We Are Not a Service Club
A sermon on the distinct role that those who follow the Jesus Way have in the world
Welcome! I am Jessica Hetherington, and this newsletter is about faith and climate action. You can subscribe by clicking here:
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Three Sermons
They say that every preacher has about three sermons that they preach over and over again. What this means is that we each tend to have three core themes that appear, over and over again, in the sermons we offer. I have to laugh in recognition when I hear this! Because yes, it is true. My three? Discipleship; the power of prayer; and the real, embodied power of the Holy Spirit. As I reflect upon it right now, in writing this essay, I notice that discipleship is not possible without prayer or the empowering, energizing work of the Holy Spirit.
These three aspects of Christian faith - discipleship, prayer, and the Holy Spirit - are essential to the work of climate action as people of faith. We are called to discipleship, faith lived out in action, in response to the climate emergency. Discerning what that discipleship should look like, for each one of us, requires careful prayer and discernment. And, such discipleship, if it is to be effective, must be empowered by the Holy Spirit. We cannot do this work alone.
While most of my sermons relate explicitly to the ecological crisis and/or the climate emergency, not all of them do. Yet, because my sermons tend to be about one or more of my ‘favourite three’ themes, they are all relevant for reflecting upon who we are in the Earth Community, our relationship with God and others, and the call God has given us all to work for climate action.
The following sermon, preached this past Sunday, June 18 at Rothwell United Church in Ottawa, is one example. May you find yourself in its words, and may you hear what you need for your climate discipleship.
We Are Not a Service Club
Sermon – Matthew 9:35-10:8 (and Genesis 18:1-15) - June 18, 2023
Let us pray:
God of Life,
May the words of my mouth
and the meditations of all our minds and hearts lead us
to deeper understanding of you
and the love you call us to live. AMEN.
On Friday, my husband and I watched the 2015 movie, The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It is the true story of Philippe Petit, the then-24-year-old French high wire walker, who goes to the United States and walks a hire wire strung between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in August 1974. The movie is fantastic; Mark and I were sweating by the end of the powerful scene in which Petit walks back and forth along the 131-foot wire before surrendering to the police gathered on the roof.
There is a fun scene mid-way through the movie. Petit is going through customs to get into the US; his suitcase has been opened, and the customs agent is asking Petit what is in the case. Petit describes each cable and pulley clearly; the agent, dumbfounded, asks him what they are for. Petit replies, in a Parisian accent that I cannot replicate, “I am going to string a wire between the twin towers and walk it.” The agent looks at him, scoffs, and says, “Good luck!” Then, he lets him into the country.
I imagine that this is the reaction that Sarah was having in our Genesis story, when she laughs at the idea that she, in her old age, will bear a child. It’s not that she’s denying God or God’s will on her life; it’s that Sarah, like the customs agent in 1974 New York, hadn’t seen anything like it before. He had never seen anyone walk a high wire that high up or for that far. She couldn’t possibly imagine that it was possible to get pregnant, long after menopause had kicked in. “Ha! Good luck!” is basically what Sarah was saying.
Of course, by the end of the movie, we know that Petit really could and did walk that wire, and later in the Genesis story we know that Sarah is, indeed blessed with a pregnancy that leads to the birth of Isaac.
Now, I wonder if any of the apostles were thinking something similar to Sarah and the agent, too. In our Gospel reading from Matthew, we hear about Jesus going to cities and villages where he taught, preached, and healed the people. Out of his great compassion for them in their suffering, he decided to send his twelve apostles out to do the same.
Jesus called on Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot. He called on each of them and told them to go out and “proclaim the good news,” “Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (Matthew 10.7-8). They might have been ok with the preaching part, proclaiming the good news, but to heal, raise the dead and cast out demons?? I can hear them right now, laughing along with Sarah, scoffing along with the customs agent, and saying “Yeah, right. Good luck!”
I mean, wouldn’t you??
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