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Colossians 1:11-20, Psalm 34:9-14, John 6:57-63
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Revd W. Lee Shaw
It is wonderful to be here this evening celebrating fifteen years of ordination to the priesthood with ministries at St. Michael’s, St. James’, and St. Stephen’s. There have been too many times the last few years when I did not think I would live to see the next day let alone this evening. So this anniversary is pure grace.
I grew up in this part of the valley and lived a couple of miles from here. My first LDS ward in Salt Lake City is just down the street from here and I drive past it every time I come to St. Stephen’s, smiling. The first home I owned is less than a mile south of here on 3200 West. As a teenager, St. Stephen’s was on my rural paper route. (No, they did not subscribe to the Deseret News.) Yes, I do feel a connection in this place.
This is the feast day of Clement of Alexandria. He was a brilliant
early church father who died in 210. We will sing a hymn text he
wrote as the recessional this evening. I really resonate with the
propers assigned for his feast day. The hymn to Christ in Colossians
is simple and elegant in its confession of Christ and the church.
He holds all things in unity. Now the Church is his body,
and he is its head.
We are the body of Christ. He is our head.
The Gospel reading however, at first gives us pause to hear that
some find Jesus’ words intolerable. But Jesus goes on
to remind them and us that, The words I have spoken to you are
spirit and they are life.
Spirit and life come together for me
as all encompassing. So this evening I want to share with you some
of those passages of Scripture that for me have been spirit and
life for they continue to form me as a Christian and as a priest.
These passages outline and summarize the scriptural grounding of
my faith, my life and my vocation as a priest. I share them in
the hope they may also inform your own spirituality and vocation.
We begin at the beginning, Genesis 1.31: And God saw
everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
God created you and me, our world and our cosmos, and all of it is
good. God calls everything, Very good.
Do you realize what
that means? You are good! God created you out of love and care
as well as all that is around you. Our beginning, our Genesis, is
birthed in the goodness of God. And God calls you, Very good.
Next for me is a passage from second Isaiah where he recounts in
an extended hymn the love of God for the children of Israel (and in
extension us), and his care for them, and us found in Isaiah 43:1b-2,
4: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by
name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be
with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame
shall not consume you,…because you are precious in my sight and
honored, and I love you.
This passage has been such a comfort
and strength for me so many times.
God has redeemed you, called you by name, and claimed you. God will continue with you no matter what you may have to go through. Why? Because you are precious in the eyes of God, and you are honored, and God loves you. Not only is all of creation good, but God holds you as precious and honored and loved for who you are. God says that of you, of us. Can we say that of each other?
My next text is from the Gospel of Mark (10: 47-51). The blind
beggar Bartimaeus has yelled out as Jesus and his disciples pass
by: Jesus son of David have mercy on me.
Jesus calls him
forward and then comes one of the most incredible conversations
in all of Scripture and of all history. Jesus asks this blind
beggar: What do you want me to do for you?
The Son of God,
the Messiah, the Alpha and the Omega is asking this of a beggar!
In Jesus’ response we hear an echo of Isaiah, you are precious
in my sight and honored and I love you. Jesus simply asks, What
do you want me to do for you?
Bartimaeus’ answers, Let me
see again.
He is healed and follows Jesus on the way.
What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked that of Bartimaeus.
What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asks that of you.
What do you want me to do for you? Jesus is asking. You need only to answer.
Then also from Mark’s Gospel, Mark 9:23-24, the father with the
boy taken by an evil spirit, or as we would understand it
probably epilepsy. As the distraught father tells Jesus about the
health of his son: It has often cast him into the fire and
into the water, to destroy him, but if you can do anything, have
pity on us and help us. And Jesus said to him,
With that prayer and confession, the boy is healed.
If you can!
All things are possible to him who believes.
Immediately the
father of the child cried out and said, I believe; help my
unbelief.
I do not think there is a passage Scripture more important to
me than this prayer of an unnamed father: I believe; help
my unbelief.
This is the ultimate prayer of faith and of
confession: Yes I believe, yet still help my unbelief. I do
believe and I give myself to you Lord. But help my unbelief:
my struggles, my doubts, my weaknesses, my pain, my confusion,
my uncertainty, and my sins. Is this not the prayer of faith and
confession of life for so many of us? It is for me.
Finally, the words of Jesus which are definitive for you and for
me, again from Mark’s Gospel (Mark 12:29-31): Hear O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall
love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment
greater than these.
Jesus links together the great prayer of Judaism, the Shema, with his great commandment to love. Love. Period. No qualifications. No exceptions. Love. There is no other commandment greater than these. I do believe my Lord’s words and I do try to live them.
I have gone through several scriptures that are important to me, so in summary:
You are very good.
You are precious and honored and loved of God.
Ask of God what is in your heart.
Confess to God what is in your heart.
Love God. Love one another. Love yourself.
It is all very simple really.
I share these passages with you in the hope that they may help inform and form your response to the Good News of God in Christ as they have for me.
Thank you for calling me to be your priest at this time in the
history of St. Stephen’s community. What I am for you
terrifies me. What I am with you consoles me. For you I am
a priest. With you I am a Christian,
(St. Augustine of Hippo).
Amen+