Should Everybody Get a Trophy?: A Sermon for Proper 26
The Rev’d Richard G. Proctor, OA
Christ the King Episcopal Church
Proper 26, Year B 10.31.21
Love God and love your neighbor. These two commandments are what Jesus considered to be the “first of all.” And if we just so happen to miss the one day of the year when we are reminded of this in the gospel lesson, the Prayer Book makes space for us to say it every week at the beginning of the service.
I observe that option because I know that many of us – if not most – are rather preoccupied when we come here to worship. We have a lot on our hearts and minds. We miss a lot of what happens. You might see someone later today who asks you if you how today’s sermon was and your likely response might be, “I can’t remember.”
“Well, what was it about?”
“I can’t really remember.”
Don’t feel bad about that. There are about two or three decades of my life where that would have been the answer. So, my hope is that if all else that we say, hear, and do in this hour of worship goes in one ear and out the other - if we at least hear the great commandment week in and week out, it will stick. Love God and love your neighbor. Everything else that we do in worship and afterwards stems from this great commandment.
That being the case, when I was looking at the various youth confirmation curriculums to use this year, I was overwhelmed with the number of options. The one that I landed on – Journey to Adulthood – caught my eye because it breaks up the units into these categories – loving God, loving your neighbor, and loving yourself – in that order.
My hope is that when these youth grow up here at CtK hearing the Great Commandment every Sunday at the beginning of the worship service, once they begin confirmation class, they will be able to dig deeper into what all of this really looks like.
So, this Fall, we began with a couple of weeks looking at what our scriptures and tradition tell us about what it looks like to Love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds. Needless to say, to become a mature Christian is a lifelong vocation. So, any class you take is simply a launching point for further engagement.
When we got to the “Love your neighbor as yourself” commandment, it was the Sunday before the Feast of St. Francis, who happens to be one of the most beloved saints due to his affiliation with the blessing of our pets. So, for the month of October, the youth have been learning about the ancient and modern-day saints of the Church as a means for seeing what loving God and neighbors looks like with actual flesh and bones. Each youth was assigned a saint to read and learn about and report to the class. We heard about Macrina, William Wilberforce, Maximilian Kolbe, Evelyn Underhill, Mother Theresa, Constance and the Martyrs of Memphis, the Martyrs of Japan, Florence Nightingale, and others.
All of this work has been leading up to tomorrow, which is the Feast of All Saints. It is important to me that our youth dive deeper into the meaning of this high holy day of the Christian year. One of the drawbacks of the Protestant Reformation was that it suppressed the observance of Christian saints. Instead of honoring the bravest, most faithful and groundbreaking Christians in all eras, the Protestant Reformers decided to lean on the teaching that “we are all saints. All of us are equal in the eyes of God. God doesn’t love St. Augustine more than me. So why should St. Augustine get a special day?” After all, shouldn’t everybody get a trophy?
Well, I can tell you that, yes, it is true that God loves all of us equally. But I can also tell you that I deeply believe that the Church should recognize and honor those Christians who have lived exemplary lives. I need Augustine of Hippo and Benedict of Nursia and Francis and Claire of Assisi and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Theresa to show me what Christian living looks like. They simply are better Christians than I am. I need their stories to challenge and inspire me.
The way I explained it to our youth is that in sports or in rock and roll or country music, we have a Hall of Fame. Just because you played in the NFL doesn’t mean that you make it to the Hall of Fame. Everybody will still get their NFL pension check when they retire. But everybody doesn’t get a Hall of Fame induction and trophy. And that is ok.
Young aspiring country musicians will be better served listening to and studying the music of Hank Williams Sr. than that of Billy Cyrus. Hank Sr. left a legacy that is worth remembering and learning from. Don’t get me wrong - God loves Hank Williams and Billy Ray Cyrus equally – but the Country Music Hall of Fame doesn’t. And that is a good thing.
Since the Feast of All Saints’ falls on a Monday this year, we will observe the option to celebrate it on the Sunday afterwards, which will be next week. We will also have a baptism, which is customary for the Feast of All Saints. It is important for us to make the connection between the sacrament of Holy Baptism and the Feast of All Saints. James Kennedy – the son of Jason and Heather Kennedy – will be grafted into Christ’s very own Body – the Church. He will be grafted into the Body of all saints who have gone before him, and those who will follow. In this sense – the Protestants got it right. James will be just as baptized as the Apostle Paul and St. Thomas Aquinas. God loves him just as much as God loves all of those in the Christian Saints Hall of Fame.
But as James grows up here at Christ the King, he will learn what it’s like to love God and love one’s neighbor from his Sunday School teachers, VBS leaders, youth leaders, and all of us who will surround him with and model Christ’s love. But he will also hear and the learn the stories of the Saints – those from the Bible and those from the centuries that follow. He needs to hear those stories too. And so do our teenagers. And so do we.
Next Sunday at 9:15am in Sandefur Hall, we will have a combined youth and adult class that explores the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, and how we understand it in the Episcopal Church. The Kennedy family will be there with James, his godparents – Rachel and Jimmy Azzolini – and the rest of their family. My dream would be that it will be just as well-attended as the worship service and baptism that follows. We all need to be reminded of our own baptisms, and what the implications are for our own lives and salvation. You have probably heard me say before that “everything begins with baptism.” Everything we do in church flows from the font to the altar and into the world. First and foremost, to be a saint is to be baptized. Not all of us – very few in fact – will make the “Christian Saints Hall of Fame.” And that is ok.
But all of us can be baptized. And all of us can aspire to be the best Christians we are able to be here and now – Hall of Fame or not. If we live our lives grounded in our baptisms and following the great commandment to love God and love our neighbor, that is all God requires of us.