Lent 1 Notes

The experience of regret is positively awful. We live our lives doing the best we can, yet in certain circumstances and relationships, things don't always turn out well. What could we have done differently, we wonder. The nature of regret is that the time to correct a situation has past. Regrets must be lived with and accepted.

Hospice workers offer an interesting window into the nature of regret. Those that work with the dying hear from the dying about matters of great substance. Those close to the dying hear about regret and the regrets are remarkably similar.

1-I wish I lived true to myself and my dreams, rather than the life others expected of me.

2-I wish I had balanced work better with my relationships.

3-I wish I had been more courageous and shared my feelings with others.

4-I wish I had stayed in touch with friends.

5-I wish I had let myself be happier.
(smartequalssexy.wordpress.com. By T Kelly)

These five themes speak to the essence of personhood and authentic humanity. We are created as individuals, we are made for relationships, and those relationships are to be environments of honesty and safety. Finally, our sense of fulfillment hinges on our willingness and courageousness to embrace all the above.

We are often, however, tempted to be and do less. We accept the overlay of others to the detriment of our dreams and passions. We often allow the definition of success prescribed by others to sway us from what we believe is right and dare I say, faithful.

We are tempted to throw ourselves into being productive and successful, while our friends and intimates don't get enough of us. Too often we don't reveal enough of our innermost selves to those for whom we have the deepest of affection. Too often we let people we care about slip in and out of our lives from lack of attention or some perceived slight. Sins of omission and commission.

In all of it, we are tempted to be less than we are.

This first Sunday of Lent focuses us on Jesus and his temptation. The Gospel of Mark merely enters the temptation by title. Matthew and Luke give us the detail we remember, it may be that the detail was so well known in the telling, Mark doesn't feel the need to rehearse it. We know the temptation of Jesus was the offering of a full belly, the manifestation of divine power in vain and wealth and power.

Jesus answers all the temptations quoting the book of Deuteronomy. Jesus invokes the Torah, the very core of the Jewish identity to rebuff the temptations. Jesus goes to the heart of the tradition that illustrates the dynamic relationship between God and Israel. Identity, passion, honesty and fulfillment are found at that core.

The temptation for Jesus is to be less than he is.

That is the temptation we face as well.

The good news is that in Christ we find the way away from the path of living for self alone. In Jesus, we find another way, a way toward fullness and abundance, rather than less. The good news is that God gives us grace and messengers that minister to us, that we might grasp more with no regrets.

Lent 1

Click on Lent 1 title to go to video.

Some Sermon Notes

Pentecost 22-Nov. 13, 2011. The Rev'd Christopher L. Epperson

One of the most culturally pervasive phobias is taphophobia, the fear of being buried alive. It has been the subject of ancient lore and modern fiction and movies. The Victorians were so afraid of being buried alive, they created all sorts devices to address the fear. One was a casket with a bell on the outside, connected to a line running inside, so the bell could be rung. Embalming was marketed as a means of insuring that an individual was really dead. Even the stethoscope was marketed as a means of telling the living from the dead. Granted, the implications of being buried alive are grizzly, there is simply something wrong with putting something, or someone, in the wrong place.

We bury the dead. We bury objects to hide them. We bury things to dispose of them.

The servant that hides his capital, given him to invest via his boss, makes that curious choice to bury what he has been entrusted to grow. That servant robbed the capital of its potential. That servant chose to hide. If increase is life, that servant chose death through burial.

Presumably, all the servants knew the boss. They knew that he expected good return on investment. They knew that he was ambitious and hungry for produce, even where he did not cultivate. By working through these servants and leaving them for a long period of time, the boss invited them to emulate him in some respect. The boss entrusted the servants to work on his behalf, function with his vision in mind and accomplish what he would, were he present.

Two knew, understood and responded, and one knew, yet did not.

Now, these parables of Jesus can only be pushed so far. They are in no way intended to be entire, self-contained systematic theologies. The parables usually have a somewhat narrow, nuanced focus.

Jesus tells this parable to his disciples to prepare them for the days ahead, when following will be arduous and frightening. How are they to function faithfully as they await the coming kingdom of God?
What does faithfulness look like as they manage Jesus' capital investment?

It is about embodying the abundant, ambitious, all-consuming ministry of Jesus that knows no bounds or limits. Matthew's Gospel characterizes Jesus ministry as the formation of a community, The Church. The Church is the school for the sinner, the house of reconciliation and vessel containing the food and drink of new life. That Church goes out into the four corners of the world making disciples, baptizing, obeying Jesus' commandments, and knowing him to be present even to the end of the age.

Listening, healing, tending, caring, feeding, loving-one another and the world.Anything less is is hiding what we have been given. Anything less is death. Anything less is disposing of our opportunity to respond to God in the abundant, ambitious, risky way God has called and assembled us. Anything less is being buried alive.