The sermon this weekend is so simple it can be said in one sentence. So, listen up! Here it is: "IF YOU ARE FEELING DISTANT FROM GOD, MAYBE EVEN ABANDONED BY GOD, AND YOU WANT TO DRAW NEARER, THEN START DOING NICE THINGS FOR OTHERS." That's it. That's what's being taught. Let me show you how.
Both our first reading from Isaiah and the reading from Mark's Gospel are meditations on God's ABSENCE. Had you noticed that? Isaiah prays for Him to "Return." Isaiah and the people of Judah at the time when that poem was written, felt like God had abandoned them. They felt alone and deserted.
In Mark's Gospel, Jesus compares God to a man who has "left on a trip abroad," and no one knows when he's coming back.
The thing to notice in both readings is that NO ONE FELT CLOSE TO GOD. They felt so alone and so deserted. In Isaiah's time, the nation had been defeated; in Jesus' time it was occupied by enemy troops, and was about to be crushed. No one knew when it would happen or what would trigger it, but they knew their days were numbered, and they felt helpless and deserted.
Have YOU ever felt abandoned by God? Have you ever felt so distant from God that you felt there was no hope? Now, we aren't talking about theological anthropology, here....we know that God is everywhere, that, in the words of the Psalmist, "the entire earth is full of the Glory of God," and that "if we go to the furthest limits of the seas, or even to the netherworld, GOD IS THERE!" No, we aren't talking "theology," we are talking of "psychology." Have you ever FELT abandoned by God? Alone. Totally alone. ? The word "psyche" (the root of psychology) is the word for "soul" in Greek. Our souls can feel abandoned. It's the nature of fear and despair. And, anyone who has felt it, can tell you it isn't pleasant. Just as in a crowd of people, you can feel very cut off and alone, so we can, in a world filled with God's Presence, feel cut off from God. NOR are we talking the "blame game"–well, you feel abandoned by God because YOU abandoned HIM...HE didn't abandon YOU. That may or may not be true...there are times we feel "cut off" just because we are in a "cut off" place in our lives, that has nothing to do with our sinfulness or lack of it. We can feel abandoned, and cut off, and alone in the universe for any number of reasons. And Isaiah KNOWS THAT FEELING. So does Jesus. They are able to articulate for the people exactly what the people are feeling, themselves. Psychologically, what they see in the people they are dealing with is "depression." In both readings we see this. Isaiah faces a depressed people; so does Jesus. What's their advice?
Both Isaiah and Jesus have the same remedy...the only remedy known to humanity. Isaiah says, "Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of your ways." Jesus says, Don't let the returning master "find you sleeping," i.e. don't be lazy, but be busy doing good things!
In other words, the way to feel closer to God, the way to draw near to Him, the way to bridge all distance between Heaven and earth, between the heart of God and your heart is to care for the people He's put in your life. "Love your neighbor" is the path to "Loving God with your heart, mind, soul and strength." There is no other path. Christ put it: "I am the way." And what does it mean to live "in Christ?" It means to "turn the other cheek," "to go the extra mile," to "forgive 70 times 70 times," it means to be "meek, and poor in spirit, and understanding, and seeking goodness for the earth, making peace and reconciliation. It means leaving your gift at the altar when you remember you've offended someone, because their feelings are so important that they take precedence over the sacrifice to God. It means dining with lepers and prostitutes and lifting the weak. It means selling abundance and giving to the poor. How do we summarize it? It means being a "decent human being."
I remember hearing a lecture from Karl Menninger, the renown psychiatrist in Topeka, Kansas nearly 40 years ago. I no longer remember his topic, or anything he said during his lecture, but I do remember the question and answer period that followed, for a woman in the audience rose and asked him, in a faltering voice, "Dr. Menninger, what would you recommend for a person who has lost all sense of purpose, who wakes up every day, feeling meaningless and pointless, and on the edge of collapse into despair? Would you recommend "daily psychoanalysis?" Would that person have to move into the hospital? There was a hush in the room, for we all could tell from the desperation in her voice that she was speaking of herself. And Dr. Menninger, that great, great scholar and human being, paused, and looked her directly in the eye, and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't get your first name." She said her name...maybe it was Mary, I no longer remember for sure. Anyway, Dr. Menninger continued in the softest, kindest voice I've ever heard a doctor use, and he said: "Mary, I most certainly would NOT recommend long expensive therapy. It isn't necessary. The person you describe could be any of us at one time or another. I would suggest to your friend that she get out of her chair, walk out her door, go to the other side of the tracks and help someone who needs her help. That will take care of it."
In that short response, he summarized the teaching of the Bible.
Now, why do you suppose we begin our New Church Year with readings that speak of the ABSENCE of God, or at least our "feeling" that God is distant? The Church year begins there BECAUSE WE ARE SO OFTEN IN THAT VERY SPOT! And that is the spot the world was in when God sent His Christ to embody the path...the WAY. This season builds toward the celebration of the feast of Christmas, the memory that God bridged all "distance," to stand in our shoes and know our pain, and through it all, to open us–in a new and profound way–to Intimacy with God, Himself.
Today, we are told what to do and how to do it. In Holy Communion the Eternal God will come to each of us, and touch us in body, mind and soul. May our lives be, then, spent in service of all humanity, so that we will be beacons that point to the WAY ... the only way to meaning, in a world that needs that light so desperately. And may God bless you all. +
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