Pulpit Swap

This Sunday R and I will swap pulpits: we will be at each others’ churches. We did it once before when I was at St. Peter’s, but this is the first time for my home parish of Christ Church. It’s a fun perk of being a clergy couple with parishes open to trying something new.

As I read through the lessons and considered the three services at R’s Trinity parish, I remembered something an uncle once told me. He had been the pastor for many years near Harvard Square at a big Lutheran church, which also had three Sunday services. He said he felt that each service had a different congregation, so he preached three different sermons each week. He told me this long after he retired, lamenting the fact that he had finally reached the point where he had to reuse a sermon!

I don’t have my uncle’s massive intellect, nor will I be speaking to congregants who are faculty at the Harvard Divinity School. Yet the idea of three somewhat different sermons intrigues me. “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” will resonate with the older group at the earliest service I’ll do, because they know that their hour is not that far away. The contemporary service crowd needs to hear that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” amid the uncertainties of their world and their hopes for their children. And those at the late morning Choral Eucharist may need Isaiah’s reminder that exquisitely executed liturgy is not, after all, what puts one right with God.

Isaiah particularly intrigues me. After the opening verse establishing his identity and credentials, there is a long condemnation of Israel for its continued rebellion from God. That in itself is not unusual, but when God says “come now, let us argue it out,” one suddenly realizes that God is more interested in dialogue than harangue. Indeed, the next verses indicate that God is always willing to forgive us – as long as we are obedient rather than rebellious. Psalm 50 sets this same theme in the context of a heavenly courtroom, reminding us that there are consequences for rebellion.

That’s why the reassurance of the letter to the Hebrews is so important. The consequences of following or not following God are not always apparent. If we are to step out in faith, we need the assurance that God will follow through on what God has promised. Thus the letter’s eleventh chapter gives a long list of those who have “died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.”

Jesus provides additional encouragement in Luke’s Gospel. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” he says. So live as though you are already in the kingdom. Let your checkbook tell you what your priorities are (“where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”). Or as Isaiah writes, “Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” The Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour, and you’d best be ready.

And so the message for the day is the same for all: Live in faith and hope that Christ will come again, to make all things new – but in the meantime there’s work to be done. One message, yet each person will hear it somewhat differently. Thus it may well be that my part of this pulpit swap will need three different approaches, three different sermons. If so, not only will I experience R’s usual Sunday, but my uncle’s whole preaching life.

Pentecost 11: Isaiah 1:1,10-20; Psalm 50:1-8,23-24; Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16; Luke 12:32-40.