Sermons by Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Ignoring calls to kick butt
Make a Difference with Truth and Love
Bishop Paul V. Marshall[This is the printed version of the sermon Bishop Paul on the Feast of All Saints, 2000, at the regional Confirmation (St. Elizabeth's, Allentown; Mediator, Allentown; St. Anne's, Trexlertown) at the Church of the Mediator]
Every now and then somebody writes me a letter and says something like, Bishop, those other people need a kick in the pants. In fact, that was the expression one writer used.
I won't tell you who said that -- but I will say that every time I have given into somebody's advice to kick a little butt, I've been sorry. First of all, it is important not to fight other people's battles. Then there is the practical reason is that you get more done by leading than by pushing. But there is more.
The religious reason, the Christian reason, why I increasingly resist those who want other people kicked or shoved into action here has to do with the great Feast of All Saints, which we celebrate tonight. It has to do with these sisters and brothers in Christ who will in Confirmation, Reception or Renewal start a new chapter in their life in Christ. They, like all of us, don't need a kick in the pants nearly as much as they need a gentle hand on the shoulder - a potential pat on the back -- and the encouragement to keep looking for that inside them which is truly heroic, that which is a Saint. Looking for the part of their lives where Jesus Christ will win victories.
Now before your spouses, parents, or brothers or sisters start laughing uncontrollably at the idea that you are called to sainthood, let me tell you what I mean.
You already know what the world is like. You already know that we live in a world where people wear the labels on the outside of their clothes. You already know how people will pick on and make fun of people who are different. In fact, you know that people in this country can get killed just for being different. You have already encountered selfishness, racial prejudice, and the incredible ability kids have to make life hell for each other.
But I'm here to remind you of something you also know already. God certainly did NOT mean for people to destroy each other, to live in fear, or to die of hunger. God means life to be more fun, to be fuller, and to be more beautiful than what we settle for all too often. You know that in the Church you are honored and cared for, nurtured and challenged because people "seek and serve Christ" in you, as the Baptismal Covenant puts it.
But God nonetheless respects our ability to make a choice, to make adult commitments, and to make them freely.
So there's God's problem: a world where people suffer and make others suffer on the one hand, and on the other, God's own commitment to let human beings make free choices. God can't simply make people be good, because then they wouldn't be people anymore. What to do? How to give them a vision of life built around love and peace, a life of gentleness and justice, a vision of life that is full to the brim of meaning, loaded with satisfaction, and sometimes even fun.
Well, you know what he did. He sent Jesus. But think what THAT means. Almighty God puts aside all power and splendor and riches and might, and is born in a barn, and makes his cradle in a manger -- that's a feedbox, you know. He never owns any real estate, never collects any possessions or anything that might suggest that he had any power in this world but truth and love. He wanted us to see that you don't really need more than truth and love to make a difference.
Some people thought Jesus was a jerk, some people thought he was a religious fanatic, some people thought he was dangerous.
But there were some other people, little people mostly, whose lives had been touched be his love, people who suddenly discovered how much they were loved, and how free they were to pass that love on. They began to hope for a new way of living in this world.
Can you imagine what happened to their hope when the people who thought Jesus was dangerous got together with the people who thought he was a religious nut, and then THEY all got together with all those people who think that you save the world by punishing people who act or look different, and all those people took Jesus and nailed him on a cross and left him in the sun to die a slow death? What happened to the hope that had sprung up in the hearts of those people whom Jesus had loved? Did the world really have to go back to running on greed and desperation, poverty and hate? If you try to do some good will you always get stepped on?
But God was saying something when he let Jesus die.
God was saying that real love costs, it can cost being called a jerk because you won't join the other kids in things that hurt other people, it can cost dying like Martin Luther King did to set his people free, it can cost not going to sleep until you settle an argument with your husband or wife. LOVE CAN AND DOES COST. When God's own son died, God was letting us know that.
But God had more to say.
You know the words, "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again." When God raised Jesus from the dead, something else got said. No matter what it may cost at the moment, love wins out, love is worth it. There are endless battles to be fought against the evil in the world and in our lives, but the victory belongs to love, for God is love.
Now what about these saints? What about All Saints Day? Well, we've all sung the song at one time or another, "One was a doctor and one was a queen, and one was a shepherdess on the green," and so on. For two thousand years, right in their own lives, business people, homemakers, children, and even the occasional deacon, priest, and bishop have discovered that their lives, right where they were, provided the opportunity to be like Jesus. They discovered in their lives, sometimes very ordinary lives, the chance to let Christ's love shine through. Sometimes it was very, very tough. Sometimes it wasn't so tough, and we need to remember that, too.
They had funny names, some of them. Linus, Cletus, Anicetus, Theophylact, Nicholas, or Hilary. Some of them we know were physically awkward, some were unattractive, some were rich, some were poor. They had one thing in common, though. The looked deep into their souls and found what was inside them that they could give God for the Church and the world, and they gave it. They worked at it, and found their lives fulfilled.
When we are tired, or discouraged, or about to burn out, the memory of the saints who struggled as we do in the old days and in the new, helps keep us going. It can keep us loving, can keep us praising God. In the eucharist we praise God "with all the company of heaven," knowing that we are connected at this altar to all those who have gone before us.
In preparing for tonight, you have learned or discussed many things, things you need to know and experience to function as an adult member of the church. As Canon Lewellis would say, it's "good stuff." But for every baptized person, the point of all the good stuff is to ask each day, "how can I love people the way Jesus did?" Do that in school, at work, at home, in the voting both, and even in the church, and you'll discover enough challenges to keep life interesting, exciting, tough, painful, and glorious. And you'll discover inside you . . . a Saint.
Of course, that thought may take some getting used to, but I think we can see why it's more useful than a kick in the pants.
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