Erl Purnell Sermon

bLent 3 ~ March 19, 2006 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT

Exodus 20.1-17; Psalm 19.7-14; Romans 7.13-25; John 2.13-22

Here we are again in the season of hard lessons. Moses staggers back down the mountain, arms gripping tablets inscribed with commandments God has etched on them. Do this, don’t do that. We still live in the shadow of the Ten Commandments some three thousands years later.

The Psalmist in this morning’s reading appeals to us to understand that “the law of the Lord is perfect and revives the soul.” The writer goes on: “Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins.”

As if our wandering minds and hearts haven’t been refocused enough by the Law of Moses and Psalm 19, the compilers of the common lectionary then throw in Paul’s exhortation to himself and the Romans about the ever-so-human internal conflict between what we should do and what we actually do, who we could be and who we turn out to be. There’s a lot of repetition and circular logic in Paul’s argument, but it’s hard for me to read this section of Romans without wondering how Paul knows ME so well.

Struggle. The struggles of being a human critter, a person of faith... In Lent we’re called to face our struggles head-on, through self-examination and repentance, prayer, and meditating on the Word of God. It’s a good challenge and a discipline worth practicing always…or at least for the forty days of Lent, right? Lent is when we are charged to speak the thoughts of our hearts truthfully, without caveat, without excuse. And, and then to shut up long enough to listen for the Holy Spirit.

After last Sunday’s session of Life with George, I reminded George how important Frank Buchman’s teachings had been to me years ago. I remember vividly learning those four principles George mentioned, the ones first espoused by Henry Wright of Yale and Robert E. Speer of the international student movement, and later adopted by Buchman and the Oxford Group folks: absolute honesty, purity, selflessness, and love.

Sitting in the still of early morning—a practice Buchman called Quiet Time—those difficult but salvific principles hovered around the fields of my Soul and haunted the complacency that happily lived there. Much of what I understand about Lent comes from my experience of night-wrestling with honesty, purity, selflessness, and love, something like what Jacob did at Jabbok Brook. Much of what a life of faith has come to mean for me is related to the continual practice of Quiet Time introspection and listening.

In Lent, the opportunity to do something different is offered to us. What are you doing? Perhaps you have a Bishop’s Fund for Children mite box and you’re faithfully putting all your change in it each night. That’s what I do. Maybe you’ve given up chocolate. I haven’t. If you can, all the more power to you. Have you picked up the Bible and read some psalms or chosen to read the whole of a gospel these forty days? Have you—as George told us he did long ago—righted some wrong you’ve secretly done? Offered an apology to somebody you hurt? Completed your IRS Form 1040 for 2005 without stretching the limits? Did you make an anonymous gift to a charity because their cause touched you deeply? Or, have you asked God how you can best be who it is God would have you BE?

Consider again those four standards George spoke about. Absolute honesty. Absolute honesty sets the bar high. Can you imagine never running another yellow light? Could you never run another yellow light? What being absolutely honest means is deciding you’ll live by the high standard of absolute honesty every single minute. Every opportunity to shade the truth or to lie outright, you’ll brake and stand in the truth instead. Next yellow light you encounter, think about how you’re doing with absolute honesty. Run the light? Put on the brake? Absolute honesty.

Purity. Taking a shower every day may be a start but it’s not what gets and keeps one pure. This purity resides first and foremost in the thoughts of our hearts. Which thoughts do we dismiss and which linger, pulling us into the shadows of abuse and disrespect for ourselves or others? How do we honor and cherish the vessel God has provided for this short incarnate stay? So also, how do we treat our selves, our souls and bodies. What do we eat and drink? How do we pollute the temple of our Being? How do we nourish and comfort our selves with rest and relaxation? Purity is food for the Soul.

Selflessness. “‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these and ‘to love [your neighbor] with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Next question?

Selflessness is hard, isn’t it? Selflessness is about being radically and wastefully generous and thoughtful towards others, always before you worry about yourself. In the ordinary of our lives, hidden in plain view are myriad ways to act selflessly. Many of us are selfless in supporting this parish church, the children at l’École le bon Samaritain, the Red Cross, and even the occasional pan-handler in Hartford. While the specific incidents matter greatly, what’s even more important is being empowered by selflessness as an attitude, a way of life and living, a way of Being. How can I see through the eyes of another? How can I appreciate without judgment where somebody else may be; the parishioner who may disagree with me about something; the teenager for whom drugs have become the curse of comfort; the frightened mom with no health care and her daughter who’s spiking a fever sitting in the Hartford Hospital Emergency Room on a Tuesday night; the neighbor whose wife has cancer; and my always best friend, the checkout person at Stop & Shop? Selflessness accepts every opportunity to reach out and touch someone. People who are selfless live out of their abundance, never looking through the lens of poverty or what’s missing. Dare you live with an attitude of selflessness and a spirit of generous abandon?

“And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love,” Paul says. Love, one of the most over used and abused words in the language. I just love pizza! I love the UCONN Huskies, too. And flying helicopters, riding my bike, kayaking, and my granddaughters Ellie and Ruby.

What’s Love? What do we mean when we say Love? What does it mean to love? We always have the three Greek concepts: Eros, or erotic, sexual love; philos, or the brotherly/sisterly love of deep and abiding friendship; and agape, the love that is wholly selfless and spiritual, the love represented by the frequent communal meals we share.

The Love that concludes the four principles we’re talking about is clearly and unequivocally agape, the love of God that passes all understanding, the love represented by the kiss of Peace, the honest, pure, and selfless love of Jesus for all of humanity and the whole of Creation. Do you agree? How then can you manifest this principle of agape Love today, tomorrow, and always? Will you find some quiet time to wonder and pray about these things? Might you take a turn and embrace this manner of living for just five minutes? If you do, and if you like it, try it for another five. Perhaps the second five will turn into a day, a week, a month, a year and more.

Absolute honesty. Purity. Selflessness. Love.

Amen.