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The Corrections - The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Sermon from the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel for the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 24. Today's readings are:
Isaiah 53:4-12
Psalm 91:9-16
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45
Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost...
The Corrections
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel, October 17, 2021
Please join me in the spirit of prayer. Lord God, we give you thanks that through your son Jesus Christ you've removed all the obstacles that separate us from your love and your redeeming life. Lord God help us to receive that gift and live with our hearts toward you in all we do. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
So I've had some feedback that I might be a little hard to hear during my sermon because of the mask in the microphone, so I don't know how you all feel about me doing this a little bit (lowers mask). Is that better? Thank you for taking this risk with me. It's interesting to take the mask off at the beginning of the sermon because that's where I want to begin. This has been my trusty mask for 19 months now and I think I'll feel a little naked when I don't have it. I will feel grateful for it but I probably won't miss it.
It's been a learning experience during Covid. I've never lived through a time in my life where I was part of so much interpersonal policing. Interpersonal policing just between people in the community here at the church, out at the Acme, at the 7-eleven... Never have I been on such high alert constantly and for so long, keeping one eye peeled for the person whose mask was under their nose or under their chin or not there at all and making sure I was really being careful about my six feet of distance. I'm sure I've been scolded in public. You may have been scolded in public for behavior: "put that mask on", "put it on right", "stand a little farther away please". Never before have I lived in this atmosphere of so much mutual correction - let's put it that way - and I really am very curious what it's going to mean for us long term, And not just the masks and the good hygiene, I really appreciate all that mutual correction. For me it's a sign of good community.
There's also another extension of that that's also good, which is we are living through a time of such incredible and rapid change and shifting among social norms. I can't keep up with the language half the time. I just turned 55 and it feels epical for me. I feel old. My staff is so much younger and they speak a different language and it's wonderful and I love it and it's very sensitive and thoughtful, but I'm tripping over myself. I don't know the right words, you know, gender, sexuality, identity, race, these things are evolving rapidly, and when things shift rapidly, it's once again this atmosphere of mutual correction. Mutual policing. And there's a good in that because it grows us if we have trust and love with each other.
It can also be somewhat embarrassing, so this morning using our texts I want to look at how our Lord Jesus Christ practiced what Thomas Aquinas would have referred to as "Fraternal Correction." You could also call it Sororal Correction. (There you go, see, I'm learning. I'm not that old, you know!) I had some experiences of this at our golf outing on Tuesday, where I played with two older guys and at the end one of them turned to me and said, "you could really benefit from some golf lessons." He was not wrong. The other said to me, "and maybe invest in some new clubs." Cocktails started immediately so that was lovely.
Fraternal Correction: the loving practice of helping people with obstacles in their lives. When Thomas Aquinas talked about it as a virtue, as an obligation, as something we owe one another - a good we owe one another, an excellence - he meant it as a way of communities helping each other grow toward their ultimate goal, which is reunion with God. What are the obstacles that you notice in another person's lives and they might notice in your life, to help free up this path towards reunion with God? And how does one do that with love and trust and intentional relationships so the person is moved in a constructive path, because we know that that correction could also be destructive.
Well, we saw Jesus at work in this regard last week with the rich young man, and Barb did a fabulous sermon on that (if you didn't hear it please look it up online). Jesus delivers some really hard correction to this rich young man, but the text begins with this lovely phrase: "Jesus looked upon him and loved him." Jesus looked upon him and loved him: a wonderful phrase to close your eyes and feel Jesus saying that to you, or feel Jesus looking upon you that way. So Jesus knew that to deliver powerful correction you must love. Surround that person with the secure knowledge that they are loved, that they are of infinite value to you, that you will not let them go.
And then he did deliver the tough love, the harder news where he said, "you have an obstacle in your life and your path back to God, and that obstacle is your great wealth and your attachment to it. Not just an attachment to things, but an attachment of identity: this wealth is who you are, this is how you think you are favored by God. This wealth, this is how you prove your worth, your value, your deserving. So that whole complex of attachment is holding you back on this progress you do yearn for."
We don't know what happens next but we know that Jesus found the key obstacle and left the person to wrestle it as they may. Even more than that - and I think this is key - because remember that that passage ends with that phrase "nothing is impossible with God." I think what Jesus does in alerting the rich young man to this obstacle is brings that young man to the place that is impossible for him, and when we go to that place and that obstacle that's impossible for us, we have only one move: surrender. Surrender to God, to let God do the work that we can't do by our own willpower, to let God work in us what we cannot work in ourselves by whatever system or plan or good self-help book we might read. Take the person to that place that's impossible and we can surrender to God's help.
I see another version of that again in our gospel for today with good old James and John, another wonderfully misguided pair of disciples who give hope to all of us. Up they go to Jesus, and it's really funny, in the Gospel of Matthew they send their mother to ask the same question, so you know they're ashamed on some level. But what's going on here? They're misguided. They're still misunderstanding Jesus even though he's told them otherwise twice already. They're misunderstanding that Jesus is going to be a messianic king, he's going to sit on a throne and rule a restored Israel, so they want to be at his right and his left positions of authority. Part of the team. You know, interpreting it generously, they wanted to be helpful. Interpreting it less so they were maybe a little arrogant, climbing, achieving. And they're mistaken.
So how is Jesus going to take this moment that could be very awkward and destructive and turn it into peer-to-peer correction? Jesus does this fascinating thing where they have asked to be with him in his glory and Jesus knows that his glory is going to be a cross. He knows as we know that James and John aren't going to make it to his right and left hand in that glory. We know he'll be flanked by thieves. So Jesus knows and we know that they're asking something that they're not able to do even though they say they are. They're at their impossible point, they're at their limit. And so Jesus subtly refrains the discussion, the dialogue.
Notice how he switches from kingly language to the language of worship, to the language of liturgy, the language of baptism and communion. So he is able in this reframing to tell them that yes, they will be able to join him in the remembrance of his glory, in the community baptized by the Holy Spirit and the community joined in Christ around the eucharistic table, after Jesus does the work that's unique to him; the death and resurrection that takes away all the obstacles and by grace makes us able to do what was formerly impossible for us. So Jesus finds a way to coach them into a future of inclusion that they can't even begin to imagine, and I kind of personally imagine James and John at the gathering of the early church going, "oh yeah, now I get it. Thank you. Thank you for this."
This is the Jesus we have who reframes and reaches us and finds ways to get past our obstacles like our ambition and our shame and our guilt and our fear by reframing and loving and telling the truth. I for one have been so grateful in my life for all those mentors who told me the truth. I hated it at the time but they helped me grow, and how lucky are we to celebrate with the author of Hebrews that we have this great high priest. We have this great intercessor who is available to us who we can bring our burdens and blockages to and say, "clear a way for us."
That's what a high priest does. When we're stuck with our obstacles, when we're stuck with our blockages in our impossible places, those parts of our souls, those besetting sins and habitual vices and patterns of behavior that we have worked for decades to overcome and to get ourselves free of and we just cannot, that's when you go to your great high priest and say, "I need help. I need your help to get past what is impossible for me. I need your grace as one who deals gently," as Hebrews says, "who knows our weakness" as Hebrews says, "who has suffered with us and for us," as Hebrews says. "I need your great embrace of my humanity to set me free from what plagues me, because that is what you do as my great high priest. With love and truth and reframing and inclusion you work out a salvation for me that is impossible by my own hands." And so we celebrate and are grateful. Amen.
Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved.
Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org
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By St. Martin-in-the-FieldsSermon from the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel for the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 24. Today's readings are:
Isaiah 53:4-12
Psalm 91:9-16
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45
Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost...
The Corrections
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel, October 17, 2021
Please join me in the spirit of prayer. Lord God, we give you thanks that through your son Jesus Christ you've removed all the obstacles that separate us from your love and your redeeming life. Lord God help us to receive that gift and live with our hearts toward you in all we do. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
So I've had some feedback that I might be a little hard to hear during my sermon because of the mask in the microphone, so I don't know how you all feel about me doing this a little bit (lowers mask). Is that better? Thank you for taking this risk with me. It's interesting to take the mask off at the beginning of the sermon because that's where I want to begin. This has been my trusty mask for 19 months now and I think I'll feel a little naked when I don't have it. I will feel grateful for it but I probably won't miss it.
It's been a learning experience during Covid. I've never lived through a time in my life where I was part of so much interpersonal policing. Interpersonal policing just between people in the community here at the church, out at the Acme, at the 7-eleven... Never have I been on such high alert constantly and for so long, keeping one eye peeled for the person whose mask was under their nose or under their chin or not there at all and making sure I was really being careful about my six feet of distance. I'm sure I've been scolded in public. You may have been scolded in public for behavior: "put that mask on", "put it on right", "stand a little farther away please". Never before have I lived in this atmosphere of so much mutual correction - let's put it that way - and I really am very curious what it's going to mean for us long term, And not just the masks and the good hygiene, I really appreciate all that mutual correction. For me it's a sign of good community.
There's also another extension of that that's also good, which is we are living through a time of such incredible and rapid change and shifting among social norms. I can't keep up with the language half the time. I just turned 55 and it feels epical for me. I feel old. My staff is so much younger and they speak a different language and it's wonderful and I love it and it's very sensitive and thoughtful, but I'm tripping over myself. I don't know the right words, you know, gender, sexuality, identity, race, these things are evolving rapidly, and when things shift rapidly, it's once again this atmosphere of mutual correction. Mutual policing. And there's a good in that because it grows us if we have trust and love with each other.
It can also be somewhat embarrassing, so this morning using our texts I want to look at how our Lord Jesus Christ practiced what Thomas Aquinas would have referred to as "Fraternal Correction." You could also call it Sororal Correction. (There you go, see, I'm learning. I'm not that old, you know!) I had some experiences of this at our golf outing on Tuesday, where I played with two older guys and at the end one of them turned to me and said, "you could really benefit from some golf lessons." He was not wrong. The other said to me, "and maybe invest in some new clubs." Cocktails started immediately so that was lovely.
Fraternal Correction: the loving practice of helping people with obstacles in their lives. When Thomas Aquinas talked about it as a virtue, as an obligation, as something we owe one another - a good we owe one another, an excellence - he meant it as a way of communities helping each other grow toward their ultimate goal, which is reunion with God. What are the obstacles that you notice in another person's lives and they might notice in your life, to help free up this path towards reunion with God? And how does one do that with love and trust and intentional relationships so the person is moved in a constructive path, because we know that that correction could also be destructive.
Well, we saw Jesus at work in this regard last week with the rich young man, and Barb did a fabulous sermon on that (if you didn't hear it please look it up online). Jesus delivers some really hard correction to this rich young man, but the text begins with this lovely phrase: "Jesus looked upon him and loved him." Jesus looked upon him and loved him: a wonderful phrase to close your eyes and feel Jesus saying that to you, or feel Jesus looking upon you that way. So Jesus knew that to deliver powerful correction you must love. Surround that person with the secure knowledge that they are loved, that they are of infinite value to you, that you will not let them go.
And then he did deliver the tough love, the harder news where he said, "you have an obstacle in your life and your path back to God, and that obstacle is your great wealth and your attachment to it. Not just an attachment to things, but an attachment of identity: this wealth is who you are, this is how you think you are favored by God. This wealth, this is how you prove your worth, your value, your deserving. So that whole complex of attachment is holding you back on this progress you do yearn for."
We don't know what happens next but we know that Jesus found the key obstacle and left the person to wrestle it as they may. Even more than that - and I think this is key - because remember that that passage ends with that phrase "nothing is impossible with God." I think what Jesus does in alerting the rich young man to this obstacle is brings that young man to the place that is impossible for him, and when we go to that place and that obstacle that's impossible for us, we have only one move: surrender. Surrender to God, to let God do the work that we can't do by our own willpower, to let God work in us what we cannot work in ourselves by whatever system or plan or good self-help book we might read. Take the person to that place that's impossible and we can surrender to God's help.
I see another version of that again in our gospel for today with good old James and John, another wonderfully misguided pair of disciples who give hope to all of us. Up they go to Jesus, and it's really funny, in the Gospel of Matthew they send their mother to ask the same question, so you know they're ashamed on some level. But what's going on here? They're misguided. They're still misunderstanding Jesus even though he's told them otherwise twice already. They're misunderstanding that Jesus is going to be a messianic king, he's going to sit on a throne and rule a restored Israel, so they want to be at his right and his left positions of authority. Part of the team. You know, interpreting it generously, they wanted to be helpful. Interpreting it less so they were maybe a little arrogant, climbing, achieving. And they're mistaken.
So how is Jesus going to take this moment that could be very awkward and destructive and turn it into peer-to-peer correction? Jesus does this fascinating thing where they have asked to be with him in his glory and Jesus knows that his glory is going to be a cross. He knows as we know that James and John aren't going to make it to his right and left hand in that glory. We know he'll be flanked by thieves. So Jesus knows and we know that they're asking something that they're not able to do even though they say they are. They're at their impossible point, they're at their limit. And so Jesus subtly refrains the discussion, the dialogue.
Notice how he switches from kingly language to the language of worship, to the language of liturgy, the language of baptism and communion. So he is able in this reframing to tell them that yes, they will be able to join him in the remembrance of his glory, in the community baptized by the Holy Spirit and the community joined in Christ around the eucharistic table, after Jesus does the work that's unique to him; the death and resurrection that takes away all the obstacles and by grace makes us able to do what was formerly impossible for us. So Jesus finds a way to coach them into a future of inclusion that they can't even begin to imagine, and I kind of personally imagine James and John at the gathering of the early church going, "oh yeah, now I get it. Thank you. Thank you for this."
This is the Jesus we have who reframes and reaches us and finds ways to get past our obstacles like our ambition and our shame and our guilt and our fear by reframing and loving and telling the truth. I for one have been so grateful in my life for all those mentors who told me the truth. I hated it at the time but they helped me grow, and how lucky are we to celebrate with the author of Hebrews that we have this great high priest. We have this great intercessor who is available to us who we can bring our burdens and blockages to and say, "clear a way for us."
That's what a high priest does. When we're stuck with our obstacles, when we're stuck with our blockages in our impossible places, those parts of our souls, those besetting sins and habitual vices and patterns of behavior that we have worked for decades to overcome and to get ourselves free of and we just cannot, that's when you go to your great high priest and say, "I need help. I need your help to get past what is impossible for me. I need your grace as one who deals gently," as Hebrews says, "who knows our weakness" as Hebrews says, "who has suffered with us and for us," as Hebrews says. "I need your great embrace of my humanity to set me free from what plagues me, because that is what you do as my great high priest. With love and truth and reframing and inclusion you work out a salvation for me that is impossible by my own hands." And so we celebrate and are grateful. Amen.
Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved.
Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org