A Sermon
for the 6th Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL B) 2-12-2012
Offered by
Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: 2
Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Mark 1:40-45
Themes: healing
of leprosy, athletic trainingTitle: Practice makes perfect
“Do you not know that in a race the
runners all compete, but only one receives the prize?”
St. Paul writes here to the disciples in
the city of Corinth, where the famous Isthmian and Imperial Games had been held
for hundreds of years. Athletic competitions were well known and understood by
the Greeks, and Paul uses this as a metaphor for his on-going discussion about
eating meat from pagan temples.
“Athletes exercise self-control in all
things.” I think all of us understand this basic reality of discipline and
practice. And we all know the old saying: Practice makes perfect. It’s true, of
course.
If you want to learn to speak in a new
language, you have to say the words over and over again hundreds of times so
that, when you are in a real conversation, you are ready to speak and the words
will come naturally.
If you are a basketball player and your
free-throw percentage is low (can anyone here say, Andre Iguadala of the 76ers?), if you
have trouble making free throws in a game, then what do you do?
You go every day and shoot a few hundred
free throws so that, when it is game time, you are ready to shoot those free
throws and make them. It may take thousands and thousands of practice shots,
but eventually – if you put in enough effort – then your percentage will
improve.
What did St. Paul say? “Athletes
exercise self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath,
but we an imperishable one.”
If athletes and others are willing to
pour so much energy into disciplining their bodies so that they can win a game,
why are we generally so UN-willing to pour even MORE energy into disciplining
our bodies and souls so that, when the moment of decision arrives, we are ready
to practice goodness, patience, generosity, kindness, humility, love?
The great abbas and ammas (the spiritual
fathers and mothers) of the Egyptian desert in the 4th century are
still the standard-bearers for the hard work of practice within the Church.
They have set the bar which has never yet been surpassed in the hard work of
practicing spiritual transformation.
There was once a wise man in the desert
who struggled with controlling his tongue. It seems that he was one who was
quick to speak and this often made him say things that he later regretted. So
it was said of this Abba Agathon that for three years he walked around every
day with a stone in his mouth until he learned to be silent.
Another of these wise men, Abba Ammonas,
once told his friends that he had spent the last fourteen years pleading with
God night and day to grant him the victory over his anger.
Now, I would never recommend that you
carry a stone around in your mouth for a few days, even less for a few years!
But that’s not the point. The point is this: practice makes perfect!
These men and women in the desert did
not know what to do, but they knew that they had to do SOMETHING in order to
change the habitual patterns of their lives. And the point is that they were
willing to keep trying until their efforts and
the energy of the Holy Spirit worked together to achieve true and lasting
change.
What are we willing to try? How long are
we willing to practice and pound on that door until it finally opens for us?
This brings us to one of the great
paradoxes of our life in Christ. We all know that grace if free. We all know
that God loves us no matter what. We all know that there is nothing that we can
do to make God love us any more, and there is nothing we could ever do that
would make God love us any less.
God’s love is complete, total, final,
unwavering, unchangeable.
Our efforts toward transformation have
nothing to do with earning anything from God, with achieving a different level
of status in God’s judgment.
You see, our motivation for spiritual
growth comes from an entirely different source.
Bear with me, please, as I continue
along with the basketball analogy.
And let’s say that the calling of God
placed upon you in your baptism is analogous to you being selected as a member
of the United States national Olympic basketball team! And the coach of this
team is none other than Michael Jordan himself!
Jordan calls you on the telephone and
says that you have been carefully selected to represent your country in the
Olympic games as a member of the basketball team expected to win the gold
medal!
What an honor! What a privilege! And you
are elated, until you realize that you really are not any good at basketball
after all!
You do not want to embarrass your
country! You do not want to embarrass yourself and your family and all of your
friends who will be watching every game on television! And you do not want to
disappoint your coach and all of those who selected you for this honor.
So what do you do? You start practicing!
You pick up a basketball and practice your dribbling and passing and shooting
until you fall down in exhaustion! And then you do it again the next day! And
the day after that! Because you were chosen for this task! Because, more than
anything else, you want to be ready, and you want to do your best!
In our baptism, you and I received that
phone call from the coach! We have been selected as part of the team to
represent the best, the highest good, the Lord of all, the King of the world!
I’m not just making this up. Please pick
up your Prayer Book and let’s look at the Catechism together for a minute.
Please turn to page 855 in the Prayer Book and look at the first
question there and please respond by saying the answers in unison.
Q. What
is the mission of the Church?
A. The mission of the Church is to restore
all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.
Further down the page, you will see this
question:
Q. What
is the ministry of the laity?
A. The ministry of lay persons is to
represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be;
and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ’s work of
reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship and
governance of the Church.
And it’s the same with all the other
orders within the Church: bishops, presbyters, deacons. We are all called to
represent Christ and his Church. We all have received that call!
But do you know what? None of us are
naturally very good at this. Some have more natural talent than others. But all
of us must get into the gym – the spiritual gym – and practice and practice and
practice, until we are ready for prime time.
We are not trying to earn a place on the
team – we’ve already got that!
But we are trying to do the best that we possibly
can! And to be the best that
we possibly can.
We expend a great amount of energy with
prayers for healing and strength when illness strikes those close to us. This
is right and good, because the abundant life which God desires for us includes our
physical health. But we all know that this is only a partial good, because all
physical healing is necessarily temporary.
Naaman, the Syrian commander, and the
unnamed leper healed by Jesus – both of them became ill again later in life.
Both of their bodies eventually broke down and decayed and ceased to function.
The healing that matters far more than
any healing of the body is the healing of the soul, the transformation of our
habits and our attitudes and patterns of thinking that result in a person who
will not be disqualified when it’s game time.
This is what we and God get out of this
training ground, this gymnasium of spiritual exercise which we call planet
earth – the quality of the soul which we create together. Us and God together –
creating a life of value – eternal, lasting value.
It takes a lot of work, my friends. It
requires commitment and dogged persistence, a no-quit attitude.
But the reward, the gold medal at the
end, is one that lasts forever. Amen.
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