Sermon for St. Martha's Episcopal Church
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, February 13, 2011
Deuteronomy 30:15-20, 1 Corinthians 3:19, Matthew 5:21-37
I puzzled over this week’s Gospel for quite some time. Preaching without ever having taken a Homiletics course can be something of a challenge. So, I waited patiently with the text, and finally, in relation to this morning’s Old Testament lesson, something spoke to me. As Jesus discourses before his audience, he is laying before them choice. The choice between anger and reconciliation; fractured relationship and wholeness; the choice between our worst selves and our best selves.
A choice between a risen life and a living death.
Let your “yes” be “yes,” and your “no” be “no.”
In the Revised Common Lectionary, there are two appointed Hebrew Bible readings for Sixth Epiphany. Two – requiring a choice. The first reading is Ecclesiastes 15:15-20, where God “has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose. Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given.” And the second is what we read this morning in Deuteronomy, “Moses said to all Israel the words which the Lord commanded him, ‘See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God… by loving the Lord.., walking in his ways … then you shall live and become numerous… If your heart turns away and you do not hear… I declare to you today that you shall perish….
Choose life so that you and your descendants may live…”
Fr. Tim allowed me to select the Hebrew Bible passage this morning, and you can see that, despite the choice I made to use Deuteronomy, the same message comes across in both. Brilliant lectionary. And the message to all of us is exactly what I faced when I chose the lesson: we have options set before us, and we all have a choice to make. Thousands of choices to make. And as the epistle reading this morning says, we're merely human.
So many choices, so little time.
There is a small piece of paper pinned on the bulletin board in my office – a piece of paper that reminds me of a series of choices a few summers ago.
Dear Allison
I hope Clay comes back next year. I hope you have a good time when we have ice cream and s’mores. Thank you for making camp fun and letting me come to camp. I hope I can come back next year.
From Billy.
Billy and his twin brother Patrick live in Pineville (pahn-vuhl) with their father Bill, and they attended Reading Camp at Pine Mountain for their second year this past summer. I have notes from my first conversation with their father, back in 2009, when I was calling all the campers’ parents and preparing for camp:
(grumbling): “This’ Bill.”
“Hi, Bill, this is Allison, the director of Reading Camp. How are you?”
“Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine. That lady done filled out those papers for the boys. They’re comin’ to yer camp.”
“I’m glad to hear it. And I’ve got it down that they’ll be on the bus.”
“mmm hmm. Now, I want to tell you ‘bout my boys. I’m the only one who’s raised ‘em, and they’re good boys. But, if you need to, you use a switch to make ‘em mind. If they wuz ever hateful, you tell ‘em I told you you could use a switch.”
“Oh, I’m sure we won’t have to do that.”
“Well, if you need to.”
“(haha). Alright. Well, Bill, you just call me if you have any questions.”
The first choice I made with these boys was to accept them to camp at all. It was a leap of faith, to say the least. We generally accept children who are in the middle 50th percentile in reading. Patrick and Billy were definitely not in the middle 50th. Their teacher had written on their forms, in all capital letters, “NON-READER.” Where he was given the option to name each boy’s strengths and weaknesses, he put “x’s” next to each weakness. “Phonics – weak, comprehension – weak, fluency – weak.” The parent-guardian form had been filled out by “that lady,” (Deb Obermann from St. Mary’s in Middlesboro) because Bill, the father, was illiterate and could not fill it out himself. His signature was simply, “Bill,” not “William Miracle or even Bill Miracle,” just “Bill,” in a scrawl-like cursive that looked like a first grader’s.
So, yes, it was a big decision to accept them at all. The first of many choices.
The boys arrived at camp on Sunday very sullen, shut-off, and internal. They were gruff, abrasive, and rude. Most volunteers had an immediate reaction of “uh oh, these kids are trouble.” I have to admit, I didn’t particularly like them. Which brings us to choice #2: to react as many of us would have liked, with discipline and rules and inflexibility, or react with patience, firmness, and create a structure in which they might feel comfortable and begin to open up. We committed to the latter. Reading Camp volunteers are pretty remarkable, actually. There’s an understanding amongst all of us that the children who are the hardest to handle, the easiest to dislike – those are the ones we will not give up on, the ones that we will commit to loving. They are the ones who need the encouragement and patience of a caring adult the most.
Patrick and Billy remained gruff and mean until Wednesday morning, when it finally seemed to “click” for them that everyone at camp cared desperately about them, that no one cared that they struggled so much to write their names, and that the teachers were ecstatic when they finally named all the letters of the alphabet. They formed a close bond with Aaron, a young man who was a writing center teacher. Mischevious and creative as he was, Aaron was able to envelop the learning process in games so that Billy and Patrick forgot that they were actually working. It was funny to watch the realization come to their eyes when Aaron would make a connection between the game and writing or reading. “Wait a minute…” their eyes said, and they would shut down all over again.
But, Aaron made a choice to commit to Patrick and Billy. Aaron kept working to find something to engage the boys, and midweek, he found their muse. Billy and Patrick really wanted to write letters to Marcie, a beautiful young woman who was our Pleasure Reading “librarian.” But, now they had a choice to make: out of their fear of failing again, out of their fear of embarrassment, they could be defensive, uncooperative, and unwilling, OR they could let their guard down, take a deep breath, and let Aaron help them. They chose the latter, thank God. It took Aaron’s coaxing, prodding, encouragement, and help with every letter of every word, but by Friday morning, the boys had written their letters to Marcie, and they beamed when they handed them to her. It was a sobering moment for all of us – smiles and not a few happy tears that these boys had been able to achieve something their public school teacher never thought possible. And I guess, an awe at the fact that in the course of a short week, several choices made us fall in love with those two very stubborn little boys.
To begin the ministry of Reading Camp at all was a choice made by several passionate members of our churches, who heard the Bishop’s call to “give away” the treasure of the Cathedral Domain, and who also heard devastating statistics about illiteracy, and put two and two together. It was a choice to respond, in whatever way we – the Episcopal Church - could, to the fact that
In the inner cities and poor rural areas, 68% of low-income 4th graders cannot read at a basic level. (www.educyberpg.org)
To respond to the fact that
More than three out of four of those on welfare, 85% of unwed mothers and 68% of those arrested are illiterate. About three in five of America's prison inmates are illiterate. (Washington Literacy Council)
And to respond to the fact that in California, Arizona, and many other jurisdictions, prisons project how many jail cells they will need in 10, 15 or 20 years by looking at the number of fourth graders who are failing in reading.
St. Martha’s is a community centered on outreach. A community that sees a need, looks at its own resources, and puts two and two together. You have done book drives for Reading Camp in the past, and I know you are preparing to have another drive. I thank you. Our campers do need books – some of them have never owned a new book in their lives - and you are choosing to respond.
However, there is another opportunity I would like to share with you, another choice I would like you to consider.
Reading Camp needs your help – not only financially, not only through the donations of goods. We need YOU.
There will be six camps in our diocese this summer: day camps in Lexington, Covington, Danville, and Winchester; and overnight camps at the Domain and Pine Mountain. I have been in close communication with the directors of the camps, and I have looked at volunteer trends over the last few years. And I will tell you, we need you to run successful, life-giving programs for children like Patrick and Billy. Winchester needs your Spirit. Lexington needs your enthusiasm and know-how. The Cathedral Domain needs your ability to help build a cohesive camp community.
The choice before you is not as dire as Ecclesiastes– between fire and water, life and death – nor as dire as Deuteronomy – life and prosperity versus death and adversity. Your choice is between a transformed summer, a new experience of the grace of God, and the somewhat normal and expected course of June and July. At Reading Camp, you will feel the Spirit. You won’t face death and adversity if you can’t volunteer at Reading Camp, but if you do volunteer, you will feel life.
“Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him,” Moses says.
Choose a new experience of life through Reading Camp. We need you to have successful camp programs, but more importantly, the children need you. The children need you to help them make the choice between fear and hope, between a reticence to try again and a desire to learn, between the life and prosperity of education and the death and adversity of a lack of academic opportunities and the poverty that follows – financial, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
Life and prosperity versus death and adversity.
A summer adventure versus something more humdrum.
Moses said, “Choose life so that you may live…’
Amen.
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