A Sermon with a Side of Palm Springs
This past year has been one large wild ride for sure! If you had told me a year ago that I would have a week in which I was working at a non profit, having a freelance article published, going on an influencer retreat, giving a sermon at church and also managing to fit in fun with my kids I would have thought you were out of your mind. And yet, this is where I am. I am quite literally living my best dreams.
There’s a few things I feel like I can attribute this to, some tangible and others not. One big one is tithing at church. Father Ben tells us that tithing can be giving of our time, talent, and treasures along with our finances. I make it a point that every time I get a new client I give more financially to my church- period. Prayer has also become an intentional part of my life, and now I am also formally preaching (on occasion). I’ll share my first full blown sermon here shortly.
Discernment is also something I have adopted, thinking carefully and in community with others about my next steps. One thing I learned during my Parish Committee on Ministry process is that often others can see the gifts you hold more clearly than you can. I think that sense of community is something we lost during the pandemic.
Which brings me to my next item: I have found myself in a community of like minded hustle hard ladies who are also content creators. This world can be very lonely, and while I have worked in it for a little over a decade- I never truly thought it could produce the income like it has for some of these ladies. Life changing things for a single mom who would really love to retire her whole family. So to hear them to say to me “yes you CAN do this” is just so life affirming. I am forever grateful to them!
That trip also reminded me that I do need vacations for me and me alone. It’s ok to want that, and I don’t need to worry about the judgement of others. Women so often carry their loads alone, even when in a relationship (often more so then- as has been my experience). We need that time for respite.
I’m not sure there’s enough words to truly cover what these women now mean to me, who could have thought that one’s life could be completely changed in a week?! That’s how I feel. Not only did I learn a lot but I have made lifelong friends. Consider this your signal to book that girl’s trip. (And may I suggest going to Spirit of Sofia in Palm Springs?!) Some highlights among others:
Photo shoot in front of windmills in 105 degree weather (it was more fun than it sounds)- part of what was so fun wasn’t just shooting itself but also the adventure of realizing there wasn’t just one way to get there and almost getting lost (at least it felt like that)
Eating delicious food while also sharing a SunChill float
Making new friends on the trip and sharing our greatest fears and hopes
And even the plane ride back where I met a new friend and gave my drink tickets to two already drunk people in front of us (my apologies to those around us- the flight attendant said they were being respectful!!)
While on said trip my first article for Visit Macon was published and just prior I gave my first full blown sermon. Once I returned I had an amazing few days with my older kids before they set forth on their own trip to California.
Almost ten years ago I wrote this about one of my Girl Meets City trips:
It’s funny that I wrote that about Columbus because one of my new friends was living there at that time- and as we chatted I realized she wanted to go back and the contact she was given is a sorority sister of mine. So we got on the phone with her right then and there. I feel like God brought me to these women because they have a purpose for me, to make me better than I am. I am grateful for them and for God.
This trip allowed me to fall back in love with myself and with the world that I have long been a part of- but perhaps was afraid to full embrace it. If I am not making sense I beg for your forgiveness- I think I’m still leg lagged!
And I know I’m going in reverse order but I think it makes sense to wrap this post up with sharing my sermon and the readings from that week. All Glory and Praise to God for bringing me to this place!
Happy Pride Month- this has had me thinking about our reading, that and so many world events…
Have you ever heard someone say- if God means this for me, then nothing will stop it? I think of it as a way to reassure myself and others that if something doesn’t go our way, or a blessing we wanted doesn’t come, or even if an opportunity unplanned for – or even unplanned for- comes our way… that if it is God’s plan for us, this will happen. And we will be taken care of.
It doesn’t mean it’ll be easy, or even pleasant. We can look at our first reading- Samuel didn’t realize God was speaking to him, and in fact God places him in kind of a pickle. Having to tell his mentor, Eli, that bad things were coming. But Eli responds with, basically, it’s God’s will- I accept this.
Our second reading seems to echo this- talking about how we are the light of God- but in clay jars. A fragile, precious gift while also carrying the death of Jesus.
It feels like this mirrors so much of where we are now- for me, my academic research focuses on the complexities of the South. Patterson Hood calls this “the duality of the Southern thing”- our beautiful antebellum structures, built on the backs of the cruelty, the ugliness, the UnGodly institution of slavery. This pattern repeats itself over and over in front of me especially in the way we treat others. People who on their surface seem different than us and therefore initially as a threat. But how many times have you run across someone who was so different than you, on the surface, and they became a friend?
The same happens in our Gospel reading, with the Pharisees deciding that they must destroy Jesus- for the crime of doing good work on the Sabbath. It reminds me of the late Representative John Lewis imploring us to make Good Trouble. How many times have we, have I, encountered someone who we condemned.
I can remember being a young woman and looking over this person in our church. How dare they come into the Lord’s house in such a disarray? They should know better.
I can’t say exactly when I began to feel the shame of those thoughts- I see them on Facebook every now and then and I want so much to apologize because I know- I know now they could see me looking down my nose at them. In church. Apologizing would not help them, it would only help me, because what could they really say to that? Other than just reminding them of how this person in a House of God looked at them with contempt. I was the Pharisee. And I did not truly know God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. But I’d like to think I got there… eventually, maybe even just recently- starting to get a glimpse of what it actually means to love others who are different from me.
So you might be saying so that’s great and good and all- but how does it relate to the first thing you were talking about? I acted poorly, in ways that I’m pretty sure God would side eye. It doesn’t make it ok, but it does mean that I – and others- can take this and make something of it. Try to learn from those moments- try to cling to hope.
When you’re stuck in something- a bad job, abusive marriage… or when our phones and tvs are filled with hate- hope can feel like your nemesis.
Hope is only our enemy when we trust in fallible humans more than we trust in God.
Do you see places of suffering in front of you? Do I? Or are you in this place yourself? Do we turn a blind eye to it, or do we try to take this light that God has given us and make things better? The answer seems obvious, but it doesn’t mean it’ll be easy. In fact, it might be hard- and that might be where the beauty is.
Readings:
The Collect
O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and earth: Put away from us, we entreat you, all hurtful things, and give us those things which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Old Testament 1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20)
The reader says, “As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground, a reading from First Samuel.”
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” [Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”
Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.” Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”
As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.]
The reader says, “Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people.”
People Thanks be to God.
The Psalm Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17 Domine, probasti
The psalm is chanted to the Simplified Anglican Chant setting immediately below.
| Psalm Chant setting 411 |
1 Lord, you have searched me out and known me; *
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
2 You trace my journeys and my resting-places *
and are acquainted with all my ways.
3 Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, *
but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
4 You press upon me behind and before *
and lay your hand upon me.
5 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; *
it is so high that I cannot attain to it.
12 For you yourself created my inmost parts; *
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
13 I will thank you because I am marvelously made; *
your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
14 My body was not hidden from you, *
while I was being made in secret
and woven in the depths of the earth.
15 Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb;
all of them were written in your book; *
they were fashioned day by day,
when as yet there was none of them.
16 How deep I find your thoughts, O God! *
how great is the sum of them!
17 If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand; *
to count them all, my life span would need to be like yours.
The Epistle 2 Corinthians 4:5-12
The reader says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, a reading from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians.”
We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
The reader says, “Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people.”
People Thanks be to God.
The Gospel Mark 2:23-3:6
Then, all standing, the Gospeler reads the Gospel, first saying, “The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.”
People Glory to you Lord Christ.
One sabbath Jesus and his disciples were going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
After the Gospel, the Gospeler says, “The Gospel of the Lord.”
People Praise to you, Lord Christ.
