Homily for Proper 9 B: July 8, 2012

My brothers and sisters, over the millennia some have rejected God’s messengers and messages; let us embrace them! 

In our first lesson today, Ezekiel is commissioned by God as a Prophet to “the people of Israel, to a nation”...  He will speak to them of their disrespect for God - regardless of whether they hear the message or not; and they probably won’t. 

Our second lesson is Paul’s famous irony: “whenever I am week, I am strong.”  We all have heard many sermons about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” and taken comfort in knowing that God is truly with us in our sufferings and weaknesses.  But, there is more to the story that we usually pass by.  The Corinthians have apparently claimed superiority to him in the visions and revelations that they have been having.  Paul responds by telling of his mystical experience and that of someone else he knows.  The Corinthians are not special in their vision just in their lack of humility. 

In the Gospel lesson we just heard Jesus is rejected by the people he grew up around.  Is this not the “carpenter’s son?”  Is he not "the son of Mary, brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?  Are not his sisters here?”  No “local boy makes good” homecoming for Jesus.  Rather he is rejected for the spiritual gifts he tries to give them. 

We have all experienced some kind of rejection in our lives: turned down for a date, for a job, dropped by friends because of our views or values.  I remember grade school friends, or so I thought, disowning me because I was proscribed glasses for reading. 

The prophets of old, Paul and Jesus himself, were rejected by many of the people because God’s message challenged their biases or since of personal aggrandizement. 

These days, our established ways of doing things as a church are being challenged also.  The simple fact is that the ways we have used for the last 50 years are not effective any more.  The Episcopal Church is shrinking and we cannot be good stewards of God’s Kingdom without asking why and responding to the challenge. 

In the life experience of most of us, people generally wanted two things from Church: 1, to know about God and what God expected; 2, belonging to a warm and supportive community.  Today we are at the high end of a trend that goes back more than 50 years and created the shift we are experiencing now.  Today people still want that warm and supportive community and we have been continuing that part of our St. Stephen’s tradition.  What has changed is that people are not so interested in knowing about God but experiencing God.  That is learning to recognize God’s presence and activity in their lives and how to deepen that relationship.  In other words, Christian Spirituality.  We have been making moves in this direction and The Episcopal Church has heard a similar call at General Convention.  We could reject the message coming from insightful members of our church – God’s spokes persons today – or we can move forward as did Jesus’ first disciples. 

Please join me in praying for St. Stephen’s and the General Convention; asking God to guide us into the future God has in store for us.