Proper 26 Year B
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Hebrews 9:11-14
Mark 12:28-34

November 4, 2024   Abbey Church   Abraham

Faith or works, Love or Action, Mary or Martha. These oppositions are false and harmful. Faith produces Works, Love is Active, Mary starves without Martha. If all we do is send “thoughts and prayers” when we could go further with actions to help solve a problem, that means that we are thinking about ourselves and praying with gratitude that we are ok, rather than caring about the people with the problem.

On the flip side, action without prayer can be dangerous, because it often springs from hasty decisions based solely on our own narrow viewpoint. Loving God, our neighbor, and ourself takes work and wisdom. Faith without works is just as self-centered as works without faith, because dead faith gives us a false security because we feel protected and special, while dead works gives us false security because it addresses symptoms while ignoring causes.

Of course, life is messy. Sometimes, something needs to be done, and there is not a lot of time to pray about it, so we simply do something, hoping it is the right thing to do. Other times, something needs to be done, but we are not in a position to do anything, so we just send “thoughts and prayers”, hoping that at some point we can actually do something. Those are good reactions, because at least we are doing what we can at the time with the best intentions.

Maybe the best way to live with the messy problem of life is to put our faith and work into action all the time – not just when needed in big dramatic situations. We can pray everyday. We can do small good things for people everyday. Doing so makes us people of Faith and Works, Love and Action, Mary and Martha. It prepares us for times when big faith and works is needed and it makes us and the world around us better, even if no big problems ever occur.

Faith and Works are not in opposition, because they both spring from Grace. God gives us the ability to Love and Act, and to put our Faith to Work. Without God’s Grace, we can do neither. Grace is always there – we just need to stop resisting it. It is scary only on the surface. Love God, love our neighbor, love ourself. We have all the tools we need to do that, and even the crudest attempt is a good start. The outcome is up to God. Our job is to just do it. It will seem to us that we fail often, but God’s Grace is big, and it is all we really need. Love God, love our neighbor, love ourself. We all really want that, and every attempt is a success.   AMEN

Acts 8:26-40
I John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8

April 28, 2024   Abbey Church   Abraham

There are many lists of laws and rules in the Old Testament, and they do not always match up exactly. Most of the lists work with the idea that God exists in such a different level of reality that we need to meet certain criteria in order to connect with God and not be obliterated in the process. There are certain things we must do and possess and other things we must not do and possess in order to safely commune with God. Being good to other people is high on most of the lists of things to do. Being free from involvement in things associated with beginning or ending lives is also high on most lists: recently touching a corpse or having sex or menstruating must be avoided in order to safely be in God’s presence. Being healthy is also necessary: having leprosy or missing body parts was an obstacle to communal worship.

So, our first reading this morning is surprising because it is about someone missing some body parts who had been worshiping God and came through the experience safely and positively. His story is a catalyst for all of us to reassess our private lists of rules about who is acceptable to God.

Another good reason to reassess our private holiness checklists is the fact that Jesus shows us that although God does indeed exist on a different plane than we do, God also exists on our level of reality as one of us. So, all those rules about avoiding the messy parts of physical existence don’t carry weight anymore, because Jesus lived and lives all that messiness with us. The part about being good to other people grows in importance, but even that is not necessary. The only criterion we need to meet in order to relate to God is to exist.

Our existence give us the right to commune with God, and also the right to reject God. We can be a branch on the Jesus vine and thrive, or we can go our own way and wither. What we cannot do is decide whether or not others can also be on the Jesus vine, and they cannot decide for us. We simply need to stay on the vine and make room for others.   AMEN

II Samuel 7:1-11
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38

December 24, 2023   Abbey Church   Abraham

Many people think that Advent is too short (especially this year.) Many of those same people consider Advent to be their favorite season – sitting in the dark, waiting for Jesus to show up. Those two actions (“waiting” and “showing up”) describe our relationship with God: God acts and we receive. God does everything – the term for that is “Grace”. Of course, whenever we speak of either God or humans, things get tricky. Yes, God does everything, but in order for us to receive the Grace to the most benefit, we need to do something (even simply waiting is doing something.)

The story of Joseph and Mary being turned away from the inn at Bethlehem is a useful focus for Advent disciplines: making sure that our lives are not so full of ourselves that Jesus has no place to go, and working at recognizing Jesus around us so that we let Him in instead of turning Him away.

So, in a way, at least from our perspective, Grace does sometimes include works. But even our works are a product of Grace: God created this beautiful universe, so we work to stop messing it up; God comes to live with us and in us, so we work to see and serve Him in everyone; Jesus is coming, so we wait in the dark.

Grace plays a big part in the collects for the Sundays in Advent. The first three mention God’s Grace specifically, and the fourth one acknowledges God’s daily presence in our lives and our desire to have a place for Jesus in them.

People have been working on figuring out the relationship between Grace and Works for a long time, and the arguments have not tended to result in good things. So, instead of trying to figure it out in this sermon, we should stick to what we know: Advent is too short. Jesus is already here, no matter what we do.   AMEN