Sermon - July 30, 2023 - The Rev. Jack Alvey

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight

oh Lord our strength and our redeemer.

Amen.

One of my favorite memories of Camp McDowell is saying complin every night at the end of

the day in the old camp chapel which trivia question answer here it's actually named the

chapel of the ascension if you didn't know so that's nice I don't think we had anything

to do with building it but it is called the chapel of the ascension.

Anyway so complin includes some of my favorite prayers and scripture passages keep watch

dear Lord with those who work or watch or weep this night.

Lord you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised and also

the famous scripture from Matthew come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I

will give you rest.

Now over 20 years later and I'm sure it's been like this since the beginning of Camp

McDowell complin is said in almost exactly the same way as it was when I was a camper

with a few exceptions Psalm 31 is almost always chosen the short scripture from Matthew that

I just quoted is almost always chosen and if you don't say the keep watch dear Lord

prayer then you're sure never to be asked to lead complin again.

The most significant change that I've seen over the years is the song of Simeon of course

the words are the same but today we chant it too slowly in my opinion we need to get

Mike Sparks up there to teach him how it's really done.

So all that is to say I should have known better I should have known better than to

offer something other than complin when I was the senior camp director this was about

six years ago while we said complin more than any other service I didn't offer it every

night and this was heresy especially for the senior campers at that session this was their

last time that they were at camp and if they didn't do complin every night then their senior

camp was going to fall apart.

So finally one of them got the courage to ask why didn't we read complin tonight the

head counselor looked at me I was the session director after all I responded I wanted you

to explore other liturgies in our prayer book or even beyond our prayer book we were a tradition

rich with liturgical texts anyway we'll do complin tomorrow night.

I could have said a whole lot more but I bit my tongue my answer was not good enough I

don't think they heard me so another camper proposed that they have an optional complin

service I said sure you can have an optional complin service it doesn't need to be led

by a priest knock yourselves out.

So they're saying the optional complin and the camper who is so upset is not in the chapel

he's actually talking to me still complaining about how we haven't done complin every night

and about how much complin meant to him while we were still sitting outside the chapel while

complin was being said they were talking about how much they wanted to do complin needless

to say he did not say complin that night.

So the next day I wanted to follow up take this as an opportunity for a teaching moment

I talked about Dietrich Bonhoeffer he was a part of the confessing church in Germany

part of the church that that was against Hitler he was eventually found out for a plot to

kill Hitler he was put in a Nazi concentration camp anyway long before that he wrote this

really important book if you haven't read it yet I hope you will it's called Life Together

and in that book he talks a lot about how the biggest danger to authentic Christian

community is that we put our own human ideas before God's reality we are quick to love

our own human constructs of community more than we love the reality that God has created

for us even though his book was published before World War II the truth he expresses

are timeless today even the biggest threat to our Christian identity is based on our

dreams of what Christian community should look like rather than what it does look like

in Christ Jesus.

Bonhoeffer says Christian fellowship is not an ideal that we must realize it's rather

a reality created by God and Christ it really is a reality created when we gather around

the word and the sacrament each and every Sunday so in an indirect way I was trying

to tell them that Compline is not the only way to pray before bedtime even more I was

trying to tell them that camp while amazing isn't the only way to do Christian community

and while amazing camp is not the only way the world could be so as I recall that that

moment at camp that these five parables communicate this truth that God's community God's word

is what creates Christian community not our own idealized versions of what it should look

like after all our own ideas of community set in contrast to God's kingdom are always

incomplete imperfect and limited and if there's any reason we should have read that Genesis

lesson this morning it should be to remember that our idea of what life should look like

is very different than what God's idea of what life should look like that's one of those

lessons that you don't take literally right anyway so our own good ideas often lead to

self-righteousness which is antithetical to the kingdom of God and to be clear I am prone

to love my dreams more than God's will as well so these first two parables the mustard

seed and the yeast remind us that God's kingdom is already planted in Jesus Christ that God's

kingdom already permeates every facet of our life together that God's kingdom is found

in the most unexpected places in the small and the ordinary in the stuff that we might

consider unclean the Jews considered yeast unclean the first two parables tell us that

it's not up to us to go out and create something new create a new Christian community it has

already been created in God through Christ Jesus and Jesus gives us a big hint on where

to find this kingdom it's not found in the same places that we go and celebrate our earthly

kingdoms and palaces and the grandeur of all that the kingdom of God is not of this world

the kingdom of God is often found in the last places we would naturally look the kingdom

of heaven might be found in a worship service that she teach that that features an evangelical

preacher who preaches for 50 minutes in a praise band an extemporaneous prayer in the

NIV version of the Bible Jesus goes on to give us a teaching on what we are to do when

we find the kingdom of God on earth Jesus compares that discovery to someone who sells

everything just to buy a field to acquire that hidden treasure that's in the middle

of the field and then to a merchant who's in search of a fine pearl and foolishly at

least according to our standards the merchant gives up his entire livelihood everything

that he has and owns to secure that pearl of great price but such is the experience

of the kingdom of heaven on earth we can't expect to fully live in God's kingdom on

earth or we are still holding on to the things that we've acquired in our earthly kingdoms

we can't expect to fully live in the kingdom of God if we cling to our own ideas of what

it should look like rather than letting go and participating in the life that God has

already made available in Jesus Christ now the final parable gets a little trickier this

is a mini parable on the final judgment God will separate the good fish from the bad fish

the bad fish are those who are consumed by the kingdoms of this world who have been basically

put to death by the kingdoms of this world and the good fish are the ones who are fit

for life in the kingdom now I don't know about you but this one on judgment makes me a little

nervous I don't like it when I'm judged and I think it probably should make me nervous

the parable on judgment challenges me to think about what I hold most sacred in this world

especially those things that are antithetical to the kingdom the parable demands that I

take spiritual inventory and name all those temporal things I'm holding on to too tightly

what would happen to my soul to my identity if these temporal things that I put a lot

of stock in are ripped away from my hands I'm confronted with the truth that human ways

human ideas human possessions will only fail me in the end but there is good news right

the series of the parables ends with Jesus asking do you understand and without hesitation

they say yes and now I know you all are smart people I know you understand the message that

Jesus is putting before us seek you first the kingdom of God and everything you need

will be given to you make your priority in this life the discovery of the kingdom of

God in our very midst and everything else will be taken care of you don't want to worry

about anything else but the real question for us in our faith is do you trust this message

do you trust this message enough to actually live your daily life in such a manner and

I've said some version of this before I estimate that I live about 70 percent of my life in

the kingdoms of this world and about 30 percent of my life in the kingdom of heaven I'm not

exactly a star student over here but the good news is that the God is never going to stop

working on me God will never stop working on you God will never stop working to reveal

the kingdom of heaven even when we start looking for life in the wrong places I have experienced

God's grace enough times to remember that God is doing everything in God's power to

get our attention to show us a way to life and life abundant no matter how far off track

we go finally Jesus tells the listeners who understand the message of the kingdom to train

others and kingdom matters now I can relate to this I've been trained to teach and preach

and you might be thinking well I'm not a preacher I'm not a teacher sure that might not be your

job title but it's a part of your vocation as a baptized member of the church in your

own unique way you have the opportunity to open others to the possibility that God's

kingdom is right here right now you have the opportunity to remind people to look for God

in the small and ordinary places that we might not think to look we all have the opportunity

to remind people that God's kingdom is here and everywhere and even there we have the

opportunity to show people just how serious we are about living in that kingdom by making

sacrifices daily sacrifices for the sake of the gospel because we believe it that much

like the parables of the loaves and the fishes God has really given us everything we need

for kingdom life for Jesus the word and the sacrament primarily that's what the church

says it may not appear to be much on the surface but the possibility in God's kingdom are endless

and we have reason to hope for endless possibilities because our Lord and Savior is risen from

the dead nothing not even the power of sin and death can stop the growth of God God's

kingdom is like that weed that just won't go away like that weed who you try to that

you don't think should be there you can try to pull it you can try to spray it with Roundup

but it will always grow back and faster than before so may you have the grace to surrender

your version of what you think the world or the church should look like and trust that

God's way is better than our way then through the risen Lord Jesus Christ a truth that we

found in St. Paul's letter to the to the Romans even though we don't know how to pray them

as we ought God's going to take care of it with sighs too deep for words we remember

that in Genesis even though this is a really weird story about how Jacob gave birth to

the twelve sons who who were the tribes of Israel God's will is accomplished for we

follow a God a Lord and Savior who is risen from the dead Jesus Christ amen.