Sermon preached in Christ Church, Grosse Pointe, Michigan by The Reverend Areeta Bridgemohan, Curate. Proper 9 (Year B) July 22, 2018

Transcription

1 Sermon preached in Christ Church, Grosse Pointe, Michigan by The Reverend Areeta Bridgemohan, Curate Proper 9 (Year B) July 22, 2018 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing in your sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen. Our Gospel passage today takes place by the Sea of Galilee. The place where Jesus found and called many of his disciples. The place where he taught, on the shores and in the boat on the sea. The place where he performed miracles. The place where he appeared after his resurrection and fed the disciples breakfast. The stories of Jesus on or by the sea are important to Mark. Scholars have noted that Mark is the first writer to refer to what is actually a freshwater lake, as a sea, most likely as a way to call forth the notion of the sea from the Jewish imagination. 1 In the Bible the sea is often portrayed as a place of danger, chaos and death. 2 In Genesis, order is established as God creates the land after moving over the waters. In Exodus, the sea marks the threshold between slavery and freedom, as God miraculously parts the waters so the Hebrew people can escape, leaving the Egyptian forces to drown in their wake. In the story of the flood, when the waters destroy life on the land, God gives instruction to build an ark, the vehicle that Noah and his fellow creatures inhabit as they wait to begin their new life. The symbolism in these stories has been integrated into the architecture of our churches. We are currently located in what is known as the nave, which comes from the word navis, Latin for ship. 1 Malbon, E. S. (1984). The Jesus of Mark and the Sea of Galilee. Journal of Biblical Literature, 103(3), Ryken, L., Wilhoit, J. C., & Longman III, T. (Eds.). (2010). Dictionary of biblical imagery. InterVarsity Press. Page 1

2 If you look up, you ll see a vaulted ceiling over the nave with exposed wooden beams. It is meant to resemble the reversed look of a ship s keel, underscoring the idea of the church as a boat, a vehicle for the journey, vulnerable to the forces of nature and always in search of the kingdom. 3 Today marks my last Sunday of ministry here at Christ Church, the conclusion of my journey as a curate. Over the past few months, as I ve been preparing for this day, I ve been reflecting on my time here, the path that we ve traveled as a faith community, my learning and development as a priest and the ways in which God has provided growth and healing in my own spiritual journey. It s hard to capture all that I have learned and received over these past few years. I have had the privilege of celebrating with you: pregnancies and births, college acceptances, graduations, weddings, birthdays and anniversaries. I have had the gift of standing on sacred ground with you: praying with and for a loved one who is dying, officiating at funerals and bearing witness to the legacy of the saints of God no longer physically with us. I have been inspired and awed by your commitment to this faith community. I have had the joy of ministering with you. You cheered me on when my enthusiasm and hope flagged; you found creative solutions in situations where I felt stuck; you trusted me to challenge you, you pushed back when you needed to; you showed me how to be in loving relationship even when we disagreed; you gave me quiet feedback after meetings, sermons, and services; you encouraged me to find my singing voice and my preaching voice; you helped me identify my boundaries and articulate them; you shared in what I was learning; you put books in my mailbox and sent articles to my inbox and shared your learnings with me; you laughed with me (and at me!), apologized to me, forgave me; you blossomed when nurtured; you blessed me. You discipled me in countless ways as we journeyed in this boat. 3 Page 2

3 Some of you may know that while I was waiting for my visa to get renewed, my driver s license expired. In Michigan, state ID is tied to immigration status. My driver s license expired in mid-march and this past Monday I got a new one, after the new visa was approved a couple of weeks ago. Having an expired visa meant that not only could I not drive here, but I also couldn t cross the border to return home. I felt trapped, powerless, embarrassed and frustrated. After a few days of stewing over the situation, I realized I needed help. I reached out and asked for prayers, I asked some of you to check-in with me to see how I was doing, and asked for permission to request car rides. In return, I received so much more than what I asked for. One parishioner helped me identify ways of asking for rides that would help me not feel rejected when it turned out that the person I asked wasn t available at a particular time. Another parishioner listed rides I could ask for including: groceries, gym, doctor appointments, even visiting with friends in nearby towns, giving me permission to ask for what I needed for my own self-care. When I received a lift, I got to learn about the little miracles in that person s day, and I got to share part of my life with them. I got to do more team ministry because I had to coordinate with others to do pastoral care. And of course, as the word spread within the community, I received more offers for rides than I could use. From March to July, I used only 1 uber. This experience reframed my understanding of the priest s relationship to the parish. It challenged my notion that a priest is always supposed to care for others and never ask for help. It gave me a glimpse into the power of community. It taught me the kingdom truth that we don t have to be self-sufficient. It taught me that there is grace beyond measure just waiting to be tapped into if we can allow ourselves to believe it. Page 3

4 Jean-Pierre de Caussade, a spiritual director who lived in the 18th century, wrote: "Everything turns to bread to nourish me, soap to wash me, fire to purify me, and a chisel to fashion me in the image of God. Grace supplies all my needs." 4 Community challenges us to stretch our limits on all fronts - the limits of our patience, gratitude, generosity, assertiveness, and forgiveness. Jesus with his itinerant lifestyle and reckless openness, was constantly stretching the boundaries of membership in the beloved community, prompting soul-searching conversation about who our neighbours are, and how we relate to them. In Jesus earlier boat trip in Mark, he crossed the sea and reaches the country of the Gerasenes where he is met by a demoniac whom he heals, presumably a Gentile. Then he crosses back over the sea and is met by Jairus, a Jew, whose daughter he heals. 5 Mark includes a total of 6 boat trips in his account of Jesus life. 6 Ched Myers, a biblical scholar, theologian and peace activist, observes that the boat trips taken in Mark chapter 4 and in our passage today, have the same destination, identified as: the other side. He suggests that these journeys represent the passage to and from Jewish and Gentile territory, symbolic of the journey into the unknown, the foreign, the other side of humanity. 7 In the same way, we too are called to travel to the other side. We are not meant to make our homes on the boat, no matter how beautiful the boat. The boat is a vehicle for the journey. 4 Bartlett, D. L., & Taylor, B. B. (Eds.). (2010). Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide. Westminster John Knox Press. 5 Malbon, E. S. (1984). The Jesus of Mark and the Sea of Galilee. Journal of Biblical Literature, 103(3), Myers, C. (1988). Binding the strong man: A political reading of Mark's story of Jesus (p. 190). Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. 7 Myers, C. (1988). Binding the strong man: A political reading of Mark's story of Jesus (p. 190). Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. Page 4

5 In the verses that the lectionary omits from our Gospel passage today, Mark tells the story of the disciples getting caught in a storm on the lake, while trying to get to the other side. The Gospels never promise us that the crossing will be safe or pleasant. Grosse Pointe is a community with many borders, even containing within itself borders delineating the five adjacent cities. We border Lake St. Clair and have borders with Detroit, Harper Woods and St. Clair Shores. EdBuild, an educational non-profit, set out to investigate which bordering school districts in the United States have the highest disparity in childhood poverty rates. In 2016, they published their results in a report entitled Fault Lines. They identified America s 50 most segregating school district borders, with a focus on the top five neighbouring communities with the highest levels of disparity. The school district border separating Detroit Public Schools and the Grosse Pointe Public School System ranks as number one in the entire country, with a difference in school-age poverty of 42.7%. The national average of the difference between adjacent school districts is about 7%. Michigan is followed by neighbouring school districts in Alabama, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona. 8 Whenever I have received visitors, conversation inevitably arises about the stark change that they notice when crossing the border into Grosse Pointe at Alter Road, or the roundabout at Kercheval. During my curacy, in my role working with our outreach ministries here at Christ Church as we discerned our call to mission, I sensed a spiritual malaise and pain with regard to these borders especially those with Detroit and Harper Woods. I heard many times over a yearning and desire to bridge the chasm that exists between Grosse Pointe and Detroit. These are gifts to be embraced. There aren t easy answers, but the malaise and yearning will provide a compass charting the course towards relationship. Relationship that is vital to our spiritual health because we are enriched and made more whole by each 8 Page 5

6 other, especially those different than ourselves. Lilla Watson, an Indigenous Australian artist, activist and academic is quoted as saying: If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. 9 The reading from the Letter to the Ephesians tells us that Jesus has broken down the dividing wall, creating one humanity, one body, all citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, one holy temple for the dwelling place of God. Our liberation is bound up with one another s liberation, because when we are estranged from one another, we are also estranged from God. In v. 16, the author of the letter says: Christ s peace has reconciled both groups to God. We often forget that above and beyond the separation between class, race, gender, citizenship that human schisms create, these divisions also alienate us from the divine. Our reunion in Christ reunites us not only with one another, it is our path to reunion with God. 10 My hope and prayer for this community, as I prepare to disembark from our journey of ministry together, is that you may dwell with the stirrings of desire in the heart of this community. They will propel you outward, to respond to God s call to venture out on the sea and to follow Jesus route that leads into unknown territory, into new relationships and new life, where you will be a blessing to others and in turn, allow others to be a blessing to you Bartlett, D. L., & Taylor, B. B. (Eds.). (2010). Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide. Westminster John Knox Press. Page 6