"The Third Cord" for Josh and Lauren Stacey

The Third Cord

A Wedding Homily Delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

For Josh and Lauren Stacey

November 10, 2018

Cedar Point Country Club, Suffolk, Virginia

Ecclesiastes 4: 8-12

Welcome 

Dearly Beloved, welcome, and thank you for joining Josh and Lauren, and their families, in this joyous and special occasion. This ceremony conceived in love, is the culmination of many years of partnership, and the embarkation and dedication of a lifetime moving forward. Theirs is a union blessed by God, and celebrated by all of us who are witnesses here today.

Lauren and Josh, we stand in celebration of the power of your love, shown in the strength of your bond and devotion to each other, but your relationship is more than the two you, for each of you has been shaped and formed by God, and by all of the people gathered here.

Before we begin,, take a moment to look around, and see in the smiling faces of friends and family, the many memories, good and bad, the ease and the struggles, for these have made you, and have brought you to this moment. Think of the love, support, and encouragement, that is represented here, encircling you as you take this commitment of a lifetime. Think of the path that has been winding its way to now, and take strength from it, for as the same path winds forward, the same will be present with you always. 

For such is one of the promises of love. . . It does not walk away.

Remember always that Love has made you, love has brought you to this moment, and love will sustain you in everything you do together from this day on.

Unity Candle

Your marriage, which begins today has a much longer story than either of you may know. The light that has been shining in the world since its beginning finds itself here with you, and you are a part of that history. Each of you were given the light of life through your parents, just as it was passed to them, generation to generation, back to the beginning of time. The light spreads, it divides through the centuries, as the branches of the human family tree grow and sprout and bear fruit and multiply, but never does the light dim. Today in joining your two stories we use the symbol of fire, with its light and heat, to show how in your love, and by your marriage, we are joining together not only two people, but two branches of our human family, uniting their lights into one, so that a new branch may form, such as it has been ordained by God, and such as he commands, bidding us to be fruitful and multiply. May these two lights become one in this union today.

Homily 

In our formal conversation, Lauren and Josh gave me some insight into their relationship. One that has already lasted, in many years, and days, in challenges and triumphs, and you have already weathered storms that have drawn you together, obstacles that have stretched and then tightened your bond. Experiences and time often break relationships apart, paths divide, and people move on, but you two have stayed side by side, so it is no surprise that the quote you sent me has real wisdom in it about love. . . it reflects a voice of maturity and experience. . .

From Captain Corelli’s Mandolin:

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two."

Do you hear that wisdom? . . .  true, practical, feet on the ground, head, not in the sky but firmly at place where it should be on strong willed shoulders. It reminds me of ancient wisdom from Scripture, Ecclesiastes 4 where a man alone asks

“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,

    “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”

This too is meaningless—

    a miserable business!

⁹ Two are better than one,

    because they have a good return for their labor:

¹⁰ If either of them falls down,

    one can help the other up.

But pity anyone who falls

    and has no one to help them up.

¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

    But how can one keep warm alone?

¹² Though one may be overpowered,

    two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

The wise know that Love is not only the abstract fanciful terrain of the poets, abstract and fleeting, but instead is practical, practical because it is connected to our deepest human needs. . . two is better than one, and we make the practical choice to stick around because  we need to, on our deepest level, and we need to know that someone will be there, and not to wonder if they will, but to know it, to feel it because those roots are so entwined that way. . . and two have become one.

The so called, churchman who compiled or wrote Ecclesiastes knows though that it takes more than just the two because he says a cord of three strands is not quickly broken, and so we have marriage. Marriage is that third strand. . . maybe that third strand takes the shape of the vows you say today.  . . maybe that third strand is the friends and family here assembled in front of whom you make those vows. . .  or maybe the third strand is God, the unseen power, the spiritual connection, the very love that made you both individually and brings you together. . . . 

However you see it, when the bonds of love are tested, when you two are either being pulled apart by the challenges of live, or are pushing each other away, remember this day, your marriage, your vows, these loving witnesses, and God, and they will hold you, and that cord will not break.

I know I can say as one who is blessedly married, and I’m sure all who are gathered here can attest. . . that third cord has kept us together, and has been a true comfort in truly trying times.

Consecration

So we gather together here, encircled by love as we are, we truly recognize the great weight of this occasion. Marriage is a profound, sincere commitment, one that is worthy of our reverence, it is a sacred and solemn promise, one to another, that no matter what may come, you are joined together as one. Let us continue with your vows.

That God Should Repay?

That God Should Repay?

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

October 21, 2018

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Romans 11: 33-36

Job 40: 6-14

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

As Pete said earlier in his own minute for Stewardship, over the next 3 weeks we will have these minutes for Stewardship, culminating in Stewardship Sunday on the 18th. . . it is traditional in churches as the year ends, before the Christmas Season begins, to take some time out and talk about our individual relationships to the church. Typically there is a fundraising push, there is a volunteerism push, and there is a call to self circumspection, to look in and at yourself and assess where you are in relationship to your church, to think about taking a new step in your commitment, whatever that new step might be. Though I won’t be talking specifically about Stewardship, at least not overtly, we have come to the point in Paul’s Letter to the Romans where he shifts, from talking about grace, and our new freedom in Christ, and his understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ in light of his conversion and his restudying of what we call the Old Testament texts, what he would call the Law and the Prophets. . . he shifts from that conversation, the conversation about our new status, and our new relationship. . . to our reaction, to the what now, indeed to our Response. So it fits, and I hope you will see some parallels.

So this morning in that vein, Paul takes time out in his transition, to praise God. He writes a small prayer poem, that concludes chapter 11. . . it is subtitled in most NIV Bibles as Doxology which is a fancy word for saying, literally, words of glory. . logia. . .which we know especially from John 1 is word. . . and dox, coming from doxcen, which is a word that means glory. . . we on communion Sundays also sing what we call the Doxology. . .

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise him creatures here below

Praise him above the heavenly host

Praise father son and Holy Ghost. . . amen.

We sing it in response of the Offertory praising God for the gifts that he has given, blessing him, as the source of all. . .

Another famous doxology is Non nobis and te deum – not to us but to God. . . famously at the end of Shakespeare’s Henry the 5^th when the English have won the battle of Agincourt, King Henry says

Come, go we in procession to the village.
And be it death proclaimed through our host
To boast of this or take the praise from God 2825
Which is his only.

Do we all holy rites;
Let there be sung 'Non nobis' and 'Te Deum;' 

That song, is non nobis domine domine, non nobis dominie, sed nomine sed nominee, tuo gloriam

In English, not to us, not to us, Lord, but to your name be all the glory. . .

That battle has great significance to me, as I studied it and wrote my senior graduating thesis on it, as depicted in literatrure and history, the battle of Agincourt, where the British overcome odds like had never been known, never had an army of so few, those happy few, that band of brothers, as Shakespeare dubbed them. . . never had an army like that been victorious against armored knights. . . truly a miracle.

Which is that great mystery. . . Henry says. . .

but with this acknowledgement,
That God fought for us.

How ironic that such a battle would be won like that, but later battles in the same war would have the French winning, with Joan of Arc. . . another of God’s chosen messengers. . . would God switch sides? Or is there always more to God than we might ever know. . .

Let us look at Paul’s Doxology. . .because this “wonder” this blessed irony, runs through it as well.

Romans 11: 33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

And he starts with Oh, that poetic Oh, what does it signify? Usually with an Ode it would be just O, not the Oh. . . Oh usually implies a surprise, a shock. . .

The poet AR Ammons is big on those, in many of his early poems he uses that function. . . Oh

The sap is gone out of the trees
in the land of my birth
and the branches droop
    The rye is rusty in the fields
and the oatgrains are light in the wind
The combine sucks at the fields
    and coughs out dry mottled straw
The bags of grain are chaffy and light

The oatfields said Oh
in the land of my birth
and Oh said the wheatfields as the dusting
combine passed over
and long after the dust was gone
    Oh they said
and looked around at the stubble and straw
The sap is gone out of the hollow straws
and the marrow out of my bones

brittle and dry
    and painful in this land

The wind whipped at my carcass saying
How shall I
    coming from these fields
water the fields of earth
    and I said Oh
    and fell down in the dust 

Do you see that use of Oh. . . and wouldn’t you know it the poem collection that was published in is called “Doxology” hmmm

Another of my favorites of his that does this is called turning, I’ll just read a portion. . .

Turning from the waterhole I said Oh

To the lioness whose wrinkled forehead

Showed signs of wonder

O beautiful relaxed animal I said

Now look at this picture. . . you have just taken a drink from a waterhole you turn around and see your death in the shape of a lioness – the hunting kind. . . standing before you, there is the Oh – oh of surprise, followed closely by the O, the plain O, of ode, and praise. . .

Do we approach God with that same respect --- dag you got all of that from just that word Oh? Yes.

Oh, the depths. . . surprising, rather than the praising O. . . wonder at the depths. . .

And what do we make of depths. . . one might think first of value. . . I thought of Duck Tales. . . Scrooge McDuck, diving into his money bin. . . right that is depth, especially since he goes to riches from there. . . depth is vastness, size, volume, right literally volume. . .

And this depth is of the riches of wisdom and knowledge, of God. . . but not of us of God, not our knowledge, but instead the wisdom and knowledge, our knowledge barely scratches the surface. . . which brings us back to depths, maybe there is more to depths than vastness and size, maybe it is the depths of the ocean, maybe it is the depths of mystery, maybe it is those depths, like Gandalf says of the Dwarves in Lord of the Rings, that they dug too deep and released evils they never had dreamed of. . . maybe the Oh, the awe of the Oh, continues into the depths as well. . .

For look at his next statement. . . how unsearchable his judgments?

Wait what, why would you search a judgment? Is that what you do to a judgment? Listen, yes, Heed, yes, you might even appeal, but search? What does he mean by this, does he mean. . . you can search for a reason and can’t find one. . . it is unsearchable. . . not just not understandable, but unsearchable, there is no starting place to begin?

His paths beyond tracing out? What does this mean? Does it mean that two roads diverge in a yellow wood. . . two paths, and you can’t trace them both out to see where they both lead to determine which one you can take? Like you can’t see the future?  Is that how you trace out a path? Or is it that you can’t follow the logic, the path doesn’t make sense enough to us to trace it out?

Who has known the mind of the Lord? Many of us right! We all know exactly what God wants of us. . . right, but every disciple following Jesus is completely lost. . . but we’ve got it figured out. . .Paul comes out to say right here, nope, you don’t, neither to I, and it is unknowable, unsearchable, to deep. . .

Look at the next question. . . who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? Does God owe you? Remember the Grasshopper and the Ants. . . the ants are busy working while the Grasshopper fiddles. . . The world owes me a living. . . owes? But yet sometimes we feel that way, we think we deserve. . . isn’t that the same thing as repay. . . I deserve this or that, because I. . . again nope.

And here comes the Doxology line that fits so well with the others. . .

For from him. . . from

And through him . . . through

And for him. . . for

Are all things. . . . our existence is from God, through God, and for God. . .

Therefore. . .

To him be the glory for ever!

But where does this come from? How would you characterize, summarize and take this. . . what does he mean from the Oh to the amen here?

I want to do one thing that may just provide a little context. . . this doxology begins at verse 33, lets take a peak at 32

For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Whoa do what? Everyone has been bound to disobedience, so that he may have mercy on them all? This is pretty wild stuff, even stronger than God using envy to pull people to salvation. . . how do you feel about that, God made people disobedient, so that he could be merciful. . .

How about that for a sovereignty of God moment? Does that make you want to rethink the whole shooting match, from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, all the way to now? Disobedience for mercy. . . whoa maybe the reaction to our own sin isn’t to hide in the bushes in shame of our nakedness afterall, but to. . . what? What would that purpose be. . .

Oh. . . so much is revealed in that simple word. . .

Surprise, wonder, mystery, revelation. . . oh I don’t have it all figured out. . .

It is awe!

Knock your socks off, rethink it all awe. Makes sense coming from Paul based on his experience on the road to Damascus right. Awe. . .

depths. . . where do we go from the depths. . . Wonder

unsearchable, beyond tracing out  . . Mystery

Who has ever known the mind? Been his counselor. . . surely not me --- Humility

Who has ever given to God that God should repay – God is free, unshackled, unboxed, completely free, unbeholden -- reassess

For from him and through him and for him are all things to him be the glory forever – Praise

Look at pattern – response to God, is Awe, Wonder, Mystery, Humility, Reassess, Praise

It doesn’t need to make sense. . . if it did you’d be way off.

Remember earlier Paul evoked the Job argument. . . let’s go back there again, because it is just glorious to read

Job 40: 6-14

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:

⁷ “Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.

⁸ “Would you discredit my justice?
    Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
⁹ Do you have an arm like God’s,
    and can your voice thunder like his?
¹⁰ Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
    and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.
¹¹ Unleash the fury of your wrath,
    look at all who are proud and bring them low,
¹² look at all who are proud and humble them,
    crush the wicked where they stand.
¹³ Bury them all in the dust together;
    shroud their faces in the grave.
¹⁴ Then I myself will admit to you
    that your own right hand can save you.

You can see it all there too, Awe, wonder, mystery, humility, reassess, Praise. . . Job cries out, I know my redeemer liveth. . .

You can hear God saying:

Look at Behemoth,
    which I made along with you
 Oh

Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
    or tie down its tongue with a rope?

Oh

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?

OH

Who shut up the sea behind doors
    when it burst forth from the womb,

Oh

ave you ever given orders to the morning,
    or shown the dawn its place,
¹³ that it might take the earth by the edges
    and shake the wicked out of it?

Oh

What a mighty amazing, wondrous God we serve!

Our response to God’s grace, must begin with Awe, Wonder, Mystery, Humility, Reassesment, and finally Praise!

Beyond Recovery

Beyond Recovery

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

October 28, 2018

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Romans 11: 11-21

Jonah 4: 4-11

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

So for the last few weeks we’ve been in anguish with Paul about his sadness over so many of his people not converting, not being drawn to Christ, and he continues on this theme with our lesson for this week, as he continues further into chapter 11. Listen to what he writes this week: this is chapter 11:11-21

 ¹¹ Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all!Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. ¹² But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!

¹³ I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry ¹⁴ in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶ If the part of the dough offered as firstfruitsis holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷ If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸ do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

In reading that this week there were two things that jumped out to me. . . one the first line, which was, “did they stumble as to fall beyond recovery” and the other that the purpose of the gentile ministry was to create envy in those who had not fallen in the fold, so I thought that I would spend some time reacting to those, that in fact there would be two sermons, one on stumbling beyond recovery, and one on this positive view of envy but I want to do the envy one first.

Because of all the seven deadly sins, envy is the one I most dislike. . . it causes the most problems. . .

It’s so bad that it has two of the ten commandments about it. . . Right Thou shalt not covet. . . not thy neighbor’s wife, not thy neighbor’s house, his slaves, his animals. . . or anything else. . . they are pretty clear on this whole coveting thing being bad.

Let’s define envy then:

If Pride is self-idolatry, a disordered love.

Envy is the cousin of pride, disordered hate.

Envy is instead consumed with the idea that everyone else and everything else is threatening or diminishing to us

St. Thomas Aquinas says that envy is the hatred of a good enjoyed by one’s neighbor or the rejoicing in his harm. The proud man wants to usurp the lord’s rightful power. The envious man wants there to be no lord at all.

It comes from the latin word Invidia – which means seeing inside out, or looking at things wrong

Which fits the Divine Comedy – in Purgatory, those who are envious have their eyes shown shut with wire. . .

Reminds me of Thumper, and his daddy, if you can’t say anything nice. . . or in this case if you can’t see anything nice. . . don’t see anything at all.

the Parson in the Canterbury Tales says that it is the worst of all sins because it is the only one that seeks to pull down others, rather than just a fall from your own virtue. . .

Our Old Testament Lesson is a great example of this as well. . .

 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵ Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant^[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die,and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

¹⁰ But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. ¹¹ And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh,in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Proverbs 14:30

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

Romans 1:29

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,

I can’t stand envy. . . we used to have an envy bush. . . the girls would have to run to it

We see it in our world too. . . and in adults. . . there is nothing worse for the community, for the country than the politically correct push for egalitarianism. . . or a false equality of outcomes. . . There is a difference between equal opportunity and equal results. .  hatred of another person’s success, which we’ve defined envy to be, not only hurts us and our relationships but it tears down the foundation that we build our communities on. . .

No two people are given the same fortune, the same talent, the same, health, the same ingenuity, the same work ethic. . . we just aren’t the same. . . why not?

Because obviously it is not God’s will that we would all be the same. . . God seems to like things that break categories and are a little messy. . .

Equal is straight lines and perfect angles. . . but what map of nature have you ever seen like that. . .

No God makes the lion and the lamb, the cheetah and the elephant, the hippo and the sailfish. . . the flea and the whale. . . equality does not seem to be his thing.

So this envy thing is having an ungrateful heart that is blind to the gifts we have been given in focus of our neighbors. . .

Looking at that greener grass on the other side of the fence, so sure that the other has it so much easier than you do, wishing to take a walk in someone else’s shoes in theory, but never having done so. . .

It’s a lack of gratitude and a lack of empathy. . . because we all face trials and nothing is as easy or bad as it seems and the grass is not greener over there.

But as despicable as envy is. . . look at how Paul uses it here.

What do you think of that

What do you think of God using sin as a means of inspiring folks to salavation

Paul of all people . . . does this mean we should sin so grace abounds. . . by no means! He say. . . isn’t God made the greater by our sins. . . by no means!

“, I take pride in my ministry ¹⁴ in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. “

I hope that it will arouse my people to envy. . .

Now I’ve always said that I am not for scaring people to salvation because I don’t think it creates a lasting genuine love. . . but how bout this envy thing?

Can envy, which we’ve shown to be a vile sin, a horrible sin, a community shattering, relationship destroying sin? Can envy be a path to salvation? Can envy which drives wedges between people, separating them, dividing them and building walls of resentment actually be a step towards Salvation and a fuller relationship with God?

If we are to listen to Paul, and he is calling us to, then yes it must be. . .

God can even use the vilest of sins as a means towards salvation. . .

We talked about God hardening and softening hearts. . . is this possibly one of those ways he does it?

One thing that it shows, that envy shows is desire. . . and desire for God is a marker, it shows something about where our hearts are. . .

Ftheonou – envy in Romans 1

Parazelostho – envy in Romans 11

WE can see the roots in these – theo – God in Romans 1

And para – beside --- and zelostho – which means boiling. . . beside boiling misplaced desire, but zeal is in that too, which is a boiling over. . . passion is something God is about.

Which brings me to the next part. . . did they stumble as to fall beyond recovery? By no means. . .

This really does speak to the glory of God, because if God can even use a sin like envy, which we have shown to be so vile. . . then there is nothing that he can’t use to bring us to salvation. . . there is no limit to his power. . . he always shows up. . . and we see it throughout the Biblical story. . . again and again God shows up, and it is us that hides, it is ourselves that runs away, but God is there again and again, throughout, constant, steadfast.

I said in the weekend welcome how important context is. . .we’ve already looked at it once today with the idea that Paul uses two different words, though we translate them the same – envy. . . but think about an earlier point that Paul makes, and how much his words echo eachother, and make each other true. . .

 ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing, not even envy, not even the greatest sin,  nothing can separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus, , for God is very much in control. . . and everything he uses as means to bring us towards salvation, and means to give us a new chance at extending and passing on grace. . .

For as he says we are grafted into a vine, we are not the roots but branches grafted in, we do not make the plant holy, the root does. . . and the root is. . . holy