Hypothetical "Morning Prayer" Sermon

Today I preached for the first time in my homiletics class. The assignment was to write a 3-5 minute sermon for a Morning Prayer worship service. The goal was to aid people in their prayer/meditation on the Scripture that was just read, not to give a longer sermon like one would at a Eucharist.

I preached on the Gospel lesson from today in the Daily Office Lectionary, Luke 14:25-35.

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According to the picture of Jesus we receive in the Gospels, he wasn’t much of an advocate of “traditional family values.”

You know what I mean. The “good Christian family” some churches like to talk about, the kind we’re all supposed to have: a spouse (of the opposite sex, of course), and beautiful and well-behaved children, whom we love more than life itself. If we’re good Christians, our family will be the most important thing in our lives, right?

Not according to Jesus.

“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)

Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus chastises would-be followers who want to delay following him for reasons that seem reasonable and even honorable by the “family values” standard – one man wants to first bury his father, another wants to go and say goodbye to his family. But Jesus will have none of it. “Let the dead bury their own dead” (Luke 9:60), he says to the first man, and to the second, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

Jesus calls us to follow him with single-minded devotion – we cannot love anything more dearly than him if we want to truly be his disciple.

Singer/songwriter Susan Werner captures the essence of this call to single-minded devotion in her song, “Courting the Muse.” In it, she personifies the “muse” that inspires her writing. The song goes like this:

Well I lit up all the candles and I turned out all the lights
And I waited up all hours, but she did not come by last night
She is beautiful as music, but jealous to the bone
And she will only love you if you love her alone

She used to sleep beside me in my narrow single bed
When I took public transportation, I was badly under-fed
And she loved me more than a lover, more than anyone I’ve known
Yes, she will truly love you if you love her alone

But then came some fame and fortune, and I got to feeling pleased
And I paid her less attention as my situation eased
So she left me for a busker on the Spanish steps in Rome
And I could see that she loved him cause he loved her alone

Now every night I light the candles, and I pray that she’ll return
For I have learned the double lesson that all her suitors learn
Don’t get too much lovin’, don’t care what you own
Cause she will only love you if you love her alone

People of many religious faiths have observed that “double lesson” that Susan Werner speaks of – that emotional attachments to both people and things can block us from being open to the inspiration that is waiting for us if we devote ourselves fully to God. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that God will only love us if we love God alone, the Bible certainly portrays a God much like Susan’s muse – “beautiful as music, but jealous to the bone,” demanding our exclusive love and trust.

Jesus invites us to follow him at the expense of all else because only in doing so can we truly come to know the love we so often seek from other sources. If Susan’s song were about today’s Gospel reading, perhaps it might end like this:

Don’t get too much lovin’, don’t care what you own.
‘Cause you will only know love if you love him alone.

Love (Kahil Gibran)

My dear friend Valarie Kaur gave me a copy of Kahil Gibran's The Prophet once as a gift, before I ever met my husband. It turns out that my husband owned multiple copies of this book, before he ever met me. It's been one of the books we've turned to for inspiration, and I keep it out on "display" on my bookshelf in the house. The past few days, every time I walk into the room, the book is lying on the floor. I keep putting it back on the shelf and arranging it where it belongs, but it keeps falling off again. Finally, tonight, I thought perhaps this book was jumping off the shelf in order to tell me something. I opened it and read these words, and felt inspired to share them here:

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."

And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

-Kahil Gibran, The Prophet