\u201cOnce there was a little girl who always laughed and grinned
and made fun of everyone, of all her blood and kin,
and once when there was company and old folks was there,
she mocked them and she shocked them, and said she didn\u2019t care.
And just as she turned on her heels to go and run and hide,
there was two great big black things a-standing by her side.
They snatched her through the ceiling \u2019fore she knew what she\u2019s about,
and the goblins will get ya if ya don\u2019t watch out!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did any of you go to bed as children having the poems of James Whitcomb Riley read to you? Well, for those of you who did, you might recall what was just read from the poem \u201cLittle Orphan Annie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what has this to do with the major themes from our Bible readings of this week? Everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not that our little girl lost cannot be found, it is that she is on a bad road. \u201cScoffers\u201d or, depending on your translation, \u201cthe scornful,\u201d is something we encounter in our reading from the First Psalm this Sunday. \u201cHappy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of the scoffers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSit in the seat of the scoffers.\u201d Now here is a word we don\u2019t encounter every day. Would that the actual adult scoffer be as absent as the number of times we come across that word. Perhaps the substitution of synonyms would ring more clearly to our ears \u2013 words such as \u201cmockers,\u201d or \u201cderiders,\u201d or \u201cthose who treat others or God with contempt or ridicule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If, on the other hand, we are reading verses from our Bible every day, then we will definitely come across the word \u201cscoffer.\u201d Countless times. The Bible is full of references to the scoffers. There is \u201cscoffing at the Lord\u2019s prophets,\u201d and verses such as \u201cAll your enemies open their mouths wide against you: they scoff and gnash their teeth.\u201d Then there are the scoffers that \u201cwill come in the last days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The readings today from Psalms, John and Acts are crucial in fostering a change of attitude not only among the mockers, but among those who are attacked by the mockers and the traditional ways in which people have learned to deal with their attackers. In these readings we are not only led away from the road of the scoffer, with their goblins of separation and alienation, but we are led away from the customary road of revengeful reaction to the scoffers. We are led toward the path of forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Given that much has been made recently of the connection between psychology and spirituality, why not look at what psychologists have to say about the corrosive effect scoffers might have on others, the effect on people when they are mocked or negated, and of the effect such treatment has on our souls?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The word \u201ctherapist\u201d is taken from the Greek word therapia<\/em>, which means \u201csoul server\u201d \u2013 so helping the soul to expand, to reach God, is something that, if we do not limit ourselves to the pursuit of secular therapy, ought to be the work of therapists as well as clergy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the book The Politics of Experience<\/em>, Erving Goffman is quoted as saying, \u201cThere seems to be no agent more effective than another person in bringing oneself alive, or by a glance, a gesture, or a remark, shriveling up the reality in which one is lodged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mocker is the blocker. He is the one, in comedies, called the blocking agent \u2013 the one who prevents the success of the hero\u2019s action. But in the act of the soul\u2019s journey toward salvation, this is no joke, no laughing matter. The scoffer is the adversary, the one who interferes, the one who stands in the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other psychologists have written about how the words of the mocker can put one back into the acorn from which the soul is supposed to emerge as an oak tree, back in the cocoon from which the soul is supposed to morph into a butterfly. Many reclusive and traumatized people inhabit these shells, these prisons of isolation. Sometimes strong forces are needed to shake up the rigidity of such confinement. But we are looking at two forces: a loving force that is coaxing one to grow, and another that is thwarting all growth. Few realize the effect that scoffing or mocking can have on someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mocking is betrayal that leads to alienation and separation; alienation of the mocker from what is mocked, whether it is man or God, and alienation of the one who is mocked, who may get caught up in a spiral of hatred and revenge toward the mocker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our gospel reading for today gives examples of Jesus\u2019 way and the way he advocates for his disciples, and hence, the way for us to avoid such a negative spiral. In the passage from John, Jesus warns his disciples that because he has set them apart by truth, others will hate them. It is illuminating to see how, although aware of the hatred that comes from the world toward himself and toward his disciples, nevertheless, Jesus\u2019 response is the opposite of scoffing. It is the choice of forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we can stop revengeful responses to the scoffers, take up our own crosses of moving beyond our egos, then we can employ Jesus\u2019 healing energies to learn the way of forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Referring to Judas, Jesus said, \u201cI guarded them, and not one of them was lost, except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.\u201d Note the mildness of the language. Jesus does not issue a harsh condemnation, judgment or ridicule Judas, even after Judas\u2019 act of betrayal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Forgive the betrayer, forgive the murdering Roman soldiers. Forgive, forgive, forgive. Yes, forgive 70 times. That is the way, the highway, the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hopefully the \u201cold folks\u201d in the James Whitcomb Riley poem with which we started our sermon were old enough and wisdom-filled enough to have arrived at the conclusion that scoffing, with its attendant belittlement and betrayal, might be met with forgiveness, by recognizing in the injustice of the other a real call for love. Hopefully the same can be said for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This sermon was written by Craig Canfield<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cOnce there was a little girl who always laughed and grinnedand made fun of everyone, of all her blood and kin,and once when there was company and old folks was there,she mocked them and she shocked them, and said she didn\u2019t care.And just as she turned on her heels to go and run and hide,there…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1955,43,52,1953],"tags":[203],"class_list":["post-512114","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-easter","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-easter-7b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1955,"label":"Easter"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":1953,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":203,"label":"Easter 7B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3475211,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512114\/revisions\/3475211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}