Awe Is The Answer
Stories
Contents
Proper 25
A Sermon Starter: "Awe is the Answer" by Charles Cammarata
A Story To Live By: "Salvador's Testimony" by Constance Berg
Reformation Sunday
A Good Story: "What Is Truth?" by Sil Galvan
A Story To Live By: "Writing the Law Inside" by Frank R. Fisher
What's Up This Week
God is always challenging us. Whether it is the impending birth of a child, everyday living and dying, or just to be silent and listen to what God has to say. Each of the stories this week deals a little differently with God's challenge to us to live good lives.
A Sermon Starter
Awe is the Answer
By Charles Cammarata
Psalm 126; Job 42:1-6; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:46-52
The Job passage is one of my favorites. Here we have Job, after suffering calamity, after crying out to God, after having come into the presence of God. The thing I love about the passage is that God never answers Job's searching questions as to why such calamity had befallen him. Instead God simply appears before Job and Job is so overawed that his questions fade to black. It is God's way of saying, "Job, this is me in all my greatness. Don't you think you can trust me?"
In the months leading up to the birth of my first child I was often haunted by worries and doubts. I was twenty-two years old, still in college (as was my wife), working, and planning to enter seminary the following year. I had no more time in my life. How was I going to find time to help care for a child? How was I going to support this new little life? And most of all: Would I ever, amidst all of the plans, stresses, and requirements of life, find the energy to love a child. I wasn't ready! I needed more time. Maybe in a few years, but I didn't have a few years. The baby was on the way and I simply had to deal with it.
For several months I managed to focus on my work and schooling, outing the matter from my mind. Then the night of the birth arrived. At midnight my wife awakened me with labor pains. We quickly got to the hospital. And mercifully the labor was short. By 2:00 a.m. we were in the delivery room. Things moved so quickly I hardly had time to think.
"Breathe! Breathe! Okay, cleansing breath now. Good."
"Seven centimeters. Ten Centimeters. Here comes another contraction. There's the crown of the head. Push now! Push! That's it! We have a baby! A little girl."
A kiss for my wife, and, "You did so good baby."
And then it all came rushing back in again. "What if I couldn't do it? What if I was a failure as a father? What if I didn't love this baby? What if..."
That's when they brought my daughter to me and lay her in my arms. Seven pounds six ounces of wonderment. I had never seen someone so beautiful. My heart was smitten, but more than that. In those moments holding my little girl I was in the presence of God, Job like, and I could here God whispering to me, "Shhh be not afraid. I am here. I am always here." And the peace that passes understanding began to settle in my heart.
Today my little girl is twenty-five and has a little one of her own. And while I cannot say that I never worried about her again, or never felt as if I was failing her in some way, I can say that I have loved her, and my other children from the moment I laid eyes on them, and God has continued to be at my side guiding, strengthening, encouraging, comforting. In this case, my faith has healed me.
Charles Cammarata is the pastor of Fairview Presbyterian Church in Fairview, Pennsylvania. He is the author of the CSS titles Lighting The Flame and Lectionary Worship Workbook, and he has regularly contributed worship resources for The Immediate Word. Cammarata is a graduate of Duquesne University and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
Salvador's Testimony
by Constance Berg
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Salvador has a scar on his cheek that runs alongside his eye, from chin to forehead. When he was three, his brother was carrying him, and he tripped against the fence of the horse corral. They were on their way to feed the horses and were eager to finish. Salvador fell into the pen and a horse stepped on him, spooked by Salvador's sudden movement.
Although Salvador suffered great pain, he had miraculously escaped eye injury and brain damage from the huge animal's step. He healed well, though the scar was not stitched well. It was a ragged line, pinched in places. The scar was obvious even from a distance.
In his younger years, he was very self-conscious about the scar on his face. He tried makeup to hide it once, but he didn't think it looked natural. He tried to be quiet and reserved, but that wasn't how God made him. Salvador loved people; he was outgoing and he loved to talk.
When Salvador became a successful public speaker, he always brought up the accident and his scar. "You can't hide something like that," he would say. "That would be like trying to hide a third leg." Salvador chose instead to be open about it. He used his scar to point to God. He used it as a testimony.
But he didn't always have that confidence. When Salvador was in his early elementary days, the children had called him "monster" and "scarface." It had been very painful to see friends turn on him and join in with others to make fun of him. Salvador had wanted to run away at times, but in a small town, it was not possible. He had been forced to face the children. He had to make peace about what had happened to him.
He had found strength in that knowledge. Salvador was able to accept his face and his appearance. And he used it to point to God's miracles and overcoming negativity. Salvador triumphed from his fate in that he understood prejudice and discrimination. He had knowledge that he couldn't hide.
(Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit, Series II, Cycle B by Constance Berg, CSS Publishing Co., Inc. 1999, pp. 133-134)
A Good Story
What Is Truth?
By Sil Galvan
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, 'You will be made free'?"
Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there for ever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."
-- John 8:31-36
In this reading, our Lord speaks of three things: discipleship and truth, slavery to sin, and the will of the Father. First of all, John begins by saying that Jesus was speaking to the Jews who had believed in Him (that is how John had concluded the previous verse: because Jesus said these things, many came to believe in him). In order to learn anything from the Bible, we have to first understand that he is not only addressing the Jews, but also present-day believers. So here, Jesus is challenging his followers, namely us, to accept and live by his teachings. He says that if we do so, we will come to know the truth and the truth will set us free.
Truth is a favorite theme of John. Remember when Pilate was interrogating Jesus that he asked him "What is truth?" but our Lord gives no answer. Webster defines truth as what is real. In Greek, the words real and truth have the same root, alethes. But what is real? Is it the things of this earth or can it be something else? The Greek philosopher Plato believed that everything on earth was a mere shadow of its perfect counterpart in an unseen world. Every tree on earth is an imperfect image of the perfect tree, every flower is an imperfect image of the perfect flower in another world. Thus, he believed that even humans are imperfect replicas of another perfection. So, in actuality, what we see, touch, and hear is not real, it is not true. What is real is not of this world. As the Little Prince said, "What is important is invisible to the eye," it lies in the unseen world, the world of perfection, or the world of the Spirit. Christ is reality come to earth from the unseen world, whose teachings are revealed to us by the Spirit.
If what we see is not real, or true, then, oddly enough, truth implies faith (or trust, from the Latin word fides) in what is unseen. Of course, Jesus knew the truth and he willingly sacrificed his life for it, so that we could also come to know it.
Back in the sixties, we used to say that this was "heavy" stuff. But what does it mean for us? As disciples, we must keep our Lord's commands and strive each day to learn more and more about the truth, about what is real, what is important, what is unseen and unknown. This demands constant reflection and meditation to discern the inspiration of the Spirit through the words of Jesus. There is no better place to start than with the gospel of John, which many believe should be called the gospel according to the Holy Spirit because of the inspiration that is obviously contained in it.
In this reading, our Lord also speaks of slavery to sin. If you think about it, whenever we sin, it is the sin that controls us, not we who control the sin. If we are angry, then our anger gets in the way of our interaction with another person, clouds our reasoning, and consumes us.
We cannot love and be angry at the same time. Barclay says: "We can allow a certain pleasure to so master us that we cannot do without it. We can allow some self-indulgence to so dominate us that we are powerless to break away from it. We can get into such a state that we both hate and love our sins at one and the same time. So far from doing what we like, the sinner has lost the power to do what should be done.
We have become a slave to the habits, the self-indulgences, the wrong pleasures that have mastered us. This is precisely our Lord's point: no one who sins can ever be said to be free."
One of the first books that I ever read which discusses this power of sin is The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis. In it, characters from hell are given one chance to leave their sins behind and enter heaven. Most of the characters are unable to do so, except for one. He is a slave to the sin of lust, which is personified by a lizard on his shoulder. An angel approaches him and offers to rid him of the lizard. At first he agrees, but as the angel gets closer, he has second thoughts. He wavers back and forth, giving all the reasons for both keeping it and getting rid of it. Finally, he agrees. The angel takes the lizard and throws it on the ground, where it is transformed into a beautiful stallion. The newly freed man mounts it and rides off into heaven. If you ever get the opportunity, I would highly recommend this book because I cannot do it justice in these few sentences.
In his parables, our Lord often speaks of the role of the servant or slave. In his own life, and especially through his passion and death, he took on the role of the slave. In washing the feet of his disciples, he did what even a slave was not required to do. The scourging which he endured before the crucifixion was only inflicted on unfaithful slaves. He became a slave for us so that we would be slaves no longer but a son in the house of his Father.
In his final words in this reading, Jesus says: "I have come not of my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me." If we are truly his disciples, one of the most difficult demands we face is to understand God's will for us. The other three evangelists note in their gospels that Jesus spoke almost the same words in the Garden of Gethsemane as in this reading: "Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." God's will was not easy, even for Jesus to accept. In fact, Luke related that his sweat became as drops of blood falling on the ground.
When times are the most difficult (i.e., when someone we love is suffering or dying or has died) and we ask why, how could God let this happen, we need to remember that our Lord asked the same questions when he walked among us on earth: "Father, if this cup" and "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" If we have faith, if we have trust, we will know that God will give us the strength to deal with the situation, just as he sent an angel to comfort our Lord during his passion. That is the true meaning of the peace of Christ for believers: acceptance of the Father's will, as difficult as it may be. As Christ showed us: Not as I will, but your will be done.
Silverius "Sil" Galvan is a deacon at the Catholic Community of Saint Mary of the Lake in Lakewood, New Jersey. He has been involved in music ministry as an organist, guitarist, and sometime cantor for more than four decades. Galvan also operates www.deaconsil.com, a website offering extensive homiletic resources.
A Story To Live By
Writing the Law Inside
Frank Fisher
Jeremiah 31:31-34
"This is boring!"
Abigail's screech registered her disapproval to all those around. It especially registered with her teacher; the one whose ear had been less than an inch from Abigail's open mouth.
"Now Abigail," the teacher replied. "It's very important for us to have good penmanship! How will someone be able to understand the messages we carry if they're illegible?"
Abigail didn't immediately reply. But her face conveyed her dislike of the teacher's stuffy reply.
"Why can't they find someone other than archangels to teach these classes," she thought to herself. "They're so, so stiff you could use them for a slate to write on."
Raphael, who was assigned as the penmanship teacher for this eon, simply sighed. He knew, from the look on Abigail's face, exactly what she was thinking. He was more than a bit perturbed. But since Abigail was a very young angel, he restrained himself and suggested something that might interest her.
"Okay, Abigail," he said, "if this is so boring why don't we try a field trip instead?"
Abigail, in her typically restrained fashion threw her pen so far up in the air that it hit a passing Seraph. "Yippee," she yelled as she put her books away and followed Raphael to the classroom door.
"Where are we going?" Abigail demanded as she bounced up and down on her way down the hallway. "Where are we going? Are we there yet?"
"Now Abigail," Raphael replied. "You must calm down and behave yourself. We're going to the calligraphy shop. And the Calligrapher might not be too happy if you were to bounce into something breakable."
Abigail immediately settled down. "The calligraphy shop," she thought to herself over and over.
"No one had ever taken me to someplace as important as that!"
So the two angels preceded calmly down the long, brilliantly lit, halls of heaven until they reached the door to their destination. The door itself was incredibly beautiful. It was covered with a marvelous design inscribed on the wood with shining golden ink.
"That is the Calligrapher's design for creation," Raphael said, as he pointed out each detail to his very young charge.
"But what is that horrible blot there in the very center?" Abigail asked.
"That's what humans have done to creation," the Archangel replied. "They've been given both the Calligrapher's love and the Calligrapher's law. But they've turned away from both. They've blotted the beauty of the Calligrapher's design for them."
Then opening the door he ushered his charge inside. And there at the workbench right in front of them was the Calligrapher and the Apprentice. They didn't seem to notice their visitors at first for they were completely immersed in their tasks.
Seeing they were in the presence of divinity Raphael threw himself down in worship before the workbench. But the presence of the Calligrapher, the One who designed and created all there is and the Apprentice, the Calligrapher's Child didn't put any damper at all on Abigail's excitement.
"What are you doing?" she blurted out. "What are all these things on the shelves? And what's that on the bench? It looks messy!"
Smiling at the angel's excitement the Calligrapher left the workbench and offered to give Abigail a tour. First he showed her some flowing words. They shimmered in the air, as they twisted and whirled all around the Calligraphy shop.
"What are these words?" Abigail asked with a voice filled with wonder.
"This is the covenant I made with humans," the Calligrapher replied. "This is their promise to me to follow my law. It's also my promise to them to always love them and care for them."
"But why is it here?" Abigail queried. "Why isn't it with the humans who made this deal with you?"
"Human beings broke the covenant," the Calligrapher sadly replied. "Un-written words apparently weren't enough for them. They turned their back on me. But I didn't give up on them. Here, look at this. This is the next way I used to reach them."
Abigail gaped at the enormous stone tablets standing before them. She could see they were written with the Calligrapher's love, and filled with the Calligrapher's law.
"I gave these tablets to my servant Moses," the Calligrapher told Abigail. This is actually the third set. Moses broke the first one when he saw the horrible things other humans were doing. So I gave him a replacement. But I kept this set on hand in case he had another temper tantrum."
"If Moses only broke the first set, why is this one broken too?" Abigail inquired as she pointed to a huge crack running right through the middle of the stone tablet.
At this question, the Calligrapher sighed deeply and hesitated for a long moment. Then with a very disappointed, and pain filled tone came the answer to Abigail's question.
"They broke this, too," the Calligrapher informed her. "I gave them a way of life meant to keep them in contract with me; laws meant to guide them on their path. And they again turned aside from me. They broke my law. They broke my heart. But I still haven't given up on them. Come and see the task my Child is working on. Come see the way I will bring my law and way to them; a way that will reach them through all eternity."
The Calligrapher turned and led Abigail back to where the Apprentice was bent over the cluttered workbench. Abigail again looked at the bench and saw something she thought was very, very messy. For a moment she thought it was so messy she couldn't bear to look. Then, with her curiosity overcoming her squeamishness, she approached the bench. She saw the Apprentice was actually writing on a human heart! And when she looked closer she could see the writing was done with a piece of blood-stained wood she somehow knew was called a cross.
As Abigail looked at the Apprentice's work with a mixture of wonder and horror, the Calligrapher bent down and whispered in her ear. Immediately she ran over to the place where Raphael still groveled on the floor, grabbed him by the arm, and yelled, "Come on. I need to get back to penmanship practice."
With Raphael trailing behind her Abigail raced through the heavenly halls, threw herself down at her desk, and began to practice her handwriting. For days and days, without a single break she practiced until finally Raphael reluctantly agreed that her writing was perfect. Then Abigail opened her desk, took out her finest paper, and inscribed the words the Calligrapher had whispered to her. And crying aloud with that same mixture of wonder and horror she'd felt as she beheld the Apprentice's work, Abigail soared through the heavens to deliver the Calligrapher's words to a man named Jeremiah.
"The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: a covenant they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."
Frank R. Fisher, Obl OSB, is a second-career interim/transitional pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He currently serves as the interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Bushnell, Illinois. During the final years of his first career as a paramedic and administrator for the Chicago Fire Department, Fisher graduated from McCormick Theological Seminary and was ordained. He is an Oblate of the ecumenical Abbey of John the Baptist and Saint Benedict in Bartonville, Illinois, where he has joined the rapidly growing number of those who are called to follow Saint Benedict's rule.
**********************************************
How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here share-a-story@csspub.com and email the story to us.
**************
StoryShare, October 29, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
Proper 25
A Sermon Starter: "Awe is the Answer" by Charles Cammarata
A Story To Live By: "Salvador's Testimony" by Constance Berg
Reformation Sunday
A Good Story: "What Is Truth?" by Sil Galvan
A Story To Live By: "Writing the Law Inside" by Frank R. Fisher
What's Up This Week
God is always challenging us. Whether it is the impending birth of a child, everyday living and dying, or just to be silent and listen to what God has to say. Each of the stories this week deals a little differently with God's challenge to us to live good lives.
A Sermon Starter
Awe is the Answer
By Charles Cammarata
Psalm 126; Job 42:1-6; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:46-52
The Job passage is one of my favorites. Here we have Job, after suffering calamity, after crying out to God, after having come into the presence of God. The thing I love about the passage is that God never answers Job's searching questions as to why such calamity had befallen him. Instead God simply appears before Job and Job is so overawed that his questions fade to black. It is God's way of saying, "Job, this is me in all my greatness. Don't you think you can trust me?"
In the months leading up to the birth of my first child I was often haunted by worries and doubts. I was twenty-two years old, still in college (as was my wife), working, and planning to enter seminary the following year. I had no more time in my life. How was I going to find time to help care for a child? How was I going to support this new little life? And most of all: Would I ever, amidst all of the plans, stresses, and requirements of life, find the energy to love a child. I wasn't ready! I needed more time. Maybe in a few years, but I didn't have a few years. The baby was on the way and I simply had to deal with it.
For several months I managed to focus on my work and schooling, outing the matter from my mind. Then the night of the birth arrived. At midnight my wife awakened me with labor pains. We quickly got to the hospital. And mercifully the labor was short. By 2:00 a.m. we were in the delivery room. Things moved so quickly I hardly had time to think.
"Breathe! Breathe! Okay, cleansing breath now. Good."
"Seven centimeters. Ten Centimeters. Here comes another contraction. There's the crown of the head. Push now! Push! That's it! We have a baby! A little girl."
A kiss for my wife, and, "You did so good baby."
And then it all came rushing back in again. "What if I couldn't do it? What if I was a failure as a father? What if I didn't love this baby? What if..."
That's when they brought my daughter to me and lay her in my arms. Seven pounds six ounces of wonderment. I had never seen someone so beautiful. My heart was smitten, but more than that. In those moments holding my little girl I was in the presence of God, Job like, and I could here God whispering to me, "Shhh be not afraid. I am here. I am always here." And the peace that passes understanding began to settle in my heart.
Today my little girl is twenty-five and has a little one of her own. And while I cannot say that I never worried about her again, or never felt as if I was failing her in some way, I can say that I have loved her, and my other children from the moment I laid eyes on them, and God has continued to be at my side guiding, strengthening, encouraging, comforting. In this case, my faith has healed me.
Charles Cammarata is the pastor of Fairview Presbyterian Church in Fairview, Pennsylvania. He is the author of the CSS titles Lighting The Flame and Lectionary Worship Workbook, and he has regularly contributed worship resources for The Immediate Word. Cammarata is a graduate of Duquesne University and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
Salvador's Testimony
by Constance Berg
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Salvador has a scar on his cheek that runs alongside his eye, from chin to forehead. When he was three, his brother was carrying him, and he tripped against the fence of the horse corral. They were on their way to feed the horses and were eager to finish. Salvador fell into the pen and a horse stepped on him, spooked by Salvador's sudden movement.
Although Salvador suffered great pain, he had miraculously escaped eye injury and brain damage from the huge animal's step. He healed well, though the scar was not stitched well. It was a ragged line, pinched in places. The scar was obvious even from a distance.
In his younger years, he was very self-conscious about the scar on his face. He tried makeup to hide it once, but he didn't think it looked natural. He tried to be quiet and reserved, but that wasn't how God made him. Salvador loved people; he was outgoing and he loved to talk.
When Salvador became a successful public speaker, he always brought up the accident and his scar. "You can't hide something like that," he would say. "That would be like trying to hide a third leg." Salvador chose instead to be open about it. He used his scar to point to God. He used it as a testimony.
But he didn't always have that confidence. When Salvador was in his early elementary days, the children had called him "monster" and "scarface." It had been very painful to see friends turn on him and join in with others to make fun of him. Salvador had wanted to run away at times, but in a small town, it was not possible. He had been forced to face the children. He had to make peace about what had happened to him.
He had found strength in that knowledge. Salvador was able to accept his face and his appearance. And he used it to point to God's miracles and overcoming negativity. Salvador triumphed from his fate in that he understood prejudice and discrimination. He had knowledge that he couldn't hide.
(Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit, Series II, Cycle B by Constance Berg, CSS Publishing Co., Inc. 1999, pp. 133-134)
A Good Story
What Is Truth?
By Sil Galvan
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, 'You will be made free'?"
Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there for ever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."
-- John 8:31-36
In this reading, our Lord speaks of three things: discipleship and truth, slavery to sin, and the will of the Father. First of all, John begins by saying that Jesus was speaking to the Jews who had believed in Him (that is how John had concluded the previous verse: because Jesus said these things, many came to believe in him). In order to learn anything from the Bible, we have to first understand that he is not only addressing the Jews, but also present-day believers. So here, Jesus is challenging his followers, namely us, to accept and live by his teachings. He says that if we do so, we will come to know the truth and the truth will set us free.
Truth is a favorite theme of John. Remember when Pilate was interrogating Jesus that he asked him "What is truth?" but our Lord gives no answer. Webster defines truth as what is real. In Greek, the words real and truth have the same root, alethes. But what is real? Is it the things of this earth or can it be something else? The Greek philosopher Plato believed that everything on earth was a mere shadow of its perfect counterpart in an unseen world. Every tree on earth is an imperfect image of the perfect tree, every flower is an imperfect image of the perfect flower in another world. Thus, he believed that even humans are imperfect replicas of another perfection. So, in actuality, what we see, touch, and hear is not real, it is not true. What is real is not of this world. As the Little Prince said, "What is important is invisible to the eye," it lies in the unseen world, the world of perfection, or the world of the Spirit. Christ is reality come to earth from the unseen world, whose teachings are revealed to us by the Spirit.
If what we see is not real, or true, then, oddly enough, truth implies faith (or trust, from the Latin word fides) in what is unseen. Of course, Jesus knew the truth and he willingly sacrificed his life for it, so that we could also come to know it.
Back in the sixties, we used to say that this was "heavy" stuff. But what does it mean for us? As disciples, we must keep our Lord's commands and strive each day to learn more and more about the truth, about what is real, what is important, what is unseen and unknown. This demands constant reflection and meditation to discern the inspiration of the Spirit through the words of Jesus. There is no better place to start than with the gospel of John, which many believe should be called the gospel according to the Holy Spirit because of the inspiration that is obviously contained in it.
In this reading, our Lord also speaks of slavery to sin. If you think about it, whenever we sin, it is the sin that controls us, not we who control the sin. If we are angry, then our anger gets in the way of our interaction with another person, clouds our reasoning, and consumes us.
We cannot love and be angry at the same time. Barclay says: "We can allow a certain pleasure to so master us that we cannot do without it. We can allow some self-indulgence to so dominate us that we are powerless to break away from it. We can get into such a state that we both hate and love our sins at one and the same time. So far from doing what we like, the sinner has lost the power to do what should be done.
We have become a slave to the habits, the self-indulgences, the wrong pleasures that have mastered us. This is precisely our Lord's point: no one who sins can ever be said to be free."
One of the first books that I ever read which discusses this power of sin is The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis. In it, characters from hell are given one chance to leave their sins behind and enter heaven. Most of the characters are unable to do so, except for one. He is a slave to the sin of lust, which is personified by a lizard on his shoulder. An angel approaches him and offers to rid him of the lizard. At first he agrees, but as the angel gets closer, he has second thoughts. He wavers back and forth, giving all the reasons for both keeping it and getting rid of it. Finally, he agrees. The angel takes the lizard and throws it on the ground, where it is transformed into a beautiful stallion. The newly freed man mounts it and rides off into heaven. If you ever get the opportunity, I would highly recommend this book because I cannot do it justice in these few sentences.
In his parables, our Lord often speaks of the role of the servant or slave. In his own life, and especially through his passion and death, he took on the role of the slave. In washing the feet of his disciples, he did what even a slave was not required to do. The scourging which he endured before the crucifixion was only inflicted on unfaithful slaves. He became a slave for us so that we would be slaves no longer but a son in the house of his Father.
In his final words in this reading, Jesus says: "I have come not of my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me." If we are truly his disciples, one of the most difficult demands we face is to understand God's will for us. The other three evangelists note in their gospels that Jesus spoke almost the same words in the Garden of Gethsemane as in this reading: "Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." God's will was not easy, even for Jesus to accept. In fact, Luke related that his sweat became as drops of blood falling on the ground.
When times are the most difficult (i.e., when someone we love is suffering or dying or has died) and we ask why, how could God let this happen, we need to remember that our Lord asked the same questions when he walked among us on earth: "Father, if this cup" and "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" If we have faith, if we have trust, we will know that God will give us the strength to deal with the situation, just as he sent an angel to comfort our Lord during his passion. That is the true meaning of the peace of Christ for believers: acceptance of the Father's will, as difficult as it may be. As Christ showed us: Not as I will, but your will be done.
Silverius "Sil" Galvan is a deacon at the Catholic Community of Saint Mary of the Lake in Lakewood, New Jersey. He has been involved in music ministry as an organist, guitarist, and sometime cantor for more than four decades. Galvan also operates www.deaconsil.com, a website offering extensive homiletic resources.
A Story To Live By
Writing the Law Inside
Frank Fisher
Jeremiah 31:31-34
"This is boring!"
Abigail's screech registered her disapproval to all those around. It especially registered with her teacher; the one whose ear had been less than an inch from Abigail's open mouth.
"Now Abigail," the teacher replied. "It's very important for us to have good penmanship! How will someone be able to understand the messages we carry if they're illegible?"
Abigail didn't immediately reply. But her face conveyed her dislike of the teacher's stuffy reply.
"Why can't they find someone other than archangels to teach these classes," she thought to herself. "They're so, so stiff you could use them for a slate to write on."
Raphael, who was assigned as the penmanship teacher for this eon, simply sighed. He knew, from the look on Abigail's face, exactly what she was thinking. He was more than a bit perturbed. But since Abigail was a very young angel, he restrained himself and suggested something that might interest her.
"Okay, Abigail," he said, "if this is so boring why don't we try a field trip instead?"
Abigail, in her typically restrained fashion threw her pen so far up in the air that it hit a passing Seraph. "Yippee," she yelled as she put her books away and followed Raphael to the classroom door.
"Where are we going?" Abigail demanded as she bounced up and down on her way down the hallway. "Where are we going? Are we there yet?"
"Now Abigail," Raphael replied. "You must calm down and behave yourself. We're going to the calligraphy shop. And the Calligrapher might not be too happy if you were to bounce into something breakable."
Abigail immediately settled down. "The calligraphy shop," she thought to herself over and over.
"No one had ever taken me to someplace as important as that!"
So the two angels preceded calmly down the long, brilliantly lit, halls of heaven until they reached the door to their destination. The door itself was incredibly beautiful. It was covered with a marvelous design inscribed on the wood with shining golden ink.
"That is the Calligrapher's design for creation," Raphael said, as he pointed out each detail to his very young charge.
"But what is that horrible blot there in the very center?" Abigail asked.
"That's what humans have done to creation," the Archangel replied. "They've been given both the Calligrapher's love and the Calligrapher's law. But they've turned away from both. They've blotted the beauty of the Calligrapher's design for them."
Then opening the door he ushered his charge inside. And there at the workbench right in front of them was the Calligrapher and the Apprentice. They didn't seem to notice their visitors at first for they were completely immersed in their tasks.
Seeing they were in the presence of divinity Raphael threw himself down in worship before the workbench. But the presence of the Calligrapher, the One who designed and created all there is and the Apprentice, the Calligrapher's Child didn't put any damper at all on Abigail's excitement.
"What are you doing?" she blurted out. "What are all these things on the shelves? And what's that on the bench? It looks messy!"
Smiling at the angel's excitement the Calligrapher left the workbench and offered to give Abigail a tour. First he showed her some flowing words. They shimmered in the air, as they twisted and whirled all around the Calligraphy shop.
"What are these words?" Abigail asked with a voice filled with wonder.
"This is the covenant I made with humans," the Calligrapher replied. "This is their promise to me to follow my law. It's also my promise to them to always love them and care for them."
"But why is it here?" Abigail queried. "Why isn't it with the humans who made this deal with you?"
"Human beings broke the covenant," the Calligrapher sadly replied. "Un-written words apparently weren't enough for them. They turned their back on me. But I didn't give up on them. Here, look at this. This is the next way I used to reach them."
Abigail gaped at the enormous stone tablets standing before them. She could see they were written with the Calligrapher's love, and filled with the Calligrapher's law.
"I gave these tablets to my servant Moses," the Calligrapher told Abigail. This is actually the third set. Moses broke the first one when he saw the horrible things other humans were doing. So I gave him a replacement. But I kept this set on hand in case he had another temper tantrum."
"If Moses only broke the first set, why is this one broken too?" Abigail inquired as she pointed to a huge crack running right through the middle of the stone tablet.
At this question, the Calligrapher sighed deeply and hesitated for a long moment. Then with a very disappointed, and pain filled tone came the answer to Abigail's question.
"They broke this, too," the Calligrapher informed her. "I gave them a way of life meant to keep them in contract with me; laws meant to guide them on their path. And they again turned aside from me. They broke my law. They broke my heart. But I still haven't given up on them. Come and see the task my Child is working on. Come see the way I will bring my law and way to them; a way that will reach them through all eternity."
The Calligrapher turned and led Abigail back to where the Apprentice was bent over the cluttered workbench. Abigail again looked at the bench and saw something she thought was very, very messy. For a moment she thought it was so messy she couldn't bear to look. Then, with her curiosity overcoming her squeamishness, she approached the bench. She saw the Apprentice was actually writing on a human heart! And when she looked closer she could see the writing was done with a piece of blood-stained wood she somehow knew was called a cross.
As Abigail looked at the Apprentice's work with a mixture of wonder and horror, the Calligrapher bent down and whispered in her ear. Immediately she ran over to the place where Raphael still groveled on the floor, grabbed him by the arm, and yelled, "Come on. I need to get back to penmanship practice."
With Raphael trailing behind her Abigail raced through the heavenly halls, threw herself down at her desk, and began to practice her handwriting. For days and days, without a single break she practiced until finally Raphael reluctantly agreed that her writing was perfect. Then Abigail opened her desk, took out her finest paper, and inscribed the words the Calligrapher had whispered to her. And crying aloud with that same mixture of wonder and horror she'd felt as she beheld the Apprentice's work, Abigail soared through the heavens to deliver the Calligrapher's words to a man named Jeremiah.
"The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: a covenant they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."
Frank R. Fisher, Obl OSB, is a second-career interim/transitional pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He currently serves as the interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Bushnell, Illinois. During the final years of his first career as a paramedic and administrator for the Chicago Fire Department, Fisher graduated from McCormick Theological Seminary and was ordained. He is an Oblate of the ecumenical Abbey of John the Baptist and Saint Benedict in Bartonville, Illinois, where he has joined the rapidly growing number of those who are called to follow Saint Benedict's rule.
**********************************************
How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here share-a-story@csspub.com and email the story to us.
**************
StoryShare, October 29, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
