26 PENTECOST, PROPER 27

SERMON PREACHED AT CHRIST CHURCH, NORWAY, MAINE

THE REV. ANNE G. STANLEY

9 NOVEMBER 2008

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Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25; Psalm 78:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 4;13-18; Mt. 25:1-13

We’re entering the season at the end of the church year when the Sunday readings and hymns call our attention to the matter of time. Every year it’s the same. God and time. These readings, each in their own ways, talk to us about moments in time, turning points, our journeys with God, our preparing for God’s coming, our waiting for Jesus.

In today’s first reading, the prophet Joshua, the 6^th book of the Bible, we hear of the people of Israel, living anew after their Exile. This was a turning point in their lives, a new time, a moment for them to go home, to meet God, to connect with God anew and with each other. Hope for their future.

In Matthew’s gospel, in the story of the prepared and unprepared bridesmaids, we hear about waiting for the bridegroom, Jesus’ warning about NOT being prepared, not keeping alert to the time of his coming.

But there’s a funny thing about this waiting business, about time. God’s time. We think of time as linear: yesterday, today, tomorrow. A straight line.

Today’s readings are signs that God’s time is not linear at all, but perhaps moving forward more as a spiral than as a straight line. With the past and resent and future circling around, joined, moving in and out, not separated by a rigid line. Jesus came, Jesus comes, Jesus will come again.

We get the idea today that God was around before the Israelites were cast into exile, that they had an opportunity right then, said Joshua, to enter anew into a covenant with God, who had ALREADY been part of their history, and with one another and to move ahead into the future.

Jesus says that God is available, always ready, as long as the people are available as well. If we shut ourselves off, God does not know us, he says. But God will surprise us, even so; we simply have to stay awake to receive him when it happens.

And Paul encourages us with words of hope: “…we will be with the Lord forever…”

In this spiral-shaped time that is God’s, our past is connected to our present and to the future. And God has been part of it all from the beginning. The ancient Israelites chose to reconnect with the God who had not abandoned them after all; it was they who had veered off course to follow other gods.

We who are Christians, and talk of God in terms of Jesus, we know that Jesus-God not only has come, but that he is here already and that he will come again. Over and over again until the day of his final coming.  Revealed in the sacraments, in the word of scripture, in the gathered community, in human love, in the work we do in the world.

 “The kingdom of God has come near!  Not in full, but nearby and growing.

We move along on our spiral of existence, and every now and then, God penetrates our current moment in time. Sometimes we are so busy and cluttered in our lives that we don’t notice. But if we are open and awake and aware and prepared, we will notice what has happened. Sometimes we notice and grab hold and make something of it; at other times we notice but choose to ignore it and we let the precious moment slip out of our grasp. Or rather, we let ourselves slip out of God’s grasp. And an opportunity is missed.

The kingdom of God can be compared to the opportunity presented to us this past week, the opportunity given to us, no matter how we may have voted in this election, the election to the presidency of a person of color, the opportunity to rise above the curse of racism and move forward as a global community, or at least as a united country. The desire of God that all may be one can never be totally fulfilled in our time; but if we open ourselves for the reach of God to us and help God’s desire to take hold, then the kingdom which is already here in part can continue to grow and flourish. Pray God that we are paying attention to what has happened, that we do not miss this opportunity, and that we do not let ourselves slip back and out of the grasp of God.

Today we will continue to listen, at the Peace, to another faith story. Yet another story of one person’s journey, as she spirals through her life, and the breaking through from time to time, perhaps, of our ever-present God into her awareness.   

We all spiral through our lives. Jesus is calling us to maintain an attitude of alertness to his constant presence in our past, with us now and with us forever.  Our past, our present and our future. How do we respond to that eternal grasp of God? One tangible way, of course, is by digging into our pockets for a pen, filling out a pledge card with our offering for the next year and placing it into the collection plate or mailing it to the church to be blessed on the remaining Sundays in November. Your own way of making sure that the work of your parish church can continue strong, that we as a community of disciples can continue to be Jesus’ feet and hands and voices in the world. 

            O God, bless our ears and hearts and eyes, that we may

            always be alert to your abiding presence and respond to

            you with praise and thanks in the work of your kingdom.

            AMEN.