Proper 17, Year A
August 28, 2005
Christ Church, Covington
“Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I
have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail” (Lk 22:31).
The sermon I prepared last week for today has been overtaken by events. This
morning I erased it from my computer’s memory as most singularly inappropriate
for a community suddenly gathered in the face of a hurricane. That’s the nature
of preaching. I’m not too worried about that: don’t tell anyone, but it really
wasn’t very good anyway. May it never see the light of day.
So my sermon begins with two jokes, unintentional puns uttered in the face of
the storm. This morning, a staff member left a message on my voice mail, telling
me that he was evacuating and wouldn’t be here today. “I hate to leave you high
and dry, Fr John….”, said the recorded voice. Well, whatever happens, I’m sure
we won’t be dry, no matter how high above sea level we may be. A few minutes
later, Scott, our weekend sexton opened up the door of the Administrative Center
and poked in his head. I greeted him and asked him how he was doing. As it turns
out, Scott had a bit of a head cold. “Well, I’m feeling a little under the
weather today”, he said. I just looked at him, and then hazarded the guess that
we were all feeling “under the weather”.
There’s no doubt that this storm is niggling away at the edges of our
consciousness, revealing itself in some surprising ways. There’s tension out
there, and it needs some relief, and so I offer these two “storm jokes” as my
own contribution to relieving that tension. Because awareness of this storm is
out there, like the storm itself.
In our Gospel today, from Matthew, Jesus and Simon Peter are in their own tense
conversation. There’s a parallel passage from Luke that speaks to our situation
today; another conversation between Jesus and Peter that deals with tension
itself. “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat,
but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail” (Lk 22:31). John
Henry Newman remarked somewhere in one of his sermons that “sifting” comes about
through a kind of agitation, by which wheat is separated from chaff. Newman goes
on to speak about how we are to avoid agitation, because it is the means by
which the devil entraps us. Newman’s point is that we have to trust God and
remain serene in the face of whatever it is that might agitate us.
So that’s my prescription today. We need to trust in God. He is able to care for
us. He will bring us through. We won’t be trapped if we trust in him. We also
need to do what we need to do to get ready for this storm. I encourage you to
take care of the tasks that need doing, and to take the action that you need to
take. What those things are will be different for each of us. Our faith will not
fail if we trust in God and pay attention to the things that we need to do. We
will be ready for whatever comes.
John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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