November 26, 2023 ~ Proper 29 ~ Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Thirty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ The Feast of the Reign of Christ ~ The Last Sunday Before Advent ~ Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Psalm 100; Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Psalm 95:1-7a; Ephesians 1:15-23; Matthew 25:31-46 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/890312089

Relationship

“I pray that the glorious God of our Savior Jesus, the Christ, will give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation to bring you to a rich knowledge of the Creator.” — Ephesians 1:17.

Bonnie and I have a niece who teaches Math at the Middle School level. Teaching Math at the Middle School level is, I think, the hardest job in the world. And she is good at it.

We here on the jagged Northeast edge of America should describe the place she lives as the other side of the country— or at least the other side in a diagonal direction. She lives in Dallas, Texas.

We have visited her there. On one of those visits we got to go to one place we both wanted to see and even needed to see. The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza which commentates the events that happened 60 years ago last Wednesday, the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President. This location was the lair, the place Lee Harvey Oswald sat on that fateful day waiting for the Presidential motorcade.

If you were alive when JFK was assassinated, the event probably felt like you were punched. If you were alive when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, less than five years later, that probably also felt like a punch. If you were alive when the Robert Kennedy was assassinated, just two months after King, it may have also have felt like a punch.

If you were alive when the Challenger exploded, the event probably, again, felt like a punch. And then 9-11, 2001 happened. I know— it felt like a haymaker. Going further back in history, if you were alive when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor— as we know fewer and fewer of the greatest generation are still with us— that probably felt like it was way beyond a haymaker.

But I think personal events are different in the sense that they can feel more visceral— visceral being the only word I can think to describe it. To address events like this in the context of just my family, when my Mom died in 1983 at the age of 58, it was personal and visceral.

When Bonnie’s Dad died in 1986, it was personal, visceral. When Bonnie’s Mom died in 1994, it was personal, visceral. When my Dad died in 1998, it was personal, visceral.

My point here is given the recitation of the events which happened to the nation something seems obvious. We all felt what happened. So in some way it feels like we are all connected.

Even so, there are times we fail to notice these connections. I am not sure why. In fact, while personal touchstones in life are intense for each individual, events which do impact a large number of people can and do feel personal, perhaps because as I just said we are in some way all connected.

To address just one of the aforementioned national crises, when 9-11 did happen my reaction was, “I worked in the Trade Center once. I know those towers. I’ve been in them. I’ve walked those streets.” So for me, that made it very personal. (Slight pause.)

That having been said, I want to note something just because I have listed all those touchstones in history which do really touch multitudes. The real way we mortals determine the passage of time has nothing to do with clocks, watches or with the 24 hour cycle of the day.

It has nothing to do with the seven day weekly cycle or the monthly cycle or even with the passage of years. It has nothing to do with dates or calendars.

The way we tell time is by, with, in and through events. Where was I? What was I doing? Who was I with?

As I suggested, some public events are milestones. Other events— the death or the birth of a loved one— are more personal, more private. Either way, public event or private event, these happenings are milestones. And either way, a public event or a private event, the impact of what happened rests on the reality of our relationships with each other. (Slight pause.)

When my mother died I had to make many, many calls to many, many people. I announced her death over the phone time and time again and never flinched. But when I called one very close friend I suddenly could not get the words out. Finally, since I knew he would understand what had happened, I uttered the Latin phrase which Scripture says were the last words of Jesus on the cross— consummatum est— it is finished. (Slight pause.)

This is what we hear in Ephesians: “I pray that the glorious God of our Savior Jesus, the Christ, will give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation to bring you to a rich knowledge of the Creator.” (Slight pause.)

Scholars think that Paul did not write Ephesians. But the writer of Ephesians does combine into this writing phrases from Colossians. Paul did write Colossians.

That writing has its own emphasis on the knowledge of the saving power of God. And this is clear: that knowledge, that reality, is illustrated by, with, in and through the Christ. This reality is illuminated by the song of thanksgiving we found in this passage.

The doxology, this thanksgiving, found in these few lines joins author and audience in the praise of their common benefactor, God. This is a thanksgiving which tries to assure Christians concerning their relationship with God through and in the Christ. (Slight pause.)

Here is something which we ask today but would never come up as a serious question in antiquity: what time is it, right now? They did not count time like we count time now. There were Sun dials for local time, but they were not about an exact measurement of time in any way we would understand.

The people who lived in these ancient times knew measuring time by a sun dial had no basis in the reality of a passage of time. There certainly were no clocks for to determine an exact time and the prime function of the calendars they did have— the prime function of the calendars was agriculture— tracking the ebb and the flow of seasons.

In antiquity people kept track of time by events— public events and personal events. After all, the Second Verse of Luke 2, in an effort to place the Incarnation in a context, says this (quote:) “This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria”— a public event which points to a personal, private one. (Slight pause.)

I want to suggest the writer of Ephesians presents us with two challenges in this passage. The first is to understand God strives to be in relationship with us. The second is that this relationship to and with God can be seen not just now, not just in our place, not just in our time but for all time, throughout time, forever, for all eternity.

And this happens by, with, in and through Christ Who is (quote:) “in heaven at the right hand of God, far above every ruler, every sovereign, every authority, every power, every dominion, and above every name that can be named— not only in this age but also in the age to come.” (Slight pause.)

The second challenge is to examine ourselves, to ask what events in our lives might trigger a memory of our relationship with God. And that is a key question: what events in our lives describe, illustrate a relationship with God? (Slight pause.)

I assume you have all heard the terms “six degrees of separation.” Well, when it comes to our relationship with God, I can say each of us individually and all of us together— private and public— are separated from God by only one degree— there is us and there is God— one degree of separation for all time, throughout time, forever, for all eternity.

Indeed, for all time, throughout time, forever, for all eternity, God is with us. God walks at our side. And being present to someone— that’s what true about relationship is about, is it not? Amen.

11/26/2023
Elijah Kellogg church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “In my comments this morning I said this: ‘…for all time, throughout time, forever, for all eternity, God is with us.’ That pose a question: if God is at our side, should we pick up the pace or slow down? Here’s what I say: in our relationship with God (if it’s deep enough), our dialogue with God will determine the pace. And God will let us know when we should pick up speed and God will let us know when we need to slow down.”

BENEDICTION: Go forth in faith. Go forth trusting that God will provide. Go forth and reach out to everyone you meet in the name of Christ. And may the peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of the Holy Spirit this day and forevermore. Amen.