Sermon
July 4, 2004
The Reverend Pamela Snare

“As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you…You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice…and it shall be known that the hand of the Lord is with his servants...” (Isaiah 66:13a-14)

“The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them…’Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” (Luke 10:1, 8-9)

What does it mean to say, “The kingdom of God has come near to you?” In the parish I served in Greensboro, North Carolina before coming to Christ Church, we had small study groups for adults which met weekly for a period of ten to twelve weeks. These groups always began and ended with prayer, and the members of each group covenanted to pray daily for each other during the ten or twelve week period. One of the opening prayer exercises was called, “Cultivating a Grateful Heart.” It was adapted from a daily Jesuit exercise known as “The Examen of Consciousness.”

At the beginning of each meeting, the group was to sit in silence for a minute or two, reflect on the events and circumstances of the prior week, and identify the moment or moments when they had been most aware of God’s presence; or when they had been most thankful to God. The intent was to help people become more attentive to God’s presence and action in their lives on a daily basis, and thus to cultivate an interior habit and a heart of gratitude in the living of their lives.

For the truth of the matter is, most of us do not live on a daily basis from a habit of gratitude. Most of us do not live on a daily basis aware that the hand of the Lord is with us: that God is near us, supporting us, working in us and in others, comforting us as a mother comforts her child.

Most of us, a lot of the time, are distracted from God—by our “to do” list; or by the traffic on Highway 190, or Highway 21, or Interstate12, or Interstate 10; or by the things that don’t go the way we wanted or the way we planned; or by noise; or by a host of devices that pull us from trust and confidence in God into anger or fear or anxiety or frustration or simple forgetfulness that the hand of the Lord is with us.

When we allow ourselves to be pulled into anger, frustration, fear, anxiety, or forgetfulness, we no longer are able to perceive that the kingdom of God has come near to us, and that it does come to us daily. Anger, frustration, fear, anxiety, and forgetfulness hinder us from living in a habit of gratitude, and hinder our witness to the presence and goodness of Christ. Anger, frustration, fear, anxiety, and forgetfulness are like wearing a pair of glasses that distort our vision of ourselves, others, and reality. They prevent us from recognizing God’s presence, and from how he may be working—even in negative or unpleasant circumstances or events—to bring about good.

Many of you, over the past month, have expressed your concern for me with Father Robert gone to his new position at St. James, Baton Rouge, and Father John on sabbatical. I am grateful for your concern. But I must tell you that God has been amazing in his goodness and in sustaining me during this period of “solo flying,” so to speak. Knowing that there would be more to do than I could possibly get done, knowing that some things would fall through the cracks, I decided early on that my only option was to adopt the biblical attitude that I could not worry about tomorrow and that each day’s “trouble” would be sufficient for that day.

Practically, this has meant that I look each day at what has to be done, and decide what is most important and least important and follow that order. I begin each day reminding myself that God is literally beside me, and that I will encounter him in the people and events of the day. I try to remain conscious of that perspective throughout the day. Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and the daily Eucharist help me to do that.

The most challenging thing has been the curve balls that I was not expecting or did not see coming. The curve balls have meant abandoning my original plan for the day, or re-ordering it. It has meant reminding myself that God is present in the curve balls, and that God can and does use the curve balls—even when they are negative—to work his good. Practically, this has meant accepting the unplanned and the unexpected in patience, calm, and trust. It has meant a resolve not to allow anger, frustration, fear, anxiety or forgetfulness to get the upper hand. It has meant adopting the attitude of the psalmist each day that, “I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” this day.

I do not intend to say that I have done this perfectly. I have not. But the desire and the effort to do this have resulted in an amazing experience. When I have needed your help, some one or ones of you have been there to help. When I have thought that I was at the end of my patience or stamina, God has given me a reprieve. I have been able to end most days with gratitude for some grace or graces shown to me or to others that day. It has been an experience of living with an awareness and sure and certain signs of the nearness of the Kingdom of God.

My friends, this is how God desires and intends for all of us to live—you and me. Confident of his presence—even in the curve balls. Trusting that our daily needs will be met. Living each day in the knowledge that we will see the goodness of the Lord and that he is as near to us as our very breath. He does not intend for us to live in anger, frustration, fear, anxiety and forgetfulness. He intends for us to live in joy, peace and trust.

It is not only for our sakes that he desires and intends for us to live this way, although it brings us joy, peace, and trust. It is also for the sake of proclaiming and making known to others that the Kingdom of God—his goodness and mercy—has drawn near, is near, to them, as well. And that they, too, are invited to live and can live under and within his gracious rule.

“The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.” (Luke 10:1) Everyday of our lives the Lord sends us out as his emissaries to all the people and places that need to see and experience what it means to live as citizens of his kingdom—not in the next world, but in this one. Not in some future time, but today.

The Kingdom of God has drawn near to us. We are to live in that kingdom today—for our sake, for the sake of others, but most of all for God’s sake, so that his kingdom may grow. “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Let us live in that way today. Amen.
 

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