Affirmation

Affirmation

Fifth Sunday of Epiphany

February 10, 2019

I need to make a disclaimer at the beginning of my sermon – and that is, if you do not like Tom Brady you might want to stick your fingers in your ears, and repeat over and over again “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you” for the next 60 seconds.

I am not sure if you heard Tom Brady being interviewed this last week on Good Morning America – but when Michael Strahan asked him, what he thought of being called the GOAT – the Greatest of All Time – Brady responded that it makes him cringe – and that it is easier for him to hear criticism than acclaim.

When Strahan asked what has kept him grounded, Brady said he was a late bloomer, and that he struggled in college and he struggled during the early part of his career – adding “Like, I was never the first guy chosen.” And that he still holds onto that – and that that experience is held deep within him.

You can all listen now…I’m finished talking about Tom Brady.

One of the things that our readings this morning have in common is this similar feeling of unworthiness: 

The Prophet Isaiah cries out “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King!”

Saint Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, says in our reading this morning, “Last of all, as to one untimely born, [Jesus] appeared also to me,  For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the Grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary I worked harder than any of them.”

And Saint Peter, in our Gospel lesson for this morning tells the story of being called to be a disciple, he says to Jesus “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”  And yet, Jesus says to him “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people [instead of fish].”

One of the little secrets that most of us carry in our hearts, at some level, and we don’t have to scratch very far, is that within us all, is that feeling of unworthiness, that child who did not get picked first and maybe even got picked last.  And that experience has a way of keeping its grip on us.

The way that God helps us navigate those feelings, merely fleeting or paralyzing feelings of inadequacy, is to tell us that we matter, and that we have a role to play in this world, and in the bringing of the Kingdom of God into this life, not just waiting for it in the life here-after.

So how do we hear this reassuring voice in our hearts?  Some of us might be lucky to have that reassurance of God’s empowering love in our hearts through prayer and meditation.

Some of us may intuit from what we read in scripture.  For example in Psalm 139.14 it says “I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well.” Or take Ephesians chapter 2.4-5, where we are told “because of God’s great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ…it is by grace you have been saved.”

But some of us, most of us, need to hear it from each other.  Last weekend, as some of you know, I was leading a board retreat for the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center. One of the people on that board is the Director of Youth Ministries for the Diocese of Massachusetts, Mark Smith. We were discussing what are the most important values of the camp and conference center and what we came up with is “Faith, Belonging and Transformation”.  Mark Smith then contributed that the most important questions on the hearts of people, particularly when a person is weighing up whether they want to be part of a group, a board, or a community, are the following: Can I be known, can I belong, and do I matter (or said another way, Can I make a difference?).

Some of us were raised in homes where praise was parceled out in small portions, if at all.  Some of us were lucky to grow up in homes where the opposite was true.  But here in church, in this corner of God’s Kingdom, we can be the lucky home – where we can affirm each other with sincere extravagance.

The way we continue God’s work in calling others is being that affirming voice in the world that says “I want to know you”, “You belong” and “You matter, and you make a difference – it’s not the same when you are not here with us.” 

And so this morning, we the people at St. Michael’s, on this day of your baptism, Abigail, say to you, and to your brother Spencer too, who arrived here a little earlier than you – “We want to know you”, “You belong here”, “You matter to us Abby and Spencer” and “You both make a difference.”

Amen.

The drawer of desperation