Life on a Roller Coaster

 

PROPERS:          PROPER 9, YEAR C    

TEXT:                LUKE 10:1-11, 16-20

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, JULY 3, 2022.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The path toward a New Creation is both immediate and slow – like justification and sanctification, and the creation of “a more perfect union.”  

 

            Two-hundred-forty-six years ago tomorrow, the Declaration of Independence was issued in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. July Fourth has been known as our Independence Day – freedom from the yoke of British governance.

 

            Just over 234 years ago, the Constitution of the United States was ratified.  Its Preamble included these words: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

 

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            “… in Order to form a more perfect Union…”

 

            On page 298 of the Book of Common Prayer, the rubric preceding the sacrament says that “Holy Baptism is the full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s body the Church.  The bond established by God in Baptism is indissoluble.”

 

            My question, then, is this: Why do we struggle so much as a nation and as people of faith?

 

            A bit of theology and perspective might help us understand.

 

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            Regarding our individual struggles as people of faith, I am reminded of the difference between justificationand sanctification.  They are each present and active factors in baptism.

 

            Justification is immediate.  We are “made right” in the eyes of God.  Your sins – both past and yet to come – are washed away.  You stand as New Beings in God’s creation.  You are a full member in the Household of God.

 

            Sanctification is another matter.  It begins in the sacrament of baptism, but it only begins then.  Your future life of growing in the grace you have received, in being formed more fully into a child of God, is a lifelong process.  It may be that very process of sanctification that brings you to the church today.  You seek to grow in the gift you have been given.

 

            Yet none of us reaches perfection. We are like this nation as we perpetually reach for the brass ring of perfection or a perfect union. It always eludes us.

 

            Paul Tillich, the 20^th century theologian, compared the perspectives on sanctification of the two great 16^thcentury reformers, John Calvin and Martin Luther.

 

            Calvin saw the process of sanctification as a gradual, constant, slow, upward movement toward holiness.  It could be compared to circular staircase, always ascending toward perfection, but never reaching it.

 

            Luther, on the other hand, saw a much more dynamic, unpredictable process of sanctification – perhaps like a roller coaster ride. Exhilarating highs as we reach the peaks, and devastating lows as we go into the depths. Still, the process continues as life goes on – up and down, high and low, being perfected and then falling short. But we do so within the context of having already been justified.

 

            We still reach for the brass ring.  It always eludes us. Yet we seek it.  Our holy mission continues. We strive, yet we never attain.

 

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            “… in Order to create a more perfect Union…”

 

            This is where perspective merges with theology.

 

            Two-hundred-forty-six years ago the people of this land began that journey. Two-hundred-thirty-four years ago we articulated that aspiration in our governing document.

 

            In all those years, we have seen amazing highs and challenging lows – much like a roller coaster ride.  The Civil War… the conquering of the West… the Great Depression… various national scandals… the 1960s… the struggle with Civil Rights… leaders with clay feet… debates about governance… It has been anything but an upward, always-ascending move toward a more perfect union.

 

            But the journey continues – both for us as people seeking to be sanctified and as a nation seeking to be a more perfect union.

 

            It has never been easy.  Jesus sent 70 of his followers out on the road in the gospel lesson today.  They were to carry his message to the people – some who would hear it; some who would not.

 

            The mission was not perfect.  The work was not finished.  But it was a beginning.