2022

It’s possible that Jesus is suggesting – as later church writers wholeheartedly proclaimed – that this level of wealth is just bad. The common parlance today including by the children of Patagonia’s founder is “Every billionaire is a policy mistake.” Jesus may be saying that they’re moral mistakes as well particularly with counties, towns, and countries domestically and globally not having reliable access to clean drinking water and people being lied to about having jobs waiting only to be dropped off on an island. While Jesus is challenging this issue he’s continuing to invite us to do something, like I talked about two weeks ago..

Susy Hessel is a lay preacher at St. Hilda St. Patrick and is a mental health counselor.  THEY Who are these people we call THEY? What do they look like? How do they speak? Where are they from? What do they believe? They aren’t like me. They are the OTHER. Someone from a different culture

Following Jesus and working for justice aren’t weekend warriorships of protests and counting arrests for civil disobedience as badges of honor. Changing policy takes networking and relationship building. Passing legislation is a slog that takes organizing and growing movements one by one. Growing into the full stature and likeness of Christ is looking at the end of the road and only seeing the Cross.

We can say the right prayers; we can have the right formularies; we can have the right pattern on our vestments; we can have the right amount of collaboration in worship planning; but as St. John Chyrsostom said, “If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice.” These are things we all need to work on.

The Rev. Carlos Caguiat served as a supply priest for St. Hilda St. Patrick on Sunday, August 21, 2022.

Every day brings new opportunities to answer that question to answer how we’re going to follow Jesus. In warning that he brings division, Jesus isn’t saying that that’s his mission. He’s saying that for those who follow him, there will be breaks or stresses in relationships even within families. This is not Jesus giving permission to be jerks because we’re so sure that we’re right so we need to cut people out or have them cut us out because we’re so insufferable…That’s where Jesus prods us today, telling us that following him will upset the apple cart and that the rest of the parade won’t like the beat we’re following. In the fullness of time God’s reign, which is at hand will be truly established and there will be peace.

The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, August 7, 2022 was preached as a response to the texts for Proper 14, Track 1. The sermon was preached extemporaneously.