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Sermon June 19, 2005 |
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A Sermon Preached at When his family complained about some messy task, my grandfather used to say, “It is not the dirt you can get on your hands that you have to worry about.” It was his way of promoting integrity. Since he was both a farmer and a politician he had a lot of experience of both kinds of dirt: the kind you get on your hands and the kind that stays hidden in your soul. Jesus, too, promoted integrity. Today’s Gospel is the end of the story which we began last week in which Jesus sends out the twelve to bring the good news to the people in the surrounding villages and towns. The half of the story we read last week is about the nuts and bolts of the mission: who was being sent where, what they were supposed to say and how they were supposed to travel. This morning’s half focuses more on the internal aspects of the disciples: what kind of people they were supposed to be. If I had to find one word to summarize all the advice Jesus offers his followers here it would be “integrity.” “Be wise as serpents and as innocent as doves…nothing is secret that will not become known…what I say in the dark, tell in the light…do not be afraid of those who kill the body…rather fear those who can destroy both soul and body…whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.” In other words, let your actions reflect the truth that is in your heart. Be people of integrity. That advice is almost a roadmap to maturity, to growing up into responsible adulthood. You know you are growing up when your actions begin to reflect the truth that is in your hear. That’s also one of the themes of a wonderful little movie making the rounds of the art houses. Called “Saving Face,” it is the story of a Chinese American family with some secrets: an out of wedlock pregnancy for one character, and for another the secret is that she is gay. The movie shows these characters moving from covering up the truth to finally having the courage to live out the truth of their hearts and to live openly as people of integrity. The message of the film, like
Jesus’ message to his followers is that we do better to focus on the truth of
our hearts; we do better to be more truly caring people than to worry about
our appearances. It is not the dirt you can get on your hands that you have
to worry about. It is what’s hidden in
your soul that matters. And we do have some control over the kind of people
we become. Take for example, Maurine
Jones, a character from the pastoral experience of Maurine was 92 and blind. Her husband had just died. Her children took her to investigate a nursing home. In the interview, the admissions director gave a verbal description of a room and the facility. “I love it,” Maurine said. Her son interjected, “Mom, you haven’t been to the room yet.” “That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” said Maurine. “Happiness is something I decide on ahead of time, and it doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. It is how I arrange my mind.” Happiness, hope, compassion,
openness, acceptance and integrity do not depend on how the furniture of life
is arranged. They have to do with how
you arrange your mind. And how our
minds are arranged determines how we live out our lives. As we celebrate Father’s Day today, let us
celebrate those who have shown us how to arrange our minds to reflect the
love of Jesus. And let us pray for the
grace to so arrange our minds that we might become better ambassadors of that
love in our world. AMEN
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