TRINITY 9 Sermon by Revd Canon Karen Schmidt (StJB)
One of the more delicate tasks of parish ministry is to approach members of the congregation to ask whether they would agree to having their feet washed during the Maundy Thursday Eucharist. That really applies in those churches where 12 people are chosen to represent the 12 disciples at the Last Supper. In my parishes everyone was invited to have their feet washed. But for many, exposing their feet was a challenge too far and so I washed their hands instead if that made attending that special Eucharist easier.
So what is it about our feet which makes us feel awkward or embarrassed?Perhaps now that I’ve mentioned the word we’re thinking about the various ways in which they are far from beautiful.
But beautiful is how St Paul, quoting Isaiah, describes the feet of those who bring the good news of Jesus Christ. St Paul, of course is not referring to our feet’s appearance but rather to the job they are called to do, which is to take us about our work of making God’s presence in our world and in the lives of his people known to all those with whom we share our lives in so many different ways.
That is what we as Christians are called to do – to share the good news of the transforming power of God in our lives. That is often a joyful task but it can also prove challenging and lead to times of feeling defeated and questioning whether what we are trying to do is making any difference at all. We may come across outright hostility but apathy and indifference can also lead us to doubt whether it’s worth carrying on.
And that’s how Isaiah was feeling as we meet him in our reading today. He had worked his socks off for God being faithful to God’s call to work to turn the Israelites away from their idols and back into relationship with God. And now he was in danger of his life because in defeating the prophets of Baal he had upset the king’s wife, Jezebel.
It is therefore not surprising that Isaiah, in his hiding place, was now in a very low mood. And neither is it surprising that in our journey with God we will not always find ourselves in sunny places. Because it’s a journey – yes, with God, but also with our fellow human beings, and life can get messy and sad and perhaps in the current situation between America and North Korea even dangerous. And try as we might to live lives that reflect God’s kingdom values of love and mercy and justice and peace, we seem to make very little, if any impact.
But it’s at those times that we need to step aside from the noise of the world and step into the silence of God’s presence. Because that’s where we find him. There was a noisy storm crashing around Elijah, both literally in the wind and the earthquake and the fire, and there was a storm crashing about Elijah metaphorically as he was being hunted down. And all that noise in our world and in our lives can make God seem very distant, if not absent. But God is never absent. God was in the silence.
And having listened to Elijah, God didn’t engage in a conversation about how tough things had been but rather engaged in some tough love, sending him on his way onto the next stage of his work with God’s assurancethat the dark times would give way to a new dawn.
The disciple Peter also knew that sinking feeling – literally. He had overcome the fear generated by one storm and by what appeared to be a ghost walking towards the boat in which he and his fellow disciples were. Peter had been calmed by the voice of Jesus but in typical Peter fashion he had to go one step further – again literally as he stepped out of the boat and started to walk on the lake with his eye on Jesus.
But then Jesus faded into the background as the human Peter again became very conscious of what was happening all around him and he was dragged down by the waves.
But of course Jesus was there alongside Peter and reached out to him. Just as he does to us if we will but let him. And in the moment that Peter was touched by Jesus the storm ceased.
We are living in stormy times in world politics and also closer to home with great uncertainty about the UK’s future outside the European Union.
And we also have questions closer to home in our own parish as to what the future may look like with a new Vicar. We live with uncertainty but we can trust in the God of Elijah and in the God of Peter and in the God of today because he is the same God who shares life with his people across the generations and with generations to come.
God is always with us. But when we lose sight of him, it’s good to take ourselves back to basics – to turn away from the world’s noise and take ourselves into God’s silence – to be with him, to sit with him, to look at him, to allow God to calm the storm, to give us his perspective and to know God’s encouragement to pick ourselves up and to move forward.
Because there are many who do not know him and are struggling to find their way in a noisy and stormy world being pulled in many different directions.
They need to hear about the God of peace and calm and how can they unless there are those to tell them, and who is there but us?
We are not being called upon to do something we cannot do. Elijah learned that. We might have a certain understanding of the term evangelism. Yes, there’s a place for big rallies or campaigns, but the word comes from the Greek evangelion which simply means “good news”.
And we’re already doing it – spreading that good news of God’s presence with us – by being the sort of people we are, by being involved in so many different ways in our community, by the standards by which we conduct ourselves at work, by the way we care for our families and for others, by having our churches open and welcoming anyone and everyone in - in short by trying our best to follow the example of Jesus.
Sometimes we’ll think that doesn’t amount to much but it’s everything because every time we are in touch with a fellow human being we are having some sort of effect – and people notice.
So let’s be encouraged by Elijah and by Peter that in our moments of doubt we may be renewed by God in us to continue building up his kingdom here and now and draw others into knowing his presence in their lives, his presence of peace and calm.
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