Rector's Sermon - Sunday, October 19, 2003

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Job 38:1-7	104:1-6, 27, 37c	Hebrews 5:1-10	Mark 10:35-45

    When Jesus would arrive in Jerusalem and finally be publicly recognized, James and John wanted to be there out in front, at Jesus’ side. The other disciples were indignant, probably not because they knew that the request revealed a profound misunderstanding of Jesus' message, but because they all wanted to be awarded the honor of being closest to Jesus' side also. The irony, as all later Christians know, is that in Jerusalem at the final, climatic hour, it was two thieves who were on each side of Jesus. That was hardly what James, John, or any of the other disciples had in mind.

    An Episcopal priest in Georgia, Barbara Brown Taylor, has written an article in the current issue of Christian Century Magazine, entitled "Where the Bible Leads Me" and it is one of the most insightful articles that I have seen for a long time on how people of faith relate to the Bible. I've put a copy on the bulletin board. In it Brown writes, "...the Bible won't let me set up house in its pages. It gives me a kiss and boots me out into the world, promising me that I have everything I need to find God not only on the page but also in the flesh....the written word keeps evicting me to go embody the word by living in peace and justice with my neighbors on this earth, whatever amount of confrontation, struggle, recognition and surrender that may involve."

    James and John wanted to set up a tent in a comfortable place of their own choosing that sheltered long held traditions of how a savior, a redeemer, and a prophet would behave. Jesus completely collapsed their tent, and proclaimed this isn't the campsite God is calling you to set up permanent housekeeping, nor do you have the right tent; it's time to move on and follow me.

    A living faith is never a predictable matter of just following written instructions, for the word of God is always developing and growing among us. A ten-year-old set of instructions for the first version of Microsoft Word is not going to be much help to you today for Windows 2000; and the Gospel of the living Jesus is even faster than Bill Gates.

    Hence don't think that reading the Bible or joining a church or worshipping here at St. John's will keep you safely at one campsite in your comfortable tent. The Gospel is not a "no risk" offer. Following Jesus and taking the living word seriously and out into the world may very well get you into trouble and take you to campsites you would never have imagined yourself going.

    This past week Jeffrey Lehman was instituted as the eleventh president of Cornell, and people of faith wish him all the best. Yet among all the pomp, the challenges and role for people of faith in this place are clear.

    There is a professor at Yale Law School who likes to ask first year law students who they think are the most dangerous people in America: the teenage drug gangs in the slums of New Haven or the best and brightest on Yale’s campus? Then the professor suggests that it is not the teenage drug dealers, who in the process of killing each other, often murder innocent people. Rather it is the students without morals who are being taught and trained as future leaders and managers. The most dangerous people in the world are future business executives who will decide quick profits come before safety and honesty; future professors who will teach by example that truth is something to manipulate and use only when it serves to advance one’s own purposes; future politicians who will say anything simply to get elected; future doctors who see nothing wrong in overcharging insurance companies as long as one isn’t caught; and future religious leaders who are more interested in stirring up fervor to enhance their personal popularity than in teaching the true tenets of their faith. It is the decisions of our leaders that most often affect public policy, economic well-being, and social justice. The potentially most dangerous people in Ithaca and perhaps in the world are those the new president of Cornell will be surrounded by. They are walking around on the hill, using the library and browsing at bookstores.

    In some way, the responsibility of people of faith is to be where it should always be–there too, out there, surrounded by challenge and danger, in a world that does not necessarily wish people of faith well, but the very world Jesus asks us to travel in and set up and take down tents with Him.

    And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.