Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, Year B (Proper 6)

Winning the Race

Readings: 2 Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Mark 1:40-45

The strenuous effort of gospel labour and its single-minded purpose leads Paul to a comparison with athletic competition. It makes sense if you think about it. Athletics was important to the Graeco-Roman world to whom he was writing. This is the culture which gave us the Olympics.

And so he says to them, “Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may win it.” It is a unique way of looking at our spiritual life. It is a unique way of looking at the way we do church. Competition certainly takes place, but it does not seem to me that it is the way to holiness. It usually focuses on the number of people in the pews or whether or not we have met our expenses. So what do we take away from this passage of Scripture? What is its message as we hold our annual Vestry meeting?

The news this past week has focused on the Olympics to take place a year from now. On my day off I was fascinated to listen to an interview with Peter Jensen. He is a performance psychologist who works to prepare teams for the Olympics. His job is not to improve their technical skills, but to prepare them mentally to perform their best.

He has taken his coaching skills and applied them to life, and particularly at this time of economic down sizing, to searching for a job. “Everything starts with the way that you look at the world,” he says. You need to understand what your personal biases or slants about the world are, and be true to them, in order to make the best decisions about the direction your career can take. It might be nature or nurture or life experiences. It really doesn't matter. Once you know that about yourself, you can start to make choices."

He goes on to explain that so often our perceptions about ourselves are influenced by external factors – our friends, family members, bosses, mentors. In order to be successful we need to understand how we have been affected by the views of others.

Right on the heels of listening to the interview I went out to do some grocery shopping. The cashier, a young woman barely out of her teens was serving the customer before me, another young woman. They were deep in conversation about their future. “I’d love to be a doctor,” she said to her friend, “but I know it will never happen. I doubt that I could even become a nurse.” Her friend commiserated with her.

As she was checking my groceries, I asked her about the conversation. “Why do you feel so doubtful that you will become a doctor?” She had a long list of her shortcomings, all to do with other people’s perceptions. I said to her, “Do you really want to be a doctor?” She told me that as long as she could remember it had been her dream. “I think you should pursue it,” I said to her. And I shared with her a little of how I had felt leaving the comfort and security of teaching to change careers, and yet how rewarding it had been to achieve something I had dreamed of my whole life. She thanked me for my words. She said, “I listen too much to what other people think. I really do think that I could do it.”

Then it led me to consider my spiritual goals. Do I have markers that help me to understand how far I have come? Is there some intentionality in my approach to my spiritual life? Am I deliberate in my study? Paul, servant of Christ, apostle, evangelist, is considering how he might be disqualified even though he has been proclaiming the gospel. What would cause me to be disqualified? Would it be my failure to ask for forgiveness? Would it be my failure to rise from defeat? Would it be listening to the negativity of those around me?

And then I started thinking about our Vestry. Once again, do we have markers that help us to understand how far we have come? I certainly do. This parish has come so far. I used to be in fear and trembling when I heard from the Diocese, because it was bound to be about how far behind we were in our assessment. How different it was to receive a phone call this past week in which we were congratulated on our excellent stewardship! We need to celebrate our achievement.

We have a wonderful marker on the back wall of our church. The apple tree banner is an amazing reminder of the hours and hours of dedicated work that has taken place over this past year. What is more, it is a work in progress. By the end of our Vestry meeting, there will be new names to put up on the banner as people take on the work of the church.

Perhaps the hardest aspect of our life together to understand as a competition is in assessing our spiritual goals. If we are only thinking about the business of the church, meeting our expenses and so on, then will we find ourselves disqualified? If we set ourselves up in competition with other churches, are we furthering the kingdom of God? What kind of competition do we need to pursue?

What if we simply strive to be the best Christians we can be? What kind of a church would this be if we put all our effort into being as loving as we can be? What if we put our effort into the practice of prayer? What if we put our effort into being inviting and open to our community?

For me that is probably the most important way forward. I want to share a simple project with you that I hope we will put into practice this year. It won’t cost us a lot of money. It is something in which we can all participate. It is called “Back to Church Sunday.” (Show PowerPoint presentation)

Let us compete with one another to make people feel at home in our community. Let us be open and willing to share the good news that God is in the midst of us. Let us proclaim Christ as Lord of our lives. Amen

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