PROPERS: PROPER 19, YEAR C
TEXT: 1 TIMOTHY 1:12-17
PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S, MOBILE, ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2025. (My last Sunday at St. Paul’s, Mobile)
ONE SENTENCE: Life’s direction can always be changed – to “The Road Less Travelled”.
My first Sunday to preach here, last November, I began with a “point of personal privilege” to welcome my two grandsons, Wilt and Harris – who incidentally are here today.
My reason is different today… especially since my daughter has observed that this may be my last Sunday to preach. That sounds ominous, doesn’t it?
But here are my observations.
+ + +
For most of my 38 years of ordained ministry, I have dealt with solving problems. Attendance… clergy behavior… budget issues… clergy placement… parish vacancies. I guess you could say that I came to view ministry with somewhat of a jaundiced eye.
And then I came to St. Paul’s. I had always been a bit skeptical of large churches. Bloated… privileged… spoiled… under functioning – those were some of the words I would use to describe large parishes.
Then I was blessed to come to St. Paul’s – and those adjectives disappeared into the mists.
It has been my pleasure to see, especially, the many aspects of lay-led ministry. I’ve watched as people organized meaningful efforts to touch people’s lives. I’ve seen the weekly ministry to deliver flowers to those challenged by life. The regular activities of Eucharists in homes, hospitals, and personal care facilities. I’ve witnessed the ministry of the Cracked Plates. I’ve seen the dedication of Daily Bread and Meals on Wheels.
Gospel ministry, we could call it. And that was just a sliver of volunteer ministry in this congregation.
Then, the staff. The clergy staff, Jody and Brad, are like Joe DiMaggio – they make the hard ones look easy. Peggy and the choir make our worship sing in ways we wouldn’t otherwise. The lay office staff has been a pleasure to work with.
And my thanks to a wonderful group of octogenarians who have welcomed Nora and me into your midst.
Not bad, I would say, for a swan song.
Thank you.
+ + +
Rob Nichols, a fellow Mississippian now a priest in this diocese, tells the story of a seminary classmate taking the final, comprehensive General Ordination Examination during his senior year at Virginia Seminary.
The test was comprised of short answer, essay, and some objective criteria. Open book and closed book. Some single essays lasted all day. Much like a Bar or CPA exam. It was aimed at seeing how much the student had learned during three-years in graduate school. Wags called it God’s Own Exam.
As Rob tells it, one question was this: Who was the mother of Augustine of Hippo?
The answer was obvious – St. Monnica. We had learned that fact during our middler year.
But Rob’s friend was flummoxed. He did not know. Who was the mother of Augustine of Hippo?
Indeed. He did not know. He wrote his answer: Mrs. Hippo.
+ + +
Monnica’s son was one of the great figures of the early church. Some call Augustine the greatest of all theologians.
But he was not always so. Augustine lived an early profligate life in North Africa. This was the fourth century. He was very bright – schooled in rhetoric and philosophy.
He was spoiled. He had a succession of concubines, eschewing marriage. He was an adherent to pagan beliefs, especially Manicheanism, which saw the world as either evil or good, with nothing in between.
It was during this paganistic period that he uttered his insincere prayer: “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.”
One afternoon, when he was 31 years old, Augustine was sitting in a courtyard, and he heard a child’s voice repeating, “Tolle legge, tolle legge” – take up and read, take up and read.
He looked to his side, and there was a copy of Paul’s Letter to the Romans.
He read it, and life and the church were never the same.
+ + +
Augustine’s life was like Paul’s – not simple, righteous, or one-dimensional.
In the epistle today, Paul writes to his close friend Timothy:
“I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”
Paul knew a truth that Augustine lived as well – the pathway of our lives is never set in stone – nor is it ever beyond redemption. No matter where we go, we can always change paths. The ability of God to change lives is remarkable.
My ordaining Bishop Duncan M. Gray, Jr., observed, “No one’s life is a complete loss. They can always be a negative example in a sermon.”
But it is much greater than that. We can be transformed.
That is one reason the Twelve Step Programs are so important – people can change and lead new lives. Healing can take place. Wounds can be mended. Broken lives can find new direction. We can emerge from the pit.
And more. Much more. Paul, Augustine, and countless others through centuries tell us we can change. We can be touched by the healing hand of God. We, too, can find – and take – The Road Less Traveled.
