Sermons by Bishop Paul V. Marshall
March 25, 2003
Sermon by Bishop Paul Marshall
Institution of The Rev. Paul Cochran
St. Peter's Church, Hazleton
Feast of the Annunciation
As we turn to our first lesson, we meet the great prophet who never heard of separating religion from life. Isaiah was very much in the face of King Ahaz about his foreign policy. Ahaz had ceased to trust God and was getting into some disastrous political relationships as a consequence. So after Isaiah preaches to him we get tonight's reading, where his lack of faith is going to be ministered to. God says, Ahaz pick a sign, any sign at all, that I am with you, so that you won't be so afraid and foolish. Ahaz goes all pious, as says, "Oh no, I would never presume to ask God to do a sign for little old me."
Isaiah lets Ahaz have it at this point. "OK, you won't ask for a sign - I'll give you one, then. See that girl over there? She is going to have a baby, and since you won't ask for a sign that God is with you, she will name the boy Immanuel - God is with us. And not only that, 'Haz, before that baby does much growing up, the two kings you are so worried about that you're willing to sell out your principles, well, those two kings will be history, and just barely that."
All babies are signs that God is with us, of course, but that saying of Isaiah's found its fullest meaning, its fill-full-ment (so to speak), when to young Mary a baby was announced who would be in every possible way, our experience of God With Us, and the Church has for most of its history gathered on this day to remember this event. Today we recall not just that there are only nine shopping months left until Christmas, but that when we speak of Jesus as Immanuel, God with us, we mean exactly
that.
Annunciation is a day about beginnings, so Christians moved New Year's Day to March 25th, and it stayed there until not all that long ago. It is also the day on which some people believed that Jesus died, that Abraham tried to sacrifice Isaac, not to mention the day on which the earth was created. So it is not a bad day to mark the beginning of a new ministry, not a bad day at all. Those who set out on the Christian enterprise know that in Christ God is with us, no matter where events take us.
The question for us is, are we more like Ahaz or Mary at this moment? Ahaz wasn't expecting much of God, and didn't particularly like Isaiah's bringing so much religion into things that he thought were the realm of common sense and statecraft. People suffered because of his timidity. Mary, on the other hand, is told by a flying trumpet player that the entire course of her life is about to be changed, and she says, "I am the servant of the Lord." And because of her faithful response history was changed, with people benefiting from her decision to this very day.
In a world where nothing is certain, do we side with our faith or with our doubts? Do our daily actions reflect our faith or our fears? Are we more like timid conniver Ahaz or cooperative mother-to-be Mary? If you are anything like me, the answer is not a consistent one. Sometimes, the more upset we are, the less likely we are trust like, talk like, and treat each other like children of God. Usually, when scheming and blaming starts, faith has gone out the window.
The Episcopal Church is different from many churches, even our close cousins the Lutherans, in that priests are in town for some months before we get together for a service like this one. The honeymoon is almost always over by the time we get around to the wedding. (And who says we haven't kept up with the modern world?)
Seriously, I think this is a good thing. By the time we come to this moment the priest no longer believes she or he has stumbled into the fullness of the communion of saints, and the parish no longer believes that it has found the messiah. By the time we reach this service, folks recognize that we are all just people, doing the best we can with the gifts and virtues God has given, and we will either do our best to support each other and work with each other, or we won't. We will do our best to help each other grow or we won't. We recognize that everybody sins, but only the grownups practice forgiveness and truly gentle reproof while recognizing the virtues of those with whom we differ. Anybody can nurse a grudge; only the grownups work for reconciliation - and do so as many times as it takes.
What impresses me and makes me feel very, very good about St. James and St. Peter's is that when the inevitable bumps in the road have come along, almost everybody concerned has been willing to talk, willing to work together, willing to pray for each other. Do you know how rare that is? One of the ways we preach the Gospel is by enacting it. The epistle lesson goes to enormous and somewhat overwhelming length to remind us that it is not uninvolved ritual activity God, but commitment, especially when commitment is inconvenient.
A hundred years ago women not all that infrequently died in childbirth or died shortly thereafter from childbed fever. Two thousand years ago having a baby was even more a life-and-death proposition. Young Mary had been to enough funerals to know what she was getting herself into.
But she also knew that bringing life to the world, and in this case, bringing a savior into the world, was more than worth the risk. The risk became an adventure.
The renewal of Christian faith in Northeast Pennsylvania is not going to happen by some instant miracle. It is going to happen, though. It is going to happen as you and I pray every day for it to happen. The Daughters of the King chapter in your parish can show us the way here. Renewal is going to happen as you and I do the just about the scariest thing that we can do: invite a friend to church.
You do not need me to tell you that we are at war, that men and women from our neighborhoods have their lives on the line; the Lehigh Valley suffered its first death in the war just yesterday. We can be beacons of hope as we pray for all involved, as we express our concerns to those we know whose loved ones are serving, and as we practice the calm and collected style of those who thoroughly believe that God is with us no matter what life brings. For us to be that kind of witness in times of distress, we must, as they say, use the product, actively trusting the Christ who is with us even to the end of the ages.
What priest and people do together is about this very thing. We need to appreciate the fact that our coming together each week is a testimony to faith, no matter how small our numbers. Our celebrating word and sacrament is a testimony to God's presence, no matter how tentative our voices. Ideas come and go about how best to do these things, but the important thing is that we do them, telling ourselves and each other that above, beneath, and in all, we believe and come to believe more deeply, that God is With Us. Will we face our inner Ahaz, and ask whether we really expect God to do anything, and will we allow our inner Mary fully cooperate with God and rejoice to see the results, week by week?
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