ACTS
17:22-31
PSALM
148:7-14
1 PETER 3:8-18
JOHN 15:1-8
Sermon – 5/5/02
Today is called “Rogation Sunday”, or the Sunday before the traditional Rogation days, days to pray for a good harvest (or, in the Southern Hemisphere, to give thanks for one) and in general to give thanks for God’s creation and pray that we human beings be wise and careful stewards of creation. [It is with this in mind that the hymns were chosen for today].
This
is, therefore, the Church’s long-established “Arbor Day” or “Earth Day” which
goes back long before those were established.
It is a day on which we should remember that everything we do throughout
every year has an environmental impact – including on other people.
Each
of us individually and all of us together are parts of God’s creation – the
highest ranking parts, each of us and all of us “made in the image of God” as
it says in Genesis, and so therefore due the most respect and burdened with the
most responsibilities, including to each other.
As
God’s Stewards of God’s creation, we human beings are called to bring our
relationship with God and our call by God to be holy people into everything we
do: as St. Paul says in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, “’In God
we live and move and have our being.’”
Faith is not something to be walled into a ghetto of one hour a week or
one fraction of our brains but is to fill all of our lives.
Indeed,
as Jesus says in today’s Gospel, we as Christians are organically connected
to him as branches are to a grapevine: if we are not connected to him and do
not have his life flowing in and through us, we cannot bear fruit, and
we will in fact be “thrown away like a branch and wither.” Christ’s life not only can but must
flow through us, all of ourselves, for us to live.
Christianity
is not just about assent to theological concepts; it is about behavior as
well. For the next three Sundays at the
10:30 service (twice at baptisms, and once, on Pentecost, at both services) we
will say together the renewal of baptismal vows, which involves three questions
about “talking the talk” (What do we believe?) and five questions about
“walking the walk” (What do we do differently because of our belief?)
One
of the thorniest questions Christians have wrestled with since the earliest
years of the Church has been sexuality, especially, what is the relationship of
sexuality and holiness? In the earliest
years of the Church, the call to holiness was clearly issued to all
Christians, so appeals to fidelity, mutual respect, care, kindness and holiness
in intimate relationships were addressed to and heard by adult Christians the
vast majority of whom were married.
Less well known is the fact that the vast majority of the leaders
of the early Christian Church also were married: St. Paul himself, in 1
Corinthians 9:5, declares that all the other Apostles (the surviving
eleven original ones, plus Matthias and Barnabas) plus the brothers of the Lord
were all married, and he alone was celibate.
Over
time, the percentage of celibates in the leadership slowly rose – at the same
time that Christian theology focussed more and more on the next world and less
about healing of bodily ills and tangible relief for those in need in this
world. At the same time, lay
participation in the Holy Eucharist became less common, with non-ordained
people left by the late Middle Ages to watch the priest say prayers and
receive the sacrament “on their behalf.”
In
other words, the Church leadership by the late Middle Ages became more and more
aloof from the bodily experiences of so-called “ordinary” Christians. Ordinary people, especially the poor,
experienced hunger; too often the Church at that time (with the notable
exception of St. Francis) was more concerned with its own power and possessions
than with feeding the hungry. Ordinary
people needed healing; the Church in the late Middle Ages made it illegal to
anoint people except as part of “last rites”.
Ordinary people needed to be tangibly fed with the body and blood of
Christ for spiritual strength and comfort; more and more, it was reserved for
clergy alone.
Interestingly
enough, it was at this time – in the 12th Century, and then
only in the Western church (not the Orthodox churches) that it became mandatory
for priests to be celibate. Here was
yet one more disconnect between the church leadership and the experiences of
ordinary Christians, a disconnect which underlined a supposed separation
between “holiness” and “bodiliness”, a disconnect which would have seemed
totally bizarre to anyone reared in the First Century Church – including St.
Peter, whose mother-in-law was the second person Jesus healed (Mark 1:30-31).
These
radical disconnects between “body” and ”spirit” which characterized the late
Middle Ages have slowly been reconnected as more of the Christian Church has
gone back to its ancient shared roots.
The laity now receive the sacrament regularly in the Roman Catholic
Church – and more frequently in many Protestant and Anglican churches than a
generation or two ago as well. Healing
has re-entered the “mainstream” as a sacrament and a blessing given by Christ
to the church for peoples’ well being.
Many churches have become far more involved with feeding the hungry,
clothing the naked, housing the homeless – and addressing more basic issues of
injustice – than before, although there’s still a ways to go. But somehow, the connection between the
Christian call to holiness and the bodily nature of human beings as sexual
persons is still not as widely recognized by all Christian Churches or
Christian people, as it should be.
I
should say at this point that I have great respect for the many clergy who both
make and keep vows of celibacy – who, let’s not forget, include some Episcopal
clergy, like Bishop Shaw of Massachusetts, who is a monk.
I
also have to add that the failure to imbue sexuality with holiness is not
limited to any particular Christian church, nor, of course, to
Christianity. Sin knows no
boundaries of faith (or unfaith). And
we in the Episcopal Church, too, have had some clergy who were disasters.
That
said, what we are witnessing being exposed in the Roman Catholic Church today
is “an ethical Chernobyl” of the first magnitude.
The
stories of abuse and cover-up are appalling.
The transfer of priests accused of abuse not only between states but
between countries speaks to a profound sinfulness in the system, not
just one diocese or one bishop or a significant number of abusive priests (who,
mercifully, are still a tiny percentage of all priests).
It
reminds me of another prominent, powerful man, also a very public Christian,
also clearly guilty of sexual misconduct: Bill Clinton.
What
he and abusive clergy and those who transferred them and covered up for them
share in common are two crucial disastrous ideas. First, the idea that “the rules don’t apply to me.” Second, the idea that “the Christian’s call
to holiness is separated by firewall from one’s sexual behavior.” All would do well to read the story of King
David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1-12:13) to learn how neither is true.
In
the current ethical catastrophe, I pray earnestly for all the victims of
abuse – including the indirect ones who, though not molested themselves, now
realize that they trusted someone they should not have trusted. I pray earnestly that the leadership of the
Roman Catholic Church may take decisive action to get to the root of the
problem. The statement of the American
cardinals that any priest “who has become notorious and guilty of serial,
predatory, sexual abuse of minors” will be defrocked is more shocking for what
it doesn’t say than for their tardiness in saying it. Priests have to be serial abusers to
be kicked out?? Priests have to be
“notorious” – being abusive but not famous is O.K.?? They really, really don’t get it.
I
also pray that the Roman Church not indulge in a witch-hunt targeting
homosexuals, as some of its bishops want.
There is no evidence that homosexuals are more likely to be
abusive than heterosexuals. If the
hierarchy wants to make sweeping judgments about the worthiness of large
classes of people to be considered ordainable based on their likeliness to be
abusive, it should consider that the least likely people to be abusers are – women.
I
also pray that, in this century, it will be possible for my Roman Catholic
brothers in ministry to have the opportunity, if they wish, to have the
experience of being joyfully joined in Holy Matrimony to a wonderful woman, as
I have the honor of being.
And
this brings me back to the broader points we have heard a lot about, instances
when there has been a total disconnect between holiness and sexuality – and the
publicity is essential to right the wrongs that were done.
But
we have heard too little about those faithful Christians who are trying hard,
however imperfectly, to make the connection between holiness and
sexuality: to rejoice in the precious gift that God gave us and to be good
stewards of the precious gift by making sure it comes to consummation only in
monogamous, long-term adult relationships of mutual respect, equality,
fidelity, forgiveness, joy and love. It
can happen. Indeed it does
happen. And when it happens, it may not
sell newspapers. So, I guess we’ll have
to encourage each other, pray for each other, guide each other, and applaud
each other for the good things imperfect people should do and can do, by
the grace of God.
And
may the best that faithful people do be as contagious as the worst that
people do is famous.
We
can get it right, as long as we stay connected to Christ, “without whom
we can do nothing.”
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard
St. Barnabas Episcopal Church