St. George's Episcopal Church |
 |
Genesis 21:8-21
Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39
The Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74th General Convention of the ECUSA
"A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:24-39)
Life is in the Paradox
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector
Revised 17 June 2005
| This sermon begins with the playing of "Summertime" by George and Ira Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, performed by Miles Davis, Ernie Royal, Bernie Glow, Louis Mucci, Johnny Coles, Dick Hinson, Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, Joe Bennett, Willie Ruff, Julius Watkins, Gunther Schuller, Bill Barber, Jerome Richardson, Romwo Penque, Julian Addeley, Danny Bank, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb and Gil Evans. The Esssential Miles Davis. Columbia. |
I like jazz. In fact I might just love jazz. What I like best about jazz is that it is an event. Musicians come together, each with their own instruments and talent, and sit together and coexist in a "peaceful, creative tension. With a measure of respect and compassion" – love for each other and for the music – it can make for an incredible listening experience.[1]
In a recent issue of the Journal Homiletics I ran across the story of a performance by the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, one of the truly exalted rulers of the jazz universe.[2] Marsalis once said that "a piece of improvisational music demonstrates a conflict being worked out because the players all have different things to say and do. They each play their solos, riffing and bouncing off one another until the whole matter is beautifully resolved."[3]
Improv is cool. It's soulful. It's intense. It an act of spontaneous composition and performance, and it lies at the very heart of great jazz. Some of the best jazz in the country can be heard in places like San Francisco, St. Louis, New Orleans, and of course New York City. One of the most famous jazz clubs is the Village Vanguard, a subterranean
"Wynton Marsalis was there that night, and he was part of a small combo offering up a series of bebop classics. The set started off in an unremarkable way, but then Marsalis stepped to the microphone to play "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You" as a solo.
"This as a melancholy song, full of murmurs and sighs, and Marsalis played it with deep feeling and expression. At the climax of the song, he played the final phrase in such a way that the trumpet seemed to give actual voice to the heartfelt words "I don't stand ... a ghost … of ... a ... chance ..." The audience sat in awe, listening in silence. And then it happened.
"It the middle of the sacred silence, at the song's most dramatic point, someone's cell phone erupted in a chirping, sing-song electronic melody. In an instant, the spell was broken. People in the audience giggled nervously, turned to their drinks and resumed their table conversations.
"Marsalis paused for a beat, and stood motionless. His eyebrows arched. The embarrassed cell-phone owner fled the scene, and the conversation in the club grew louder. Marsalis could have stepped down quit. But he didn't move. Instead, he put his lips to his trumpet and replayed the stupid cell-phone melody note for note. Then he played it again, and began improvising variations on the tune. The audience stopped chatting and started listening. He changed keys once or twice and then seamlessly eased back into a ballad tempo, and in just a few minutes, when he finished his improv, he was exactly where he had left off: "I don't stand … a ghost … of … a … chance … with … you …" The ovation, reports David Hajdu, was tremendous."[2]
There it was: the conflict of sound of a tinny cell phone with jazz so pure it holds the souls of a room full of people in its embrace. But there was Marsalis, who took the conflict and turned it into cooperation. And very unlikely cooperation it was. "Wynton Marsalis transformed a rude interruption into a moment of glory. He didn't allow an unexpected shock to stun him or stop him or silence him, but instead he twisted this setback into a comeback."[2]
In the Gospel reading from today, Jesus teaches that things in life are often both conflicted and cooperative at the same time. He tells us to not fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. He warns us that engaging with him might topple family structures, and turn family members against one another.
Jesus seems to constantly teach paradox: Love your enemies. Pray for your enemies. And in today's gospel he poses the spiritual paradox: "those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
But paradoxes are not Jesus' alone. In our reading today from Genesis, we heard the next chapter in the Abraham and Sarah saga, where Sarah heard the ring of a cell phone in her world of comfortable jazz. Isaac, her only son by Abraham, the beloved one she had conceived well after "it had ceased for her to be after the manner of women," was the love of her life. He was the one promised to her by angelic visitors just the year before. The tinny cell phone was Ishmael, Isaac's older half-brother fathered by Abraham and borne by Hagar, Sarah's slave girl. And Sarah wanted that boy made gone away. And so Abraham rose early in the morning, took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, and sent her and her child Ishmael away.
Conflict? Yes. The paradox? God needed both children: Ishmael and Isaac. From both of these boys, God will create great nations. God will hear them both, and God will save them both. From Isaac rose the nations of
There's a message in this for all of us, especially as it reminds us that God does the same thing for us every day. God is the Master of Divine Improv. God seems to work more in the interruptions than in other ways. God also encourages us to think outside of the ordinary; to make something of the unexpected.
As you heard last week, there are many plans for
Will
Does this mean that we have it all figured out? Hardly. We have ideas and plans that will very much depend on the willingness of all of us to take whatever instruments we play and jam together to make new melodies and harmonies.
This is an exciting time. It is a time when we will go forward not having every detailed worked out, but confident that we can and will improvise solutions. To be sure, we can anticipate a cell phone or two going off unexpectedly just when we think we've got it right. But, I know we can always count on God's blessing of our work as we listen and adapt, and improvise a new tune.
Truth is, God works through Jesus Christ and through us to improvise all things. God often turns adversity into triumph; agony into empathy; setbacks into comebacks. God doesn't promise us a beautiful little tune, a nice, uninspiring little life with no variations, and no tensions to resolve. What God does promise is to be with each of us through the changes we are bound to face. And through Jesus, God is at work in every one of us.
Now let's go make some music!
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The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac." The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring." So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child." And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him." Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the
1 Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God; 3 be gracious to me, O Lord,
for to you do I cry all day long.
4 Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
6 Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;
listen to my cry of supplication.
7 In the day of my trouble I call on you,
for you will answer me.
8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
nor are there any works like yours.
9 All the nations you have made shall come
and bow down before you, O Lord,
and shall glorify your name.
10 For you are great and do wondrous things;
you alone are God.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me;
give your strength to your servant;
save the child of your serving girl.
17 Show me a sign of your favor,
so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame,
because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.
Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
"A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.