Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
This is an interactive manuscript. To follow links, click the highlighted words below.
One of the wonderful things about being here with you in a place called “Holy Comforter” is that it takes me back to the summer I served at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Atlanta, GA. They’re a really wonderful church for us to share that connection with. Interestingly enough, Holy Comforter in Atlanta came up when we had Dr. Luther Smith as our guest speaker for our Diocese’s Clergy Conference back in 2022, who is a professor at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. He spoke of his own time visiting Holy Comforter and what all he gained from those encounters. In fact, you may also remember my own preaching about Holy Comforter in Atlanta not too long ago at the end of April.
Just as a refresher, Holy Comforter in Atlanta leads a program called the Friendship Center, which serves individuals living with various mental illnesses and disabilities. Most of the members at the church are people who attend the Friendship Center program.
The world does not always treat people like those in the Friendship Center well. For many of us, that would make us cold and bitter. That was never what I experienced at the Friendship Center. As I said in April, they welcomed me to preach to them. In fact, they welcomed another one of my fellow seminarian cohorts serving at the Training and Counseling Center that summer. They were open to receive God in whatever form offered, whether in the word, Communion, or even the holy oils for healing.
There’s a sense of welcoming in that open reception, particular in the face of some of the adversity and prejudice many members experienced. It is a welcoming we can all learn from, whether as individuals or as a community. It is also the key theme in all of our readings today.
We see all kinds of examples of welcoming this Sunday. We see the positive welcoming in of David as King of Israel in 2 Samuel. We see the result of the failure of Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth accepting Him. We also get an example somewhere in the middle through our epistle as Paul is trying to build the Corinthian Church back up as they are turning away from following dissenters in the community back to the tenets of their Faith.
In all these examples, the key to true welcoming is accepting the Word of God that has come to the people.
In 2 Samuel, we see this through the reception of David as King. As we saw just a month ago, the Israelites got a king as they wanted, even though God warned them against it. They first received Saul as king who then fell from grace with the Lord. David was the new king God chose after Saul.
The Israelites could have seen this as a failure. Things didn’t go well the first time around with their first try with a king, just as God warned them. Yet they take David in. In doing so, they are giving a sign of accepting that this is God’s will for them. Their welcoming of David is really a welcoming in of God too, especially given David’s later descendant, Jesus.
Paul on the other hand, in working with the Corinthians, has gone through the wringer. He’s had his authority as an Apostle questioned. He’s had his skills as a speaker mocked. Yet throughout 2 Corinthians, it is clear that something is beginning to change in the hearts of the Corinthians, even if they have a long way to go.
Part of the strength in Paul’s work, part of what finally gets him fully welcomed into the Corinthians’ hearts, is that he leans on the power of God. Even with all that Paul has suffered, he continues to push through. Even with this mysterious thorn in his side, which could be a physical ailment, like a broken back, or perhaps something else, Paul keeps doing the work, with the humility his thorn provides.
Paul does so because he knows the truth of God’s power. It is not a power of strength, but rather a “power made perfect in weakness”. We see this through Jesus’ death on the cross. We see it now in Paul’s work.
In witnessing Paul, the Corinthians glimpse the truth of how God works. It is in knowing this truth they start to welcome Paul and thus start to welcome God into their hearts.
Finally we have Jesus in His own ministry. His hometown of Nazareth fails to welcome His words, so they fail to welcome Him. As a result, they cannot welcome in the healing God is providing, and their closed hearts prevent them from having Jesus provide for them the same amount of miracles He has been able to provide elsewhere, much as He wants to. He must find a new place to carry out His mission and His Word, just as He encourages His Disciples to do as well.
When we welcome God’s Word in, amazing things can happen. We can be restored and made whole. We can be forgiven and renewed. Yet this can only happen if we are willing to keep our hearts open. This can only happen if we can hear God’s Word and welcome it into our hearts so that we can do God’s will and be reforged in God’s Love.