Bishops being supportive of bold preaching and teaching for the cause of life. May the Lord richly bless the Reformed Episcopal Church and her Bishops.
In 1986 Henri Nouwen, a Dutch theologian and writer, toured St. Petersburg, Russia, the former Leningrad. While there he visited the famous Hermitage where he saw, among other things, Rembrandt’s painting of the Prodigal Son. The painting was in a hallway and received the natural light of a nearby window. Nouwen stood for two hours, mesmerized by this remarkable painting. As he stood there the sun changed, and at every change of the light’s angle he saw a different aspect of the painting revealed. He would later write: “There were as many paintings in the Prodigal Son as there were changes in the day.”
Today, as we consider our readings, we come to realize that like Henri Nouwen, our readings present to us the concept of prodigal in several different lights each with its own unique contribution to our understanding of what it is to be prodigal so that we can avoid it. Given how we usually view the concept of prodigal it is easy to see the younger son, the wild and reckless one, as the prodigal – but what does prodigal really mean? Really.
THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Morning Prayer
The Lord be with you.
(response)
Let us pray.
Grant we beseech thee, Almighty God, that the words which we have heard this day with our outward ears may, through thy grace, be so grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit of good living; to the honour and praise of thy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Today’s second lesson that comes to us from Matthew is a very hard passage of Scripture. The implications found in it are ones that often make us uncomfortable, and for good reason. Here we have set before us the culmination of the Sermon on the Mount which in itself commands of us more even than the Law of Moses.
The Narrow Gate
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