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Walking with Jesus - Eugenie Dieck
Tune into the sermon from Eugenie Dieck for the Second Sunday in Lent, March 13, 2022.
Support St. Martin's mission and ministry by giving online: stmartinec.org/give
Today's readings are:
Genesis 15:1-12,17-18 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:31-35 Psalm 27Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen.
Let's go for a walk. Let's go for a walk with Jesus.
Jesus walks throughout the Gospels. Lent is the period of the Gospels when Jesus shares his ministry; as the story goes, Jesus walked for three years. Today, let us reflect on how we walk with Jesus.
What does it mean to Walk?
We all know how to walk... or so we think. There are different ways we walk...we walk towards, we walk away, we walk in circles. Our spiritual lives and Lent have all these manners of walking.
We walk towards Easter, we know the path and the ending of Jesus's story. During Lent, I sense we try to rush ahead to Easter and not stay in the story. Yet the walk towards Easter is slow and deliberate. We come to know Jesus's ministry and, through each pause in the journey, to understand more deeply the person and power of Jesus.
We walk away by sinning and ignoring Jesus. Have you ever tripped when you were walking? I have tripped many times, one fall resulted in a concussion. I was not in the walk, I was somewhere else, I crashed. In our spiritual life, when we are distracted or pay attention elsewhere, we sin, and sometimes we crash. Like having a concussion, our souls' awareness and the orientation of our soul are jumbled. We are not looking into our soul and so we trip into sins of both omission and commission.
We walk in circles when we act as if we know where we are going in our spiritual lives and are honestly lost. Walking in our spiritual lives is like walking in the woods, a place of wonder and worry because we can see only so far ahead. In our spiritual walk in the woods, are we entering a dark place that fills us with worry or a light space that sparks our wonder?
Sometimes we find ourselves overtaken by wonder or by worry. The wonder occurs when we are surprised by delight and the worry when unexpected concerns surface. This wonder/worry tension is also the reality of our spiritual life. When we focus on ourselves we are worried, when we focus on Jesus we feel awe and wonder.
How are we With Jesus?
Being with someone can ease the wonder/worry dilemma. We can share the wonder and lessen the worry. We are not alone. "With" can have many meanings - I want to focus on two - the act of accompaniment, and the difference between empathy and sympathy.
As some of you may know, I work at Georgetown University, which is a Catholic and Jesuit institution. The Jesuit expression of charism or purpose has evocative language about being in relationship with God. The word "accompaniment" is often used. It means to be alongside someone in their journey, not to change the journey but to accept the journey.
True accompaniment also means to not be in control. When we accompany someone, we give over to the experience - we do not use active verbs - direct, determine, guide, define. But how do we give over to accompaniment? We can understand accompaniment by the contrast between empathy and sympathy.
Is our connection by knowing of the other person's circumstance? When we have empathy, we understand the circumstance of the other...but with some degree of distance and disengagement. Or is our connection by feeling the reality of the other person? When we have sympathy, we experience another's world. We identify with the person.
Lent calls us into sympathy. We move in response to Jesus. Jesus breathes in, we breathe in... Jesus breathes out, we breathe out. We mirror Jesus's experience.
We are not setting the path of the journey, no matter how many Lents we observe, no matter how often we read the Gospels. We are following in Jesus's steps.
How do we come to know Jesus?
Jesus is revealed to us as we walk with him through Lent. And we are revealed to him in turn by how we engage. We do not have a speaking part in the Gospels, yet we have a significant role in bringing the Gospels into this world.
Jesus is both the path and the destination of Lent. As the path of Lent, Jesus's walk and encounters and lessons are demanding. Lent is not a stroll, it is a real honest journey. And as the destination, Jesus brings us to Christ, who gives us salvation.
How do we encounter Jesus in the words of the Gospels, and in the actual lived Gospels of our lives? Every day, we Walk with Jesus...we encounter Jesus in the strangers we meet and particularly in the people we know most deeply.
I will close with a story about accompaniment. In these weeks of Lent, I am mindful of accompanying both my 92-year-old mother-in-law and a work colleague. Each is dealing with physical diminishment, one from old age and one from a degenerative disease.
Both are people who are "doers". If they could, each would be very active walkers, with a purpose, a quick pace, a destination, and a planned arrival time. Now they are moving slowly towards death. Jesus is walking with them. And I am accompanying them.
My mother-in-law resents the help she needs, she is polite but very saddened. She was always the helper.
My colleague is dealing with being rather than with doing. His work identity, and thus much of his own sense of self, has been anchored in getting things done and marking time by accomplishments. Now he says, he just "is".
Both my mother-in-law and my colleague are sanctified people. They are in sympathy with Jesus. Their breaths of yearning and of sorrow mirror Jesus's breaths through Lent.
I am honored to accompany them, to walk with them, to walk with Jesus.
As we continue with the rigors of Lent, with the temptations, with the times of lonely solitude, with the moments of feeling misunderstood and slighted...all which Jesus experienced...know we are walking with Jesus and Jesus is walking with each of us. Step by step, stumble by stumble, blessing by blessing...we are walking towards salvation.
My beloved friends, keep walking with Jesus, keep walking. 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-FieldsTune into the sermon from Eugenie Dieck for the Second Sunday in Lent, March 13, 2022.
Support St. Martin's mission and ministry by giving online: stmartinec.org/give
Today's readings are:
Genesis 15:1-12,17-18 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:31-35 Psalm 27Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen.
Let's go for a walk. Let's go for a walk with Jesus.
Jesus walks throughout the Gospels. Lent is the period of the Gospels when Jesus shares his ministry; as the story goes, Jesus walked for three years. Today, let us reflect on how we walk with Jesus.
What does it mean to Walk?
We all know how to walk... or so we think. There are different ways we walk...we walk towards, we walk away, we walk in circles. Our spiritual lives and Lent have all these manners of walking.
We walk towards Easter, we know the path and the ending of Jesus's story. During Lent, I sense we try to rush ahead to Easter and not stay in the story. Yet the walk towards Easter is slow and deliberate. We come to know Jesus's ministry and, through each pause in the journey, to understand more deeply the person and power of Jesus.
We walk away by sinning and ignoring Jesus. Have you ever tripped when you were walking? I have tripped many times, one fall resulted in a concussion. I was not in the walk, I was somewhere else, I crashed. In our spiritual life, when we are distracted or pay attention elsewhere, we sin, and sometimes we crash. Like having a concussion, our souls' awareness and the orientation of our soul are jumbled. We are not looking into our soul and so we trip into sins of both omission and commission.
We walk in circles when we act as if we know where we are going in our spiritual lives and are honestly lost. Walking in our spiritual lives is like walking in the woods, a place of wonder and worry because we can see only so far ahead. In our spiritual walk in the woods, are we entering a dark place that fills us with worry or a light space that sparks our wonder?
Sometimes we find ourselves overtaken by wonder or by worry. The wonder occurs when we are surprised by delight and the worry when unexpected concerns surface. This wonder/worry tension is also the reality of our spiritual life. When we focus on ourselves we are worried, when we focus on Jesus we feel awe and wonder.
How are we With Jesus?
Being with someone can ease the wonder/worry dilemma. We can share the wonder and lessen the worry. We are not alone. "With" can have many meanings - I want to focus on two - the act of accompaniment, and the difference between empathy and sympathy.
As some of you may know, I work at Georgetown University, which is a Catholic and Jesuit institution. The Jesuit expression of charism or purpose has evocative language about being in relationship with God. The word "accompaniment" is often used. It means to be alongside someone in their journey, not to change the journey but to accept the journey.
True accompaniment also means to not be in control. When we accompany someone, we give over to the experience - we do not use active verbs - direct, determine, guide, define. But how do we give over to accompaniment? We can understand accompaniment by the contrast between empathy and sympathy.
Is our connection by knowing of the other person's circumstance? When we have empathy, we understand the circumstance of the other...but with some degree of distance and disengagement. Or is our connection by feeling the reality of the other person? When we have sympathy, we experience another's world. We identify with the person.
Lent calls us into sympathy. We move in response to Jesus. Jesus breathes in, we breathe in... Jesus breathes out, we breathe out. We mirror Jesus's experience.
We are not setting the path of the journey, no matter how many Lents we observe, no matter how often we read the Gospels. We are following in Jesus's steps.
How do we come to know Jesus?
Jesus is revealed to us as we walk with him through Lent. And we are revealed to him in turn by how we engage. We do not have a speaking part in the Gospels, yet we have a significant role in bringing the Gospels into this world.
Jesus is both the path and the destination of Lent. As the path of Lent, Jesus's walk and encounters and lessons are demanding. Lent is not a stroll, it is a real honest journey. And as the destination, Jesus brings us to Christ, who gives us salvation.
How do we encounter Jesus in the words of the Gospels, and in the actual lived Gospels of our lives? Every day, we Walk with Jesus...we encounter Jesus in the strangers we meet and particularly in the people we know most deeply.
I will close with a story about accompaniment. In these weeks of Lent, I am mindful of accompanying both my 92-year-old mother-in-law and a work colleague. Each is dealing with physical diminishment, one from old age and one from a degenerative disease.
Both are people who are "doers". If they could, each would be very active walkers, with a purpose, a quick pace, a destination, and a planned arrival time. Now they are moving slowly towards death. Jesus is walking with them. And I am accompanying them.
My mother-in-law resents the help she needs, she is polite but very saddened. She was always the helper.
My colleague is dealing with being rather than with doing. His work identity, and thus much of his own sense of self, has been anchored in getting things done and marking time by accomplishments. Now he says, he just "is".
Both my mother-in-law and my colleague are sanctified people. They are in sympathy with Jesus. Their breaths of yearning and of sorrow mirror Jesus's breaths through Lent.
I am honored to accompany them, to walk with them, to walk with Jesus.
As we continue with the rigors of Lent, with the temptations, with the times of lonely solitude, with the moments of feeling misunderstood and slighted...all which Jesus experienced...know we are walking with Jesus and Jesus is walking with each of us. Step by step, stumble by stumble, blessing by blessing...we are walking towards salvation.
My beloved friends, keep walking with Jesus, keep walking. 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