August 25, 2024 - The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
My friends, I speak to you today in the name of one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated.
Good morning, Epiphany. As I have mentioned many times in our church communications over the last few weeks, tomorrow is the first day of school here in South Haven... it is a day of mixed emotions for parents and kids alike: excitement for new friends and new classes, sadness at the end of summer break... and for many parents at least, it’s a mixed bag of mourning that your children are growing up while also kind of celebrating that someone else will be taking care of them during at least part of the day.
For those who might not know, before I went to seminary and entered discernment for the priesthood, I was a stay-at-home dad for many years. (A wise person in this room suggested this last week that I needed to share more personal stories in my sermons this fall, so I hope you’ll oblige me this morning.) Our family lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, for nine full years before moving here, as many of you already know, and Abbey taught elementary school while I juggled working a handful of different part-time jobs and taking care of our daughters. One job I especially enjoyed keeping in balance with walks to playgrounds and picnics in the city and hours of puzzles and Sesame Street in our tiny apartment was the role of sportswriter... I had no formal training in it, just a few really good English teachers in high school. But I had always loved watching sports, so I applied to manage a sports-writing site covering a team in the English Premier League – that’s soccer – for a mostly American audience.
I got the job (I’m not sure there was much competition) and while listening to minor league English soccer games on bootleg internet radio feeds early in the morning because of the time difference, I also made some money and kept the girls alive, clean, and well-fed. That small job led to others in the sports industry, like covering local soccer in the Carolinas as well as NFL football and NBA basketball in Charlotte for the local newspaper... but all of that, basically, is to say that sports have been a big part of my life, from watching baseball and hockey with my dad in St. Louis as a kid, up until today... I was up late last night watching Major League Soccer games after finishing my sermon.
I’m going to circle back around to my own “sports journey” in a few minutes, because last winter, this area of the country had its own special moment in the world of sports. I can preach this sermon today because I know Michigan State alums Marty and Marla Zwolan are out of town, but apologies in advance to all the other Spartans among us... when we were interviewing here last December, the Michigan Wolverines college football team had just won the Big Ten and was about to play Alabama in the Rose Bowl. As you might have heard, Michigan would win that game and then they would win the National Championship just a few days after we accepted the call to come serve here at Epiphany. (That felt like a weird sort of God-ordained confirmation of our decision, at least for me. Ha.) The team was led on the field by JJ McCarthy and Blake Corum, among others, but it was more famously led on the sidelines by Coach Jim Harbaugh. Now, I’ve never really loved Coach Harbaugh... I didn’t trust him at first, coming from the NFL, I didn’t love his insistence on always wearing khakis... but I will admit that he grew on me over the years.
In part, his positivity was what won me over. This last season in particular, Coach Harbaugh’s family slogan earned national attention, one that he applied to the team and just kept on repeating throughout their undefeated season. The way he tells the story, the Harbaugh family didn’t have much money when he was young, and they didn’t own their own car. On days they were carless, Jim and John’s father Jack would walk with the boys to school, dribbling basketballs to keep them in shape and ready for their future careers in sports. As they would dribble, their dad would yell out, “Who’s got it better than us??” And the boys would yell, “Nooo-body!” Harbaugh says that slogan kept him positive, grateful, no matter what they were dealing with or going through. ... “Who’s got it better than us??” “Nobody!” ... I don’t hate it.
I’m hopeful that by this, my tenth Sunday at the pulpit here at Epiphany, you know that I will always bring the sermon back to the lectionary and the good news we find in scripture. My first stop for us this morning is in 1 Kings and Psalms, two passages that are clearly connected. Solomon, now king of Israel, has brought the ark of the covenant, the big holy relic box thing which holds the Ten Commandments, which symbolizes the very presence of God to the Israelites... he has brought it to the temple he has built for God in Jerusalem. It’s a big moment for the people of Israel, the dedication of this long-awaited temple, so we find here Solomon praising God, spreading out his hands to heaven, and praying, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath.” There is no one like this God. And in 1 Kings, the people of Israel can now be with this God... celebrating, praising, trusting... their hearts and souls are singing out for joy in God’s presence.
The Psalmist writes in Psalm 84 about what it’s like to be in this temple: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, my soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord”... “Happy are they who live in your house... those whose strength is in you,” ... and my favorite verse from this Psalm, verse 10: “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.” Those who experienced the presence of God at Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem that day must have been thinking, “Who’s got it better than us?” or maybe, “Why would anyone go anywhere else?”
That theme is then echoed in our fourth consecutive week of gospel readings from John
where Jesus talks about himself as the bread of life. Next week, we go back to Mark, so this is the end of the bread section in the lectionary, but it’s clear from John’s account that the very idea of bread and wine being flesh and blood, of Jesus telling the people to eat his body... well, it’s not going over very well. John writes that when some of Jesus’s followers hear this teaching, it’s simply too difficult or maybe confusing for them, and they can’t accept it. Jesus doesn’t let up, of course, he doesn’t change direction because of complaints to please the crowds. Instead, he says directly to them: “Does this offend you?”
I think we almost get a taste of a sarcastic Jesus here; I imagine him saying, “You think this is wild, well, just wait until I come back from the dead.” But he reiterates his point: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” I am the real deal. This is it, folks, this is what you are craving, what you are so desperately hungry for, Jesus and the message from God that his life is bringing to the world. For some, it’s too much, and the text says that many of his followers turn back and no longer follow him.
But the twelve, the twelve disciples understood what was happening here, they “understood the assignment,” as the kids say. Their response, when Jesus asks if they want to leave him too? “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” This eternal life written about in John is not only for the world to come, not just everlasting life, but for the world today, a new and meaningful and powerful way of life that would change everything, where the first will be last and the last will be first, where we love our neighbors as ourselves, and where all are welcome, no exceptions. Indeed, like those celebrating God’s presence at Solomon’s temple, the disciples in the first century must have been thinking, “How could, why would anyone go anywhere else?”
This... this is it.
I will admit that as I pursued sports-writing and sports-fandom as a career, I felt it a bit... I don’t know... lacking maybe. There is a great feeling of community that comes with supporting a sports team, as some of you may know... or if you don’t know, just check out your local sports bar or brewery during a big game; they’re often as full as this place is this morning. But there isn’t anything like what we find here in our texts today in the world of sports.... the joy of celebrating a big win, or even a national championship, it’s fleeting... the world is in no significant way changed when a group of teenagers and 20-somethings wins or loses a game on a football field or basketball court. Now, I’ll still watch and play sports, of course, they’re a decent hobby and they can teach important life lessons... and I hope that somehow all of our teams win this season. (Except of course the Chicago Cubs. Sorry Steve.)
But with the church? That’s where I think humankind can actually find this sense of “Who’s got it better than us?” or perhaps more accurately framed for the church, but with the same spirit, “Why would we go anywhere else?” This, friends, this is it. I felt the truth of this deeply this last week. “Why would we go anywhere else?” ran through my mind as I sat around a table in our parish hall at last Monday’s vestry meeting and talked with some of you about how we can best love this community. It ran through my head again around a dinner table and in a living room with parishioners on Tuesday, and again when our family had the opportunity to go out on Chuck Moore’s fishing boat this weekend, enjoying every bit of God’s creation here in South Haven that we possible could before the summer came to an end. “Why would we go anywhere else?” might appropriately run through your minds while you’re enjoying brunch after service here this morning, or maybe on your drive home, if you can see the lake or this beautiful, late summer day with new eyes, as if you’re seeing the created world again for the first time.
As Christians, we are fully aware of and we get to partake in the glory of God in creation, the bread of life in the Eucharist, and the presence of the Holy Spirit forming our daily lives. We believe in Christ’s words of spirit and life and in his abundant love. May we always recognize that we as the church are continuing the story of the Israelites who celebrated God’s presence at the temple and the story of the disciples who refused to leave God’s presence when they found in Jesus... God’s presence is here, with us, today as well. And better is one day in his courts, in God’s presence, than a thousand elsewhere.
Indeed, with the words of eternal, powerful, meaningful life on offer, and with them so visibly on display in the lives of those around us, truly, how could we go anywhere else? Amen.
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