Sermon for May 9, 2021 - The Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B, The Rev. Jeffrey W. Mello

Easter Six– Year B

Preached on May 9, 2018 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brookline, MA

The Reverend Jeffrey W. Mello

This morning is my last Sunday with you before I leave for an extended time away.   Part sabbatical and part vacation, I will leave on Thursday for three months, returning on Monday, August 16th.

Many of you have expressed your wishes to me that this time be what it is God wants it to be.  That is my prayer, too.  I hope I am open to what it is God has in store to show me, teach me, and feed me in the wilderness of stepping outside of the tasks and routines in which I can lose myself and that can come to define me, if I’m not careful.

I pray that I will return to you grounded, once again, in the love of God as made manifest in Jesus; centered in the love Jesus prays that each one of us will come to know.  I ask you for your prayers during this time.  They will sustain me, and I will need them.

Some of you have told me that you are jealous of me.  I completely understand.  What a privilege it is to work in an institution that understands and honors the need for sabbath rest, for the sake of the health not only of the individuals, but for the health of the communities and institutions they serve.  I wish each of you had this gift in your own life and vocation.  Alas, we live in a culture in which earned vacation time remains unused and working while sick is rewarded.

When my dad retired, his last day at work was almost two and a half years, I believe, before he actually retired, finally using the time he had accumulated.  My dad was very proud of his attendance record.  Given how little time he had to live after retirement, though, I wish he would have enjoyed it more as it came to him.

Some of you have let me know how glad you are I am taking my sabbatical time now and you’ve added, very lovingly, how much you believe I deserve it.

Per my earlier comments, I think we all deserve it. Especially after the heart breaking and emotionally draining experience of the past 15 months.

And I pray you will find whatever time you can to grieve what you need to grieve, heal what needs healing and renew and re-create yourself.  

Taking sabbath is a commandment.  And following God’s commandments is, Jesus tells us, how it is we are to love God.  Show your love for God.  Take a day off just to be with God, if you can.  If that thought terrifies you, you probably need it more than you think.

And you deserve it.  Not because of what you do, but because of who you are -- a child of God.

We get so caught up in notions of deserving and worthiness.  Without even thinking, we apply this economy to everything from time off to tragedy or illness.  “She didn’t deserve that diagnosis.”  Who does?

This very human way of thinking about receiving what we deserve and deserving what we receive stands at odds with God’s economy.  In God’s economy, we are not given what we deserve, we are not given what we are worthy of receiving and we are not given what we have earned.  In God’s economy, we are given simply what we have been promised.  We are given freely what God gives us not because of what we do, or don’t do, but simply because of who we are.

Many of us take issue with the language in our liturgy in which we talk about being unworthy.  “We your unworthy servants” the General Thanksgiving begins.  “We are not worthy to gather up the crumbs under your table,” the Prayer of Humble access proclaims.  These prayers fall out of favor with us because we misunderstand what is meant by our unworthiness.  

We say we are unworthy of God’ love and grace not because we are bad, but because our worth has nothing to do with it. And I, for one, am grateful beyond measure that that’s how God rolls.

Unconditional love is just that.  It comes to us without conditions.  And God asks us to share it in the very same way.

We have a hard time trusting that which isn’t earned.  We joke about participation ribbons as though showing up isn’t worth celebrating.  

The entertainment industry has more awards shows than actual programming it seems.  Many of us can tell recite off the top of our head what years the Red Sox won the World Series.

Worthiness and winning is our currency.  But not God’s.  For God, belovedness is the only currency that matters.  And no one of us is more or less beloved before God than anyone else.

This means that if you think you have earned God’s love for you, you are mistaken.  It was poured on you without any regard to your accomplishments.

It also means that if you believe that God couldn’t possibly love you, delight in you, treasure you, you, also, are mistaken.  

That God loves us equally and abundantly is made perfectly clear in scripture.  There is nothing we can do, or say, or be to earn more or less of it.

How much we shower God with our love in return is a different question.  How much we love God back is entirely up to us.  And it all has to do with how much we love one another.

God loves us first.  We must decide how it is we will love God back.

Is our love for another earned or given freely?  Does it depend on who they are, what they’ve done or haven’t done or is it the unconditional, abundant and sacrificial love to which God calls us, the love which Jesus models for us, and shares with us?

We did not choose God, Jesus tells us.  God chose us.  No matter where we are in our journey with or toward God, we have been chosen by God for love.  There is nothing we can do about that.

The only thing in our control is how we will respond to being chosen.

Know yourself to be loved by God.

Love one another as God loves you.

Go ahead.  You deserve it.

AMEN.

1 While all direct and indirect quotes are always cited, there are sources I read regularly in preparation for sermon writing.  Chances are thoughts have been spurred by these sources and so I list the usual suspects here:  David Lose, In the Meantime, The New Interpreters Bible, Sacra Pagina

© 2021 The Reverend Jeffrey W. Mello