The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, November 13, 2022, was preached in response to Ephesians 4.1-6 as St. Hilda St. Patrick celebrated a Feast of Name. The sermon was based on the manuscript below.
These are the only remaining words of Hilda of Whitby,
and they’ll be the beginning of our blessing at the end of the service:
Trade with the gifts God has given you.
Bend your minds to holy learning,
that you may escape the fretting moth of littleness of mind
that would wear out your souls.
Brace your wills to action,
that they may not be the spoils of weak desires.
Train your hearts and lips to song,
which gives courage to the soul.
Being buffeted by trials,
learn to laugh.
Being reproved,
give thanks.
Having failed,
determine to succeed.
This admonition,
this charge that is attributed Hilda of Whitby
ties up nicely with the reading that
Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2022 gives us for St. Hilda.
Paul writes to the Ephesians,
“lead a life worthy of the calling
to which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness,
with patience,
bearing with one another in love,
making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.”
He goes on to write
what have become the opening versicles and responses
for our baptismal liturgy
which we celebrated last week.
These two pieces,
this homily or admonition from Hilda
and call to the Ephesians
wrap nicely around the week we’ve had
and the weeks we have coming,
with elections on Tuesday, the pledge letter on Thursday,
and Georgia Senate runoffs less than four weeks away.
“Trade with the gifts God has given you.
Brace your wills to action,
that they may not be the spoils of weak desires.”
“with all humility and gentleness,
with patience,
bearing with one another in love,
making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.”
We don’t know all that much, really,
about St. Hilda of Whitby
except that she was born into nobility
and an active, but chaste, member of court
before there was a unified England.
Baptized at 13, at 33 she went into monastic life.
Aidan, the bishop of Lindisfarne,
recalled her to East Anglia, her home
because he was impressed with her devotion
to Jesus and the monastic life.
After benign made Abbess of Hartlepool,
Hilda later founded the abbey at Whitby,
a mixed-sex abbey.
The monks and nuns strictly followed a rule of life
dedicated to justice, devotion, chastity, peace, and charity.
Hilda herself was known to be exceedingly wise
and bishops and kings sought her counsel regularly.
Although the letter is called Ephesians,
it may have been a general letter
written to many churches at once
and written in general to the church today.
It moves from God’s plans of salvation for the whole of creation
to the ways that believers regular act as a part of that plan.
The letter incorporates us into God’s acts of salvation in Jesus
through our baptisms and makes clear
that the strength of the God of the universe is available to us –
communally and individually –
as we follow Jesus and are changed by grace
more fully into his likeness.
This is why Paul urges the Ephesians and the whole church to
“lead a life worthy of the calling
to which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness,
with patience,
bearing with one another in love,
making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.”
In Jesus the Christ
God has taken on human flesh and lived among us
the way that Jesus visits us in his flesh
at the Eucharistic table.
While our passage today directs us in how to live,
it’s directing us as a response
to what God has done and given for us
that we might work for God
to see the fullness of God’s reign.
There are scores of ways that we can
lead lives worthy of the calling
to which we have been called.
This year’s pledge form asks
if you do outside volunteer work,
work that is part of your vocation of service,
part of Hilda’s Rule of Life dedicated to
justice, devotion, chastity, peace, and charity.
This year’s pledge form,
as all materials about pledging since before I got here do,
asks like Hilda admonishes
that you trade with the gifts God has given you.
Pledging, trading, giving
aren’t about buying God’s love.
God’s love made known to us in Jesus
is so expansive that we couldn’t afford it.
God gives it to us for free,
and loves us more than we can even imagine
regardless of how much or little we pledge.
Hilda encourages people to
“Brace your wills to action,
that they may not be the spoils of weak desires.”
Action is part of leading the life worth of the calling
to which we’ve been called
following Hilda’s rule
or living our own baptismal covenant.
You could and should
continue your volunteer work!
Maybe by knowing what it is
we can recruit some laborers in your vineyards
as you serve Jesus outside these walls.
There are 16 days to write non-partisan letters
to potential voters in Georgia
simply asking them to participate in the runoff.
Perhaps some of you would like to tackle 20 each during or after coffee hour
next week while the bishop’s committee is meeting.
We’re going to start a partnership next month
as an outgrowth of our anti-racism book studies
with the Washington Defender Association’s
End Mass Incarceration Committee.
That will start with a webinar
but continue into advocacy for incarcerated persons
and interacting with state legislators.
All of that is stewardship,
trading in the gifts of time, talent, and treasure,
that God has given us.
All of that takes all humility and gentleness,
with patience, and bearing with one another in love.
All of that is living lives worthy of the call
to which we have been called
gifts from God through Jesus the resurrected Christ.
Trade with the gifts God has given you.
Bend your minds to holy learning,
that you may escape the fretting moth of littleness of mind
that would wear out your souls.
Brace your wills to action,
that they may not be the spoils of weak desires.
Train your hearts and lips to song,
which gives courage to the soul.
Being buffeted by trials,
learn to laugh.
Being reproved,
give thanks.
Having failed,
determine to succeed.
Amen.