Changeless Change

The city of Austin, Texas boasts almost two hundred and thirty days of sunshine per year. After moving there from a foggy mountain in Tennessee I remained grateful for all the natural vitamin D that came my way until the day I moved here to Decatur. Oddly though, the two week period of “winter” in Austin brought out a strange quality in her residents. When the clouds rolled in or the temperatures dipped down into the forties Austinites’ moods soured. One day as a barber explained the locals’ inability to handle the cold she said something that I have now heard elsewhere—even in Alabama. “If you don’t like the weather wait five minutes and it will change.” The statement bemused me enough that it has remained in my memory.

We can joke about the weather. At almost all parish functions someone makes a comment about the current state of the out of doors. “It’s awful humid” seems to be the current refrain. Of course, when a cold front turns a summer’s day into a mild one someone will point out just how pleasant it is. In the fall we will remark on how blue the sky is. During winter we will complain about the cold. Then in the spring when we get all four seasons in a few days we can say again, “If you don’t like the weather wait five minutes and it will change.” Weather quite often we want to change, but so much else in life we fight tooth and nail to keep it just like it is. Fiddler on the Roof will soon grace the stage here in Decatur and I cannot help but hear those opening lyrics from “Tradition”.

So what about those things that we hold so dear? Do they change or do they stay the same? What about the Church? What about our Faith? What about our Traditions? What about God?

There is a prayer that I find myself praying quite often when I say Compline.

“Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen” (Book of Common Prayer, 133). While I steadily believe that God’s nature of creation, agape love, forgiveness, peace, charity, self-sacrifice, redemption, reconciliation, etc. never changes; I do believe though, that our understanding of God continues to shift and yes (gasp!) even change!

We did not always believe in the abundant divine community known as Father, Son, and Spirit or Trinity. The Church took a long time to figure it out. We most likely would not have ever gotten to this grand realization and this huge shift in the way we relate to God without the saint whom we celebrate today.

Basil the Great was once just a boy who studied classical philosophy in the 4^th Century. Had it not been for the faith of his sister Macrina and the death of his beloved little brother he may never have been baptized. Though once he was at age 28 his life certainly changed.

For a time he helped to reorganize the anchorite order. They had been for a time a very individualistic group of monastics, but he brought them together to create communities of prayer and work. Later, he was ordained a priest at about the height of the conflict between warring sides of Christianity. Basil became Bishop of Caesarea by a narrow margin and set out to expand with other Orthodox Christians the view that Father, Son, and Spirit are One in glory, majesty, and unity. And, the language that the Church used in that day needed expansion, such that all three persons of the Trinity were properly adored. Without his tireless fighting we may not have ever understood the powerful mystery that is our three-in-one God. Sadly though Basil died before this change could be affirmed by the Second Ecumenical Council.

What Basil teaches us in our lives might seem a little strange. This great one sought a new way of seeing God. In each new age we must see afresh the face of God. We are often tempted to just settle on how things have always been, but just like the weather always changes God is eternally creating anew all things. Yes, as strange as it sounds this very moment God abundantly creates the vast expanse of interstellar space, even you and me.

As God continues to create we are called to create with God. Our life is to be part of the spreading of God’s way. We are to be like Basil and all those other great ones who have helped to point the Church to both God’s eternal changelessness and the every changing nature of God’s Creation at the same time! Like the mystery of the Trinity we will not understand this always. Still God beckons us to live in the relationship of the Trinity as we aim to make the world God’s place and rest in God’s abiding love.

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A Shift In Perspective

This sermon is based on Luke 7:18-35 from today's the Daily Office Lectionary.

I sometimes think about the absurdity of a Martian looking down from outer space observing our day-to-day lives here on earth. Among other things I think about how that Martian, let’s go ahead and call him Marvin, would think that dogs, and certain cats, are the most sophisticated and most advanced species on earth. Dogs lounge around all day long taking naps wherever they please. They are massaged and groomed. They are loved and cared for by their “owner,” maybe we should change that to “servant”? From the perspective of Marvin life for a dog is ideal. Yet, we who are down here on earth have a different perspective.

We know that dogs are often cooped up all day long. We know that they often do not have as much freedom as they would like. We understand that, at least from our point of view, we have more ability and privilege.

One’s perspective can make all the difference in the world. To the tax collector who was seen as an outcast, John the Baptist’s ministry offered the opportunity for rebirth. Evan talked about this last week at this service that tax collectors were the most despised persons who were hated everywhere they went. He likened them to child molesters of our day who cannot go anywhere without shame and ridicule. To the most rejected person any form of redemption can start to transform life itself. Imagine being completely rejected everywhere you go for years and years. No one loves you. No one will marry you. No children to comfort you. This was life for tax collectors and is life for many still today.

After torturous existence, finally someone offers not just a glimpse of hope but a promise of an opportunity to turn back to God to be counted as one of his own children. This was the perspective of the wretched tax collector and all those sinners who journeyed out into the wilderness to experience the cool, transforming waters of the Jordan River! What did they go out to see? A reed blown by the wind? OF COURSE NOT! They went to see a prophet who would call their lives back into order. Yet, this was not the perspective of those wearing the soft robes (Hey, this robe is pretty soft).

I consider myself somewhat of a Pharisee. It comes with the territory of being a priest. Soft robes were not seen in the wilderness, rather they were what the Pharisees would have worn within the Temple and what the Roman leaders would have worn while occupying Israel. The Pharisee’s perspective was different than that of the tax collector, as different as a Martian and our own perspective. They were so accustomed to being in the places of honor that they ignored anyone outside their well-dressed circle.

We can make a related mistake if we are not careful. Our worship, the liturgy that we so love, and the beautiful vessels and vestments that help us to remember God’s worthiness and ultimate place within our lives is to help us to remember. We use our religious practices to help us to come back together as the Body of Christ. The Pharisees mistakenly put religion in the place of God. They cared more about the soft robes than the call from the wilderness. If we are not careful we too can miss John’s call for us to prepare a way for Jesus. Jesus in turn puts at the center of our perspective our constant need to turn back to God.

We cannot rely upon our religion alone to save us. It will help us to shape our lives and it gives us a framework to remind us that we need God in our lives. Yet, what John the Baptist called everyone to do and what Jesus continues to whisper in our hearts tells us to turn around and come back to Our Father in Heaven. No matter what our perspective, tax collector or Pharisee, sinner or Saint, Earthling or Martian, we are all in need of repenting and receiving the healing power that awaits when we return to the embrace of God!