Proper 20 -- Cycle B, September 23, 2018
The first movie I ever say was Sleeping Beauty. It began with a christening. All the people and all the fairies of the kingdom came to greet the little Princess Aurora, to offer gifts and wishes and blessings.
And here we are this morning for little Josephine, with gifts and wishes and blessings. The corporate blessing, the blessing we have gathered to offer is this: that Josephine may lead a life that matters.
In this great big world that ignores all but the powerful and mighty, first we say that Josephine herself matters. She is a precious child of God, a princess in her own right, in the kingdom of God.
And then we are here to lead her to live a life that matters.
The last several weeks our lessons have been about wisdom. To know what is a life that matters and then to live it -- what could be wiser than that?
That is our wish, our blessing for Josephine this morning.
I remember the evening after my son Jacob was born. I held him in my arms and prayed that he would be happy. Isn't that what parents say, "I just want my children to be happy."
A friend in Costa Rica said something similar for himself a few years back. He was feeling sorrowful, as he often does, and was in his cups, which he thinks would make him less sorrowful. But it doesn't. He said to me, "All I want is to be happy. Is that asking too much?"
He asked as though he thought I would have the answer, me being a priest and all. Now, it's not my first rodeo, and I don't counsel people while they are drunk.
But I did have an answer. I'm saving it for him.
No, to be happy is not asking enough. The thing is, if what you are pursuing is happiness, you will never get there. Oh, you might experience pleasure. You might distract yourself temporarily from your sorrows. But it's when you lose yourself in something else, when you create, or help, or stand up for something important, or love, when your own happiness is forgotten, that's when it comes.
That soul-sustaining peace, that end-of-one's-life satisfaction, real happiness is a tangent, a side effect of the main event, of pursuing a life that matters.
You don't get there by striving for it.
There are thousands of years of experience behind that statement. The Psalmist wrote this over 2500 years ago:
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers.
But their delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on God's law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
Happy are they!
Buddhism has taught the foolishness of pursuing happiness for the same 2500 years, Christianity, 2000 years. This is not just my opinion, but the lived experience of millenia.
There are some Christians who have gone off track, way off track and think that Christianity is supposed to make you feel good. That's why you do it.
No. Loved, loving, gifted, giving, forgiven, forgiving, called, sent to participate in God's plan for the world, and always, always precious in the eyes of God -- these things, yes. And chances are, if you are loving, giving, forgiving, sent, if these things are the purpose of your life, then chances are, you will know happiness. It's not a guarantee. But a life that matters is the best shot you've got.
Trying to make yourself feel good is not.
So today, because we love Josephine, because we do want her to be happy, we introduce her to a way of life. We bring her to One whose life did matter. We bring her to Jesus.
Not to Sunday School, not to lessons, as though the key is to stuff her head with information that she could read in a book. Rather, as Jesus called the children into his lap, we bring her into the lap of the Body of Christ. Those of you who were here a few weeks ago, do you remember while Melissa read, Josephine in Nancy's lap? The lap of the Body of Christ.
Because, God help us, that is what we are. We bring her into the midst of the people who follow Jesus, into the way that we know to be transformed into the image and likeness of Christ. She will learn that way when the people around her are following it.
Now is that a life that matters, or what? To be transformed into the image and likeness of Christ, to so live that people who observe you in the world can see Jesus?
I said, "God help us," because that is a big ambition. And we don't get there by getting baptized and wearing a little gold cross and hearing some stories and trying to be a nice person and checking that box on the form.
We get there by practice and by surrounding ourselves with the rest of the team who practice. Coming to Jesus is not a solo sport. We do our best to live the words we pray.
* We gather together, study the Word, hear each other's stories.
* Then we examine our lives for where we need a course correction.
* We live and speak the Good News. We don't keep Jesus to ourselves -- he's not our private treasure.
* Then we go treat others as Jesus would, having learned a bit each week what that means.
And as we practice these disciplines, our minds are formed and reformed and transformed after the mind of Christ,
* so that our vision expands, and our commitment expands, for justice and peace among all the people and the creation that God loves so much that God sent Jesus to bring us into this way.
Practice this way over and over until it becomes second nature, the nature and likeness of Christ.
Along the way, we'll introduce her to others in the Body, Florence Nightingale, Martin Luther King, Sojourner Truth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothy Day, Andrew and all these guys, Mary Magdalene, the saints of God who inspire us to be one, too.
That's what it means to be part of the Body of Christ, the household of God. When we are so transformed by God's love that we share it, that is when we fulfull our call to the priesthood of all believers, because then we bless and are a blessing in a world that needs to know that love.
We invite Josephine to share this way with us. We promise to support her in her life in Christ. And that will work only if we practice this life in Christ ourselves, and only if she is in the midst of it to see it, hear it, experience and learn to live it.
We make promises to Josephine this morning to keep bringing her to Jesus. We will fulfill that promise as we come to Jesus ourselves, so that we may life that life that matters.
Amen.
The first movie I ever say was Sleeping Beauty. It began with a christening. All the people and all the fairies of the kingdom came to greet the little Princess Aurora, to offer gifts and wishes and blessings.
And here we are this morning for little Josephine, with gifts and wishes and blessings. The corporate blessing, the blessing we have gathered to offer is this: that Josephine may lead a life that matters.
In this great big world that ignores all but the powerful and mighty, first we say that Josephine herself matters. She is a precious child of God, a princess in her own right, in the kingdom of God.
And then we are here to lead her to live a life that matters.
The last several weeks our lessons have been about wisdom. To know what is a life that matters and then to live it -- what could be wiser than that?
That is our wish, our blessing for Josephine this morning.
I remember the evening after my son Jacob was born. I held him in my arms and prayed that he would be happy. Isn't that what parents say, "I just want my children to be happy."
A friend in Costa Rica said something similar for himself a few years back. He was feeling sorrowful, as he often does, and was in his cups, which he thinks would make him less sorrowful. But it doesn't. He said to me, "All I want is to be happy. Is that asking too much?"
He asked as though he thought I would have the answer, me being a priest and all. Now, it's not my first rodeo, and I don't counsel people while they are drunk.
But I did have an answer. I'm saving it for him.
No, to be happy is not asking enough. The thing is, if what you are pursuing is happiness, you will never get there. Oh, you might experience pleasure. You might distract yourself temporarily from your sorrows. But it's when you lose yourself in something else, when you create, or help, or stand up for something important, or love, when your own happiness is forgotten, that's when it comes.
That soul-sustaining peace, that end-of-one's-life satisfaction, real happiness is a tangent, a side effect of the main event, of pursuing a life that matters.
You don't get there by striving for it.
There are thousands of years of experience behind that statement. The Psalmist wrote this over 2500 years ago:
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers.
But their delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on God's law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
Happy are they!
Buddhism has taught the foolishness of pursuing happiness for the same 2500 years, Christianity, 2000 years. This is not just my opinion, but the lived experience of millenia.
There are some Christians who have gone off track, way off track and think that Christianity is supposed to make you feel good. That's why you do it.
No. Loved, loving, gifted, giving, forgiven, forgiving, called, sent to participate in God's plan for the world, and always, always precious in the eyes of God -- these things, yes. And chances are, if you are loving, giving, forgiving, sent, if these things are the purpose of your life, then chances are, you will know happiness. It's not a guarantee. But a life that matters is the best shot you've got.
Trying to make yourself feel good is not.
So today, because we love Josephine, because we do want her to be happy, we introduce her to a way of life. We bring her to One whose life did matter. We bring her to Jesus.
Because, God help us, that is what we are. We bring her into the midst of the people who follow Jesus, into the way that we know to be transformed into the image and likeness of Christ. She will learn that way when the people around her are following it.
Now is that a life that matters, or what? To be transformed into the image and likeness of Christ, to so live that people who observe you in the world can see Jesus?
I said, "God help us," because that is a big ambition. And we don't get there by getting baptized and wearing a little gold cross and hearing some stories and trying to be a nice person and checking that box on the form.
We get there by practice and by surrounding ourselves with the rest of the team who practice. Coming to Jesus is not a solo sport. We do our best to live the words we pray.
* We gather together, study the Word, hear each other's stories.
* Then we examine our lives for where we need a course correction.
* Then we go treat others as Jesus would, having learned a bit each week what that means.
And as we practice these disciplines, our minds are formed and reformed and transformed after the mind of Christ,
* so that our vision expands, and our commitment expands, for justice and peace among all the people and the creation that God loves so much that God sent Jesus to bring us into this way.
Practice this way over and over until it becomes second nature, the nature and likeness of Christ.
Along the way, we'll introduce her to others in the Body, Florence Nightingale, Martin Luther King, Sojourner Truth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothy Day, Andrew and all these guys, Mary Magdalene, the saints of God who inspire us to be one, too.
That's what it means to be part of the Body of Christ, the household of God. When we are so transformed by God's love that we share it, that is when we fulfull our call to the priesthood of all believers, because then we bless and are a blessing in a world that needs to know that love.
We make promises to Josephine this morning to keep bringing her to Jesus. We will fulfill that promise as we come to Jesus ourselves, so that we may life that life that matters.
Amen.
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