Trinity Episcopal Church |
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Trinity Episcopal Church |
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Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-13
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
The Collect of the Day
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. (John 12:20-33)
Change: Resist it or Embrace it?
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector
How many Charismatics does it take to change a light bulb?
Five. One to change the bulb and four to bind the spirit of darkness in the room.
How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb?
None. God has predestined when the lights will be on.
How many TV evangelists does it take to change a light bulb?
One. But for the message of light to continue, send in your donation today.
How many Catholics does it take to change a light bulb?
None. They like candles better.
How many Southern Baptists does it take to change a light bulb?
About 16,000,000. However, they are badly divided over whether changing the bulb is a fundamental need or not.
How many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb?
Four. One to change the bulb. One to bless the elements. One to pour the sherry. And one to offer a toast to the old light bulb.
How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb?
CHANGE!?!? CHANGE!?!? My great grandmother gave that light bulb to this church!
Okay, before you start emailing me telling me this old joke is in poor taste, let me assure you that it is not meat to insult anyone, and in fact was emailed to me by a friend who is a Presbyterian Minister. He told me that, “We Presbyterians are still waiting to hear what our answer should be from the committee our elders appointed to decide this issue.”
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors …” (Jer 31:31-33). These words from the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Israel must have seemed blatantly ridiculous. “God made this covenant with our ancestors! It is a covenant, Jeremiah, so what do you mean that it’s going to change!” Change?! Change?! !
Imagine that your doctor called you up on the phone and said, “Well, Bill, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that you’ll die in a month. But the good news if you change your lifestyle, right now and for the rest of your life, you’ll live a long and happy life.” Would you do it? It sounds like a no-brainer. But in fact the odds are about nine to one that you won’t make the change.
Of course we would all say we’ll make the changes needed, and in fact many of us would begin making those changes right away. But it wouldn’t be long before our enthusiasm wore off and we slid back into our old habits. I smoked for a number of years. And I always said that I would stop smoking the minute my child was born. And when she was born I said, the time had come. But in reality, she was at least nine years old before I quit. People who have had bypass surgery are told to change their lifestyle, quit smoking, and to change their diets. But multiple studies have shown that in just two years after the surgery, 90 percent of patients have not significantly altered their behavior. Change is just too tough.
A few years ago I read a book called, “It’s (Mostly) His Fault” a book about how most problems in relationships are caused by the man. Each chapter recommends specific changes that men can make in their behavior to slowly become more relational. The author of the book, psychologist Robert Alter, knows that change is not easy. He warns his male readers that this “will involve changing ourselves. To get men to change ourselves – even to think that we need to change ourselves – is the very definition of heavy lifting … It involves some time. There’s a lot of stuff to unlearn and a lot of stuff to learn, some bad habits to break … and it takes some time to get through all of that.”[1]
Changing behavior is a huge item in business. Corporations spend millions of dollars each year on consultants to bring in new practices and promote change, but these changes are often short-lived or rejected out of hand. And in the church can be very difficult; like changing a light bulb that was given to the church by a founding family many generations ago, or putting in pew cushions to accommodate people with back and leg problems such as we have done here.
John Kotter, a professor at the Harvard Business School says the key to change is the right half of the brain. The left-brain, right-brain theory suggests that the two different sides of the brain control two different “modes” of thinking, and that each of us prefers one mode over the other. The left brain is the logical half. It thinks sequentially, rationally, analytically, and is objective. The right brain is more random, intuitive, holistic, subjective, and does much of the synthetic thinking.
The school environment tends to favor left-brain modes of thinking, while downplaying the right-brain ones. Left-brain scholastic subjects focus on logical thinking, analysis, and accuracy. Right-brained subjects, on the other hand, focus on aesthetics, feeling, and creativity.
Kotter, the Harvard business professor, suggests that true success in changing behavior results from speaking to people’s feelings. Dean Ornish, a physician involved in preventative medicine, takes this a step further. He helps patients tap into their emotions in order to use “joy” to motivate change rather than “fear.” He believes that positive reasons for living are better motivators than fear. For example, hearing “Changing behavior will allow you to have more time to be with your grandson” is more likely to produce a lasting change in behavior than hearing “If you don’t change your behavior, you will die soon, and you will die horribly.” Alter, the author of the relationship book I read, would agree. He would say that making these changes will produce a joyful relationship and give the man the woman of his dreams.
God’s frozen chosen – which is to say you and me – don’t like change. We resist it, or at least fight against it. I suspect that is because when change comes along it violates the system our left brains are accustomed to, and we feel a loss of control. That is unsettling. But, if we can engage the right side of our brains – which is another way of saying engaging our hearts – then unsettling change is not something to fear, but rather is an opportunity to grow in a deeper relationship with God and with each other.
Over the next several weeks and months, things around Trinity will – to some of you – feel unsettled. It is my understanding that the Bishop will appoint a priest-in-charge, and any time a new person comes on board, change will happen; it is inevitable. Just as the dynamic of our family changes when a new child is born or adopted, or when there is a divorce, so also will change come to Trinity Parish.
The question is how to view and respond to the inevitability of change. The left brained response would be to experience infrastructural, pastoral, administrative, or dynamical changes as things that threaten the way thing were, or as they are “supposed to be.” But the story of the Hebrews shows us the problem with that kind of approach. Over and over again, the Hebrew people under Moses were delivered from one kind of problem or another, but each time they grumbled and complained. Either the solution found to a problem was not what was expected, or Moses was not giving enough attention to some other matter.
God, through the prophet Jeremiah recognized that providing another covenant – another set of rules to live by – would have great appeal our left-brained way of thinking. But living abundant and successful lives in harmony with God requires more than regulations, or the preservation of the status quo. What is needed is a total transformation of heart. And that means engaging the right side of the brain so that we can exercise our relational senses of creativity and compassion.
In the person of Jesus, we have an example of how to do this. Jesus called people to engage God through relationship rather than adherence to religious ritual. Jesus painted a picture of a future – the kingdom of God – that was filled with joy for those who could be transformed in this way. Change, for Jesus was more than an inevitability. For Jesus change transformed death into life, just as a kernel of wheat is transformed into a breathing, living plant that will by virtue of its relationship with the sun, the soil and the rain, produce much fruit in due season.
Jesus calls to us to move from left brain thinking to right brain feeling, from our heads to our hearts, from cognition to communication, from religion to relationship, from fear to opportunity. Everything Jesus taught, preached, and did was about relationship – an enduring, meaningful relationship; one that is internal rather than external; that is lasting rather than passing
Jesus teaches us something else about change, and that is to resist the temptation to fall back into what is comfortable and familiar. Just as Jesus challenged those left-brained Pharisees to move beyond rigid adherence to the law so that they could fulfill the commandments to love God and neighbor, he challenges us to fully engage with him and with each other to become a relational and loving servant Body of Christ.
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The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
Psalm 51:1-13 Miserere mei, Deus
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; *
in your great compassion blot out my offenses.
2 Wash me through and through from my wickedness *
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, *
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you only have I sinned *
and done what is evil in your sight.
5 And so you are justified when you speak *
and upright in your judgment.
6 Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth, *
a sinner from my mother's womb.
8 Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; *
wash me, and I shall be clean indeed.
9 Make me hear of joy and gladness, *
that the body you have broken may rejoice.
10 Hide your face from my sins *
and blot out all my iniquities.
11 Create in me a clean heart, O God, *
and renew a right spirit within me.
12 Cast me not away from your presence *
and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
[1] Robert Mark Alter. It’s (Mostly) His Fault. New York, NY: Time Warner Books, 2006. p. 10..
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Copyright © 2009, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
17 March 2009
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