Text: Mark 9:30-37
Spirit of the Living God Fall Fresh on Me! Congregations Repeats
In the Gospel the disciples argued over whom was the
greatest as nobody wanted to be last, indeed the least. Jesus responded, “Whoever wants to be
first must be last of all and servant of all”. Restated the one who wants to be
first must have the experience of being last. We learn the grace of humility
and compassion at its deepest and most transformative levels when we have had
an experience of being last.
My preaching these last few weeks has been very intentional.
Through building block themes I have wanted to give you confidence in the
journey you have been on, the journey we are beginning and the journey ahead.
On Sunday, September 9 I invited you to join me on a journey
where we honor God’s time and resist any sense of urgency about having to name
where we are going or why. That
sermon was titled, “Spirit of God: Lead Us Towards Your Feast”. Last Sunday
building on my first sermon, I invited you to literally do less, so that in
time we might do more with greater joy. We do less so that we might spend more
time listening to the Spirit of God who is leading us on our shared journey.
Today I want to leave you with the sense that there has been
a coherent sense of purpose and direction in all you have done throughout your
history, including over the last decade.
I want to affirm for you that even in the midst of a variety
of ministerial disruptions including the death of a rector you have continued
with a stable unity and singleness of purpose. As I read today’s Gospel through the lens of your history I
see a congregation who has for quite some time been going through a process of
being prepared for something else.
In your individual and corporate losses you no doubt have had a sense at
times of going from being a vibrant parish to the feeling of something much
smaller, maybe sometimes even feeling less than who you were before.
This morning’s Gospel is addressed to you. The first must be last. It is my sense that as a congregation
you are being prepared to be first in a new and different way. It is my sense that on the other side
of this congregation’s mourning and grief you are being taught another, even
deeper level of compassion. In
time this experience of compassion will offer clarity for your future purpose
and the mission of St. Francis Church.
St. Francis’ future must necessarily be connected to a mission that
complements your congregation’s signature gifts and bring long-term viability.
With this awareness that I have just outlined for you, let
me now try to unpack the Good News for us in today’s Gospel.
The Beatitudes are an excellent place for us to turn to be
reminded of where we might gain a firsthand experience of being the last. The
Beatitudes experiences of being last include: the poor, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and
thirst and the
Persecuted.
In Jesus’ logic, those who mourn are comforted. It is also
true that the comforted know how to comfort through the compassion they have
experienced.
Jesus wants St. Francis to continue to learn from your
experience of mourning so the quality of your compassion may grow.
When I was studying to be a Jesuit priest we were sent to a
place where we could not speak the language. I was sent to the Dominican Republic. A fellow Jesuit who spoke fluent
Spanish was sent to Belize where they speak French. We along with others were sent with very little money in our
pockets. We lived with a poor
family of little means. We were
not allowed to introduce ourselves as Jesuits. Our superiors knew that if we were known as Jesuits than we
would be treated very well because of who we were.
The Jesuit tradition behind this pilgrimage formation was
that we were to have an experience of being poor. Our Jesuit superiors did not want us to theorize about
poverty, but rather have a firsthand experience of being poor. The formation we received was so that
as priests we would more passionately serve the poor. With the Jesuit pilgrimage as an example of a formation
process, in what way is this
congregation being prepared to be first through an experience of being
last?
What has your mourning and loss taught you about compassion?
Several of you have already told me that there has been a
lot of healing going on here at St. Francis over the last few years. Behind all this healing are experiences
of suffering. Healing and
suffering go together. In your
mourning you have comforted each other.
In an even deeper and more profound way you have been growing in the
depth of your appreciation for the spiritual gift of compassion.
It was striking for me to learn that in the spiritual gifts
group every person who took the spiritual gifts questionnaire had among many
other gifts the gift of mercy. It
would be wonderful for all members of this congregation to have the experience
and opportunity to go through this spiritual gifts discernment process. It is a ministerial priority of mine to
find ways for all of you to have the opportunity to discern your spiritual
gifts. It is my very strong
suspicion that these few women in the congregation who already completed the
spiritual gifts questionnaire are not alone but probably joined by many of you
who also have the gift of mercy and compassion.
It is amazing to me the way many of this congregation’s
ministries are easily understood through the lens of compassion. It is not unusual for Episcopal
congregations to be compassionate.
The people of St. Francis are compassionate in a distinctive
manner. As a congregation in the
past and still today you have always prioritized those who society has often
forgotten.
The red wagon brought cheer to children in the hospital.
The Quilts of Valor bring joy and pride to veterans not
often enough celebrated for their service.
Clearly compassion has played a major role in your outreach
and also in your history in community with each other. This week one member told me a
wonderful story about Louise Bittle.
In one Maundy Thursday service past, this member recalled the way Louise
washed and then kissed Irv’s hands.
This memory of Louise symbolizes for me the simplicity and
sanctity of compassion rendered to another, to those we know, like Louise’s
beloved spouse, Irv, and also to those who are strangers, like those who
receive the quilts of valor.
Compassion sometimes is about the simple act of touching one another
through the healing touch of Christ and providing for the needs of others.
Some forms and expressions of compassion are
counter-intuitive. For example one
form of compassion is the healthy setting of our emotional and care-giving
boundaries. I first learned this
taking care of my mother who had Alzheimer’s for eleven years. Care-givers often give to others out of
their grief. I learned to
differentiate between my insatiable need to care for versus my mother’s actual
needs. Persons with Alzheimer’s
present enough care needs without our adding our need to do more. In learning
this I was able to sustain myself for the eleven years of caring for her with
my brothers and sisters.
During my six years of consecrated religious life I lived
with some men who were alcoholics. In those years I learned the necessity of
setting healthy boundaries for myself and also for my vulnerable brothers in
Christ. Only then was I able to exercise self-discipline and honor my brothers
through setting clear boundaries that my brothers could not set for
themselves.
I know you each could tell your own stories of the way you
too have compassionately set healthy care-giving boundaries. Whoever wants to
be first must offer compassion in these ways to serve a completely dependent
mother with Alzheimer’s, vulnerable alcoholics and so many more needy.
Sometimes to be effective compassionate ministers, we need to take care of
ourselves.
As you see compassion is a demanding ministry that requires
both love through both the simple ministry of presence and sometimes a ministry
of absence through self-discipline.
As the Gospel teaches today, in order for us to be first we must go
through these experiences of being last and learn to be even more
compassionate.
It is too early to know for certain, but I have an intuitive
sense that compassion in all of its richness and blessing will contribute in
some significant way to this congregation’s viability through a new signature
ministry. To live into the next form of St. Francis Church’s ministry, we must
stay open and continue to learn from each other through the spirit and fruits
of compassion.
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