From the Pastor

From the Pastor’s Sermon . . .

As we come to the conclusion of our Thanksgiving weekend, the Gospel speaks of gratitude: ten people cured of leprosy but only one returns to say thank-you for so great a favor. Now gratitude is the end of a process, not the beginning. It rests on awareness, and awareness is more demanding than we might imagine. On one hand we need to pay attention, and on the other hand we need to guard against allowing our awareness to get dulled by our constant exposure to certain corrupting elements, like background noise or the clothes on our back. We never hear the hissing of the broken pipe or notice the tear in our coat.

That said, consider the Gospel. Certainly the other nine came to know they were cured, but they could not connect the dots, they could not get the big picture, they were too absorbed with themselves to even remember the one who cured them, let alone feel an impulse to go back and thank him. Gratitude arises from a rich awareness, and awareness—like a skill—needs to be stretched and strengthened. A penetrating and broad scope of awareness allows us to “connect the dots.” And yet often we need some idea of what it is that will emerge from our awareness or else we dismiss bits and pieces of information and never get the big picture. The people cured in the story never seemed to realize that the one who cured them could also do other, even more marvelous, things for them. They were simply not paying enough attention to realize the implications of their cure.

Let’s look at the opening line from the epistle we heard this morning. “When Christ is revealed—and he is your life—you, too, will be revealed in all your glory with him.” (Colossians 3;4) There is a very similar line in St. John’s first letter (3;2). “What we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is, that when it is revealed we shall be like him.” Let’s tie this together. We live in a world awash in sin and corruption. If we are not alert and careful we can begin to take this sinful culture to be normal and right. Recently I was seated with a well educated professional at a social gathering. Children were running around, as children do. And this man was peppering his speech with the four letter word. These children are going to grow up thinking that such language is normal and appropriate. But we just heard, in the epistle, that we must not use such language; and not only when children are present, but at any time. But our culture has become increasingly vulgar and obscenity is now part and parcel of our entertainments and discourse. Some look at the Victorian era and fault it for hypocrisy, for indulging in the fornication mentioned in the epistle this morning, and keeping it plastered over with a veneer of propriety. That sounds better to me than letting it “all hang out” and being proud of it and signaling our children that this is what normal people do in normal life.

If we pay attention to Christ—if we come to know him well—then our behavior will improve accordingly; and not just our mechanical actions, but the attitudes that motivate them as well. As the epistle exhorted us this morning, “You have adopted a new ideal for yourself by which you will make progress in real knowledge the more that your “self” is renewed in the image of its creator.” The more we pay attention to Christ, the greater the insight we gain to connect the dots and the clearer the picture becomes. With that to guide us we can grow into complete fulfillment.

Two people may look at a length of rope or board and guess its length, and not agree. So someone sets down a ruler and instantly we know, not only who was right, but also what the exact measurement of the piece is. That’s how it will be at the final revelation of Christ, the standard of what a human being really is. Christ will manifest himself and we will see our similarity to him—or how badly we have failed to “measure up”—and we will be eternally grateful, or eternally angry, depending on how closely we have conformed our life to his.