06/25/2023 ~ Proper 7 (12) ~ Fourth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Genesis 21:8-21; Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17; Jeremiah 20:7-13; Psalm 69:7-10, (11-15), 16-18; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/839788752

The Unexamined Life

“You who have found your own life will lose it; you who lose your own life for my sake will find it.” — Matthew 10:39.

Many of you know I came to maturity in the Roman Catholic tradition. Or as I have said here before, with a name like Joseph Francis Connolly, Jr. that is hard to hide.

When I was in parochial school the nuns taught us to prepare for the Sacrament of Confession. It should be noted in the Roman tradition Confession is a Sacrament and one is expected to go to confession, to confess sins, regularly, even weekly.

In order to prepare, a person should do what is called an examination of conscience concerning what sins one might have committed. Or so the nuns said. But what does that mean— an examination of conscience? (Slight pause.)

Perhaps the informative and first question to ask here is the obvious one: ‘what is sin?’ In our Western culture we have somehow decided sin can be defined only as specific acts committed by individuals.

Therefore, if little Tommy in Sister Mary Patrick’s 4th Grade class happens to accidentally lift a chocolate bar from the supermarket shelf and, unobserved, slip it in a pocket while shopping with Mom— well, as Tommy totals up what happened in the course of the week, that should count as a sin. Tommy needs to confess it.

In fact, Tommy needs to calculate what sins have been committed since the last confession and be ready to confess each of these acts, sins. This tends to be a practice to which many adhere from the 4th Grade forward until death. Assessing sin becomes a game of numbers. What was done which qualifies as an offense and how often has it been done?

“Are you sorry?” might not even be a part of the picture. Indeed, if one sees some act as sin but keeps doing it over and over and over, it becomes hard to envision a state of actual confession, some movement which might consist of real change.

Believe me, my 4th grade teacher, Sister Mary Patrick, used that little Tommy example of the lifted chocolate bar to explain an examination of conscience. But for many, the process of accounting becomes the only reality. How many times, how often?

Of course, lifting a chocolate bar from the supermarket shelf does seem to fall under the heading of ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ Therefore, one might assume the act is a sin, something that you as an individual might do and something of which you as an individual might be guilty.

But is that sin? (Slight pause.) From the Biblical perspective, lifting a chocolate bar from the local supermarket shelf is, at best, a minor offense and probably not even worthy of the name sin. How is that true?

There are two things that need to be said about sin from the Biblical perspective. First, sin is a corporate offense, something done by the community or in the community. A sin, therefore, may be but is not necessarily done by an individual. Second and also therefore, what kind of act should be defined as sin?

The definition of sin from that Biblical perspective is quite simple. Sin is missing the mark. What mark?

This is the mark: in some way the covenant relationship with God has been broken and/or the covenant relationship with one another has been broken. However and again, from the Biblical perspective, sin is always considered to be so corporate, so communal, that the Biblical concept of sin says if any one of us— any one of us breaks covenant with God or one another, that is if any one individual breaks covenant, then we have all of us together— have offended God and one another.

So the Biblical definition says if one breaks covenant, we have all broken covenant. Individual blame, deciding who is at fault becomes something of a moot point.

I know— from the Biblical perspective if sin is not individual that sounds un-American, does it not? But it’ is theologically quite sound. To make the claim that sin is only individual is a secular way to look at it. Sin is corporate. And, I might add, sin is not a game of numbers: ‘how many times did I do what?’

All that brings us back to covenant. As I said, when we break covenant with God and one another, we miss the mark. It’s that simple. (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work known as Matthew. “You who have found your own life will lose it; you who lose your own life for my sake will find it.” (Slight pause.)

Socrates was a Greek philosopher who lived from approximately 470 to 399 Before the Common Era and is one of the founders of Western philosophy. This is among many things Socrates is famous for saying: “The unexamined life is not worth living”— “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

The examined life is what philosophy is about. Indeed, what does the word philosophy mean? Philosophy is a combination of two Greek words— philo and sophia.

Philo means love as in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. Sophia, a common name for women, is also the Greek word for wisdom or virtue. Hence, philosophy is the love of or the pursuit of wisdom or the love of or the pursuit of virtue.

So, when we examine our lives what are we really doing? We are not addressing the lifting a candy bar off a shelf or an enumeration of wrong doings.

When we examine our lives— or as the Nuns would have it, when we examine our conscience— we should be trying to see is if we have fully pursued wisdom, virtue. If we have not fully pursued wisdom, virtue, or put the Christian way if we have not fully pursued adherence to a covenant with God and one another, we have missed the mark. (Slight pause.)

And that turns me toward another modern Western concept, the thought that we are constantly and always good, without fault. (Slight pause.)

The responsive Prayer of Confession I used during the Holy Thursday service here at the Kellogg Church this year started with me saying this: “I confess to God and in the company of the people of God that my life and the life of the the whole world is not whole.” Then the congregation responded, “May God forgive you, Christ renew you and the Spirit enable you to grow in love.”

Once that happened, the congregation said: “We confess to God and in the company of the people of God that each of our lives and the life of all the world is not whole.” Then I said, “May God forgive you, Christ renew you and the Spirit enable you to grow….”

This litany, at least in part, illustrates an examined life. Why? It says we might be willing to admit we are imperfect and are willing to forgive imperfection in and to each other. And that brings us directly back to the words attributed to Jesus (quote:) “You who have found your own life will lose it; you who lose your own life for my sake will find it.”

You see the love of or the pursuit of covenant is not about us, individuals. Nor is it about numbers or accounting. The love of or the pursuit of wisdom, virtue, covenant is about a purity of heart and doing for others.

An examination of life is about the continuing covenant with one another. And we need to come to that place— being in covenant with one another— because God is in covenant with us. (Slight pause.)

Matthew says (quote:) “…not a single sparrow will fall to the ground without the knowledge of Abba, God.” These words are not about sparrows. They are about what happens when we are in covenant.

Why would I say this phrase about sparrows is about what happens when we are in covenant? Because, as the lyric in the hymn we used earlier says, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”

So yes, God’s eye is on the sparrow. And yes, God is in covenant with us. And God, Who is in covenant with us, invites us to be in covenant with one another. Why? We are all children of God. Or if you like, we are all sparrows.

And, as children of God, as God’s sparrows, we need to see to each other’s well being, to each other’s welfare, to each other’s well-ness, to each other’s wholeness. We need to see to each other’s holiness.

We need to see each other as holy, set aside by God. Striving to see each other as holy— that is what I would call being in pursuit of virtue, of wisdom, of… covenant. Amen.

Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine
06/25/2023

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “Populist opinion says to repent means to be sorry or regretful. That is not true. To repent means to stop what I’m doing, any behavior, which is outside of our covenant with God and to change direction from what I am doing and turn toward God. In short, repent means to change. And this is a given: the examined life requires change. If that sounds challenging please remember there are sparrows, we are sparrows, and God watches after sparrows and God watches after us.”

BENEDICTION: God heals and restores. God grants to us the grace and the talent to witness to the love God has for us. Let us be ready as we go into the world, for we are baptized in the power of the Spirit. And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God, that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else. Amen.