The Episcopal Church Of Saint Peter and Saint Paul: Recent Episodes
Saint Peter Saint Paul
We invite you to be a part of this community in worship of God, discipleship for all ages and serving Christ in the world. Please use this website to learn more about us, then contact us or join us for worship services on Saturday night at 5:30, or Sunday mornings at 8:00 or 10:30 so that we can welcome you more personally. God bless you always!
The Peace of Jesus Christ
Sermon preached at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Marietta, GA
by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, June 25, 2023
Proper 7, year A: Matthew 10:24-39, (Genesis 21:8-21)
Matthew 10:24-39 (NRSV) “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Genesis 21:8-21 (NRSV) The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Some of our readings today speak of division as part of the Christian life. How can this be? I want to focus primarily on the Gospel reading, but first I must comment on the Old Testament reading. In this morning’s passage from Genesis, we hear the story of Hagar and Ishmael. God had promised descendants to Abraham and Sarah, but as they became old and were still childless, Sarah asked her servant Hagar to be a surrogate mother so that Abraham would have a son. So Hagar bore Ishmael as a son to Abraham. But when Sarah herself bore Isaac, Sarah then looked with bitterness on her servant and her stepson, and so Sarah cast out Hagar and Ishmael.
Now, I don’t think that Sarah’s actions were pleasing to God. I think instead that this passage shows how God can take such painful division and wring some blessing from it. Despite Sarah’s bitterness, God cares for Ishmael and Hagar, and God makes Ishmael’s descendants a great people as well—Jews reckon the Arabs as descendants of Ishmael. So we hear the message: do not be afraid of division, for God will care for you.
The Gospel reading speaks about a different kind of division. We could easily mistake Jesus’ words for advocating actions like Sarah’s actions toward Hagar, but I do not believe that he does. Jesus does say “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword…I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother…and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.” How can the one who came to bring reconciliation speak of such division? How can we hear these words from the one we call the prince of peace?
Years ago, I preached on this passage, and a woman who grew up in China was very concerned about it. She had witnessed the cultural revolution in China, where young people forced dramatic change on society—a change in beliefs and values. They even turned over members of their own families to prison camps to force this change. Putting ideology ahead of family can have horrible results. But Jesus is asking something different from his followers. Rather than bringing hardship and oppression to our family members, Jesus is asking us to endure hardship from our families if that is what it takes for us to be faithful to God.
There are a couple of things going on in this passage. First of all, God does ask us to place him first in our lives—even above our families. How can this be? Doesn’t God ask us to love our children and command us to honor our fathers and mothers? Yes, certainly, honoring father and mother is one of the Ten Commandments. But God first asks us to worship him alone and to let nothing come before God in our lives, even families. This may seem shocking at first, but not when you consider how destructive human families can be.
There are parents who worship their kids more than God, and end up with spoiled and troubled children, rather than the healthy children God desires. There are wives who worship their abusive husbands, rather than seeking the justice and mutuality and health that God wants for both of them. If we loved God first, we would avoid these destructive patterns.
God wants loyalty and dedication and commitment in our families, but only God is to be worshipped, and if we love God above even our families, then we will learn how best to love our families. We learn how to love our children and how to honor our parents in line with God’s love. This is why we must love God first. But fidelity to God can draw criticism from those who disagree or those who have other priorities. So, God calls us to put him first—even above our families and even when doing so invites conflict. This isn’t about rejecting family; it is about putting God first and learning how to love family from how God loves.
It also may help to understand what Jesus is doing in this wider passage. This reading is part of a larger passage where Jesus is sending out his disciples into the world to preach the good news to the people and to bring healing and wholeness and renewal of life. Very often, where the good news is preached, the good news is also opposed. Jesus is preparing his disciples for this reality and encouraging them not to be afraid when they face conflict.
A child will often react angrily to discipline and boundaries set by loving parents. An alcoholic will react strongly and defensively when a family member speaks the truth about his addiction. In other relationships, when we bring good news, we will find opposition. Angry skeptics will react when God’s love begins to change someone else’s life. The society around us that trivializes Christian devotion scoffs when you spend Sundays in worship or when you refuse to buy into religious pluralism or spiritual counterfeits.
But these counterfeits do not have the power to bring renewal and reconciliation—or to change lives and relationships. Jesus does not want his disciples to have a casual commitment to him that bends to the shifting winds of popularity or shrinks from injustice or intimidation. Jesus knows that in the face of the opposition of the world, we will need a steady focus on him, and a set of priorities that puts him first in our lives.
We see how a steady Christian witness in the face of hostility can bear good fruit, even though it starts out feeling like conflict and division. Let me share with you one story that is a small example of this. I remember a family that my family knew back in Ohio where I grew up. One of the daughters, who was my age, got herself into a lot of trouble in high school and college. Her family bailed her out numerous times. But eventually, her father let her go to jail and take responsibility for her actions.
Now you might think this would be a great division between them, and indeed, his daughter was upset about going to jail. But when she got out, her life changed. She made different choices in life and got herself back on track. If you ask her, the daughter will give credit for this change to her father and his tenacity to set boundaries while still loving her—including letting her go to jail. He let her go to jail, but he stayed in relationship with her. Her father’s willingness to be in conflict with his daughter and yet also to stay in relationship with her made him an agent of God’s grace. This is no temporary peace, but a deeper peace that transforms lives. This is the peace of Jesus Christ.
Listen again to what Jesus tells his disciples. Jesus reassures them that as they face challenges, they are not facing anything that Jesus has not faced. Three times in this passage, Jesus says “Do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid. Yes, if we are Christians, we will face conflict and division at times as we bring the Good News to people, but “Do not be afraid.” The grace of God in Jesus Christ is more powerful than human conflict, and more life changing than any strife.
Jesus tells them and us “have no fear of them…Do not fear [those who may persecute you]… Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Loving God and following Jesus then teaches us how to love our families—not with the values of this world, but with God’s self-giving love, bringing God’s truth and God’s healing and reconciling power.
You and I have seen God bring life-changing renewal when we speak the truth in love. You and I have seen addicts find serenity through an intervention. We have seen bold acts of love undo injustice. We have seen the truth of the Gospel shake us out of our selfishness.
So do not be afraid. Do not be afraid to speak the truth and to stand for Jesus Christ in the face of opposition. Standing in the truth of Jesus will bring not temporary peace, but true peace—the peace that passes understanding, the peace of Jesus Christ.
God empowers us with his Holy Spirit us and sends us into the world.
A Sermon preached at the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA
by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, May 28, 2023
The Feast of Pentecost (year A): Acts 2:1-21; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23
Acts 2:1-16 (NRSV): When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel…1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 (NRSV): No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.John 20:19-23 (NRSV): When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Welcome as we celebrate the feast of Pentecost! This is the feast that celebrates how God empowers us and sends us into the world.I read the other day about a volcano in Mexico that is becoming more active. Volcanoes can sleep for centuries, but then start to rumble to life. A deeper power stirs within them until it shakes the earth for miles, and the whole mountain springs to life. What once was a quiet mountain is now alive.It’s kind of like the difference between a cell phone whose battery is dead, and one that has power and connection to the internet. Without power, it is just an expensive paperweight of glass and metal. But empowered, it connects us around the world and can move people to action.On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember those who served and died in the armed forces. It’s hard to remember exactly what it was like to face the struggle of World War Two, with wars in Europe and the Pacific at the same time. We sent mighty aircraft carriers into the oceans. But without planes and pilots, and without fuel to power them, they were only single ships in a vast sea. But with planes and pilots and fuel, they could launch those planes and project power for miles around. Empowered and sent, they were and are a strong force for peace.Think of a garden or a farm. In the winter, the soil lies dormant in the dark and cold. But in spring when the sun starts to shine, the warmth and sunlight stirs the soil and the plants spring to life. They grow and bring a harvest enough to send food for miles around, and to feed more than just the farmer. A farm empowered has far more impact than a farm asleep.So it is in the Christian life. We call ourselves Christians, and so we are. So often, however, our faith is lulled to sleep by the cares of this world, by our own confusion and insecurity, by our apathy and disconnection. We drift from one another; we drift from God. Like a ship adrift in the ocean, we lose our strength and get battered by the waves.Then something miraculous happens! God seeks us out and offers to us the power of the Holy Spirit! He gives us meaning and purpose, he gives us knowledge and understanding, he calls us together to strengthen each other, and he launches us out into the world to share the gifts he’s given us. Asleep and adrift, we soon sink. But empowered by God, we thrive with life that is truly living.In the ancient world, Pentecost was a Jewish feast day celebrated 50 days after Passover. It was a harvest feast. Jews from all around the ancient world came to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast. They were part of other nations with other languages, but they had this common heritage that brought them together. And they likely all spoke enough Greek to communicate with each other. Greek was the language of commerce between nations in those days.Jesus told the disciples to wait for power to come from God. And on the feast of Pentecost, they were together when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They went out in public and started to proclaim the powerful things that God had done. And the Holy Spirit empowered them to be bold and to share this good news. And even more than that, the Holy Spirit empowered them to speak the native languages of all those visitors from around the world.How could these Galileans speak all these languages? What was happening? Peter got up and spoke to the crowd, probably in Greek this time. He told them that this was what the Prophet Joel had written about: that God would pour out his spirit on us. Signs and miracles would signal the power of the Lord coming into the world. This was but a sign of what God was doing. So Peter told them about Jesus, and many in the crowd came to believe and trust in Jesus, and many were Baptized, and the Christian Community flourished, supporting each other and sharing with the world around them the good news of Jesus for them.This is what Jesus promised them at the ascension. This is the stirring of the gift that the risen Jesus gave his disciples when he breathed on them and said “receive the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is the power and presence of God with us in the world. God is always active and present in the world, but there are unique ways in which the Holy Spirit fills those who believe in Jesus. Before Pentecost, the disciples were still timid and afraid. But empowered by the Holy Spirit, they were bold and effective, bringing new life in Christ to the world around them. God stirred them awake and launched them into the world to bring the life-giving power of Jesus to them. Jesus said to them “as the Father has sent me, so I send you.”Pentecost is about how God empowers us. For what does God empower us? God gives us his Holy Spirit for what? What are we to do with this power?There are many ways to answer this question, but they all start with God calling to us and inviting us closer. God empowers us to seek after God and to find him, to discover him alive and at work in our lives. God empowers us to be in relationship with him through Jesus Christ, to be reconciled to him and to each other, to feel the grace of his forgiveness and new life in him.Thus, we are empowered to worship God together. Week by week, we come here seeking God and discovering how God is alive in our lives. We rededicate ourselves to God each week, we acknowledge God’s greatness, we thank God together, we bring God our prayers and praises and celebrate his holy sacraments together. Worship is not simply something performed by priests, but rather the worship of a whole community. In song, in symbolism, in smell and sights and artwork, in actions and food and drink, we gather together as a community to bring ourselves to God. God reconciles us to him and to each other in Christ. The Holy Spirit empowers us to be active in worship of God.When we seek after God, we discern God’s voice. We listen in prayer, we read Holy Scripture, we learn from each other and the saints of the church. We learn more about who God is and who we are and who we are in Christ. We learn how to follow Jesus, how to live the Christian life together. This is the process of Discipleship, as we learn and grow as Jesus’ disciples. This is an ongoing process our whole lives. So we are active in growing as disciples from little children to teenagers, to young adults and seniors, each day still discovering more of the Christian life together. The Holy Spirit empowers us to be active in Discipleship for all ages.Paul writes to the Corinthians about the Holy Spirit. He reminds them that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit are not given to serve ourselves as individuals or to form factions in the church. No, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to build each other up in Christ. The same spirit gives us these gifts, and we are to use them in love, together. The Holy Spirit makes us the church, and empowers us to serve one another. The Holy Spirit empowers us to actively serve Christ in the world, bringing the grace of God to those who have not discovered it yet.Sometimes as Christians, we can grow sleepy, dormant in our faith. Distracted by the cares and discouragements of this world, we can let our gifts become inactive and powerless. But as faithful stewards of God’s gifts, we can answer God’s call. We can join together in this Christian Community as God has called us. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can be active in the worship of God, discipleship for all ages, serving Christ in the world.This is the joy of Pentecost. This is the Adventure of the Christian life that Jesus promised. The church is not left on its own, dependent only on the flawed and broken people that we are. Rather the church thrives on the power of the Holy Spirit alive and at work in us. Filled with the Holy Spirit, we are not weak and discouraged and asleep, but alive in Christ and empowered and launched into action by God.God gives us power to speak a word of God’s grace. To bring healing in mind, body and spirit. God empowers us to give generously from our resources. God empowers us to pray effectively. God empowers us to serve and make a difference. God empowers us to learn and to grow in him, to discover more of God’s grace, to celebrate God’s blessings with joy, and to share the abundance that God has given us.Like pilots launched into the world, like the harvest of the farm fields that feed multitudes, like a people who know their meaning and thrive in their purpose, we can live that empowered life. Stay engaged in this Christian life this summer. Learn and grow and serve and watch God show up with power. This is the adventure of the Christian life that we share together. Thanks be to God, whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.
God does not leave us desolate A Sermon preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA by The Rev. Thomas C. Pumphrey, May 14, 2023 The Sixth Sunday of Easter (year A): John 14:15-21 John 14:15-21 (NRSV): [Jesus said] "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the [...]
Jesus loves us to the end, and calls us to love and he loves A Sermon preached at St. Peter & St. Paul by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, April 6, 2023 Maundy Thursday (year A): Exodus 12:1-14a, 1 Corinthians 11:23-32, John 13:1-15 Exodus 12:1-14 (NRSV) The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land [...]
Jesus Comes to us Personally A sermon preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, March 12, 2023 The Third Sunday of Lent, Year A Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42 John 4:5-42 (NRSV): Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had [...]
The Focus and Aim of Lent A Sermon preached at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Marietta, GA The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, February 26, 2023 The First Sunday in Lent, Year A: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11 Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV): Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be [...]
God calls us to Listen, to Stand, and to Speak A Sermon preached at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Marietta, GA The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, February 19, 2023 The Last Sunday after Epiphany, Year A: Matthew 5:21-37 Matthew 17:1-9 (NRSV): Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and [...]
Instructed Eucharist and Sermon, St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, February 12, 2023 (Matthew 5:21-37) The Rev. Tom Pumphrey Before the opening Hymn: This morning, we will have an instructed Eucharist. As we go through the service today, we will give a running commentary on what we are doing and why we do [...]
Living for God’s purposes
Sermon preached at the church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA
by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, January 29, 2023
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (year A): Matthew 5:1-12 (quoted below); Micah 6:1-8
Hear what the Lord says:Rise, plead your case before the mountains,and let the hills hear your voice.Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,and you enduring foundations of the earth;for the Lord has a controversy with his people,and he will contend with Israel.“O my people, what have I done to you?In what have I wearied you? Answer me!For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,and redeemed you from the house of slavery;and I sent before you Moses,Aaron, and Miriam.O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,what Balaam son of Beor answered him,and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”“With what shall I come before the Lord,and bow myself before God on high?Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,with calves a year old?Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”He has told you, O mortal, what is good;and what does the Lord require of youbut to do justice, and to love kindness,and to walk humbly with your God?Sometimes it is easy to lose touch with a sense of purpose. This can happen in many ways. For instance, think about playing on a soccer team. Some days it is easy to walk out on the field and take your position without really being in the game. You go on the field, and maybe you’re playing midfield, so you stand in midfield, and if the ball comes to you, you kick it, and maybe you run after the ball, maybe take a pass or two. But soon the game will be over and you can just go home. It’s easy to be disconnected from the team and disconnected from the game and disconnected from yourself and your purpose.This is a coach’s nightmare. And a team’s nightmare. And truth be told, the other team doesn’t like it much either, and the player who plays without purpose probably loves it least of all.But, oh what it’s like to play with purpose! To play with passion and eagerness and excitement! There is joy to be found when we know why we play, to play with purpose and understanding, even if we don’t play well. We can take joy in the whole game even despite our mistakes, and the joy and sense of purpose and blessing gets shared by everyone.That sense of purpose is not just what we make up in our own heads about what a midfielder should do. Neither is it just about coordinating the team to work together. Nor is the sense of purpose merely the coach’s idea about the game. Rather, the purpose that drives us is the whole understanding of the game and why everyone is there. This is a purpose known in the head and internalized and trained in our bodies and our habits. This is a commitment fed by a passion and joy for the game in its true purpose.Of course, I’m painting a larger metaphor, aren’t I? This is not merely a metaphor for sports, not merely for career, nor even for the church (though it certainly does apply to these parts of our lives). Rather, I’m trying to paint a metaphor of a commitment for a whole life lived, for all of our passions and priorities. This is about a purpose not invented by ourselves, but a purpose intended for us by God—by the one who made us, who knows us better than we know ourselves, the one who loves us and who made us with meaning and purpose. God calls us to faithfulness inwardly and outwardly, that we might live more truly to God’s purposes for us.This is the thrust of today’s reading from the Prophet Micah. The readings today are all chosen because they resonate with the Gospel reading from the Sermon on the Mount—Jesus’ words of blessing called the “beatitudes.” Micah’s words resonate with Jesus’, but I believe that they also describe the foundation from which Jesus preaches, and they help us understand what Jesus is doing.Micah has a word for God’s people who have often turned away from God. They have worshipped false gods, and they have been dishonest and unjust toward their neighbors, dishonest in business and exploiting the weak. In this passage, the word of the Lord that Micah shares is a challenge to the people, a complaint that God brings against his people. Here, God has done so much for them; how could they abandon God’s covenant and purpose for them as his people? Micah takes on the way the people show a kind of imitation faithfulness, by coming to the temple with sacrifices to God. But God wants more than ritual sacrifices, he wants the fullness of our commitment to him in all aspects of our lives.“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”This verse is well known and is often a point of reference in the call to social justice. Indeed, Micah and the other prophets are concerned about fairness, compassion and right treatment between people. But there is more than our modern day ideas about justice in view, for Micah and the other prophets are concerned first and foremost with our faithfulness to God, one which then is lived out in justice and other virtues.Let’s look at these three concepts that Micah cites. This is Hebrew poetry, of course, so Micah is layering parallels between what God requires, and what is good, and these three responses of doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God. Each of these three responses, however, is packed with more meaning than might be apparent in our English translations.First: justice. The Hebrew word is ‘mishpat.’ The Biblical idea of justice is more than just the classical idea of fairness. Certainly, fairness is important to God. But as can be found in both the old and new testaments, God is even more concerned with generosity than with fairness. We can often measure out fairness in very self-oriented ways. But God’s justice is more like generosity. This is how God loves—not because we have earned some measure of God’s love for us, but because God loves us generously to begin with. Then, blessed with God’s love, God calls us into relationship with him; God calls us to respond to him and to others with that same generous love.I don’t mean to discount classical or modern ideas of justice. However, I want to reinforce the need to root our ideas of justice in God’s ideas of justice, not our own. Using the word “justice” these days can be a kind of political tool, advancing an ideology we favor. When we say “justice,” we might mean ensuring a stern punishment for those who commit crimes. Or we might mean a kind of social policy that leads to categorizing people into camps of victim and oppressor. Each has threads of truth in their origins, but unrooted from God’s purposes, each gets us off track toward a self-oriented goal. God’s calls to justice should challenge ourselves to live outwardly the kind of love God has shown us. We are called to do God’s justice—a generosity that comes from faithfully walking in God’s commandments.The justice God calls good is rooted in God, not in our own ideas. This is true also for the second call from Micah. God calls us to ‘love kindness.’ Now this sounds pretty quaint, fairly apple pie and easy to swallow. But there is a lot packed into these words. They translate a really important concept from the Old Testament. This is a Hebrew word that doesn’t have an English word that translates it well, so it appears as kindness, or mercy, or loving-kindness, or steadfast love. This is the Hebrew word ‘khessed.’Some of you have heard me preach about this word before. ‘khessed’ means all these things, but it is all tied together in our covenant with God—our commitment to God in response to God’s commitment to us. Khessed is covenant-love and faithfulness. Khessed is love with a commitment, a commitment to God that involves our whole life, a love that is faithful in all our life and for all our life. This is a commitment that goes beyond just showing up for the rituals, instead living passionately for God’s purpose. Khessed is the difference between just walking on the field, and playing passionately, immersed in the whole game.To love khessed is to obey God and more than obey—to love obedience to God. To love God for the generous love he has for us, and to live in that love, motivated and energized by that love. We are to do God’s justice, love God’s khessed—God’s steadfast love, and to walk humbly with our God.Finally, walking humbly with God is not about mere human virtue. Humility is a vital virtue—the mother of all virtues by some accounts. But as a Biblical principle, humility is about walking humbly with God. Instead of looking to ourselves to define our meaning or our purpose, we look to God for our purpose. Instead of finding our purpose in reference to our own lives and desires, we find our purpose in walking with God, in the daily following of God day by day, of learning God’s ways in all aspects of our lives.We walk humbly with God so that God comes first, so that we can learn from the one who loves us and knows us and who created us for his purpose. As we walk in God’s ways, we do God’s justice, we more deeply love and respond to God’s steadfast love.These virtues are a response to God’s calls to us and a response to God’s blessings of us. God calls us to live more truly to our purpose, found in him. God calls us to live more atuned to the true meaning God has for us. God calls us to live more open to the blessings of his promise.What is the promise of living lives full of justice and steadfast love and walking humbly with God? What is the promise of living lives full of God’s meaning and purpose?Listen to how Jesus answers these questions. In a world where the corrupt and powerful seem to have the upper hand, where the scornful and dishonest get all the attention, Jesus turns to the simple and faithful who seek God, and says:“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven…For those struggling to stay faithful, Jesus offers these words of encouragement. While the powers of this world seem to have the upper hand, you are doing your best to live with integrity toward God, and your faithfulness will yield a harvest of God’s peace.God has blessed you with so much in your life. God wants you to find more blessing and fulfilment by living more closely to your true purpose and meaning found in him. Come walk humbly in prayer and study and worship and care and service. Discover more deeply God’s purpose and meaning for your life.True righteousness and true blessing are found in the joy of living with our true purpose. This we find doing God’s justice, loving God’s steadfast love, and walking humbly with God.
God is making a difference and inviting us to participate
A Sermon preached at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Marietta, GA
The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, January 26, 2020
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A:
Isaiah 9:1-4; Matthew 4:12-23
Matthew 4:12-23 (NRSV): When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.Sometimes the news is so important that it draws people into incredible movement. Back in the 1940s, the outbreak of war brought young men by the thousands to sign up to serve their country. When natural disasters strike, hundreds of people drop what they are doing to go help those displaced by flood, fire or storm. Today, people in other countries ravaged by lawlessness and poverty risk everything to come to this country to find peace and opportunity. They respond to the call, because they have good news to share, a mission to fulfill, and a difference to make in people’s lives.Jesus brought that kind of good news to people, and the world was ripe for the message. Jews suffered under Rome and often under their own rulers. They looked forward to the time when the Messiah would come to make things right, where God would rule and justice would be kept and peace enjoyed. They yearned for that day to arrive, and they were eager to participate when the day came.Into this world, Jesus came, preaching the good news: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!” The call to repent sounds more ominous to us, but the call to repentance is a theme of prophets calling people back to God. John the Baptist gathered quite a following working the same theme very strongly: ‘Repent! Turn back to God, and make that repentance real in your life, for one is coming who is greater than I.’ And then Jesus picked up that theme with the Good News: ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.’Then, as he begins his ministry, he calls Simon and Andrew to follow him. They are casting their nets, they are in the middle of doing their job as fishermen, and they drop everything and follow him immediately. “Follow me,” Jesus says to them, “and I will make you fish for people.”Now this is an interesting scene. The Bible doesn’t really elaborate on what happened or why. We just know that they left their fishing and followed Jesus. The same thing happened with James and John. Perhaps they had heard Jesus preach before. Perhaps they were eager to follow, and Jesus’ personal invitation gave them the sense of value and confidence they needed to take part. And perhaps his message of the Kingdom of Heaven coming near was just the exciting good news that they had long hoped for, the movement in which they were eager to participate.Jesus says to them “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” What did Jesus mean? We assume that Jesus meant evangelism—telling people about Jesus and converting them to follow Jesus. And I suppose that is a good guess, though the text doesn’t really explain what Jesus means. We often have different ideas about what evangelism is. Evangelism might bring to mind images of mud huts in Africa, speaking with remote tribes. Or perhaps we think of street corner preachers in the inner cities. Or perhaps we think of television personalities with slicked back hair and emotional appeals for donations.Surely there is something more to evangelism! Or perhaps there is something more basic to evangelism—something that every Christian can embrace and share. Jesus makes us fishers of people. So what does that mean?The translation we used today reads “I will make you fish for people.” But truly, the older version of “I will make you fishers of men” is closer. “I will make you fishers of people,” Jesus says. It’s not that Jesus will make us ‘go fishing,’ its that Jesus will make us ‘fishers.’ What Jesus will make us is part of our identity, not simply a task that we do. Of course, if we don’t fish, then we’re pretty poor fishers. But Jesus makes us be fishers as well as do fishing. If it is part of our identity, part of who we become in Christ, then what does this mean for us?Remember what Jesus is doing. He is preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. He doesn’t just mean that the ticket to an afterlife is available to you now. No, though Jesus does offer us eternal life, the Kingdom of Heaven is more than that. The Kingdom of Heaven in the other Gospel accounts is called the Kingdom of God. The coming of the Kingdom of God is a change that Jesus brings into our world that changes us and changes the world from the inside out. We won’t know its fullness until God restores all things at the end of time, but we can see God’s power breaking into the world already. We can live in relationship with God—with Jesus who is the true king.In Jesus’ time, people were eager to see things change. They were eager for the Messiah to come and rule as king, where God’s justice would prevail, where the corruption and cruelty of Rome would be conquered, and the people could be safe and rejoice. When Jesus invited Simon and Andrew and James and John to be part of that movement, they were eager to get on board. Like helpers in a natural disaster, like the WWII generation that flocked to the recruiting centers, like immigrants taking their family to a safer country, these fishermen were eager to get on board. They were eager to participate and to share the good news of what God was doing.I don’t know what they thought about fishing for people. Fishing for people is quite a lot harder than fishing for fish—I can say that even though I am a horrible fisherman. But they caught the vision of what God is doing and they were eager to get on board.So, what about for us? We might not have that same desire for a better life. Many of us have quite a few blessings already. And most of us are not used to talking with other people about God. If Jesus makes us fishers of people, what does that mean for us?First of all, being fishers does involve fishing (!). In this case, following Jesus and being made his fishers involves showing Jesus to other people, and helping them experience Jesus’ love. This means speaking with others about Jesus, and loving others as Jesus has loved us. If you are not used to it, there are ways to practice. There are a few easy ways to do this, such as inviting people to come with you to church, or perhaps inviting people to come with you to a church picnic or family event.The best conversations with people about God come from our own experience of God. This is where being fishers is an essential part of doing fishing. Jesus makes us people who are able to share this good news—to share God’s love. We become fishers, we become people who can speak authentically about our own experience as we have real experiences of God. They don’t have to be miraculous visions; they are often unique ways in which God has brought you peace or direction, or understanding, or helped forgiveness to repair relationship, or joy to overcome sadness. We see this in our lives, and we see it in the lives of others. God is busy making a difference in people’s lives, and he invites us to get on board and participate in that process.As we grow closer to Jesus, we see God more clearly at work. We start to notice the difference God is making. As we grow closer to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, we start to notice the difference God is making in the lives of others. As we share life together, we discover the joy of participating in what God is doing—we are part of the difference God is making. In prayer, in acts of kindness, in standing firm in the truth, in self-giving for others, and in forgiveness and reconciliation, we bring God’s grace to the world. And when we name the source of all that positive difference—when we name Jesus—we add more fish to the net—we bring more people into the kingdom of heaven breaking into the world.This is what it means to be fishers of people. God is making a difference in people’s lives, and he invites us to get on board and participate in that process. As fishers of people, we get to invite others into that difference—to experience God the way we have. We grow more deeply in relationship with God. We draw others more deeply into relationship with God in Christ, and we grow more deeply in relationship with others in Christ, as we share together what God is doing.Turn more toward God—seek God more each day. Sometimes quickly, often more slowly, God will show you his presence in your life. And day by day, you too will be eager to share in what God is doing.God is busy making a difference in people’s lives, and he invites us to get on board and share in what he is doing. God bless you as you follow Jesus, and as Jesus makes you fishers of people.
God claims us as his own
Sermon preached at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Marietta, GA
by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, December 31, 2022 & January 1, 2023
The Feast of the Holy Name: Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:15-21
Numbers 6:22-27: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless themGalatians 4:4-7: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.Luke 2:15-21: When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Happy New Year! And Happy Feast of the Holy Name! Somehow this feast of the church usually gets lost in the shuffle, unless, of course, it falls on a Sunday as it does this year. However, the Feast of the Holy Name wasn’t placed on January 1 because of New Year’s Day. This feast appears on this day because it is eight days after December 25. Jewish boys are circumcised and given a name eight days after they are born. That’s why January 1 is the Feast of the Holy Name, because it is eight days after Christmas.Christmas is celebrated on December 25 because it is nine months after March 25, the day on which we remember the angel’s visit to Mary, telling her that she would conceive the son of God and name him Jesus. In fact, there were times and places where New Year’s Day was celebrated on December 25, or even March 25. So, the Feast of the Holy Name wasn’t placed on January 1 because it is New Year’s Day. But this is a feast that resonates with what is new—the new thing that God is doing, God coming into the world to claim us as his own.What is important about a name? The name “Jesus” is a form of the Hebrew name Yeshua, or more commonly for us, Joshua. This name means “the Lord saves.” The angel told Joseph to name the child Jesus, because “he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The angel also quotes the prophet Isaiah who said “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel, meaning ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).You might think this a bit of a contradiction—so it is Jesus or Immanuel? In some ways, it is both. Remember that this is the same angel saying both things, helping Joseph to understand what is going on here. Jesus is the child’s name and what this child does—The Lord saves us. And Immanuel is who this child is: God with us. Jesus is God with us and God saving us. Jesus is God coming to humanity in human flesh to save us and claim us as his own.The lessons for this feast day describe the naming of Jesus, but also how God names us and puts his name on us. I don’t mean that we should see ourselves as if we are Jesus. Rather Jesus’ whole mission in his birth and life and death and resurrection is about God coming to us, saving us from our sins, reclaiming us as his own. So the blessing this holy child brings is God’s desire for us, God claiming us as his own, even though we often wander away from him.The first lesson today is from Numbers, where God is instructing Moses about how the priests should conduct worship. God tells Moses how Aaron and the priests are to pronounce God’s blessing on the people. Listen to what this blessing says about who God is. God tells Moses that they should say:The Lord bless you and keep you;the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.Then God tells Moses, referring to what Aaron and the priests are doing—God says “So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”This is God’s blessing to his people, not just that his face would shine on us (that God would smile on us), but that he claims us as his own—God puts his name on us.Finding the feast of the Holy Name on New Year’s Day makes some sense after all. We start the new year grounded in who God is and who we are in God. We start the new year grounded in our identity found in the one who made us, the one who loves us, the one who knows us better than we know ourselves. God’s blessing makes us who we are. God claims us as his own.Our identity seems to be an important thing for us these days. We want to know who we are, that immovable place within us that we can rely on to be steady and true. And yet, we seek our identity in things that are fleeting and unreliable. Often, the first thing that Young Adults are asked when people meet them is often “what do you do?” It is as if our jobs are what define us. And this comes after years and years of “what is your major?” or “where are you going to college?” as if “student” is the sum total of our identity for the first twenty years of living.We place our identity in other people or in our things or our abilities or in our notoriously unpredictable desires and passions, as if they define us. Or we define ourselves by what we’re against or who is against us. All these things are parts of our experience, and some of them are part of the trends of how we relate to each other and the world. But are they who we are? Is any of this our identity? We seek security in claims of identity, and yet we place our identity in things that are fundamentally unreliable and less secure. So even [who we feel we are] starts to shudder and collapse, and we become more lost and more disconnected. No wonder we suffer from so much anxiety and depression these days.Into all this confusion of insecurity and identity steps the one who made us, the one who loves us, the one who knows us better than we know ourselves. His name is The Lord saves. He is God with us. He puts his name on us. He comes to claim us as his own. In Christ, we find our true identity, the true steady ground of who we are and how to live.In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he writes that God sent his Son in order to redeem us that we might receive adoption as his children—as children of a loving Father, and as heirs of a heavenly inheritance. This is not something that we strive to earn, this is something that God gives us, something that we can receive. Jesus is God’s Son by nature, God in human flesh. We are God’s children by adoption and grace.God chooses to adopt us into this inheritance of generous favor, drawing us into relationship with him. Like the relationship of a family, this is not something like a temporary contract for performance. Rather, this is a lifelong bond of who we are together. Close or far away, we are still family. But closer and more reconciled, we are more whole. Especially reconciled with the one who made us, we are more whole in who we are, in our identity. Our true identity is found in Christ, in the one who made us and came to claim us as his own.As we cross into the new year, looking back to where we’ve been and looking ahead to where we are going, we are blessed to look at our lives through God’s eyes, seeing where we are walking apart from God and where we are walking closer with God.As we pull away from God, God lets us feel the distress of walking apart from him—enough to get our attention to come back to him. God continually seeks after you and calls you closer. God claims you as his own, to be reconciled together, to thrive more closely aligned with God’s purpose for you. And God blesses us with the inheritance of his grace.What does this look like in our lives? How does this work out practically for us? So much of this looks like the practical rhythms of Christian living. The inheritance of God, so to speak, includes the inheritance of the faith of the prophets and apostles. We learn from their faith, their experience of God, their teaching that came from the Holy Spirit. We receive this inheritance chiefly in Holy Scriptures, reading and studying the Bible together. Here we learn more about who God is and who we are and who we are together. We learn about Jesus, we gain wisdom about how to live our lives more closely with God and as a blessing to each other. This is part of what we call discipleship.But the Christian life is not just learning, but primarily relationships. Our inheritance is a relationship with God given to us in Jesus. As we grow closer with God in prayer and worship, God draws us closer to his purposes for us and we find our deepest and most true meaning in him. We gain insights for God’s calling in this life. We gain clearer discernment of God’s will for us, better direction and reassurance from God through the challenges that will inevitably come. So we pray and worship God together.This discipleship and prayer and worship is not done in the abstract, but in our day to day living. God the Holy Spirit dwells with us, guiding us and taking action in and through us. The Holy Spirit is God’s power with us in action—serving Christ in the world, by caring for others and sharing life together.As you reflect on the year past and look forward to the year ahead, you will find your true identity in Christ Jesus, the one who saves us from our confusion and dead ends. Jesus is God coming to claim you as his own, to adopt you as his child and to give you a heavenly inheritance to receive in the days ahead.In response to all God has done for you, how will you receive his inheritance in this new year? What new habits of prayer, worship, discipleship and service will you adopt this year? How will you grow closer to the one who claims you as his own? How will you help others grow closer to God, sharing God’s blessing with them?May the Lord bless you and keep you;May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you his peace.In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
God overcomes our self-isolation with his warm embrace
Sermon Preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA
by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, December 24, 2022
Christmas Eve
Luke 2:1-14(15-20) In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!" When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. Merry Christmas! I hope you are all cozy and warm on this frigid cold Christmas. Weather like this reminds me of Christmases up in Northeast Ohio where I grew up. We had plenty of cold and snowy weather, and I miss it sometimes. I remember a big blizzard that came through when I was a child. My sister had a friend staying with us, as I recall, and she had to stay a few more days because that storm did snow in quite a few people that day. We all gathered in the living room around the fireplace, played games and spent time together. I love cold snowy days like that—not because I like the cold, but because I like the warmth and cozy moments together by the fire—a warmth that overcomes the cold darkness outside.At Christmas, we seek out that kind of connection, we seek out that kind of warmth and togetherness. Sometimes we go to Christmas parties, but we also make for ourselves those peaceful moments just being together with our friends or our family. Our connections with each other aren’t perfect, of course. But we still know that we need these connections. We know that these connections are part of who we are and part of how we thrive.Of course, our connection with God is like that. God made us and knows us—even better than our family knows us. In fact, God knows us better than we know ourselves. To be connected to God is to know the life that is truly living.Of course, we often shrink back from God, pulling back from God’s attention, holding back from God’s embrace. And we so easily forget what that embrace was like, even as we get colder and colder as our lives become increasingly isolated.There is a kind of story that was often told when we had soldiers actively deployed into Afghanistan or Iraq. Many left children behind at home. Think of a young daughter who could read her father’s letters, look at his photographs, maybe even hear his voice in the occasional phone call. But oh! what a difference she finds when he finally comes home—when he comes to her to be with her face to face, to embrace her in his arms and reassure her of his love for her.This is part of what God is doing at Christmas. God loves his people, and he made a covenant with them. God gave messages to his people through the prophets, calling them back to him. But still we stumbled and fell and turned away from God. Then, in Jesus, God was not content with our self-isolation. God chose to disrupt and overcome our self-isolation. Instead of just sending a message, God came himself. In Jesus, God came to be with us in person to overcome our isolation with his warm embrace.I have noticed how much we have fallen into a deep self-isolation in our culture. The pandemic separated us from each other, and we fell into bad habits, preferring the control of digital connections to the messiness of face to face friendships. Somehow we have trained ourselves to see so much more risk in reaching out for face to face relationships. More and more, we isolate ourselves in our anxiety, not willing to risk the opportunity to thrive and flourish.The church has a name for this kind of self-isolation, this disconnection from each other that leaves us wounded and broken inside and stuck. Sin is this isolation and division—separation from God, separation from each other, and the brokenness we harbor within ourselves. But, praise God, Jesus came to save us from our sin. Jesus came to disrupt our self-isolation with his presence and his warm embrace.The opposite of isolation is relationship. To overcome the isolation of sin, God came himself in Jesus, to be God with us, to live as one of us. God came to show us more of who he is and more of how he loves. Jesus demonstrated that self-giving love by giving all of himself for us, dying that we might be forgiven, and rising to life again to conquer sin and death and bring us new life, a life that begins in this life.Jesus is God with us, God coming to be with us personally. And Jesus prayed to God the Father to send God the Holy Spirit to live with us and bring God’s presence and active power to our lives. God reached out to bridge the divide between us, to step into human history to be with us. And God still reaches out to you today to overcome your isolation with his warm embrace.Where do you feel isolated and alone? What are the restless parts of your life that feel overwhelming to you? Where have you backed yourself into a corner, disconnected and unsure of how to reverse course? Where are you afraid of reaching out and risking connection again?At Christmas, God invites you to let go of your isolation and open yourself to God’s warm embrace. As the angel said to the shepherds, ‘To you is born this day, in the city of David, a savior who is the messiah, the Lord.’ In the quiet moments of Christmas, seek God’s presence. Open yourself in prayer with all of who you are—even the messy parts. God will embrace you and bless you with his presence. The more of yourself you open to God, the more of yourself God will bless and transform and the deeper and more meaningful your relationship with God will be.The opposite of isolation is relationship. God calls you closer in relationship with him, and God also calls you closer in relationship with others—especially your brothers and sisters in Christ in this place. God calls you even to risk relationship with others in the world around us—those who are still stuck in their own isolation. Praise God, they are not alone. They have you to share God’s blessings with them, and to help overcome their isolation with God’s warm embrace.This Christmas, take the risk to reach out to someone. Get together face to face and share the laughter and sorrows and joys of life. Give thanks to God together for calling you out of isolation and into his warm embrace together.And when the lights are down and the ornaments are packed away, remember that God is still calling to you. Answer God’s calls in prayer, in reading the Bible and in serving others with God’s love. Come join us in this place as we seek relationships of depth and meaning and purpose. Join with us on this cold Christmas Eve night as we step out of our self-isolation to feel God’s warm embrace together.
God’s invitation to Christian Patience
Sermon preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA
by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, December 11, 2022
Third Sunday in Advent (year A):, Isaiah 35:1-10, James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11
James 5:7-10: Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.These days we’ve been living through some pretty confusing times. The pandemic disrupted things all around the world, right down to our schools and churches and homes. We’ve seen political and social unrest and wars and rumors of wars around the world. With all of this confusion, we might wonder what to expect next?Today is the third Sunday in Advent. Advent is a season of waiting, a season of preparation and expectation. In these confusing times, however, we are wise to remember that we do not wait the way the world waits. We do not prepare the way the world prepares. And we do not expect what the world expects.Today’s reading from the letter of James speaks about patience. “Be patient, therefore, beloved,” he writes. The “therefore” in James’ words refers to his previous comments on the problems of relying on wealth and riches for our security. Instead, he advises “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. … As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”In Israel, the summer is dry, and the early rains come in the fall, breaking up the hard, dry soil so that the farmer can prepare the ground by plowing and planting. Then the late rains come in the spring, ripening the crops for a bountiful harvest. All this takes time and good stewardship of the land, and trust in God over the months. This is James’ way of inviting us to Christian patience in our lives.Christian patience involves many things; I notice three in particular that can help us. Christian patience involves endurance. Patience implies that we have to live with something we don’t like. Perhaps we are bored, or perhaps suffering in some way, and our suffering is going on longer than we expected, or we feel worn down and weary with the process. Patience involves endurance of these challenges.Christian patience involved endurance, but also action. The farmer does not simply sit and watch the weeds grow; rather the farmer plows and irrigates and plants and weeds and tends the soil. The farmer cannot make the crops grow, but the farmer can do his part as a good steward of the soil God has given him.Christian patience involves endurance and action, and Christian patience involves expectation. The farmer expects a harvest, and as Christians, we endure and act expecting God to act. We may not know what exactly God will do or exactly when God will act, but we trust and believe that God is not absent nor inactive, and that beyond the limits of our vision God is busy bringing about something good for us and for the world.We see this in our lessons today. James cites the prophets as examples of patience, and Isaiah’s reading today points in that direction. Think about the exiles. The hearts of God’s people were hardened against him, forgetting their covenant with him. So, God let Babylon conquer them and take them into exile. This was hardship and suffering indeed, a time of great loss and confusion. But the prophets called the people to endure the exile, to let those early rains break up the hard, dry soil of their hearts, to soften them to repentance, to turn them back to God. They heeded the words of the prophets and they endured the exile.They not only endured the exile, they also took action. Their repentance led them to renew their covenant with God. How could they do this in a foreign land? They had to figure out a new way. They studied the scriptures and obeyed God’s commandments. They kept the sabbath and supported each other as God’s people together. If they simply did their work and blended in with the Babylonians, they would not have seen the good things that God had in store for them.But in the fullness of time they were ready, and God brought them back to the Holy Land and restored them again. They lived in expectation of the fulfillment of that promise, and they took action to live so as to prepare themselves for God’s blessing. In the end, they were ready to receive it.In Jesus’ day, the people again endured foreign and corrupt rulers, and they prayed fervently for the Messiah to come and establish God’s kingdom. Jesus tells them “the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” When they ask about John the Baptist, he explains that John was part of preparing the people for the coming of this kingdom and its king. John prepared the people to look for and be ready to receive Jesus when he arrived. But even Jesus points ahead to what God is doing: even the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the Baptist.Keep in mind that the Kingdom of Heaven is not only that kingdom that awaits us at the end of all things; Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. We can embrace God’s rule in our lives today and, like the exiles in Babylon, live with Jesus as our king, living differently in this world, bearing witness to a living and active God.So how do we see this Christian patience in our own lives? There are heroes who showed us patience, certainly. William Wilberforce labored tirelessly for over forty years to see the abolition of the slave trade, but by God’s grace that day came. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. patiently endured suffering and took action to bring greater reconciliation between races, calling our attention to God’s calls in our lives. We also see Christian patience at work in more regular lives everywhere.Think of students in school (this is both an example and a metaphor!). School takes a lot of patience, doesn’t it? How many of us have asked “why do I have to learn algebra? When am I ever going to use algebra?” Yet, we endure the difficulties of learning and we go to class and we do our homework and eventually we find that many of us use algebra a lot more than we thought we would. But we also find that taking algebra helps to teach us how to learn. The whole process trains our minds a little more in how to think and how to learn and understand. We don’t see exactly what the future will bring, but we take action today, enduring the challenge, and if we are wise, we look for and find the blessings that God is giving us—not just at the end of the process, but in the process itself.Of course, algebra isn’t the only hard part about being a kid. Growing up is hard—dealing with parents and teachers and peers is hard, plus all of the confusion inside of us. And certainly, parenting is hard for all the same reasons. Half the time parents are trying hard to understand their kids, facing challenges they can’t understand and don’t know how to navigate.But if we stay steady together, trusting in God’s grace through those years, if we trust one another and trust in God’s guidance, leaning on our brothers and sisters in Christ, if we each do our part like the faithful farmer, then we will find God’s blessing as we go. We may not be able to see the good things God is doing, but over time, our love for each other and our commitment to God and to each other will bring a bountiful harvest as we mature and grow together. Be patient, therefore, beloved, for the early rains, and the late rains.As Christians, so much of our Christian patience is helped by the basics of the Christian life. Just as the exiles worked together to strengthen themselves as God’s people, so we also take the same kind of action. These are the practices of worship, prayer, study and service—practices that we share together as the church.Worship of God is the ground and center of the Christian life. Worship is not about entertainment; worship is about reminding ourselves that God is God and we are not God. In worship, we take the time to honor God as Lord of our lives. And in worship, God also teaches us and strengthens us with his presence. When we pray together and study the Bible together, and serve Christ in the world together, we grow as Jesus’ disciples, and we bring God’s grace to those who have not yet found it. These practices are the basics of Christian discipleship and Christian stewardship, and we practice them in patience, from the early rains, to the late rains, expecting God to bring a bountiful harvest.As we go through confusing times in our lives, God calls us to Christian patience. God calls us to endurance and perseverance through our challenges. God calls us to action as faithful stewards of our lives. God calls us to take action for greater faithfulness to God each day, growing in the process, even though we may not see where God is heading. God calls us to faithful expectation—expecting God to act, watching for how God is blessing us, preparing ourselves to receive the blessing that God has in store for us.Be patient, therefore, beloved. Endure by trusting in God through the struggles and be at peace. Take action for faithfulness in worship, prayer, study and service. Do all this while expecting that God is at work—watch for God’s blessing and be prepared to receive the harvest.
Humility, mercy, and God’s righteousness
Sermon preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA
by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, October 23, 2022
(year C, proper 25): Luke 18:9-14
Luke 18:9-14: He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."
Today’s Gospel reading is a fairly familiar passage. We have heard a lot about Pharisees and tax collectors. We’ve learned to despise Pharisees, and truth be told, we still feel unsure about tax collectors too. Jesus’ parable, however, has a lot going on in it. We might miss some of what is important, and if we’re not careful, we might walk away with the wrong impression. Jesus’ parable is about humility, contempt, mercy, justice and where our righteousness comes from. And, like all of Jesus’ parables, this parable tells us more about God, and God’s attitude toward us.
In Jesus’ day, Pharisees were the religious rock-stars, the leaders in calling the people to faithfulness to God. Tax collectors, on the other hand, were not simply civil servants. They were collaborators with the Roman occupation, supporters of a foreign pagan power against their own Jewish people. Tax collectors took far more than the tax from people, using their power to extort money from their fellow Jews and enrich themselves. Their sins were well known and despised.
But Jesus saw more deeply. And he had more for us to learn not only about ourselves and our neighbors, but about God and God’s grace and mercy. So he told this parable.
The Pharisee thanks God, but quickly he focuses on himself and how he is not like others: not a thief or adulterer. He fasts in prayer, he gives a tenth of his income to the temple, as the Bible teaches us to do. He is not, he says, “like this tax collector.” Indeed, he is not like the tax collector in the parable. The tax collector does not plead to God from his own righteousness. Rather, he begs God for mercy, saying “God, have mercy on my, a sinner!”
In the previous passage in Luke, which we heard last week, Jesus tells a parable about someone seeking justice from a judge. A judge would hold one person justified against another. Here in this scene, we have two people seeking God’s favor, but the one who is justified is the one who declares himself a sinner, and seeks God’s mercy.
We have heard this story so much that perhaps it is important to say what this parable does NOT teach us. Jesus is not teaching us to despise Pharisees. Certainly, he is critical of those who trust in themselves and have contempt for others, but he is not inviting us to then have contempt for such people, while feeling smug about ourselves.
Our culture often takes the problem of self-righteousness, and projects it onto anyone who might seek true righteousness. Someone who is concerned about the morality of our words and actions or someone who has a clear sense of moral standards is often despised as a pharisee in our culture. But Jesus does call us to righteousness. Jesus teaches us not to steal or commit adultery. Jesus calls us to fast and to tithe. Jesus wants tax collectors to not extort money from the people. Jesus tells both Pharisees and the crowds and indeed his own disciples what the right thing is to do, and he urges them to do it. His first sermon was “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” The tax collector in Jesus’ parable calls himself a sinner, and so he was. This parable does not tell us to forget caring about right and wrong or that anything goes. No, righteousness is indeed very important to Jesus. This parable is about God’s true righteousness.
This parable is fairly specific in its purpose. Luke writes that Jesus tells this parable “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” The problem here is the focus of the pharisee and how he treats others. In fact, going back to observations about our own culture, I would say that even though morality gets a bad rap sometimes, our culture is more rabidly moralistic than ever. If someone doesn’t measure up to the current trends, they can be shamed in the public square of social media, with viral fervor. The issues are a moral issues—the standards are just often different than before. Even more so, not only is there a lot of moral fervor in public discourse, there is also an enormous amount of contempt for others who do not agree.
So should our response be our own competing self-righteousness and our own version of contempt for these others? Well, politicians certainly seem to think so. In political ads, there is a lot of trusting in themselves that they are righteous and regarding others with contempt. When the politician is on our side, it might feel good to us. But is this really how we find righteousness? Perhaps I should be careful not to regard politicians with contempt.
Another response to all this might be simply to refuse to engage in moral conversation. “It’s too controversial,” we might say. Conflict these days is so emotionally driven that we can sometimes avoid disagreements on political or moral topics. And yet, this allows the moral questions to polarize, and we miss opportunities to learn and grow. We miss opportunities to take a stand for what God has taught us about what is true and good and right, or miss the opportunity to learn from others.
Jesus stood for what is right, and so should we. This takes courage at times. But it also takes humility. Courage without love is merely bullying, something that we see a lot. But courage with love is a completely different frame of heart and mind. This is at the heart of Jesus’ parable. Jesus stands for God’s righteousness; God’s righteousness includes humility and mercy.
Imagine if parents treated their children as if performance were all they cared about. If they did, every so often, parents would sit down with a child and say “well, it’s time for your quarterly review. You’ve been doing well in taking the garbage out and cleaning your room, but you’ve fallen behind in homework and doing the dishes. Your total score as our child is 84.6%, therefore we’ll give you 84.6% of your allotted love for the next quarter.”
Of course we don’t do this! Yes, homework and cleaning your room is important, and parents certainly teach their kids to do these things. But parents, when they are at their best, love their kids first and foremost and always. Their love for their kids is a gift already given. If they teach their kids right and wrong, they do so out of love for them and for others. This is a natural grace that we know how to understand. So it is with God.
God cares about righteousness, and God’s righteousness starts with right relationship with him. If we are proud of ourselves and our righteousness, then we’re not really looking toward God. We’re too busy worshipping ourselves. And if we’re regarding others with contempt, then we’ve left the path of righteousness, for God’s righteousness includes humility and mercy.
The tax collector in the parable sees himself and his failings. And yet, he still comes before God in the temple to pray. He knows something of who God is, so he brings all of himself to God and says “be merciful to me, a sinner!” In his humility, he seeks God. So he walks away justified by God—made righteous by God, because that blessing is what he sought. He sought God’s goodness, not his own.
You see, this parable, like all of Jesus’ parables has a lot to say about God. God cares about right and wrong, about moral questions of how we live our lives. And one of those moral questions has to do with showing mercy to one another, not contempt, about speaking the truth in love to one another, not about destroying one another. Even more importantly, we learn that God is a God who does not look on us with contempt. Even if we were, say, as evil as a tax collector—God does not look on us with contempt. As we turn away from our sin and turn back toward God, we find that God looks on us as his beloved children. He gives us 100% of his love, and in his mercy embraces us and forgives us.
God tells us what is right and calls us to follow him and do what is right. God also sends his Holy Spirit to help us in our stumbling steps forward. God has mercy on us when we fall, and embraces us when we seek him, stands us on our feet again, and helps us forward with his love.
This is the kind of God we worship and proclaim—the God who loves us and strengthens us with his mercy. When we are humble enough and compassionate and courageous enough to love others as Jesus loves us, we will be free of contempt, bringing blessing instead of cursing, bringing reconciliation to a broken world.
When seeking the moral life, we seek first the God whose righteousness includes humility and mercy. Empowered by God’s constant love for us, God’s righteousness teaches us how to share that love with others.
God gives us a living faith; a living faith responds to God
Sermon preached at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Marietta, GA
By The Rev. Thomas C. Pumphrey, October 9, 2022
Year C, Proper 23, Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7, Psalm 66:1-11; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7: These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Luke 17:11-19 (NRSV): On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Do you know these responses?
The Peace of the Lord be always with you! (And also with you!)
Alleluia, Christ is risen! (The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!)
Our Mission is—(Growing Disciples of Jesus Christ)
This is the day the Lord has made! (Let us rejoice and be glad in it!)
This is what you call “call and response.” Call and response is a big part of the African American church tradition in this country. Truly, call and response is an important part human relationships. At Christmas, someone gives you a gift, and you respond by giving that person a gift. Or someone does something kind and you say “thank you” and you are more likely to do something kind in return. This kind of exchange, this kind of call and response, builds relationships, fosters goodwill and opens us to understanding and caring for each other. This kind of call and response teaches us who we are and who we are in relationship with each other, doesn’t it?
Here’s another call and response: The Lord be with you (and also with you). Episcopalians have learned this instinctively. Why? Because we practice this exchange regularly and it becomes almost automatic. However, just because it is automatic doesn’t mean that it has no meaning to us. Of course, it could get that way if we aren’t careful. Some people like to get the attention of a crowd by saying “the Lord be with you,” but I don’t care for that. If it is only about getting our attention, and not about calling our attention to God, then we have eroded the meaning and the purpose of that call and response.
This particular call and response—like the exchange of the Peace of Jesus Christ, teaches us about who we are, and who we are together, and who we are with God. We are people who wish God’s peace and God’s presence to each other. Furthermore, we don’t merely receive this blessing for ourselves; we also share it in return and share that peace and blessing with others. This call and response teaches us who we are and whose we are, and sends us into the world to share this grace.
Last week, I preached about how God gives us a living faith. In today’s readings, we hear about how a living faith responds to God. At Christmas, we receive gifts and we respond by giving gifts, and so we share joy and our relationships deepen. Our gratitude and thanksgiving takes us outside of ourselves and our own needs and helps us share joy and gratitude together. So it is in our life with God—our call and response with God. God gives us a living faith, and a living faith responds to God. Our relationship with God is built-up, and our life with God thrives.
In the last few weeks, our Old Testament readings have been lamentations for the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah by Babylon. The Exiles have been taken away. But now we hear the prophet Jeremiah say to the exiles “Thus says the Lord…build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce…multiply there [in Babylon] and do not decrease…seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Jeremiah goes on later to write that the Lord says “I know the plans that I have for you…” plans for a future and a hope (29:11).
God is blessing the exiles, even while they are in exile. If they have eyes to see him, they will see God’s provision for them, forming them as his people, preparing them to return to the land and glorify him once more. So, he asks for their response in a living faith.
After psalms of lament in prior weeks, today’s Psalm praises God for his restoration, bringing the exiles to a place of refreshment. Paul, in his letter to Timothy has confidence in his calling, even though his calling involves hardship. For “the word of God is not chained,” he writes, and he knows that the call of the Good News of Jesus will bring a response of joy for those who accept it. Do you hear the call and response? God gives us a living faith, and a living faith responds to God.
The Gospel reading today shows this more clearly. Ten lepers beg Jesus for mercy. Leprosy in the Bible could be any of a number of skin diseases, but these diseases not only destroyed the body, but they separated the sick from the community in a kind of lifelong quarantine. So, they beg Jesus for mercy to relieve their suffering. Jesus tells them to present themselves to the priests, something lepers must do, according to the Torah, to demonstrate that they have been healed and may be restored to the community once again. Then when they are on their way and cleansed from their sickness, one of the ten, a Samaritan, returns to Jesus, falling to the ground in a posture of worship, and praising God for God’s mercy and grace to him. God had blessed him with healing, and he gave God a response of thanks and praise.
All ten were healed, but one of them responded to Jesus, returning to him with worship and praise. Jesus’ gift of health was given to all of them, and it seems that they were on their way to the priests as he had asked them to do. But for the Samaritan who returned to Jesus to give God praise, his response brought him closer to Jesus. And indeed, Jesus tells him perhaps more than what he said to the other nine: “Go on your way, your faith has made you well.” God gives us a living faith—a relationship with him that changes our lives and blesses us, overcoming the suffering and hardship of humanity. And a living faith responds to God, drawing us closer to God, strengthening our relationship with God, who sends us into the world rejoicing.
This is the call and response of the Christian life. God calls us to bless us, and we respond to God. In this practice of call and response, our relationship is built up—like the joy of exchanging gifts together. In this practice, we are reminded of who we are and whose we are. The church uses special words to describe key parts of this call and response. “Vocation” is God’s call to us. “Stewardship” is our faithful response to God in our daily lives.
Like the exiles, we are blessed when we look beyond the suffering and hardship that is common to all human experience. We are blessed when we see and acknowledge God’s blessing in our lives. We listen for God’s calls to us, both those unique calls to us as individuals, and in the common calling that God has for our daily faithfulness. This is vocation. Stewardship, then, is our response to God’s call. Stewardship relies on vocation, for we are always listening to God as we seek to discern how he has called us to tend our gifts.
Stewardship recognizes that all that we have comes from God. We respond to God’s generosity to us by tending these resources as God would have us do. When we claim Jesus as our Lord, we submit to his ownership over our lives. So, Stewardship recognizes that all that we have really belongs to God and not to us. Like a manager hired and entrusted to manage an estate, we are stewards of what belongs to God. Our faithful response to God’s generosity is found in how we manage our possessions, how we spend and save our money, how we give generously from our finances or our time or energy. Stewardship is how we care for our environment, how we care for our neighbor, how we contribute to God’s mission in our church family and in the world. God gives us a living faith; and a living faith responds to God in stewardship.
Sometimes churches only talk about stewardship in relation to giving money to church. Stewardship is certainly much more than that. However, supporting our common ministry is indeed an important part of stewardship. So, we do talk about this part of stewardship sometimes, especially because unlike other ministries, people rarely discuss this part of the Christian life together.
This aspect of stewardship has a broader impact than just the parish church. It is kind of like the way in which gathering for worship as stewardship of our time sanctifies our time in the rest of the week. Like our call and response, we are reminded of who we are and whose we are, and we live more closely in relationship with God because of this stewardship of our time in worship of God. Sundays support our worship of God through the week.
Likewise, when we give of our time or money to the ministries of the church, we not only support God’s mission in the world, but we also are reminded of God’s calls to us for the rest of what we earn and save and spend, and how we save and spend it. Our giving to the church, if we take it seriously, draws God into our decision making in the rest of our finances and our time, sanctifying all of our resources. And this response brings us closer to God.
Pledging financial support is only a part of stewardship, but it is a helpful and important discipline for each of us, and helpful for the stewardship of the church’s ministries. Each of us makes a plan for how we will give, and we embrace the discipline of this giving. The church, then, can discern God’s calls for how to do ministry with the resources it can plan on receiving. Without these pledges, that discernment and planning is much harder for leaders to do. So, we ask all of our members to make a pledge and to give accordingly.
One of the Christian practices of giving is tithing. Tithing is giving ten percent of your income away from your own interests, especially giving to the church. This is a financial discipline, and a spiritual discipline. Usually, this level of giving is noticeable enough that it requires a re-assessment of the whole household budget in light of God’s calls. In this way, stewardship is not just about 10%, but rather about 100%—about involving God in the management of all our resources—not just what we give, but what we save and spend as well.
Here is where the benefit of tithing goes beyond the good that it can do in the church. The more of our lives we put in God’s hands, the more of our lives God will bless, and the closer we will grow to him—like that tenth leper. God gives us a living faith, and a living faith responds to God. We practice a call and response at church that reminds us of who we are and whose we are. The call and response of stewardship is an even deeper practice every day, strengthening who we are in Christ, deepening our commitment to God, and opening our eyes to God’s generosity to us.
The exiles were called by God to trust in him and commit themselves to faithfulness where they were. And as they responded to God, God blessed them and restored them as his people. Ten lepers were blessed by Jesus with healing, and the one who returned to praise God and to worship Jesus grew closer to God by the response of his living faith. God gives us a living faith, and a living faith responds to God.
God blesses us, equipping us with gifts not just for healing, not just for joy, and not just for thanksgiving, but also, like that tenth leper, to be sent into the world to share this living faith. God gives us a living faith, and a living faith responds to God and finds joy and renewal.
This is the day the Lord has made; (We will rejoice and be glad in it!)
A living faith in a living God
Sermon preached at the St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA
by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, October 2, 2022
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (year C, proper 22):
Lamentations 1:1-6; Psalm 137; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10
2 Timothy 1:1-14: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful to God-- whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did-- when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
Luke 17:5-10: The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.*
*"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say,We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"
The apostles ask Jesus “Increase our faith!” But what is faith, and how do we have faith? We might feel the same way the apostles did—we might want more faith than we have. But what motivated the apostles to make this request of Jesus? Why did they feel lacking in faith?
Just before this exchange with Jesus, he had told the apostles to be on guard. Jesus tells them ‘If you brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him—even if he sins again and repents, forgive him.’ This is a hard thing to ask. How can we forgive again and again? How can we forgive our enemies? Today’s psalm reading came from the war zone of defeat, where the exiled Jews mourned the destruction of their city and the slaughter of their people by the armies of Babylon. The psalm writer in this case expresses that evil desire for vengeance that we so easily feel in such a tragedy. But Jesus calls us to act against that impulse for vengeance. No wonder the apostles ask Jesus “increase our faith!”
The apostles know that the strength to forgive requires trust in God—trust for safety, trust in God’s power greater than any danger we face, trust in God’s power to change others and to change us. And yet, we are often fearful and anxious or discouraged by our own hardships. So we, like the apostles, pray to our Lord “increase our faith!”
What is faith? We talk about faith a lot. Sometimes we treat faith as a kind of amorphous good feeling about the universe. But such false faith doesn’t have the strength to stand against the challenges of life. Faith is not a generalized feeling. Faith is only faith in something or faith in someone. Faith in God is first belief in God, then trust in God and expectation that God will overcome our struggles.
Faith is not a fuel that we acquire at church, store up and consume until empty. We are encouraged by the faith of others at church, yes, but faith is not a scarce commodity or a thing outside of ourselves. Rather, faith is a living relationship with a living God.
Many years ago, I traveled to Rogersville, Alabama for the funeral of my grandmother. She was almost 99 years old when she died. She had presided over a vast sea of descendants, from her ten children, numerous grandchildren and countless greatgrandchildren. My cousin Mike spoke at the service. He read from 2 Timothy, from the passage we heard today:
“I am grateful to God-- whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did-- when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.”
Mike then spoke about how grateful he was for the faith of our grandmother, whose devotion brought Mike’s mother to church. He spoke about that faith that led his mother to bring him to church, and that faith that left a legacy in him. Mike had not always put God first in his life. But the living faith of his mother and his grandmother that gave witness to the power of God and the grace of God gave Mike a foundation of faith that he could return to. And that faith that seemed as small as a mustard seed moved mountains in his life. Mike said that because of their living faith, he could stand before us as one saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
I find that the legacy of faith that my own parents left me came not from any great sermon that my father preached, nor of any great act of service by my mother. Rather, the most powerful witness of their lives came in my dad’s humility and his joy in the Lord and my mom’s daily prayer and study, and the way God was always part of our family discussions and reflections on our life together. It was in that living faith that God was most powerful in my life.
Notice that Paul writes about a living faith—faith that lived in Timothy’s grandmother, that lived in his mother, that now lives in Timothy. Paul asks Timothy to rekindle this gift and endure suffering by relying on the power of God. Paul himself has put his trust in God, relying on God’s power. This is a living faith—as simple as a decision to believe, but a decision that opens us to a living relationship with God. Living faith is powerful not because of our efforts to believe or because of our actions. We are often imperfect and incomplete. Living faith is powerful because it opens us to God’s power and to God alive in our lives.
This is perhaps why Jesus follows with a lesson in humility—that faith is not an achievement or some work for us to achieve. Rather faith as small as a mustard seed is that bedrock of belief and trust in God and in God’s power. Faith is not about our power, rather, faith is about the power of God working in us and in our world.
Parents and grandparents, when you worry about your kids and grandkids, keep saying your prayers, keep seeking God’s grace each day, and keep bringing your kids to church. Keep bearing witness to God’s love for them by who you are and your sincere love for God. Keep telling them about Jesus. Kids, if you ever tire of your parents taking you to church or school or teaching you habits of daily living and daily prayer, know that what may seem small is actually the greatest gift they can give to you. Their legacy of faith is a foundation that will give you solid ground in all the challenges you face in life. God does great things in a living faith.
If you want an increase of faith, then put more and more of your trust in God, and seek God’s presence, and connect with other faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. Faith is first belief. We learn from others why they believe and we learn what to believe as we study the Bible together. Faith is trust. We see others sustained by their trust in God and how God overcomes their hardships. We trust not in ourselves, but in God’s power to lead us and forgive us and restore us when we stumble.
As we share with others our experience of God’s grace, this is where our faith can strengthen. I have known many people who have lived lives of faith while they battle cancer. Their faith hasn’t always meant an immediate healing. Rather, their faith was a living relationship with God each day, finding God’s power and joy at work in them, giving them courage to see beyond their cancer. We have known the faith of those struggling in a difficult job or a conflicted family, faith to face each new day relying on God’s power and wisdom to guide us. Each day lived in relationship with God is a day with a living faith, strong enough to move mountains.
Our good works may seem small, and our faith may be only a decision to believe in Jesus and to trust him as we follow Jesus. But that belief and that trust lived out each day can move mountains and leave a lasting legacy. Our purpose is not to achieve greatness, but to be aware of what God is doing in our lives and to participate in God’s steadfast love for us and for the world. For God does great things in a living faith—a living relationship with a living God.
Lamentation and God’s endless treasure
A Sermon preached by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey
St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, 9/18/22
Proper 20 (year C), Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; Psalm 79:1-9, 1 Timothy 2:1-7, Luke 16:1-13
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: "Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" ("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?") "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored? O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people! Psalm 79:1-9 1 O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance; they have profaned your holy temple; * they have made Jerusalem a heap of rubble. 2 They have given the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the air, * and the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the field. 3 They have shed their blood like water on every side of Jerusalem, * and there was no one to bury them. 4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, * an object of scorn and derision to those around us. 5 How long will you be angry, O Lord? * will your fury blaze like fire for ever? 6 Pour out your wrath upon the heathen who have not known you * and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon your Name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob * and made his dwelling a ruin. 8 Remember not our past sins; let your compassion be swift to meet us; * for we have been brought very low. 9 Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your Name; * deliver us and forgive us our sins, for your Name's sake.
Today’s readings go in very different directions. I want to spend some time with the Old Testament reading from Jeremiah and on the psalm. But Jesus’ parable in the Gospel reading today is so strange that it begs at least a short comment. In this parable, it sounds like a steward who cheated his master is getting praised. Jesus has a habit of shocking us a little to get our attention. His concluding words are the most important part. I think Jesus is saying “if crooks know how to be generous to build relationships, how much more so should we be generous when we’ve been given endless treasure by God!”
So let’s look at some of the ways we can share some of God’s endless treasure. In today’s Old Testament reading, the prophet Jeremiah laments the way the people of Jerusalem have turned away from God. His voice almost expresses God’s voice of lament for his people.
My joy has gone from me, my heart is sick For the hurt of my poor people, I am hurt, I mourn and dismay has taken hold of me. *Is there no balm in Gilead?[1] Is there no physician there?
You can hear the agony of the situation. God’s people have turned away from him and they are headed for hardship and indeed destruction. Jeremiah warned the people to turn back to God, but they did not follow his call. And Babylon came and destroyed Jerusalem and its temple, and took the people into exile in a foreign land.
This is God’s lament for us when we turn away from him. God wants the best for us; he wants to lead us to times of peace and joy. But we turn away and suffer without God. And God weeps night and day for his people.
Today’s psalm is the response of God’s people. This is a psalm of lament, answering God’s lament for us. This psalm is probably a lament following Jerusalem’s destruction. You can hear the voices of the townspeople of today’s Ukraine whose cities have been bombed to destruction as the psalmist writes “they have made Jerusalem a heap of rubble.” Such was the sorrow of the Jews when Jerusalem was lost.
However, a psalm of lament never ends in sorrow. A psalm of lament is founded in hope, not in despair. Lamentations express to God our deep distress, our frustration, even our anger. But we express our lament to God knowing that God is listening, that God cares, that God has the power to relieve our distress. Psalms of lament always end in hope and trust in God. Today’s psalm reading ends with these words: Let your compassion be swift to meet us… help us, O God our savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive us our sins, for your name’s sake.
This is the lament and the hope of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. In their sorrow, they returned to God, they sought his presence and healing. And God brought them back to Jerusalem, and they rebuilt the city and the temple. They renewed their covenant with God and were filled with God’s blessing once again.
God was not finished with them, even when they were unfaithful, even when they were in exile. Yes, there is a balm in Gilead. God continued to pursue his people and restore them. And in the fulness of time, God came to us in Jesus to share our suffering and overcome sin and death and suffering. As Paul writes in today’s lesson, Jesus gave himself as a ransom for us, a ransom to free us from sin and death, a ransom to free us from the darkness and bring us new light and new life.
Ancient Jews and Ukrainians of today are not the only ones facing relentless hardship. We know several people here who are struggling with cancer, or grieving the death of a loved one. We know the loss of friends and division in our families. In East Cobb, there is a lot more darkness and despair under the surface than most people can see. Anxiety and depression and suicide are major issues in our area, especially among children and teens. And that was before the pandemic. The buildings of East Cobb are still standing, but the souls of many are in rubble.
I easily remember times in my own life heavy with that darkness, where my prayers were prayers of lamentation. When I was in high school, I struggled as many do. It was hard to navigate the social life of a small school. There was a lot of pressure on classes and grades and college prep. We had this sense that so much depended on a high level of success at that young and vulnerable age. I wrestled with failures and disappointments of teenage life in my classes and sports and with my peers. It was easy for me to feel lonely and isolated. Sadness easily became depression and depression easily felt like despair; and for moments, life itself seemed not worth it.
But I was not alone, no matter how I might have felt. God was pursuing me, whether I knew it or not. And when I looked for God, and when I opened myself to seeing God at work in my life, I felt his response to my lament.
I often walked down the street from my high school to visit a small church. There I found adults who would reach out to me. They were not doing this out of obligation like the paid greeters at Walmart, no, they genuinely cared and sought to connect with me. I felt known and loved there. They were safe people for me to speak with about my struggles. They prayed for me, they told me about Jesus, and his grace and love for me. They helped me look with new eyes to see God’s presence and power in my life. They shared with me God’s endless treasure.
Even when a close friend of mine died in a car accident, I could still see the ways in which God was active in my life, strengthening me, moving me forward, helping me to endure the challenges that any life has. God in prayer and in the personal care of these adults in my life brought light to my darkness. This was God’s endless treasure that people shared with me.
I can remember another time, too, one that might say more about how we can share God’s endless treasure with each other. When I was in college I was a caddy at a local golf course. I caddied for a husband and wife that I learned to know over time. I was going to the same college that they had both attended. The husband Joe was a successful business man, and a decent golfer too. As we talked, they asked me about school. I confessed with sadness that I had spectacularly failed calculus, a course essential to my major. I was horribly discouraged. The wife, Sue turned to her husband and said, “are you going to tell him your story or should I?” And he told me about how he had failed calculus as well, and how he got back up on his feet to finish his degree.
These adults who reached into my life shared life experience that I did not have, they shared hope for endurance and perseverance that I had not yet learned. They shared with me God’s grace, not just as a theological concept, but as an experience of love that is unearned and undeserved. They shared with me God’s endless treasure.
I can tell you that my teenage years were not the only times of darkness in my life. But I can also tell you that the light of Christ shines in that darkness and the darkness does not overcome it. God’s power and presence and peace is stronger than anything we face. This is God’s endless treasure—God’s new life that he gives us now in this world, pushing back the darkness.
Just as God pursued his wayward and defeated people in exile, so God pursues us. In the midst of our darkness, God brings the light of Christ. When we open ourselves to God, when we open ourselves to others who share God’s grace, we will thrive. God is eager for us to receive and share this endless treasure.
In this parish, I’ve watched the incredible generosity of people living with cancer. I’ve seen widows and widowers pour love and joy into the lives of others. I’ve seen people who wrestle with depression bring grace and encouragement to others. All this is the power of God alive and strong and working in you and through you.
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole.
There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.
My friends in Christ, remember that every lamentation ends with trust in God, and every psalm of lamentation leads to psalms of praise. This is the endless treasure of God that we can receive and share to relieve the burdens of others and help all of us thrive.
[1] Gilead produced or traded in balm—an ointment that reduced pain or aided healing. Asking “is there a balm in Gilead” is similar to asking “is there medicine left in our hospitals?” as a way of expressing “is there any relief for our suffering?”
God’s power working through you A Sermon preached by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey At St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, 8/21/22 Proper 15 (year C), Jeremiah 1:4-10 Jeremiah 1:4-10 (NRSV) The word of the Lord came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I [...]
Seeing the Kingdom of God by Faith A Sermon preached by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey At St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, 8/7/22 Proper 14 (year C), Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, Luke 12:32-20 Luke 12:32-20 (NRSV) Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure [...]
When we listen and follow God’s calls, God does amazing things Sermon preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, May 1, 2022 The Third Sunday of Easter (Year C) Acts 9:1-19; John 21:1-19 What a lovely spring weekend! Winter and the pandemic seem behind us, Spring is upon [...]
Seek the Living God in God’s Living People A Sermon preached by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey at the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, April 17, 2022 The Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus (Easter Day, year C), Luke 24:1-12 Luke 24:1-12 (NRSV): On the first day of the [...]
Jesus deals with our sin, spiritually and physically Sermon preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, April 15, 2022 Good Friday: John 18:1-19:37, (Hebrews 10:17-25) On this Good Friday, we come with a strong sense of human sin. Sin and death are not just abstract concepts. We [...]
God is greater than our expectations A Sermon preached by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey At St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, April 10, 2022 Palm / Passion Sunday (year C) Luke 22:14 – 23:47 Today is Palm Sunday. Today is also the Sunday of the Passion. Our liturgy leaves us with a certain [...]
God’s desires our reconciliation—to him and to each other A Sermon preached by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey At St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, 3/27/22 The Fourth Sunday in Lent (year C), Luke 15:11-32 (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 (NRSV) Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen [...]
God gives us a heritage to receive and to share Sermon preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, March 13, 2022 The Second Sunday of Lent (year C), Luke 13:31-35; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18 Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 (NRSV): After these things the word of the [...]
The more we open to God, the more God will heal Sermon preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, March 2, 2022 Ash Wednesday, Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 (NRSV): Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let [...]
Jesus changes us A Sermon preached by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, February 27, 2022 The Last Sunday after the Epiphany (year C), Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Corinthians 3:12 – 4:2; Luke 9:28-43a Exodus 34:29-35 Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain [...]
Sermon at the funeral of Dr. Weston Oday Johnson January 9, 1934 – December 6, 2021 preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, February 17, 2022 Lamentations 3:22-26, 31-33; Psalm 46, Revelation 21:1-7; John 11:21-27 Revelation 21:1-7 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; [...]
Our True Nourishment is Rooted in God A Sermon preached by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey At St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, February 13, 2022 The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1, Luke 6:17-26 Jeremiah 17:5-10 (NRSV) Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and [...]
God’s love makes us the church A Sermon preached by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey at the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA, January 30, 2022 The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (year C), 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30) 1 Corinthians 13:1-13(NRSV) If I speak in the tongues of mortals and [...]
Sermon at the funeral of Ron Mixon February 23, 1970 – January 24, 2022 preached at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Rome, GA by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, February 4, 2022 Lamentations 3:22-26, 31-33; Psalm 46, Romans 8:14-19, 33-35, 37-39; John 11:21-27 John 11:21-27: Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother [...]
In Jesus, the eternal God comes to make us whole Sermon preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, December 26, 2021 First Sunday of Christmas: John 1:1-18 John 1:1-18 (NRSV): In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [...]
Where we are powerless, God is powerful Sermon Preached at St. Peter & St. Paul, Marietta, GA by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, December 19, 2021 The Fourth Sunday of Advent (year C), Luke 1:39-45 Luke 1:39-45(46-55): In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered [...]