Sermon by The Rev Chris Yaw, 9/11/2022
When I go to Canada and buy something for $1.39, the cashier makes me pay $1.40.
And when I buy something for $2.46, I'm only asked to pay $2.45.
"We have no pennies here," says the clerk, “They're just too much of a hassle, they're not worth anything."
Years ago, when I was a journalist, I was doing a story on a local drought and went to interview a farmer. We met in his barn as he was getting ready to plow the fields.
After our talk, he hopped on the tractor and started up the machine.
We heard a loud screech, and a cat came dashing out from underneath the tractor.
"Darn barn cats!" said the farmer, "They like to crawl up next to the engine where it's warm. Those pesky cats - we never even name ‘em, we go through too many of them around here."
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The expendability of both farm animals and coins take center stage in our Gospel this morning…
Only, unlike the Canadian government and a lot of farmers, Jesus has a different attitude towards the value of these things… which is where our sermon takes us today.
We find ourselves in the middle of the Gospel of Luke - where Jesus is offering advice and guidance in the formation of his followers. He wants to see them grow into mature believers in him and in his mission, confident followers, bold and enterprising disciples - why does he want that for them, why does he want that for us?
It's because the life lived in love is the best life.
The life lived in God is the best life
This life offers us the most fulfillment, purpose, and happiness we know. Jesus is all about those who follow him living an abundant life, not a life of scarcity and need, but a life of faith and abundance.
And I am aware that many of us find ourselves sitting in a pew, coming to church this morning not feeling like that at all!
We have had a week of being beaten up and beaten down by the problems that surround us. We have worries about our jobs, our health, the direction of our country, and the world. Gun violence takes center stage here and in Memphis - an abortion measure makes it onto the Michigan ballot - and the queen, the Queen! has proven what many people did not believe, that even she’s mortal! More on her later - Indeed, our world continues spinning so quickly that many of us have anxieties about our anxiety!
But friends, Jesus, our shepherd, knows that, and is here to do something about that - as we come together, to take a deep breath and get our bearings — gathered as Christ's body to more deeply understand Jesus and what he has to say to us this morning. We are looking to the only one we know who can give us the kinds of answers we need, to get to where we want to go.
And so, we will look at three lessons our Gospel teaches us this morning that moves us closer to that goal - three things God wants to teach us to bring us closer to living the life of love we desire to live - and we need look no further than to the south - into Canada…
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As YOU all know, but most of America doesn’t, Detroit is the only place in the U-S where one can look south, into Canada.
And upon what do we gaze? - but the automotive capital of The Great White North? - Windsor.
It was there where a nerdy 5 year old science prodigy named Mike Lazaridis immigrated from Turkey. Bright from birth, he, at age 12, won an award for reading every science book in the Windsor Public Library.
Lazaridis went on to the University of Waterloo, majoring in electrical engineering, and on the side, did some inventing… While still in college, he landed a contract with General Motors to build a network computer control display system - so he dropped out.
Then, Lazaridis developed a barcode technology used in motion pictures - it was a big deal - and won him both an Oscar and an Emmy.
That’s before he launched his most popular invention - an amazing little device, which you may have heard of - called the BlackBerry.
As you may recall, the first rendition of the BlackBerry was nothing more than a glorified pager, but one that could send and receive secure emails - something no other device could do at the time.
With a prototype in hand, one official headed to Nokia in Finland, the world cell phone leaders. They looked at it, asked a few questions, "Can you send a fax? Can you make a phone call? No?" So, they dismissed the BlackBerry as ‘a toy.'
This, of course, was not the case. And in a few short years, the Blackberry would be the device that created the smartphone industry - eventually holding 43% of the market - and way ahead of Apple and Google.
At its peak, it seemed that everyone had a BlackBerry - President Obama, Kim Kardashian, remember Kwame Kilpatrick’s? - and people loved them - earning it the slang title: Crackberry - that is - until the introduction of the Apple iPhone.
Initially, the iPhone was not that great - it had poor voice quality, poor security, lousy battery life, and, “What about the physical buttons?" chirped the skeptics, "Where were they? This wasn’t a business phone - it had a camera, a music platform, a touchscreen, and was obviously designed for the entertainment market."
Sitting atop his BlackBerry technology empire, which was bringing in billions of dollars a year, this is what Mike Lazaridis thought. Sure, he was well aware of this new product - he looked at it, couldn’t get past the entertainment features, then quickly dismissed the iPhone - guess what he called it? Lazaridis famously said, ‘It’s nothing more than "a toy."'
Lazaridis' refusal to take the iPhone’s features more seriously - especially the touchscreen - led to a tumble of massive proportions - BlackBerry’s 43% share of the smartphone market, in just 3 years, dropped to less than 6%.
There are many Business School case studies written about this tumble - some of them giving no insignificant weight to the hubris industry leaders can develop - which, as we see in our gospel - has applications far beyond the business world - as we hear the religious leaders of Jesus’ day ask: Who is ’this fellow [who] welcomes sinners and eats with them?’
Here we have the very segment of the population - the religious leaders - who are supposed to know God - but don’t recognize him at all. Shouldn’t Nokia know cell phone technology? Shouldn’t religious leaders recognize the appearance of the Divine?
Of course, that’s the case - but it’s much more easily said than done!
Historically, Christians have repeatedly gotten stuck in our comfy places of privilege -
Enslaved to predictable habits and routines -
Surrounding ourselves with the like-minded -
Which makes it too easy to close ourselves off to anything new -
Think of the battles over ordaining black people 200 years ago - ordaining women 50 years ago - ordaining gay people 25 years ago.
It is easy for us to fall prey to feeling entitled, superior, favored, and judgmental.
So, our first lesson, taught to us by those who were most critical of Jesus, is to embrace humility.
Be on guard against the temptation not to change.
Be open to ’the new.’
Don’t be quick to criticize things we’ve never seen before - or perhaps don’t understand.
But be open to the newness God is constantly bringing into the world.
How does this speak to us this morning?
What ’new thing’ is God trying to do in our lives?
In what ways do we close ourselves off to a new direction that’s on offer for us?
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Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday after a 70-year reign, reminds us of her namesake, Queen Elizabeth I, who died after a 44-year reign, and gives those of us who are named Elizabeth, brighter prospects about our life’s longevity...
But more importantly, it gives us all an encouraging example of a life lived in faith.
As one of the world's most recognizable and celebrated leaders for more than 7 decades, time and again, the Queen demonstrated how to keep one’s Christian faith personal and private, yet public and even global.
As you all know, the English monarch inherits certain religious responsibilities that affect us - as Episcopalians - who owe our heritage and our ongoing communion to the Anglican Church - of which the monarch is the ’Supreme Governor.’
At the monarch’s coronation an oath is taken to, "maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England.” These duties include appointing archbishops, bishops, and deans of the Church of England, as advised by the prime minister.
And what’s notable about the Queen was her deep faith in God. She embodied much more than a polite deference to historical tradition - but a living faith in a God she deeply believed to be her comfort, guide, and source of wisdom.
22 years ago, she said, “For me, the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provoke a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ’s words and example.”
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of her reign, she told an interfaith gathering: "Faith plays a key role in the identity of millions of people, providing not only a system of belief but also a sense of belonging.
"It can act as a spur for social action.
"Indeed, religious groups have a proud track record of helping those in the greatest need, including the sick, the elderly, the lonely and the disadvantaged.
"They remind us of the responsibilities we have beyond ourselves.”
And, germane to our sermon this morning is this request - that the Queen had made upon her ascension to the throne back in 1952.
Delivering her first Christmas Address, a tradition started by her grandfather King George V, the young Queen requested prayer for her upcoming coronation.
“I want to ask you all, whatever your religion may be, to pray for me on that day,” she said - "praying that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.”
Looks like God answers prayer….
The humility and self-knowledge exhibited by that prayer, in which she readily admits to the world her own human limitations and need for God's help, reminds us that more than one sheep out of 100 go missing, and that we all, at one time or another, get lost.
‘Lost’ is a big word in this morning's text - and in Luke’s Gospel, for that matter.
When we are lost, we are, for whatever reason, not where they are supposed to be, not where we want to be, not in a comfortable, safe place - we are worried, troubled, don't know where to go, and can't find our way.
Sure, those who are typically lost are the suicidal, the drunks, the addicts, the thieves, and prostitutes, but they are also parents, students, businessman, and nurses - all of us who wander from the Shepherd's path, choosing our own way instead of God's.
Getting lost happens to us all, even the Queen of England, and our text this morning invites us to search ourselves and ask in what ways are we lost - knowing that, many times, we don't know.
Frederick Douglass, the famous abolitionist, once recounted a story about a slave master who had gone to a religious meeting and found faith in Christ and gotten saved. His slaves, hearing about this, hoped that this would be reflected in his treatment of his slaves.
They noticed how he regularly went to church, studied his Bible, and even attended midweek religious services.
But they also noted that the severity of his punishment for his slaves did not decrease, but increased, as his religious fervor convinced him, even more, about the proper place and treatment of slaves.
In what ways are we utterly clueless about our lostness?
What kind of mirror do we need to look into?
What kind of friends do we need to consult?
In order to be found?
Admitting our need to be found can be the first step toward getting unlost.
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On vacation this summer, the children and I we're sitting on top of our truck watching a parade. A particularly well-dressed, elderly woman walked by and my son said,
“Is your middle name cheddar?”
The woman turned around, looking puzzled, and said,
“No. Why?”
And my son said,
"Because you look sharp!"
When I asked my son where he had learned such a corny line, he said it was from a tick tock channel, in which a tick tocker gets behind the wheel of a car, turns on the camera, and randomly stops people on the sidewalk and gives them a compliment:
“Your dress looks great!”
"I love your hair!”
"That's a gorgeous dog!"
The reactions of these pedestrians are just as you'd expect, they smile, they say, “Thank you!” And more than one notes that the comment made their day.
Everyday, this tick tocker, is out behind the wheel of her car, just looking for ways to brighten people's day, both individually, and then later, once these videos are edited and posted, to inspire millions of others.
The image we get in our Gospel of the Shepherd who leaves the sheep, of the woman who loses the coin, is that they don't sit around lamenting their loss, but they get up, and actively seek.
They are single-minded and focused on their goal. They are out to do good - to bring about restoration and welcomed wholeness to the world.
This morning’s Gospel shows us that God is actively seeking the lost sheep, in search of the lost coin, and on the prowl for you and me - to be found, by God - to discover abundance and fulfillment in the life lived in love.
Jesus is out there looking for us to draw nearer, to come closer, to drink from his well of fulfillment and Grace.
God says to all of us who are lost,
'I have not forgotten you.
'You have not slipped my mind.
'On the contrary, your predicament is my obsession:
'I am currently working overtime to get you out of your jam.
Like a Shepherd who leaves 99 sheep behind, to chase after the Lost One, hang on.
'I'm looking for you and I'm determined to find you.'
So, friends, don't give up.
Don't lose hope.
Our Gospel gives us these lessons:
Be open to newness
Own your lostness
And know that God is actively seeking out and saving the lost.
Your contentment is God's mission.
You're thriving is God's intent.
Your restoration is God's goal.
You are sought after.
And by God’s grace, you will be found.
You are worth all of God's time and energy to get back on track.
Amen.