Old North Church, Boston
2 Epiphany, January 19,
2020
The Rev. Nancy E.
Gossling
Do you ever feel like
you have labored in vain? I think the prophet Isaiah must have felt this way.
“I have labored in vain;” he wrote. “I have spent my strength for nothing.”
Similarly the author of Ecclesiastes once declared, “All is vanity. What do people
gain from all they toil under the sun?” And then there is Jesus, who must have
felt this way at times, most especially when he was dying on the cross.
Are there times when,
despite your best efforts, you feel empty-handed, occasionally despairing, and
wondering if it was worth the effort? We carefully construct our homes and
churches, our job skills and bank accounts, our policies and programs only to
see them wiped away by a fire, a tornado, an illness, or a sudden death. A
change in leadership, a new way of thinking, or a shift in priorities. Do you,
like me and Isaiah, ever feel as if you have labored in vain?
Today, I’m delighted to
be preaching in Old North Church for the first time. It is a church of long and
deep historic significance, and I can’t help but think of how our country
began. Fighting for independence, with people divided within our own country,
we built our government and our Episcopal church on the blood and backs of many
people. We created bi-cameral systems, canons and constitutions, that are
intended to preserve our democracy, guarantee our freedom, offer equal
opportunity, and protect our human rights. People worked hard for these things!
Watching our political
process these days, and the on-going challenges in our churches, cities, and
throughout our world, I see the same old issues appear, disappear, and then
reappear. “Is there anything new under the sun?” the writer of Ecclesiastes
once asked. Sometimes I even find myself wondering, what’s the point of trying?
If I put my time, talents, and money into this or that, will it really make a
difference? Or will I labor in vain like Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, who was
condemned to an eternity of rolling a boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll
back down again, and again?
This world view may seem
cynical, lacking in hope, and downright pessimistic, and who needs that, you
might ask? I come to church to be inspired, enlightened, and hear some good
news, not to be dragged back down the hill. As a Celtics basketball fan, I was
even surprised to hear the players talk about their season as a long slow
grind, and how hard it is to remain enthusiastic and consistent from beginning
to end.
Jaylen Brown, a rising
star on the Celtics team, recently said, “The NBA season is “a journey,” and at
times, it can feel quite repetitive. It’s easy for us to feel like we’re stuck
on a hamster wheel, going around and around until the postseason arrives.
Little things matter,” Brown said. “Just finding ways to stay energetic
throughout the season is important, and we all have our various ways of doing
that.”
Recently, I joined a
group of Christian businessmen who live in Minnesota. On January 1st we began
reading one chapter a day of a book called The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick
Warren. For 40 days, every day through email, we share our thoughts, comments,
and questions with each other. Now I don’t agree with everything I read in this
book but I do like the focus of those three words: purpose, driven, life. And I
really like doing this activity with other people.
Rick Warren claims that
“without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction,
and events without reason. Without a purpose, life is trivial, petty and
pointless.” In other words, a life without purpose is vanity, and our labor is
in vain. It’s like rolling a ball up a hill all by yourself, and never getting
to the top or over it. It’s like playing basketball alone and never getting the
ball into the hoop or knowing what it’s like to win. But our purpose as
followers of Jesus, as disciples of Christ, is different.
In the gospel of John,
beginning in the very first chapter, Jesus knows exactly what He is doing and
why. And John the Baptist doesn’t equivocate. He testifies to the purpose of
Jesus saying “Look, here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world.” He is the Messiah, the Son of God, who when He was defeated on
the cross, didn’t cry out to God, “Why have you forsaken me?” Nor when He was
crucified, did Jesus say to God, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
No, in John’s gospel, the very last words of Jesus were, “It is finished.”
Now my Harper’s Study
Bible tells me that this Lamb of God, identified by John the Baptist as Jesus,
wasn’t your typical lamb used for ritual sacrifices in the Temple. No; bulls,
goats, and sheep were used for that. Rather Passover lambs were slaughtered the
night before the Israelites made their exodus from Egypt, and whose blood on
the doorposts told the angel of death to pass over them. Pointing to Jesus,
John declares, “Look here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world.”
Notice that John the
Baptist uses the word “sin” instead of sins. Sins, I believe, are those nasty
things that we do to ourselves and to other people throughout our lives. We
cheat. We lie. We steal. We commit flagrant fouls that result in technical
penalties, lost jobs, and even ejections from the game. Instead, the sin of the
world is something existential, something deeper, something more systemic, like
all those “isms” that we try to dismantle, like racism, sexism, and ageism. Or
those powers and principalities that we cannot explain and show up in scary
movies and our nightmares.
Sin is evil, and we are
not. Sin is death, and an outrage to God, who created us for life. And so, John
points to Jesus who takes away that sin. This Jesus is our
Passover Lamb, whose blood we see on the cross, who liberates us from
oppression, and tells the angel of death to move along. This Jesus is the One
who leads us into our own Promised Land.
Instead of a hamster
wheel, I like to think of our life as a journey that includes a carousel, a
merry-go-round, like the one we see on the Boston Common. It is a ride that we
can stop and take along our way. The colorful animals remind us of the beauty
of all God’s creation. Whether or not we’re riding, sitting, standing, or one
of the workers on the Common, we can hum along with the music, and wave to the
people all around us. Sometimes we’re up, sometimes we’re down, and sometimes
we just go round and round!
Most of us, at times,
need to find ways of staying engaged and enthusiastic in our journeys,
especially when life grinds us down. When the music stops playing, when we’ve
been defeated one more time like last night for the Celtics, or when we’re just
feeling as if we’ve labored in vain, we need to find meaning, joy, and purpose
once again. Remembering our salvation story, and believing that God stoops and
hears our cry, helps me to sing a new song.
God’s particular purpose
for Jesus was accomplished on the cross. God’s mission of reconciliation was
finished when Jesus stretched out his arms of love so that everyone might come
within the reach of His saving embrace. His purpose was to bring light and love
into the world, and to show us that there is resurrection life beyond the
grave. When the buzzer goes off at the end of the game, and the carousel stops
going round and round, there is still a party going on in Paradise.
Here is our good news.
Jesus did not labor in vain. The sin of the world is not only forgiven, it is
wiped away. Here is our hope. Our hope is in the Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world. Death has been defeated and the victory is ours. When our
world seems unfair, meaningless, or just boringly repetitive, there is a light
that shines in the darkness, whose name is Jesus.
This year the Celtics
acquired a new point guard named Kemba Walker. Not only is he an all-star, he’s
a great teammate, who works hard and plays hard. Leading with love, and blessed
by God, Kemba is a person of faith, who loves to win and never gives up.
Although recent injuries and the flu have caused problems for him and his
teammates, people can't stop talking about Kemba’s leadership style, his
humility, and his poise. He is always ready to contribute to others, even when
he’s sitting on the bench.
Do we labor in vain? Not
if we remember that we are called for a purpose: to be rooted in the Life of
Jesus and to reflect His Way of Love. To speak God’s words and to act in God’s
ways. We are team members of the Body of Christ who have been set free to live
and love, to work and play, to labor on. “Listen up, people. Pay attention,”
said Isaiah. God knows us. God named us. God formed us. “Away with gloomy
doubts and faithless fear. Claim the high calling the Gospel gladness bear.”
(#541 Hymnal)
When we believe in the
good news of our salvation, we shall never labor in vain. In fact, we’ll shine
like stars in the night. We become beacons of faith, hope, and love wherever we
are and whatever we do; for we believe that in the end - God’s Love wins; and
we are gospel bearers of that good news.
Isaiah 49:1-7
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42
Psalm 40:1-12
