October 28, 2001 - The 21st Sunday after Pentecost - Father Barry Woods

THE FIRST READING: JOEL 2: 23-32

O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God, and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame. Then, afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood, and fire, and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

PSALM 65: 5-14

5 Awesome things will you show us in your righteousness, O God of our salvation, O Hope of all the ends of the earth and of the seas that are far away.

6 You make fast the mountains by your power; they are girded about with might.

7 You still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the clamor of the peoples.

8 Those who dwell at the ends of the earth will tremble at your marvelous signs; you make the dawn and the dusk to sing for joy.

9 You visit the earth and water it abundantly; you make it very plenteous; the river of God is full of water.

10 You prepare the grain, for so you provide for the earth.

11 You drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges; with heavy rain you soften the ground and bless its increase.

12 You crown the year with your goodness, and your paths overflow with plenty.

13 May the fields of the wilderness be rich for grazing, and the hills be clothed with joy.

14 May the meadows cover themselves with flocks, and the valleys cloak themselves with grain; let them shout for joy and sing.

THE SECOND READING: 2 TIMOTHY 4: 6-8, 16-18

As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing. At my first defense, no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever.

THE HOLY GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO LUKE (18: 9-14)

Jesus told his parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

Faith. Hope. Charity.

For the last 6+ weeks, my life, like yours, has been filled with things that I don't like it to be filled with. Like your life, my life has been filled with confusion, uncertainty, anger, and fear. I have tried to live my life, day to day, the way I always did before; and I have gone through the motions of that life, day by day, over these last weeks. And I think everything is O.K., and, during the day, everything seems to be all right; and then I come home at night, and I turn on the television set, and, once again, I am assaulted by bombs, and buildings, and airplanes, and anthrax, and deadly mail, and all the rest of it. And the confusion, and the fear, and the anger increase; and uncertainty becomes something that used to be a strange emotion to me, but now it marks every fiber of my being - uncertainty. And I try to get away from it; and I try to do something, but, every morning, I wake up, and I read the paper, hoping for some news that all of this is about to end, and it's not there. And, every night, I come home, and I turn on the television, hoping that there will be some news that this is all over, or is about to end, and the news is not there. And the cycle begins again; and the uncertainty and the fear and the anger increase; and then, the next day, I go through the day, and I notice that, no matter what things look like, that cloud of uncertainty hangs over me. There is a little pocket of fear in the back of my brain and a knot of anger in my stomach; and the uncertainty makes me dissatisfied with my life; and the fear gives me trouble sleeping; and the anger leaks out on the people that I love and that are close to me. And the cycle goes on and on and on, and there doesn't seem to be any reason for it to end, and no end seems in sight.

And then, I come here to this place, and I hear the words: Faith, Hope, Charity. I hear those words, and something stirs inside me; and that something is very strong and is very good; and I know that, somehow, in those three words, there is a power that can give me what I need maybe more now than I ever have had in my life - the power to go through these difficult days creatively and lovingly.

Faith. Hope. Charity.

Faith. In a moment, this sermon will be over (and many of you will be pleased about that), and we will stand together; and we will recite the words of our faith in the Nicene Creed; and that will be a good thing to do, because faith always begins with words. If it ends with words, it is not really faith; but faith always begins with words, and then it goes down inside you and becomes a solid foundation that will not crack and will not crumble, no matter what. Faith begins with words, and then it goes down inside of us; and it becomes pillars that will support us, no matter what happens. And that faith and that foundation give us strong, dependable ground that we can stand on as we face the challenges of the days to come. And for us Christians, that faith is that Jesus is God, and that He came into the world as a man; and He rescued us, once and for all, from the powers of darkness; and he set us on the path toward a new life. The faith that we share as Christians is that His victory over everything - over everything that divides, over everything that dehumanizes, over everything that kills - his victory over that is absolute, total, and complete, and nothing can change it. The powers of darkness are doomed. It's a done deal! And that is our faith. And it can, if we will allow it, create in us a strong place to stand.

Hope. I have been very much taken, as I am sure you have, by all of the expressions of hope that seem to be multiplying these days - hopeful that somehow we will be successful in our war with terrorism, hopeful that somehow the economy will get better, hopeful that innocent people will not suffer from all of this, hopeful that the stock market will get better - hopeful, hopeful, hopeful. And it is good that we have these hopes, and, as Americans, we should share in them, totally and completely. As Christian Americans, we have another hope, and it is a better, stronger hope. You see, the hope that we share and the hopes that we share as Americans depend on whether or not certain events will happen; and those events may or may not happen. But, the hope that you and I share as Christians is based on an event in the future that we know will happen. It is a sure and certain and absolutely definite hope, because it is based on the promise of God that there is a day coming when Jesus will come again; and His victory over all that divides and separates and humanizes will become complete. All the great things that He started the first time He came will be completed and perfected when He comes again. And that promise is absolutely dependable. Our hope is based on an absolutely certain future, and our hope is better and stronger.

Charity. I am sure you have been impressed, as I have, with the incredible outpouring of charitable contributions in these last few weeks. It has been absolutely unbelievable to me - the response. And that is good, because that is what charity is - it is giving. It is giving, even though the recipients might be unknown to us, or undeserving, or unthankful, or ungrateful - charity gives nonetheless, and charity is good and strong and powerful. Charity is good, and strong, and powerful, because it strengthens, and brings together, and unites. The great thing about giving is that it strengthens the recipient and the giver, and nobody loses. And, as we, as Christians, try to get through these days, we can use giving as a way to get through these days. We can give our encouragement to those around us. We can give the hand of friendship to our Muslim neighbors. We can give our faith and our hope. We can give our money, our blood, our time, and our love - and, in that giving, find strength.

Faith. Hope. Charity.

I wish I could stand here this morning and say that everything is going to be O.K. tomorrow. I wish that there were some certainty that this would all come to an end soon, but we just don't know. We are in a battle. We are in a war. And, like any battle and any war, there is going to be a lot of fear, and a lot of confusion, and a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of anger, and a lot of casualties, and a lot of death. There is going to be a lot of smoke, and noise, and explosions, and everything else that goes with being in a battle, and you and I will be immersed in it, kind of, whether we want to be or not. And, it will go on and on and on, until it doesn't go on anymore. But, somehow, in the midst of all of that noise and confusion, all of the stuff of battle - what Douglas MacArthur once called "the mournful mutter of the battlefield" - somewhere in the midst of all of that, there will be lulls; there will be quiet times; there will be breaks in the action; and, during those times, it is my prayer that you and I will be able to hear that still, small voice saying, "Faith. Hope. Charity."

AMEN