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3rd Sunday in Lent - February 24, 2008 - St.
Christopher’s Episcopal Church Union The Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well was alienated from Him in three ways: She was a Samaritan vs. a Jew, she was a woman vs. a man, and she was a broken human vs. God. According to the tradition she was alienated from her own people as well. But Jesus reconciled her to God and to her people. When Adam and Even ate the apple Creation was separated from God. Jesus came to reconcile us to God, as Paul says in II Corinthians 5:18: All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. And so it is fitting that the Church celebrate those rites that bring us together. Today we take a look at two of them, Marriage and Reconciliation of a Penitent. Reconciliation is the bringing together of two parties alienated from one another. God did His part. Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Confession is our part. It addresses those things we do that live out our alienation from God. We confess on a regular basis, and we know that God always forgives. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9 But sometimes we need a little help, as James 5:16 says, Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The rite (p. 447; Sp. 369) begins with a prayer for truth and humility. Opportunity is given to say whatever one might have to say, and to request counsel, direction and absolution. Counsel and spiritual direction may be given, and ALWAYS absolution: In John 20:23 the disciples, after being sent out on mission and receiving the Holy Spirit are told that whatever sins they forgive are forgiven, and whatever sins they retain are retained. It is God’s will that ALL sins be forgiven. It is my privilege to pronounce God’s absolution—it is God whom you have offended, and it is He who absolves you. It is not custom in the Episcopal Church to require penances—you are forgiven, you go in peace. Confidentiality of the sacrament prevents me from broaching what you may have shared, if you wish to discuss it further with me you must initiate it. The sanctity of the confessional is part of my ordination vows, and I will not break that silence unless you convince me that you intend to seriously hurt yourself or someone else. The whole point of the rite is to get you around the roadblock in your spiritual life and on to greater and greater depths of understanding of the love of God. Reconciliation in place of alienation! Marriage started out as a legal, financial and social affair. Jewish marriage feasts were essentially family feasts, the temple or synagogue life did not impinge. In the Roman Empire marriage was a legal affair, contracted before a magistrate. It was 400 years before the Church saw fit to have anything to do with it. When the Church did get involved it was something very brief, celebrated on the porch of the church after Mass. Over time the significance of the moment took on greater and greater meaning. An emerging understanding of a special grace given by God came to light. We discovered a sacramental moment! Marriage is a celebration of that outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace of the relationship of Christ with His Church. Ephesians 5:22-33 describes the relationship between husband and wife in terms of Christ’s relationship with the Church. As Christ loves the Church and gave Himself for her, so the husband loves the wife and gives himself for her. As the church draws its life from Christ, so the wife draws life from her husband. As the church respects Christ, so the greatest thing a wife can do is to give her husband respect, and as Christ loves the church, so the greatest thing a husband can give his wife is love. And as Christ and the Church are one, so the husband and wife become one. Here is total, complete and profound reconciliation of alienation. We broken people are thrown headlong into the closest, most profound, human relationship possible, with someone who is the most different from us, and all for love! Anyone should be able to look at a healthy Christian marriage and see reflected the love of Christ for the Church and our proper response to it. Marriage is instituted by God, it exists for mutual joy and support and, when it is God’s will, for the procreation and raising of children in the faith (p. 42; Sp. 345). At the vows the liturgical celebrants become the couple, who offer themselves to one another for a life-long commitment that supercedes all other commitments and relationships save that of the soul with God. It has been facetiously said, “I took him for better or worse, but he turned out to be worse than I took him for!” No such excuse is contemplated in our book! You take each other for as better or worse as you can be for herein is lies another grace: Living in that close an intimacy with anyone will eventually stir up our own issues, causing our spouse to suddenly look much less attractive. But the solution is in us, not them. They have merely given us a tailor-made chance to heal in those areas where we are most broken! So you see that by means of this fantastically close relationship one is drawn closer to God! And so the ring vows are very poignant: “I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all that I have and with all that I am I honor you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Nothing is said about what one receives back; it is a total, open palmed, unreserved giving of oneself. This is followed shortly by, “Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder.” It calls each of us to respect the sanctity of a marriage, no matter how we might feel about one partner or the other, God is in the couples’ corner! Sadly, sometimes we do put asunder what God has joined together. There are situations where divorce is the lesser of evils, but it is always a tragedy and always an evil, for it separates again when God is seeking reconciliation and union. It is an Anglican tradition for the priest to wrap his or her stole around the right hands of the couple during the blessing of the Marriage on p. 430-431 (Sp. 352-353.) It is where we get, “To tie the knot.” What is a knot but a single reality created out of two cords? Reconciliation is God’s great work in the world. Every one of our rites in the Prayer Book touches on it in some way, but these have been laid before you to show you how God’s work is accomplished through our Book of Common Prayer. Fr. Paul Moore+
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