To listen to The Reverend William R. Nesbit, Jr. deliver the 9:00 AM sermon from this week click here.
To listen to The Reverend William R. Nesbit, Jr. deliver the 10:45 AM sermon from this week click here.

St. Charles’ Episcopal Church --St. Charles, IL

The Second Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 3 – Year A RCL

Sunday May 25, 2008 – Memorial Day Weekend

Isaiah 49:8-16a – Psalm 131 – 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 – Matthew 6:24-34

Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

On Pentecost I spoke with you a little about doubt and fear. This week we hear the haunting words of Isaiah that speak of the difference between the steadfastness of God, and the steadfastness of humanity, and I want to talk to you a little about peace. I also want to give you a tool that just might help a bit with that peace.

Many of you are parents, and some have been parents for a while, while some are newer to the game. Some of you are not yet parents, and some will never be parents. One of the hardest things to learn as a parent, is when to withhold something good from your child. It gets even harder since we live in a society that works so hard to equate love with giving things. Delaying gratification is an important skill to learn in life. It helps in the successful completion of longer term goals. One way to teach this skill is through the withholding of “goodies,” to balance the instant good off against the promise of a good to come. When you do it right, the child learns persevere in the face of adversity. When you do it wrong, the child can dissolve into a classic tantrum of epic proportions. As with much of parenting, this is more art than skill, at least it is for me. Every time I see a frazzled parent dragging a screaming two or three year old through the grocery store as they whine and cry for this or that goody, I offer up a quick prayer of strength for them. They’re in a high stakes game and they’re behind the power curve and that is never an easy place to be.

In Isaiah this morning, we hear a similar kind of teaching taking place. The prophet is rehashing all that God has done for the people Israel, and how in spite of all that, they still cry out, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me!” Can you hear the echo of the frazzled parent? As hard as it has been, and still is at times, to parent just two boys, I can’t imagine what it must be like to parent the whole world. It is a wonder that God doesn’t just throw the towel in and walk away. But God doesn’t. God won’t. In words worthy of a Shakespeare sonnet, Isaiah speaks of God’s love for us. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” That is a love you can count on. Though there may be times when it feels like we have been abandoned, that will never happen. God is with us. Though there may be times when it feels like God is against us, that will never happen. God loves us; more than any parent; more than any person could. It is we who must remember that love comes with responsibility. Must remember that God’s love doesn’t mean that we will always get our way. Must remember that asking from God doesn’t mean we will get it, no matter how good we have been. God is not a vending machine. God is our ideal parent, always loving, always teaching; always leading us on; always making us better. We always have another lesson to learn. Were it not for God’s love, the prospect of a lifetime of learning would be daunting indeed. Even knowing God’s love it is daunting enough. Perhaps that is the truth that pushes Jesus to warn his disciples not to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.

The work of faith is to align ourselves with this love and learning in a way that lets worry go and replaces it with a sense of expectant thanksgiving; a sense of peace. I am a strong believer in the importance of discerning God’s will in our lives, but at the same time I have a problem with the fatalistic view of the world that everything that happens is according to God’s will. The greatest gift that God has given us, beside God’s love, is free will, the ability to act according to our own will, which can be if we choose, not according to God’s will. This gift has allowed a lot of pain in the world, to be sure, but it has allowed surpassing joy as well. It is no wonder that God takes our joys and uses them to bring great good into the world. What is a wonder is that God takes even our disobedience and uses it to teach and mold us. We are not left in our disobedience, as we deserve. God does not leave the damage of our folly untended, as we deserve. Even the pain we cause can be used by God to the good. And it is. God can take the worst we have to offer and turn it to pure gold. Even in the devils playground that is war, we can see the flashes of God’s will for us in moments of heroism and acts of selfless love. When we can know this truth to the core of our being, that God is capable of taking all that we offer, good and bad and everything in between, and using it to the furthering of the kingdom, that is when we can find the peace of God which passes all understanding.

That is the essence of waiting on the Lord that the psalmist speaks of when he says, “But I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother's breast; my soul is quieted within me.” But waiting is never easy. I said I wanted to offer you a tool to help with your peace. That tool is a prayer. Like many of the best prayers it is easy to learn. Also like many of the best prayers it takes practice to do well. This prayer is called centering prayer, or contemplative prayer. It comes to us from the tradition of the desert fathers and mothers of the early church. It is more a prayer of being than doing. We often think of prayer as words spoken to God. Contemplative prayer is about opening our heart and mind to the mystery of Gods presence. It has four simple steps. First, select a word or focus as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. A common choice among Christians is Jesus, and so you may have heard of this type of prayer as the Jesus prayer, but other choices could be God, love, Spirit, Father, Abba, or any of a host of others. The second step is, while sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within. The goal here is to slowly and gently silence all the other voices and thoughts in your head. The third step is, when you find yourself engaged with your thoughts, and you will, return ever-so- gently to the sacred word. If you are like me, the inside of your head is a busy place. A very busy place. The winding down of this busyness can take time. Remember to be gentle with yourself. Minutes of contemplative prayer may yield only seconds of inner peace, even for the best contemplatives, but they are enough. The final step is, at the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes. This is time to listen and to slowly reconnect with the world around you. This may also be a time of insight, though not necessarily so.

As you can see the steps are simple, but they are difficult to practice. We are an impatient people and it is never easy to wait on the Lord. All the more reason to try. We may be people of little faith now, but we needn’t stay that way. “O Israel, wait upon the Lord, from this time forth for evermore.”

Amen.