+Sermon (24 SAP 11 Luke, St Nicholas Sunday) December 4, 2016 St Nicholas, Arius, and Copy Machines

Transcription

1 +Sermon (24 SAP 11 Luke, St Nicholas Sunday) December 4, 2016 St Nicholas, Arius, and Copy Machines Our Saint Nicholas is a person of humility and love. He is a man who brings joy and relief and protection to many, both long ago and still today. A person of generosity, and self-sacrifice. His Feast is a celebration of light and joy. The Kingdom is especially close to us on the days around December 6. And Saint Nicholas points beyond himself to even greater things. He points always to Christ, whose birth we celebrate in just three weeks. But Nicholas has that one episode. That one uh-oh moment. In 325 at the first council of Nicaea, at a time when Bishops are gathered from across the empire, Nicholas grows so frustrated with Arius that he decides to argue, not with his words, but with his fists. Arius teaches that Jesus was a good man, but that Jesus is not God. Arius teaches that Jesus is a creature, created by God at some point in time. Gentle Nicholas turns green, busts his shirt, and goes Hulk smash on Arius. He lays Arius flat in the assembly of bishops right in from of the emperor. *** Nicholas gets into trouble. He gets into trouble. And it is only a vision of Mary and Christ that saves him and allows him to continue serving the church as a bishop. Slugging Arius is not a wise choice. But I know how he feels. Let me tell you about the Arius in my life. The weekly bulletin. I have been at Saint Nicholas for 6.5 years, and like most pastors, I try and put out a printed weekly bulletin with hymns and readings and announcements. But I am not like most pastors. I am schlimazel. Consistently unlucky and accident prone. In 6.5 years I have done battle on a nearly weekly basis with a series of 3 copy machines, whom I call Arius Sr., Arius Jr, and Arius III. What should take an hour or two will often take half a day. These machines laugh at me. Inventing new ways each week to break down or misfire. I am expert on the guts of copy machines. I open them, and push and pull and pray. Sometimes my hands are bruised and bloodied, I wonder if on Sunday I can hold a chalice and give communion. We change machines, and life if ok for a bit. But I am a schlimazel. Good fortune never lasts. Printing the weekly bulletin is a 12-round prize fight. I usually win. But it ain t easy. And yesterday it happened again. I had 10 things on my to-do list. But the copy machine said think twice, Father Xerox. Two more hours of scrambling and pleading. And as usual I gave up, and drove to Staples. My home away from home. Copy machine Disney Land. 1

2 The weekly bulletin is my little Arius. I have tried using reason. I have suffered the insults. And now it is time to cut it loose. The whole drive to Staples I m saying that s it, I m done. The weekly bulletin is dead to me. *** Brothers and sisters, there is no gift of greater value than Jesus Christ. And sometimes, when something stands between myself and my Christ, despite all the prayer and hard work to bring healing to a situation, we have to make a decisive change. The weekly bulletin is a silly example, but the evil one often uses the small and the silly and the petty to trip us up. He will find ways to poison our day of preparation. He will find ways to crowd our minds with every thought except the thought of entering the Kingdom. Satan wants to entangle us so that we cannot set sail for the kingdom. He wants to exchange our good anchors with bad ones. Anchors that are too heavy. Anchors that cannot be retrieved. We cannot sail for the Kingdom if we are stuck at sea, weighed down in worldly waters by earthly cares that we need to set aside. The world is full of anchors that keep us standing still. Entanglements that keep us from loving God and loving our neighbor with all that we have. And sometimes, we have to cut those anchors loose. My experience with the weekly bulletin is a minor entanglement. It s a small anchor. It bedevils my readiness for Saturday and Sunday. For St Nicholas and for the Church, Arius was a big anchor. Arius belittled the importance of Christ as Savior and Son of God. But between these two anchors, the small and the big, there are so many more. Anchors come in every shape and size. This morning we are gathered in the church s nave. I love this word. The word nave is related to words like navy and navigation. The nave is a ship. This is our ark. And in this ship we set sail for the Kingdom. Every Sunday. Every Feast Day. But are there anchors, brothers and sisters, that keep us from arriving? Are there anchors, too heavy to lift, which stop us from sailing into the Kingdom on Sundays? Do we fail to prepare ourselves to arrive on Sundays, in a spirit of repentance but always made bold by God s love to meet Him at the chalice. Maybe our Sunday anchor is church business, or church gossip, or coffee hour. If we cannot lift those anchors and leave the world for these few hours, then the anchors are too heavy. Find a way to cut them. Maybe our focus on Sundays is not Christ. Maybe the singers focus on their folders. The servers focus on their feet. Some focus on other s bad behavior. Some focus on the little that subtracts from joy, rather than the river of joy that flows from the Kingdom into this place. If 2

3 our focus keeps us earthbound, if we cannot lift that anchor and sail, then the anchors are too heavy. *** St John Chrysostom, in the generation after St Nicholas, has this beautiful vision of a lifegiving relationship between what he calls the big church and the little church. This big church is the Eucharistic assembly, you and I here and now celebrating the divine liturgy as baptized members of the messianic community. The little church is the home. It where we live and seek salvation on a daily basis. And if the if the Big Church has a nave. So does the little church. Your home is a nave. Your family is a ship for sailing into the kingdom. Your home is a place where Christ desires to be found and cherished. Are there anchors at home, too heavy to lift, which keep us in place, far from the kingdom? Do we pray more, or plan more? Do we read Scripture, or surf the web? Do we talk and share, or do we avoid and enable? Have we grown comfortable with the heavy and ponderous routines that shut down honesty, that crush compassion and humility? Is family life tied down to earthly cares too heavy to lift? Are there anchors that keep the little church from sailing into the Kingdom? If so, find a way to cut them. And finally, alongside our churches and our homes, there is the human heart. The human heart is also a sailing vessel, invited to the Kingdom. Are there anchors of the heart, too heavy to lift, which keep us in place, tied down and leagues away from the Kingdom? Are we tied down by shame or anger or jealousy or hopelessness? Do I care more about myself than others? More about me, myself, and I, than about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Do we need the help of others to get us through painful times? But do we refuse to seek help, weighed down by embarrassment or self-loathing or pride? Those are deadly anchors that need to be cut. Make a phone call. Send an . Schedule an appointment. Follow up. Get a second opinion. Don t take no for an answer. The winds of the Holy Spirit will fill your sails. Your heart will sail once again. Brothers and sisters, Arius was an anchor that Nicholas cut free. You and I have many anchors in need of the same. But give thanks to God that this day, we are here. This day, Christ comes to us. On these waters, these days of early December 2016, Jesus of Nazareth walks on the stormy seas and he finds us. And he lifts the anchors that we cannot, and he sails us into the Kingdom. 3

4 It s a kingdom of joy. Where hunger gives way to fullness. Where weeping gives way to laughter. And where St Nicholas leads all the saints and angels in a riot of song and worship before the life-giving throne of God. It s a continuous and cosmic liturgy that we join this day, uniting in the one Christ who presides here the realms of the living and the dead. Welcome to a liturgy that has no end. And no weekly bulletin. 4

5 No more bulletins Do a Thursday/Friday Getting ready for Church Hymns Scripture readings Saints Prayers before communion Prayer list Nicholas and Arius I know how he feels Copy machines!!,,, letting go whatever does not contribute to the kingdom. ************************* 5