Mid Summer Sermon

Sermon Preached at Trinity by the Sea

Pentecost IV, July 7, 2019

The Rev. J. James Derkits

A poem by the Sufi Poet Hafiz

If God invited you to a party and said, 

“Everyone in the ballroom tonight will be my special Guest.” 

How would you then treat them

When you arrived?

Indeed, indeed!

And Hafiz knows

There is no one in this world

Who is not upon [God's] jeweled Dance Floor. 

(from The Gift, Hafiz, ed. Daniel Ladinsky, Penguin Books, 1999)

I return to that poem from time to time and try to remember I’m living on God’s jeweled dancefloor, and to wonder if I’m listening deeply to the Spirit's music…

I don’t know how much time you spend thinking about the purpose of the church--I hope it's no surprise that I spend a lot. 

Summer seems to be a good time for that; one of my friends calls Summer the least religious time of the year, by which he means, quite spiritually, God’s abundance is on parade, the rhythms of the earth point to God’s presence. The religious practices which get us through the less abundant times don't seem as essential. Summer is a time of abundant blessings: my nephew caught fish and fed us sushi last night. I watched my son swim with his swim team in the morning, then catch waves in the evening. I sat out last night playing guitar and grilling chicken. And this morning, at this Eucharistic Meal, my heart is full of gratitude. It seems to come easier for many of us in the summer time. 

In that activity, at least at the pool and beach, I sometimes wonder about how the people around me fill their souls in those colder months; the more religious months for me, what about them? Are they tending their souls? Do they have a way to connect with God when “the sun is not shining.”  How do they practice listening to the Spirit's music and do they know God has invited them to this lovely party? 

Trinity by the Sea has a fairly ecumenical and even sometimes interfaith nature--that has to do with where we are, here in Port Aransas, we are not in a city where there are so many churches that it’s like trying to decide what ice cream to eat at Baskin Robins. We are a welcoming church, and Trinity has helped me become even more welcoming and inclusive. We have people who show up regardless of their religious background and find they are welcome to pray with us. I think we do a good job of recognizing everyone has been invited to God’s dance floor; That reality is part of what helped the vestry at our last meeting to prayerfully decide to approve offering marriage to everyone here, to include those couples who are gay or lesbian. Part of our identity as a church is to be welcoming and inclusive; and we seek, with St. Paul, to focus on the new creation God is creating through the church. 

Not all corners of the church are like that; I am, and we are faced with that reality and that challenge when we encounter people out in the world. And seek to share good news with them. The loving Gospel of Chrsit is not always what church people have carried into the world.

The Church (and I’m speaking generally here…) the church in the western world of our recent history has perhaps had too much summer--in the days when it could be assumed that everyone attended some church, then the importance became “which church” and we looked inward, splitting hairs about what this church believes verses another one. People of world woke up, discovered it wasn’t just summer in the church but everywhere. Seeing how churches were more interested in proving they had it right (they were the best flavor) instead of being loving communities where all were invited to connect with God, many people gave up, and perhaps threw the baby out with  the bathwater...but the bathwater did get dirty. This isn’t a new thing that just happened in our own recent history; it’s what tends to happen when we get more focused on the institution that is there to teach about God, and forget to see it as a tool to help us connect to God--it happens throughout history-- it’s what Jesus was facing as well, and what St. Paul was seeking to guard against in the early church. If Jesus was judgemental, he was judgemental of the rigid religious institutions and religious leaders of his time (and he warns us against becoming to rigid as well.) On the other hand, Jesus was very welcoming and healing when it came to those poor, powerless and those lost sheep who had gone astray. 

In our recent history, many people have felt left behind by the church; it was experienced by many as being judgemental, exclusive; it was perceived as a place where hypocrites patted each other on the back and said, “aren’t we grand for being part of this church that has everything right.” 

As a young priest, I enjoyed wearing my collar in interesting places around Houston, I was trying to say, “there’s still a church, and one of it's priests is right here where you are!"

One day, I walked into one of my favorite coffee shops wearing my collar, and a woman passed me leaving quickly. When I got inside, Ben, the owner said, "James, that woman saw you coming and said, 'Oh, s#!t a priest!' and ran out." What sad experience in her history taught her to fear (and flee) the presence of clergy?   

I have heard many times at these doors, people grumbling as they enter, “is the church going to fall down if I step foot inside?” or get struck by lightening...etc. They’ve received a message either explicitly or more likely implicitly: you are not welcome in the church like you are; you need to be like we expect you to be. And what I keep saying to people, out there and in here, is, come be yourself! We are here to learn together and we need your voice, and we want you as a traveling companion. The old perception is out there, and we have work to do.

That’s past us, as St. Paul urges us, A new creation is everything! Let us seek to always be a new creation, not be bound by the way church thought it had to be church at any other time in history. This is our time to be church as God calls us to be church.

What is the purpose of the church? It’s to participate in Christ’s work of making a new creation! Not to be ashamed of who we are, but to place ourselves before God and say, “here I am, as you have made me, help me become who you made me to become.” 

The purpose of the church (according to The Book of Common Prayer) is to reconcile all people to God and one another. That’s the way we understand the new creation. One that is marked by reconciliation; people are healed. The new creation we are aiming for is one in which the world is reconnected with God and one another. One in which we are not lashing out at one another, seeking to force our view and voice upon each other, but listening deeply to God’s voice, and listening to the needs of others. 

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. This “least religious” season of the year, I hope we can be reflective and get in touch with who we are as a church. I believe we are an instrument of God--a way for people to know that God loves us all, that God is very much alive and present, and that the mystery of God might be known more deeply in community. Sharing this good news, by the way, isn’t about getting people to sit in our pews. It is about welcoming people who are seeking, yes, but this good news is for people wherever they are...so we are sent out to share it like those 70 Jesus sent out. Some will not receive it, and that’s ok, shake off the dust and walk on. We are sent out into the harvest; made laborers at this Holy Table, to be sent out to carry the kingdom of God in our hearts ,and to participate in revealing the new creation. To help people see that all the dancers on this jeweled dancefloor are God’s Special Guests, and the music is playing!