A Sermon Preached at St. Stephen’s on Sept. 24, 2006, by the Rev. Cork Tarplee

An unverifiable story from Lutheran sources has Philip Melancthon, Martin Luther’s great disciple saying to Luther one day, “Today, you and I shall discuss the governance of the universe.” To which Luther replied, “No. Today you and I shall go fishing and leave the governance of the universe to God.”  Which is a good model for all of us.  The proper pursuits of the religious life might be a lot humbler than we think.

            The Collect for today, the general prayer we say near the beginning of the service, states the theme of our readings today.  Today we prayed, “Even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, [help us] to hold fast to those [things] that shall endure.”  It is a good prayer for all days, especially those crammed with the business of life and the pressures to do EVERYTHING.  We know that some of the things we could spend our time on are just like dust in the wind, while other things are vitally important.  But which is which?  What are the things that “shall endure?”

            The Bible’s answer to that question has always run contrary to popular wisdom.  Popular wisdom is full of concerns about success and winning, about amassing wealth and achieving power.  In contrast, the resources of our faith point us in another direction.

Take this morning’s readings for example.  Our first reading from Proverbs offers a model for our life that probably shocked the culture for whom it was written.  Women, as we know, were accorded a lowly place in ancient Hebrew culture, and that culture like all that have followed it tended to extol the achievements of rulers and warriors.  But here Proverbs suggests that the model of our life ought to be a woman, carefully tending to the stuff of everyday life.  Our second reading from the Epistle of James says that true wisdom is not about success in striving, but is “peaceable, gentle, [and] willing to yield.” Finally, Jesus himself is faced with a squabble among his followers about who is “greatest.” Jesus’ answer is “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”  And since mere words don’t convey a strong enough impression, Jesus takes a little child—so insignificant in his culture that the child is referred to as “it”—and takes it in his arms.  “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me…” and really welcomes Almighty God.

            Greatness, as one commentator puts it, is not about how far we rise above everyone else; greatness is about how far we are willing to go to include and care for the least and the lowly. Our heroes in the world of faith are a surprising lot: They include the operator of a homeless shelter who would not pass on to her homeless guests the cast-off refuse of the business world, but who schemed and finagled local florists into giving her cut flowers for the tables at her soup kitchen and talked merchants into giving her kitchens the finest produce available.  Our heroes include a wife who cared for her disabled spouse, not because of fidelity to some “duty” but out of love—and they include a bishop who resigned a powerful office to care for his disabled wife.  They include the grand dame of the village who found a seat and shared a hymnal with an unwashed young person who stumbled into church.  They include a business owner who stood at a church door, sneaking a stick of gum to every child who entered—sometimes to the chagrin of the parents.  The list goes on for the heroes of our faith are ordinary people like you and me who have taken Jesus seriously and welcomed children, and homeless, and hurt people into their lives simply because it is what we do.  These are the things that endure.

            The magnates who have amassed fortunes, the rulers who have won empires by slaughter: these have their names in history books.  But they do not endure.  Their names live mostly in infamy.  Even great fortunes rarely last more than three generations. Great slaughter creates greater animosity.  It is the humble who welcome the outcast whose greatness endures, for in the end, only love goes on forever.

                                                                                                AMEN