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Christ Church Covington
Easter III
May 3, 2003
“Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the
dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to
be proclaimed to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses
of these things.”
At my seminary, a couple of us guys were chosen from each class to receive
a tiny bit of scholarship money in exchange for leading the singing at the
hundreds of worship services we had during the course of a semester. We
were called Choral Scholars. Because there were so many services, the
Choral Scholars spent a lot of time together, learning, rehearsing, etc.
Well, as one progressed in seminary, one ascended in rank among the choral
scholars, so during my senior year, I was the Senior Choral Scholar, and I
had a leadership role.
During my senior year, something got me going one day. I can’t remember
exactly what happened, but I felt that this one guy wasn’t pulling his
weight, that he wasn’t doing what he needed to be doing. So I let him have
it. I told him in no uncertain terms exactly what I thought of him, that
his performance was sub-par.
Well, the guy was hurt. I’d intended to hurt him, he was hurt, and
everyone knew it, and it was eating me up. It was eating me up especially
because I knew that I was right. I was right about what was going on. Then
one of the other Choral Scholars pulled me aside and said, “Look, I think
this fellow’s down in the chapel. Why don’t you go and seek
reconciliation, especially since we’re about to celebrate the Eucharist.”
That, of course, really burned me up. The nerve! I was right! But I knew
what I had to do. I went to the chapel and found him and apologized. I
told him that I was sorry, that I’d had no right to hurt him, that I’d had
no right to treat him the way that I did, that I was sorry. And he forgave
me.
And our relationship was transformed: no longer were we two people in the
same place at the same time doing the same things. I was able to see him
as a real brother in Christ. I was able to see God working in and through
him. Someone proclaimed repentance and forgiveness of sins to me, and it
changed my life. Reconciliation transforms relationships.
A little more recently, last year on the mission trip to Sewanee (I feel I
should preface this by telling you that organizing kids on these trips is
like herding cats) I’d told the kids they needed to be a in the parking
lot by 9:00 one morning, because we needed to be at the work site and
ready to go soon after that. Now most of the kids were where they needed
to be by 9:00, but being a group of Episcopalians, you know that some of
them sauntered up at 9:10 or 9:15. Of course, the last person to show up
got the brunt of my wrath. Here again, I knew that I was right. I told the
child that nine o’clock means nine o’clock, not nine ten or nine fifteen,
where had she been, she needed to get moving sooner then, all the standard
admonitions for this kind of thing. Well, I guess I forgot that everyone
else was standing around, and what happened was, I made her cry.
Now clearly when you make someone cry, the relationship has been damaged.
I was right. I hadn’t misled this child; there was no way she didn’t know
what time to be there; there was also no way that she didn’t know I was
serious about punctuality. Still, the relationship was damaged, and I knew
what I had to do.
The next morning, I gathered everyone together before we left, and since
I’d embarrassed this girl in front of everyone, I apologized to her in
front of everyone. I can’t begin to describe the difference between a day
begun with scolding and a day begun with repentance and forgiveness. The
whole tone of the day was changed, the whole group felt the difference,
and what a difference it was. Reconciliation not only transforms the
relationship between the parties involved, reconciliation transforms the
whole community. When folks are at odds, it’s not just an issue between
them, the fabric of the community is rent, and everyone is affected. So
reconciliation is not just a personal matter, the community has a stake in
it; everyone is involved (to some extent) in everyone else's
reconciliation.
Now, I don’t tell you these stories because I think you need to know more
about Robert Odom. I tell you these stories because, as our Gospel says,
“You are witnesses of these things.” We are witnesses of these things. We
who follow Jesus experience the transforming effect of proclaiming
repentance and forgiveness of sins.
It is experiences like these by which we learn that being right
intellectually is not nearly as important as being right in relationship
with our neighbor, our brother or sister in Jesus Christ.
Friends, our Gospel this morning holds repentance and forgiveness and the
resurrection together so closely as to be inseparable. Luke seems to be
telling us that bearing witness to the resurrection is impossible without
proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins, and vice versa – that we
cannot recognize the Truth of God’s reconciling actions without yielding
to the power reconciliation ourselves.
Ever since the Great Vigil of Easter, we have been proclaiming the
resurrection of Jesus Christ in light and song and liturgy and Eucharist.
However, I submit that we truly enter into the Joy of Easter only when we
seek and find and give and receive forgiveness. To be sure, we place our
sins before God in our prayers and through our priests; these are good and
righteous habits that strengthen and refresh. However, prayer and
absolution do not relieve us of our responsibility to pardon those who
have hurt us. Neither do these practices relieve us of the responsibility
of approaching God in the neighbor whom we have offended, and placing our
sins before Him there. Furthermore, the resurrection of Jesus Christ
compels us to allow our division and alienation from each other to die,
even to put them to death, so that our oneness can grow and our communion
become more intimate. For how better can we proclaim repentance and
forgiveness of sins than to do it ourselves, just as Christ himself died
and rose?
When we choose not to repent and forgive, to move on as if nothing
happened, we move on as if nothing happened on the third day. Therefore
repent and be forgiven; forgive and be repentant. The Joy of Easter is at
hand! Enter into it!
Amen
The Rev’d Robert M. Odom
M.Div., Curate
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